Four kinds of people can look after your dog at home in Australia while you are away: someone you already know, a paid sitter who stays overnight, a paid visitor who drops in once or twice a day, or a house sitter who lives in your home for your dates and is paid in accommodation rather than cash. All four can keep the dog in its own house.
Below is which one suits which dog, what each is called when you go looking for it, and what to settle before you hand anyone a key.
If your dog stays home, the RSPCA says someone should stay with it
RSPCA Australia's guidance on planning for your pets if you are going away over the holidays, published 22 December 2020, says that if your pets are staying at home, it is best to have someone stay with them in their familiar environment. Its Knowledgebase page on finding a good boarding facility names the alternative for an animal likely to find the boarding environment stressful, suggesting a trusted and reputable pet sitter who will come and stay at your home with your animal.
That sets the bar for whoever you pick. The RSPCA's advice on caring for a dog is that adult dogs are fed at least twice a day and most dogs need exercise at least once a day, on walks that let them explore rather than a backyard alone. Someone has to be there for both, every day you are gone.
Four kinds of people can do it, and only one of them is free without asking a favour
| Arrangement | Where your dog sleeps | Alone overnight? | What it costs | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friend, family or neighbour | Its own home, or theirs | Depends on the arrangement | Usually nothing, often reciprocated | A short trip, and a dog that knows them |
| Non-monetary house sitter | Its own home, someone lives in | No | Nothing for the sit. The accommodation is the exchange | Longer trips where routine and an occupied house both matter |
| Paid live-in sitter | Its own home, someone lives in | No | A nightly rate plus the platform's fee | The same job, bought rather than exchanged |
| Paid drop-in visits | Its own home, alone in between | Yes | A fee per visit | A short absence and a dog that copes alone |
| Boarding at a sitter's home | The sitter's house | No | A nightly rate | A dog that travels well and likes company |
| Kennel | Staffed premises | No, staff on site | A nightly rate | A dog needing overnight staffing, or a happy past boarder |
Sitterly runs the second row and nothing else. A sitter stays in your home, cares for your dog there, and no money changes hands for the sit. We do not offer standalone dog walking, drop-in visits, daycare, or boarding at a sitter's home. If the table points you at one of those, a paid local service is where to look.
The thing you want has at least three names, which is why searching for it is confusing
Australians type "someone to look after my dog while on holiday" because that describes the problem. The industry uses several names for it, and two of them mean the dog leaves the house.
- House sitting means the sitter comes to you and lives in your home for your dates. It is the only term here that guarantees your dog never travels.
- Pet sitting and pet minding go both ways: sometimes the sitter comes to you, often it means drop-in visits or your dog staying at the minder's place.
- Dog boarding and in-home dog sitting at the sitter's home both mean your dog goes to them.
One question sorts every advertisement you will read: where does the dog sleep? What Australians mean by pet minding, pet sitting and house sitting maps the rest of the vocabulary, and what in-home dog care actually involves day to day walks through a sitter's ordinary Tuesday.
A non-monetary house sit costs nothing for the sit, and you still pay for the dog
The exchange is the whole model. The sitter gets a place to stay for your dates, you get someone living in your home looking after your dog, and nobody invoices anybody for the care. On Sitterly there is no commission on either side and listing is free for homeowners, permanently.
Everything the dog costs anyway stays with you: food, medication, flea and worm treatment, and any vet bill while you are gone. Agree in writing who authorises treatment and up to what amount, covered in who pays the emergency vet bill during a sit. For comparison, Australian platforms selling paid overnight care in your home published guide prices spanning $15 to over $100 a night on pages read on 22 August 2026. Those are sellers' estimates, not a market average, and much of that spread is a single platform contradicting itself across its own pages. What pet care actually costs in Australia gives each figure with its publisher and date.
Ask where the dog sleeps before you ask the price
Work out what your dog needs first, how many hours it can be left, whether it needs someone there overnight, and then price only the arrangements that survive that test.
Settle five things before you hand over a key
| What to check | Why it matters | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Who the person is | A profile is a sales document, not an identity | ID verification done, and the same document shown at the meet |
| What was checked, and when | The date on a police certificate matters as much as the fact of it | They name the issuing body and the date, and will show you it |
| How your dog reacts to them | Nothing on a screen tells you this | A meet and greet at your place, dog present, before dates are agreed |
| The routine, written down | Feeds, walks and medication get forgotten in conversation | A written handover, read back to you, with your vet's details on it |
| What happens if it falls through | Sitterly does not find you a replacement sitter | A named fallback: a second sitter, a neighbour, or a facility with room |
The date matters because a police check is a snapshot. The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission explains that a nationally coordinated criminal history check is a 'point in time' check, whose results only reflect police records on the date and time the result is released. A certificate issued two years ago says nothing about the two years since, so ask who issued it and when.
Insurance is the sixth, and it sits between you and your insurer rather than any platform. The Western Australian government's Consumer Protection page on house, pet or baby sitting services advises contacting your insurer about exclusions, because many policies exclude deliberate damage and theft caused by people lawfully invited onto the property. Send that email weeks out. Home and contents cover while a house sitter is in your home sets out what to ask.
Sitterly does not vet, screen or approve anyone
Verification here is optional and started by the member, then reviewed by our admin team: email, which is automatic, and a police check. Because the check is optional, a sitter may or may not have completed it, and you can filter the sitter list by police check. Reviews appear only after a booking is marked completed, so on a newer platform there are fewer of them. Sitterly supports the connection. Homeowners and sitters remain responsible for their own arrangements.
How to vet a house sitter when references are not enough runs the full sequence, and what a house sitter is responsible for is the conversation to have before anyone says yes.
Start earlier than feels necessary, because the whole country travels in the same weeks
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for overseas arrivals and departures in January 2026, released 17 March 2026, recorded 1,078,770 short-term resident departures in that month alone. Add domestic travel and school holidays that finish on different dates in each state, and a sitter in Toowoomba is working to a different calendar from a homeowner in Glenelg. Post your dates while they are still rough, because a date you can move by a day is far easier to fill. Planning pet care for Christmas and the summer holidays has the term dates by state.
Some dogs should not stay home, and it is better to know that now
Three situations are worth settling before you book a live-in sit. A dog needing overnight monitoring, such as post-surgical recovery, a seizure disorder or timed insulin, is a conversation to have with your vet before you decide where it stays. A household that would rather nobody was in the house has its answer already. And a dog with separation-related distress needs your vet's view first: the RSPCA's page on dogs that are anxious when nobody is home describes toileting inside, destructiveness, excessive barking, digging, pacing and attempts to escape, and advises talking to your vet, who can help or refer you to a suitably qualified behaviour specialist.
Leaving an anxious dog with a sitter covers that handover, and house sitting compared with boarding, catteries and drop-in visits goes through the trade-offs, including when boarding is the better choice.
Common questions
- Who can look after my dog while I am away?
- Someone you know, a paid sitter who stays overnight in your home, a paid visitor who drops in once or twice a day, a non-monetary house sitter who lives in for your dates in exchange for the accommodation, or a boarding facility. The first four keep your dog at home.
- How much does it cost to have someone stay at my house with my dog?
- Nothing for the sit itself in a non-monetary house sit, because the sitter is paid in accommodation. Paid Australian platforms published guide prices spanning $15 to over $100 a night for an overnight stay in your home, on pages read on 22 August 2026. Those are sellers' estimates, not market averages, and they disagree with each other.
- Does Sitterly offer dog walking or drop-in visits?
- No. Sitterly covers one arrangement only, a sitter staying in your home for your dates. Standalone dog walking, drop-in visits, daycare and boarding at a sitter's home are outside what we do.
Post your dates and see who is near you
Put the dates up and read who replies. Post a listing with your suburb, your dates and an honest description of what your dog needs, or browse sitters near you and look through the sits already open first. Listing is free for homeowners, always, there is no commission either side, and you are never obliged to accept anyone.
General information only, and not veterinary, legal or insurance advice. Prices referred to are figures published by the platforms selling the service, read on 22 August 2026, not market averages, and they change. Speak to your vet about your dog's needs and your insurer about your policy, and if you think your dog is unwell, contact your veterinary clinic or an emergency animal hospital straight away.
