There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a dog walker/pet sitter. For example, did you know that they make an average of $12.22 an hour? That's $25,424 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 16% and produce 51,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many dog walker/pet sitters have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed compassion, customer-service skills and detail oriented.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a dog walker/pet sitter, we found that a lot of resumes listed 25.1% of dog walker/pet sitters included animal care, while 18.4% of resumes included water plants, and 16.9% of resumes included fresh water. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
If you're interested in becoming a dog walker/pet sitter, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 35.8% of dog walker/pet sitters have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 4.7% of dog walker/pet sitters have master's degrees. Even though some dog walker/pet sitters have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a dog walker/pet sitter. When we researched the most common majors for a dog walker/pet sitter, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees. Other degrees that we often see on dog walker/pet sitter resumes include associate degree degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a dog walker/pet sitter. In fact, many dog walker/pet sitter jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many dog walker/pet sitters also have previous career experience in roles such as sales associate or volunteer.
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In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of nanny you might progress to a role such as lead teacher eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title owner.
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Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Dog Walker/Pet Sitter. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Dog Walker/Pet Sitter Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Dog Walker/Pet Sitter resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationDurham, NC • Private
Ann Arbor, MI • Public
Evanston, IL • Private
New York, NY • Private
Baltimore, MD • Private
Worcester, MA • Private
Pittsburgh, PA • Private
Saint Louis, MO • Private
Long Beach, CA • Public
La Jolla, CA • Public
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 25.1% of dog walker/pet sitters listed animal care on their resume, but soft skills such as compassion and customer-service skills are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a dog walker/pet sitter. The best states for people in this position are Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Dog walker/pet sitters make the most in Maine with an average salary of $27,852. Whereas in Massachusetts and Connecticut, they would average $27,057 and $26,770, respectively. While dog walker/pet sitters would only make an average of $26,767 in Rhode Island, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Rhode Island
$26,767
Avg. Salary
2. West Virginia
$25,714
Avg. Salary
3. Arizona
$25,930
Avg. Salary