PREP GUIDE
🏠 Sitting & boarding
In-home overnight sitting
The caregiver sleeps at your home so your pets keep their own space and routine. Agree the evenings, the days and the house rules up front.
🕘 The caregiver is at the home from 6 PM to 9 AM each night; daytime is theirs unless you agree otherwise.
Before the booking
- Leave clean bedding, the wifi details, house rules (guests, which rooms are off limits) and how the alarm works.
- Say how long your pets may be left alone during the day — PetHour plans the sitter at your home each night, and the day is theirs unless you agree otherwise.
- Write the routine down: meal times and amounts, treats, walks or play, litter or cage cleaning, where each pet sleeps — and what "normal" looks like for each.
- Leave food and supplies for the whole booking plus two extra days, in one place, with the scoop you measure with.
- Add your vet and your emergency contact to the booking, and tell your vet that a caregiver may bring your pet in.
- Pet-proof: close off rooms, secure the trash, put away cords, medicines and chewables, and check window screens.
What usually goes wrong
- Pets alone too long during the day
- Agree daytime expectations before the booking. If you have daytime visits elsewhere, tell the owner.
- A house problem with no one to call
- Owners: leave a local contact for the house (a neighbour, a building manager) along with the pet contacts.
- A pet slips out of the door
- Doors are where escapes happen. Know where every pet is before you open one, open it slowly and block the gap, and keep a leash or carrier by the door.
- A cat seems to be missing
- Cats hide when routines change. Check closets, under beds, behind appliances and inside boxes, and shake the treat bag before you worry — then make sure you've seen every pet before each visit ends.
- Food runs out, or the wrong food is given
- Owners: leave more than enough, labelled. Caregivers: never swap foods without asking — a sudden change upsets stomachs.
- Nobody knows what normal is
- Owners: describe normal appetite, energy, litter or stool. Caregivers: note what you see in each visit report, so a change stands out.
If this happens
- A pet isn't eating
- One missed meal can be stress. Two missed meals for a dog, or a cat not eating for a day, means calling the owner — and possibly the vet.
- Something in the home breaks
- Leak, power cut, no heating: keep the pets safe first, then tell the owner. Don't arrange repairs unless the owner asks you to.
- The owner's return is delayed
- The owner arranges the extra care; the caregiver may keep caring at the booking's rate (ToS §4.9). Agree the plan in the booking chat.
🚨 Call a vet now if…
- A cat not eating for 24 hours, a dog refusing two meals, vomiting or diarrhoea more than twice, or blood in either.
- A male cat straining in the litter box with little or no urine — that's an emergency.
- Trouble breathing, collapse, seizures or suspected poisoning — call the vet or emergency clinic first, then the owner.
In an emergency, call the vet or emergency clinic first, then the owner — the vet details are on the booking (ToS §4.8).
These are general tips to help you prepare — not rules for how a caregiver must work, and not veterinary advice. Agree the details for each booking in the booking chat, so you both have them in writing.