I’ve made over $50,000 sitting dogs. If that sounds interesting read on.
A few days ago, I got an email from a “Community Marketing Manager” with Rover.com. It was a generic pitch that I’m sure a number of personal finance bloggers got.
I got a chuckle when I read, “Did you know that being a dog sitter or dog walker on Rover.com is a great way to make extra income?” I have been writing about my dog sitting gig for awhile now. I include it in all my monthly reports. It’s a little like asking LeBron James if he knew about this basketball sport. Okay, that’s an over-exaggeration. I don’t expect marketing people to read through dozens of articles on hundreds of blogs.
So we talked and she asked if I’d be willing to write about my experience with Rover. It seemed to me that this was clearly a sponsored post situation, because I’d be doing the marketing for them. However, because I love the dog sitting business, I asked for a tiny fraction of what I’d normally charge. So yes, this is a sponsored post, but these are my own thoughts after 2 years of experience.
What is Rover?
I describe Rover as AirBnB for dogs. For many years, when families went on vacation they brought their dog to a kennel. A kennel might have a just a small space for him/her. There are also pet hotels that offer a better experience, but the price for them can go way up. A few years back, DogVacay.com and Rover brought an alternative… people offering their own homes through an online marketplace.
When we moved from San Francisco to Boston and Rhode Island, we found that there were no reasonable pet hotels. I think the place in San Francisco charged around $40/night. In the Boston area it was $80/night because it priced per dog pound. (It was a real “meat market.”) After a little research we found DogVacay, where the prices where around $35/night. We read all the outstanding reviews and decided to give it a shot.
We barely got back in the car before we were being sent pictures. It was much better than our experience with the dog hotels.
And that was the end of my DogVacay story for a long time.
Changing From Sittee to Sitter
While planning one of our vacations, my opinion changed. The military family who had taken my dog in the past got transferred to San Diego. We had a mishap with the next closest person. Finally there was great sitter 45 minutes away. The only problem was the location. If we were going in another direction, it was a lot to go 1.5 hours out of your way.
I thought, “Why weren’t there any dog sitters near me!” The answer hit me in the face, “Because I’m not a dog sitter myself.” I am an ideal sitter. As I wrote in my About page, I am known as the local dog whisper at the local dog parks. However, we also have a sizable fenced-in yard that is a rare commodity. For some reason people tend to use electric fences in my area.
Lastly, I work from home. So 90% of the time people know there will be someone with their dog. That sounds basic, but there are a number of sitters who aren’t there during the day. It may work for some dogs (including mine), but surely someone who is around more is more desirable.
I created profiles on both DogVacay and Rover and people started to contact me. It trickled in at first in 2015, but as I got more reviews, my location, and offering stood out from the pack. In 2016, we had 566 “dog days”, which is about 1.5 dogs per day. So far in 2017, we have 236 “dog days.” It’s a bit of a drop-off. I think some of that may be due to DogVacay and Rover merging to become just Rover. Instead of being in two marketplaces, I’m now in one. Sure some of the DogVacay clients moved over, but maybe not all. And now I’m competing in one pool where I don’t stand out as much. Rover consistently puts people with 5 reviews ahead of me with my 100 reviews even though that person lives farther away or has lower reviews.
Pros and Cons of Being a Rover Dog Sitter
I didn’t intend for the introduction to go so long, but finally we get the point I wanted to cover in the article. Many people are wondering if dog sitting is right for them. Perhaps they’ve had the thought about Uber or AirBnb. I’m going to presume that if you are asking this question, you are comfortable with dogs. No one says, “I think I should be an Uber driver, but first, I need to get a car and learn how to drive. Plus I am afraid of cars.”
The easy answer is whether you should be a dog sitter is: NO!!! I don’t need any more competition! (I hope everyone sees that as the joke it was meant to be).
The reason answer is a lot more nuanced.
Pros of being a Rover dog sitter
There’s the obvious money aspect. I’m not going to go into my specific numbers, but from what I’ve written you can come up with a ballpark figure. I’m more high-volume than most dog sitters. (I write that having had only one dog for one day so far this week.) It would be hard to make career money out of it, but I always say it beats the heck out of selling MLM crap like DoTerra, Beachbody Shakeology, and Le-Vel Thrive. With MLM, more than 99% of people lose money. With Rover I was more profitable on the first day than they’ll ever be.
There’s the obvious dog aspect. If you love dogs, it is sweet to get paid to be around them. Some people get paid millions to play a game of baseball. I get paid much, much, much to play with dogs. Much less. But playing with dogs.
Lastly, I can combine it with my other work from home. Most of the time dogs need fairly little maintenance. It allows me to earn two, albeit small, incomes at the same time.
Those are three very big pros.
However, it’s not all puppies and rainbows (or rainbows at all).
Cons of being a Rover dog sitter
There are times where being a dog sitter is hectic. If you have a few dogs, feeding them can take some time. You have to keep them all separate and only eating their own food. Dogs are most likely to fight over food. Also this is around the time where I’m trying to feed our 3 and 4 year old. Their kid table is the perfect height for a dog to eat off of. So I manage a couple of different rooms. If I have spare time, I prepare my wife and myself dinner as well. (We eat different things than the kids, because our food isn’t “kid-friendly.”) This isn’t solely a dog sitting problem, but it is another level complexity.
We found out early on that when one dog pees on a rug, another dog will as well. It’s very difficult to clean the rug to the point where another dog won’t pick up the scent and start the cycle all over. Poop isn’t as bad as it usually sits on top and can be picked up. We ended up tearing up our carpet downstairs and putting some waterproof vinyl composite flooring from Home Depot. We got a a new leather couch that was easier to clean from muddy paws.
We have all sorts of minor damage to the house. There was the dog that scraped at our cabinets. There was the dog that scraped at the door. Our lawn isn’t in the best shape due to all the poop, pee, and occasional digging. At any given time, I could construct four Great Danes out of the spare hair on our floors.
So just like an Uber driver might consider the wear and tear on his/her car, you might consider the wear and tear on your home.
The next con would be your time. Dog sitting is in demand during the summer, on the weekends, and during holidays. Do you like to do things with your family during those times? Or do you want to be available as a dog sitter? It may sound easy to say, “Oh I’ll take family every time.” I’ve found that being available for major holidays could be worth up to $1000. It’s not just that one day, but people go away for a whole week and holiday rates apply. It’s easy for me to have 5 or more dogs during those busy times.
Giving up a weekend to go visit family could mean the loss of a couple hundred dollars in bookings as well. The last couple of months, I wrote in my income report that we’ve taken a couple of vacations. That’s a big reason why we’ve had fewer dogs this year.
One more con is dealing with the dog owners. A vast majority of them are great. However, just like anywhere else in life, there are always a few who are a little off. I think most animal trainers will tell you that the real trick is training the owners. Again, this is a very small percentage. To be fair, I’ve met some interesting dog owners including a handbag CEO, a New England Patriot, and a house flipper.
The last con is the “false hustle” trap. Someone initiates a booking with you. You explain why the dog will be a good fit and accept the dog. Then they say, “Oh, I booked with someone else.” This happens a lot with Rover because they immediately show competing dog sitters after someone creates a request. In an extreme case like this past Saturday, I had it happen to me 3 times in a span of 30 minutes. One of them even thanked me for my quick response… while they went with another sitter. That’s a lot of productivity for zero money.
It can be worse with Meet and Greets. These are when dog owners schedule a visit to see the place before booking. Being a blogger, I’m not very big on scheduling things. However, I understand the need and do the same for my own dog. It doesn’t happen very often, but sometimes I’ll spend 30 minutes with a Meet and Greet and the person won’t book. Usually because it’s their plans changed (or at least that’s what they tell me to be nice).
Sometimes I do freelance writing and I know a lot of other bloggers who do as well. They bake into their price things like invoicing, buying their own health care, and things of that nature. When dog sitting rates are around $40/day (in my area), it’s easy to see how losing an hour to “false hustle” trap can be a problem.
On the other hand, you never know if the next request is going to be a regular client. Regular clients are tremendous because you know their dogs extremely well and you know the owners well. I can accept booking in less than 15 seconds with a one-liner of “Happy to have Fluffy back again!”
Your Turn
Do you think dog sitting could be right for you? If so, head on over to Rover and sign up.
Maybe it isn’t a good fit for your particular life circumstances now, but what if you were able to do some work from home, freelance, or do it as a second act in “retirement”? Let me know what you think in the comments.
Thanks for the article. I don’t that doing it in our home would work for me. Even though I’m not a neat freak, having one dog(and cat) seems to cause enough dirt and damage.
My adult daughter has done quite a bit of “go to your house” pet sitting. There seems to be a pretty good market out there. Since you are helping one family at a time I guess there is a limit to the income, but it’s not a bad side gig deal. I know we have always had someone stay in our home with our pets when we travel.
Of course, you find that people(not us of course) can be weird and have weird requirements for their pets. She got hooked up with one deal where a single man had two giant and poorly trained mastiff type dogs. They were “accepting” of my daughter when apparently they were not to many, many other people(and when poorly trained giant dogs are not accepting there can be bloodshed). The man spent over $1,000 month on special food for the dogs. It was good money for her, but the situation just got really weird so she had to drop him as a client.
Your daughter wouldn’t be a personal finance blogger would she? Just curious, but I know one who fits the profile.
I haven’t done the travel to other people’s houses, because that’s directly trading time for money. I’m a bit of a hypocrite here because I’m a male escort… I escort dogs to weddings for pictures. My area has a big wedding industry so there are a few requests. I charge $60/hr including travel time and I’m probably going to up that to $75 to account for car mileage. So I would go to other people’s houses, but I don’t know if I could pull in that cash.
I can’t believe spending $1000/mo. on dog food. I know mastiffs eat a lot, but that’s up there with The Rock’s famous extensive diet: https://www.gobankingrates.com/personal-finance/cost-eat-like-dwayne-rock-johnson/
Lol, no, she’s not a blogger, though she did just start her first real job at a bank. Yes, the time for money doesn’t work out great for full time, unless you knew people that leave for a month+ at a time and could avoid paying rent somewhere. And, frankly, people don’t pay enough. Getting an extra $35-$40 a day is cool for a young person, but that’s not enough for me to come into your home, keep a watch on it, and then care for your pet too. Some act like they are doing HER a favor. Uh, no.
The $1,000 month for dog food. He makes his own gourmet food, buys boxes of fresh steaks, etc. She did the food buying one day. He gave her 10 $100 bills to go to these high end stores and buy the ingredients. Very, very strange.
That makes me feel better. My instinct was that I don’t need to travel for a few extra dollars. However, as I mentioned in the article, I do have a few high-end clients. I wouldn’t mind seeing their place, but I’d need more of a house-sitting arrangement where I can reasonably use the amenities (swim in the pool and such). That would be really weird for both sides, so I stick to people delivering me their dog.
I was thinking about the $1000 for dog food. I’m pretty sure I could buy a lot of organic chicken at a decent price. It wouldn’t be steaks, but dogs don’t care. I’m saving my #1 dog sitting trick for a future post, but if you talk to a few veterinarians about dog diets they’ll almost always go with chicken (maybe because it is reasonably cheap).
Hi my name is monisha and im new Rover my experiences with Rover when i first signed up i was kinda discouraged there was couple of times where i wanted to forget it but i have couple of bookings this past year first i was charged 25 a night now lowered my prices and seem to work kinda but im getting started with business cards and hopefully i should be getting clients during the holiday. Season like Thanksgiving xmas holiday and new years this should be interesting i wanna see where this takes me
Those are busy times of the year for us. Any time that families travel for vacation are good for the dog sitting business.
I was a dog sitter for Rover. It’s great if you find clients who work out of town. If you can find 3-5 daily walks per day you can make decent money. I only have daycare for one client now. We used to have dogs come to our home but we stopped that. It was really good for my dogs at the time. Summer is the busy season. I worked over 30 days in a row. I stopped using Rover because I have arthritis in my toe so I went back to working out of the home.
I’m curious how much is decent money with dog walks. If I’m spending my time driving around town, it gets tough. If I tried to 3-5 walks between the kids day care, I wouldn’t have time to look at the blog or do anything else around the house. If it was maybe $150-200, it could work though.
By the way, I stopped by your site. My WordPress install could use a little sprucing up. I’ve been using it since 2006 and there’s a lot of legacy stuff. If you are looking for business, I might be hiring ;-).
Yeah you can make up to 15-18 per walk in the suburbs and more in the city. And it is a full time job at that point. But people can make up to 50 to 60K per year on Rover. It’s a good side hustle for dog lovers-not always easy but people always have to work and some dogs need afternoon visits, etc.
As for WordPress, thanks for visiting the site. Even though I have child themes I don’t do much coding. Just fonts and colors. I’m learning coding as we speak. Starting with Python and then going into HTML and CSS, etc.
I have some favorite plugins and themes and WordPress kind of does the work for me! Let me know what you need help with.
I was thinking of doing dog sitting and/or walking, but my question would be liability. Do you have to have some kind of insurance? In case the dog bites someone, eats something poisonous, gets hit by a car, dies etc. I hate to be morbid, but we live in a sue happy country!.
There is some level of insurance as outlined by Rover.com here: https://www.rover.com/insurance/.
I have been a professional sitter for 22 years. Long before any of this started. I am on my second company. Rover has had countless incidences and that has been alarming. Do you know CPR and First Aid? What to do in an emergency? This is a sacrifice. I no longer celebrate holidays. I work everyday, every holiday. The terms and conditions you don’t mention as Rover is hands off when incidents happen. Sitters need to have their own insurance to protect themselves. Although, instead of giving them a portion of your money have your own business. Also, in many states it’s illegal to board dogs without a kennel license. You don’t mention that either. There will come a time, since more incidents continue to happen, that licenses will be required in every state and home inspections will be required. At times, it can be fun, dogs make us happy but there are difficult times too, when they get sick, when you’re at the ER and they pass away on your watch. This is a serious business and I wish that it would be seen as such especially by these APP companies because that’s what they are.
I don’t have dog CPR and First Aid certifications, but my wife is a pharmacist. That’s helpful in knowing some of the medications.
As for emergencies, Rover has people available by the phone 24-7. They are a little “hands off” about emergencies, but get to be very “hands on” after.
Rover provides the insurance – that’s part of their fee. Thus sitters don’t need to have their own insurance. If I were to start my own dog sitting service (aside from Rover), I’d have to get my own insurance and leads for new jobs. I might do that someday, but for now, this works for us.
I’m very confident that Rover (as a very large company) complies with all laws about boarding dogs and licenses. It’s not worth mentioning, because Rover sitters are not breaking the law (to the best of my knowledge). If you feel that Rover is breaking the law by allowing non-licensed dog sitters, I implore you to take this up with the media and with lawsuits. An unsubstantiated comment on this blog like that is just spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
With young kids, we celebrate the holidays. That’s okay, because other dog sitters do not. We go away sometimes during the holidays, and we bring our dog to a Rover sitter.
I don’t have 22 years of experience, but I have 4 years of experience and probably 250+ different dogs watched. The ER stuff is going to happen whether it is Rover or an unaffiliated 3rd party. That’s a general dog sitting thing, not a Rover thing.