1. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,695
Enrollment
6,596
For many pet owners, their dog walker/pet sitter is one of the most important people in their lives. After all, the dog walker/pet sitter is responsible for keeping Fido or Fluffy happy and healthy while the owners are at work or on vacation. The dog walker/pet sitter helps give pet owners peace of mind while they are away from home.
Dog walkers/pet sitters do whatever is necessary to help take care of a pet while the owner is not home. They walk dogs and make sure that they get enough exercise. When the owner is away, they often stay in their house to be able to feed the pets, keep the dog company, and immediately take them to the vet if there is an emergency.
A gig as a dog walker/pet sitter sounds like a great job. Who wouldn't want to spend all day with cuddly animals? However, it's harder than it seems. The dog walker/pet sitter needs to be responsible and highly knowledgeable about animals to take care of pets properly. They also need to have a strong stomach for the less glamorous parts of the job, like disposing of waste.
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.
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 46.8% of dog walker/pet sitters have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 3.6% of dog walker/pet sitters have master's degrees. Even though most dog walker/pet sitters have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
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.
What Am I Worth?
There are several types of dog walker/pet sitter, including:
A sitter is responsible for assisting medical needs under the supervision of an attending physician, registered nurses, and other health professionals. Sitters monitor the patients' daily activities and perform medical duties such as taking the patient's temperature, administering medications, monitoring food intake, helping with bathing needs, and responding to the patients' inquiries, concerns, and requests. You will also keep track of medical charts to report the patients' health condition and progress to the senior staff. In addition, you are to provide emotional support and companionship to patients, keep patients' information confidential, and adhere to the hospital policies and standards.
To be a sitter, you need a high school diploma and experience performing basic functions, such as checking vital signs. You should also have exceptional listening and communication skills and the ability to handle emotionally distressing situations. As a sitter, you will earn an average of $27,625 per annum.
It does not get any more fun than this. As an animal daycare provider, you get to hang out all day with a bunch of pets that their owners drop off on their way to work; feeding and entertaining them, taking them on walks, and supervising their playtime.
You get trained on the job to get up to speed with safety measures, what to do with aggressive dogs, and how to restrain the ones that go overboard. You will learn how to spot an injury and know when it is time to call a vet. You will have to feed the babies... ahem, I mean animals, clean their spaces indoors and outdoors, and give medications to the ones who need them.
Animal daycare providers might have to work odd hours, early mornings, and late nights, weekends, and holidays. But on the upside, part-time options are usually available. Getting bitten or scratched and stepping in poo is part of the package, but if you love animals, none of this will be too much of a problem.
The role of a Kennel Attendant, also known as a Kennel Assistant, as the name implies, is to provide care, such as food, warmth, and water, to animals found in shelters and veterinary clinics and centers.
Their tasks might range from simple ones to more complicated ones. They often transport animals from one kennel to another, check on animals regularly, clean up around the kennel and the center, providing company to these animals so that they do not feel mistreated or lonely, and reporting on the animals' health and state, should any change occur, to higher management or the local veterinarian.
A prospect in this field should have a high school diploma or a GED. Prior experience with animals and animal care is always preferred but not necessarily a must. Strong organizational skills and a strong passion for animal welfare are key to doing well in this position.
Mouse over a state to see the number of active dog walker/pet sitter jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where dog walker/pet sitters earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
---|---|---|---|
1 | California | 1,424 | $36,645 |
2 | Florida | 857 | $24,937 |
3 | Texas | 758 | $27,705 |
4 | Illinois | 549 | $30,094 |
5 | New York | 477 | $37,811 |
6 | Pennsylvania | 463 | $24,511 |
7 | Michigan | 424 | $27,459 |
8 | Washington | 415 | $33,470 |
9 | Virginia | 386 | $25,016 |
10 | Ohio | 379 | $22,431 |
11 | Massachusetts | 377 | $31,152 |
12 | Georgia | 364 | $27,797 |
13 | North Carolina | 324 | $27,436 |
14 | Maryland | 318 | $28,926 |
15 | Colorado | 316 | $29,554 |
16 | Arizona | 307 | $30,795 |
17 | New Jersey | 280 | $24,034 |
18 | Wisconsin | 263 | $28,140 |
19 | Indiana | 258 | $27,725 |
20 | Connecticut | 249 | $32,919 |
21 | Missouri | 232 | $27,115 |
22 | Tennessee | 225 | $22,289 |
23 | Minnesota | 218 | $32,846 |
24 | South Carolina | 168 | $22,727 |
25 | Alabama | 136 | $24,770 |
26 | Oregon | 135 | $32,303 |
27 | Louisiana | 131 | $25,648 |
28 | Utah | 125 | $29,026 |
29 | Kentucky | 118 | $33,043 |
30 | Iowa | 115 | $28,428 |
31 | Kansas | 114 | $27,182 |
32 | Arkansas | 98 | $25,950 |
33 | Oklahoma | 94 | $28,292 |
34 | Idaho | 93 | $33,138 |
35 | Nevada | 87 | $31,706 |
36 | Hawaii | 76 | $26,942 |
37 | New Hampshire | 73 | $32,295 |
38 | West Virginia | 67 | $34,466 |
39 | Mississippi | 67 | $27,493 |
40 | Delaware | 60 | $32,380 |
41 | Maine | 58 | $33,596 |
42 | Rhode Island | 55 | $30,768 |
43 | Montana | 54 | $26,479 |
44 | Nebraska | 52 | $28,257 |
45 | Alaska | 49 | $31,759 |
46 | New Mexico | 46 | $24,409 |
47 | Wyoming | 36 | $28,740 |
48 | Vermont | 32 | $30,758 |
49 | North Dakota | 29 | $34,868 |
50 | South Dakota | 23 | $29,291 |
Durham, NC • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,695
Enrollment
6,596
Ann Arbor, MI • Private
In-State Tuition
$15,262
Enrollment
30,079
Evanston, IL • Private
In-State Tuition
$54,568
Enrollment
8,451
New York, NY • Private
In-State Tuition
$59,430
Enrollment
8,216
Baltimore, MD • Private
In-State Tuition
$53,740
Enrollment
5,567
Worcester, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$39,200
Enrollment
1,725
Pittsburgh, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,465
Enrollment
6,483
Saint Louis, MO • Private
In-State Tuition
$53,399
Enrollment
7,356
Long Beach, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$6,798
Enrollment
31,503
La Jolla, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$14,167
Enrollment
30,279
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, 72.9% of dog walker/pet sitters listed pet on their resume, but soft skills such as compassion and customer-service skills are important as well.
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Dog Walker/Pet Sitter templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Dog Walker/Pet Sitter resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
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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 New York, California, North Dakota, and West Virginia. Dog walker/pet sitters make the most in New York with an average salary of $37,811. Whereas in California and North Dakota, they would average $36,645 and $34,868, respectively. While dog walker/pet sitters would only make an average of $34,466 in West Virginia, 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. Idaho
$33,138
Avg. Salary
2. West Virginia
$34,466
Avg. Salary
3. Washington
$33,470
Avg. Salary
Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Independent Contractor | $34,193 | $16.44 | 3 |
2 | Washingtonian | $34,175 | $16.43 | 2 |
3 | Client Services | $33,247 | $15.98 | 4 |
4 | Animal Humane Society | $31,167 | $14.98 | 2 |
5 | Camp Bow Wow | $31,104 | $14.95 | 5 |
6 | Homes.com | $31,045 | $14.93 | 4 |
7 | Biscuits & Bath | $30,926 | $14.87 | 6 |
8 | Care.com | $30,833 | $14.82 | 13 |
9 | DogVacay | $30,816 | $14.82 | 4 |
10 | Wag | $30,805 | $14.81 | 38 |