The first sit is the one where everything is unfamiliar at once: someone else's house, someone else's animals, someone else's routine. It gets much easier after that. Here is what to expect.
Before you arrive
Confirm the arrival time and get the address, the access arrangements and a phone number. Ask whether the owner will be there for handover, because arriving to an empty house with instructions on the bench is a different experience and you want to know which it is.
Ask what you should bring and what will be provided. Specifically: bed linen and towels, whether there is space in the fridge, whether there is parking, and whether there is reliable internet.
What to pack
- Your own toiletries and enough food for the first day, so you are not shopping immediately.
- Chargers, adapters and anything you need to work.
- A power board, because available sockets are never where you want them.
- Any medication you take, in more than the exact quantity.
- Comfortable clothes for walking and cleaning, whatever the accommodation looks like in the photos.
- A notebook or your phone for writing down what you are told at handover. You will not remember it all.
The handover
Take notes and take photos. Photograph the meter box, the fuse box, the pet food and quantity, the medication chart, the alarm panel and anything you are shown once and expected to remember. Ask where things are rather than assuming you will find them.
Ask the questions people feel awkward asking: which rooms are off limits, whether you can use the washing machine, whether you can have a friend over, what to do with rubbish and when bins go out. Our meet-and-greet checklist for sitters is worth working through.
Photograph the house on arrival
A quick walk through with your phone camera when you arrive takes two minutes and records the condition you found things in. It is not distrust, it is the same thing you would do with a rental, and it protects both of you.
The first evening is usually the strangest
Expect the animals to be unsettled. Dogs may search for the owner, refuse dinner or sit by the door. Cats may disappear entirely and not emerge until you are asleep. This is normal and it usually resolves within a day or two.
Do not force interaction. Keep the routine exactly as written, let the animals approach you, and message the owner a short update. A photo of the pet, even a hiding one, is enormously reassuring to someone who has just left.
Common first-timer mistakes
- Not asking enough questions before agreeing, particularly about how long the animals can be alone.
- Assuming recall works for you the way it does for the owner. Keep dogs on lead until you know.
- Changing food or adding treats. Do not.
- Under-communicating. Owners want more updates than sitters expect.
- Waiting to report a problem, hoping it resolves. Raise things early and politely.
Before you leave
Clean properly, strip or wash the linen as agreed, take the bins out, and leave a short written note about how the animals were and anything that needs attention. That note is what gets you invited back, and it is what people mention in reviews. Our guide on what condition a home should be left in covers the detail.
