I grew up with dogs but I haven’t had one in my adult life. I travel way too much, and I always hear horror stories from my friends either about the kennels they drop their dogs off at or the bills when they check out. They also claim it’s difficult to find local pet-sitters.
Well, thanks to Rover—the number-one-rated pet-sitting and dog-walking app—it doesn’t have to be that difficult or expensive. Just input your zip code to find willing people looking to help and for a side job. They have over 100,000 pet-sitters and dog-walkers in the U.S. and Canada. Depending on where you live, prices seem to range from $15 a night to $50.
The reason this app is so popular is that Rover doesn’t just take anyone in. In fact, they claim they accept less than 20% of potential sitters. All new sitters have to pass a basic background check and provide a detailed profile and personal information to be approved by Rover’s team of sitter specialists.
Every service booked on Rover is backed by premium insurance, 24/7 support and a reservation guarantee. Through their app (iOS and Android), you can get adorable photo updates, GPS tracking of your dog’s walk, pee/poo and food/water alerts, an easy way to message sitters or manage your business, and a secure way to book and pay. One user named Corinna F. wrote: “My Rover sitter sent me updates throughout the day and took care of my dog as if she were her own.”
Have you used Rover? Let us know what you think about it in the comments below!
We found our present dogsitter/housesitter on Rover approx. 2.5 years ago and have used her ever since. She’s fantastic–happens to be a dogwalker by profession so no problem handling our two dogs. We insist that someone live here while we’re gone and thus a lot of dogsitters/walkers won’t do because they want to go home at night. This young woman has stayed for 2 weeks plus in our house with only the very best results.
Naturally you would want to interview someone in your environment with your dogs present and feel good about her/him. It is not a good idea to suddenly need to go out of town and rush around finding someone at the last minute. In the case of the people who we have used over the last decade or two, we deliberately generate a 2-3 day trip somewhere within driving distance of home to first try out a new dogsitter.
Great to hear!