What is a Pet Sitter?

A pet sitter is someone who cares for a pet in its home while the owner is away. It could also include taking the pet on a walk. A pet sitter is responsible for providing food and water, brushing fur and teeth in the case of dog and cat, walking dogs, and cleaning litter boxes. They also give medications when necessary and take the pets to the vet if they suffer an injury or become sick while pet sitting them. Working as a pet sitter may sometimes require that you stay overnight at the owner's home so that you can let pets out for regular bathroom breaks.

To be a successful pet sitter, you should have a good rapport with animals. You should also be reliable and trustworthy, and you must have interpersonal skills, communication skills, and a love for animals. Pet sitters are not required to have any formal education but must be familiar with all the aspects of caring for pets. The median annual salary of a pet sitter is $23,760.

What Does a Pet Sitter Do

There are certain skills that many 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 patience.

Learn more about what a Pet Sitter does

How To Become a Pet Sitter

If you're interested in becoming a pet sitter, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 45.4% of pet sitters have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 3.5% of pet sitters have master's degrees. Even though some pet sitters have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Pet Sitter
Top Pet Sitter Jobs Near You

Pet Sitter Career Paths

As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a pet sitter can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as nanny, progress to a title such as lead teacher and then eventually end up with the title account manager.

Pet Sitter

Average Salary for a Pet Sitter

Pet Sitters in America make an average salary of $25,823 per year or $12 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $62,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $10,000 per year.
Average Pet Sitter Salary
$25,823 Yearly
$12.41 hourly
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What Am I Worth?

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Roles and Types of Pet Sitter

There are several types of pet sitter, including:

Nanny

Role:

A nanny is an important figure in many children's lives. Usually, nanny's look after the children while the parents work so their job responsibilities change every single day. If you're cool with sticky fingers and keeping a flexible schedule, then you're in for a wild ride.

As a nanny, you'll probably be responsible for getting the children to their responsibilities, whether that's school or extracurricular activities. You might have to pick them up from school and those other activities as well.

Your hours as a nanny depend on the family that you're working for. Some people might only need you for part of a day each day while others will need you from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. We weren't kidding when we said a wild ride.

  • Average Salary: $40,262
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Baby Sitter

Role:

A babysitter is someone ready to take full responsibility for the welfare and health of children when their parents are not around. You will be given the authority to be involved in every part of their lives, including meals, hygiene, education. Monitoring the everyday activities of the children is also your responsibility. This includes keeping the playground safe and sanitizing play equipment regularly to prevent germs and diseases.

You also need to teach the children the importance of good hygiene, including brushing their teeth twice daily, eating healthy food, using the toilet, and getting adequate rest. You will sometimes need to engage the children to read, assist with their homework and other extracurricular activities, create daily lesson plans that will be educational and interesting at the same time. You are allowed to discipline them, when necessary, encourage good behavior such as treating each other kindly and respecting their parents and elderly ones.

You will also discuss information about each child with their parents to know the scope of your authority and responsibility. As a babysitter, you must be responsible. You must also possess excellent communication skills, be a lover of children, and have problem-solving skills. The salary of a babysitter is $40,418, but you must possess a high school diploma.

  • Average Salary: $30,972
  • Degree: High School Diploma

Companion

Role:

A companion is a kind of social worker who helps sick, elderly, or recovering people with chores around the house. They assist them in their hygiene practices, administer their medication, and make sure they keep healthy and get appropriate exercise.

Companions also simply keep people company. They have a conversation or play chess with their patients and generally help people feel less lonely and emotionally more stable. They make social life easier, too, by planning events and accompanying their patients to them.

Being a caring and empathetic person is essential if you want to be a companion. Having nursing training and experience in CPR will come in handy as well, just as physical strength for situations when you need you to supply the energy for both of you.

  • Average Salary: $29,246
  • Degree: High School Diploma
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States With The Most Pet Sitter Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active pet sitter jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where pet sitters earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Pet Sitter Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California2,051$26,066
2Florida1,330$21,803
3Texas1,180$25,431
4New York884$31,522
5Illinois792$26,662
6Pennsylvania756$34,117
7Ohio613$22,007
8Georgia610$20,938
9Michigan607$27,952
10New Jersey555$31,399
11North Carolina537$24,918
12Virginia522$25,723
13Washington504$25,034
14Arizona451$27,425
15Massachusetts432$33,794
16Colorado396$24,939
17Maryland384$26,576
18Tennessee382$20,488
19Indiana372$28,683
20Wisconsin341$25,540
21Missouri325$24,350
22Connecticut319$34,021
23South Carolina284$22,585
24Minnesota238$25,881
25Oregon236$27,449
26Alabama236$23,046
27Iowa179$25,294
28Louisiana175$23,649
29Kentucky167$29,500
30Oklahoma164$25,976
31Utah152$27,445
32Nevada151$28,440
33Kansas134$24,479
34Arkansas129$23,898
35West Virginia115$31,012
36Mississippi113$25,403
37Idaho108$28,528
38New Hampshire98$32,497
39Nebraska87$25,906
40New Mexico84$22,447
41Delaware81$33,238
42Hawaii76$22,992
43Rhode Island73$34,545
44Maine71$32,794
45Montana68$22,262
46Alaska51$27,123
47Vermont40$30,105
48Wyoming38$24,928
49South Dakota38$22,149
50North Dakota32$30,995

Pet Sitter Education

Pet Sitter Majors

Business
12.3 %
Psychology
12.1 %
Biology
9.7 %

Pet Sitter Degrees

Bachelors

45.4 %

High School Diploma

21.8 %

Associate

21.8 %

Top Colleges for Pet Sitters

1. University of Massachusetts Amherst

Amherst, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$15,887

Enrollment

23,202

2. Texas Tech University

Lubbock, TX • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,080

Enrollment

30,795

3. Vermont Technical College

Randolph, VT • Private

In-State Tuition

$15,108

Enrollment

1,350

4. Texas A&M University - Commerce

Commerce, TX • Private

In-State Tuition

$8,748

Enrollment

8,201

5. North Dakota State University

Fargo, ND • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,414

Enrollment

11,182

6. Saint Francis University

Loretto, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$36,410

Enrollment

1,668

7. The University of Findlay

Findlay, OH • Private

In-State Tuition

$34,360

Enrollment

2,533

8. West Texas A&M University

Canyon, TX • Private

In-State Tuition

$7,935

Enrollment

7,368

9. Post University

Waterbury, CT • Private

In-State Tuition

$16,610

Enrollment

9,017

10. Colorado State University

Fort Collins, CO • Private

In-State Tuition

$11,707

Enrollment

24,210

Top Skills For a Pet Sitter

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, 89.9% of pet sitters listed pet on their resume, but soft skills such as compassion and customer-service skills are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Pet Sitter Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Pet Sitter templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Pet Sitter resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Pet Sitter diversity

Pet Sitter Gender Distribution

Female
Female
80%
Male
Male
20%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among pet sitters, 80.3% of them are women, while 19.7% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among pet sitters is White, which makes up 68.1% of all pet sitters.

  • The most common foreign language among pet sitters is Spanish at 64.2%.

Online Courses For Pet Sitter That You May Like

Advertising Disclosure  

1. Foundations for Assisting in Home Care

coursera

This course is intended as a self-study course for those interested in exploring a career as a Home Health Aide or Personal Care Aide...

2. Essentials of Palliative Care

coursera

This course starts you on your journey of integrating primary palliative care into your daily lives. You will learn what palliative care is, how to communicate with patients, show empathy, and practice difficult conversations. You will learn how to screen for distress and provide psychosocial support. You will learn about goals of care and advance care planning and how to improve your success with having these conversations with patients. Finally, you will explore important cultural...

3. Pet First Aid (Advanced)

udemy
4.6
(534)

Learn essential knowledge and skills to be able to confidently carry out emergency first aid on a pet animal...

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Best States For a Pet Sitter

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a pet sitter. The best states for people in this position are Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Pet sitters make the most in Rhode Island with an average salary of $34,545. Whereas in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, they would average $34,117 and $34,021, respectively. While pet sitters would only make an average of $33,794 in Massachusetts, 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. Connecticut

Total Pet Sitter Jobs: 319
Highest 10% Earn:
$66,000
Location Quotient:
1.55

$34,021

Avg. Salary

View 319 Pet Sitter Jobs In CT

2. West Virginia

Total Pet Sitter Jobs: 115
Highest 10% Earn:
$54,000
Location Quotient:
1.21

$31,012

Avg. Salary

View 115 Pet Sitter Jobs In WV

3. Pennsylvania

Total Pet Sitter Jobs: 756
Highest 10% Earn:
$68,000
Location Quotient:
1.04

$34,117

Avg. Salary

View 756 Pet Sitter Jobs In PA
Full List Of Best States For Pet Sitters

How Do Pet Sitters Rate Their Jobs?

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Top Pet Sitter Employers

Most Common Employers For Pet Sitter

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Independent Contractor$41,804$20.1012
2Sittercity$40,509$19.489
3Homes.com$35,929$17.2718
4CARE$30,190$14.5114
5Client Services$29,020$13.954
6Camp Bow Wow$28,732$13.818
7PAWS$28,454$13.6811
8Friends & Company$28,230$13.574
9Neighborhood House$26,404$12.695
10Care.com$26,354$12.6781
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Pet Sitter Videos

Qualities to Look for When Choosing a Pet Sitter
Career Salary Information : How Much Money Does a Pet Sitter Make?

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Updated April 6, 2023