As you begin your journey to start your own dog walking or pet sitting company, you must consider several different aspects of your business. Among them is the construction of a pet sitting contract that your clients will be expected to sign as you onboard them to your company. In this contract, they should agree to your company policies, payment terms, and the services that are to be rendered by you or your team. Depending on your services and the type of business you are running, you may have one contract or several different service agreements. Regardless of the number, these contracts are crucial to the success of your business, so ensuring that they are clear, precise, and well-tailored to your business is vital.
Due to their importance, “What should I include in my pet sitting contract?” is one of the common questions we receive from business owners new to the pet care industry. We have several tips and suggestions on what items most pet care businesses need to include in their pet sitting contracts or service agreements, which we will review below.
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Before reading on, however, it is critical that you seek help from a legal professional whenever you sit down to create any legal document for your business. They can advise you on what needs to be included for your business based on the services you provide, the legal structure of your business, and where your business is located. Laws can vary from state to state or country to country, so having someone who understands the rules and regulations you need to follow is essential. There is no substitute for having a local attorney who can guide you throughout this process.
While we at Time To Pet are not legal professionals, we are a team of former pet care business owners and office managers. The items listed below can help you start crafting your pet sitting contract for your company.
The service agreement will be the main event when it comes to your pet sitting contract, so you want to ensure that you get it just right. A good service agreement should clearly outline all of your company’s terms, policies, and processes to a client that they are required to review, sign, and agree to before receiving services and being considered a client of your business. Whether your client will receive dog walking services from you or you’ll be staying overnight in their home, it is important that the agreement they are signing suits the services you will be providing. For example, if you are going to be giving 30-minute walks to your client, your service agreement should go into detail about how you will be spending those thirty minutes and what is included as part of your service at no extra charge. As part of your visit with their pet, a client may also ask you to feed them dinner, medicate them, or bring in a new package of food they ordered when they noticed they were running low. Some companies consider these things to be a regular part of their service, but depending on your business structure, you may have additional charges for some or all of these tasks. If such things are not included in the services you will be providing to a client but can be done for an additional cost, make that abundantly clear and leave no room for questions.
When it comes to additional fees your company charges and your cancellation policy, you want to ensure that they are well understood by your clients and well enforced by you and your staff members. Service agreements exist to ensure that your clients are well-informed about the services they will be receiving so that you, your staff, and your business will be well-protected should they issue a complaint or fail to comply with one of your policies.
In addition to detailing how a service will be rendered and how cancellations will be handled, some other policies that are commonly included in service agreements are:
As you can see, putting together a decent service agreement requires a lot of work, and you shouldn’t slouch on it. To help you generate some ideas for your own service agreement, you can take a look at our sample Pet Sitting Service Agreement, which is available for download as part of our collection of free sample agreements here. Please keep in mind that these documents are meant as an example only and that you should have all of your service agreements reviewed by your attorney or a legal professional.
A vet release form is designed to authorize your business to seek medical care for the pets in your company’s care if an emergency arises with their health or well-being. This document should include some terms (some of which may be very similar to those in your service agreement) that clearly outline your company’s procedures and protocols in the event of an emergency. You also want to provide an option on this form for clients to indicate a maximum dollar amount in medical treatments that can be administered to their pet. If you use a pet sitting software like Time To Pet, be sure to indicate where they can input that information if there is no place for them to do so on the form as they are reviewing it.
To help you generate some ideas for your own form, you can take a look at our sample Veterinary Release Form, which is available for download as part of our collection of free sample agreements here. Please keep in mind that these documents are meant as an example only and that you should have all of your service agreements reviewed by your attorney or a legal professional.
Ensuring that your business is properly bonded and insured is crucial to protecting your clients, their pets, and your business. Every new pet care business should look into this before taking on any clients. For more information on what it means to be bonded and insured, how that can factor into caring for the pets in your care in medical emergencies, and why it’s an important aspect of your business, see our Definitive Guide To Pet Sitting Insurance.
Does your pet care company keep client keys on file so that you and your team can access a client’s home in order to complete the walk, visit, or overnight sitting you have been assigned? If so, you may want to consider including a key handling form as part of your company’s pet sitting contract.
When dealing with a large number of clients, you’re likely to have a lot of keys in your possession, and it is imperative that you take the safety and security of those keys seriously. Your clients, too, will want to know their keys are being well looked after and that they can trust you and your team with the security of their homes and the care of their pets. That requires a great deal of trust, so it’s crucial that they understand why you need their keys, who will be handling them, and how you will ensure the continued safety and privacy of your clients and their pets.
We recommend outlining these things clearly within your key handling form and letting your clients know exactly what you expect from them in terms of the number of key copies you require; what information you will need on hours of operation, and guidelines for a building’s front desk or property manager’s office if the client has keys available to check out with their building; or any necessary codes or combinations it takes to open an electronic door lock or a lockbox. If you require backup sets to be kept on file with your company, even if they have an electronic door lock or lockbox in case of emergencies, make sure to explain that plainly, as well.
Many pet care businesses no longer maintain keys on file and instead use lockboxes stored at clients' residences. If you choose this route, you can replace your key handling form with a key lockbox form.
If you are still considering what you would like to do regarding key policies for your pet care business, we have a great post on ideas for efficiently managing client keys, as well as a detailed blog post on all key-related matters for pet care businesses that we would recommend reviewing.
To help you generate some ideas for your own form, you can take a look at our sample Key Handling form, which is available for download as part of our collection of free sample agreements here. Please keep in mind that these documents are meant as an example only and that you should have all of your service agreements reviewed by your attorney or a legal professional.
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The last major component of your pet sitting contract should be a payment authorization form. Getting paid is an integral part of running a business, and your clients should be well aware of what your company expects from them regarding making payments. For example, if you take a deposit for overnight sittings or charge full price for your services in advance, your pet sitting contract should make that apparent. Your contract should also note any additional fees and holiday or cancellation policies. If you only accept specific payment methods or require your clients to keep a credit card on file with your company, these are crucial elements to include in your pet sitting contract.
The payment authorization form should then clearly instruct your clients on how to pay their invoices so they may fulfill their obligations to your company. If you use pet sitting software like Time To Pet and clients can submit their own payments through an app or portal, make sure that the process is thoroughly laid out and easily understood by your clients. On the other hand, if you run payments on behalf of your clients, you want to ensure they know what you will be doing and when. You can also use the payment authorization form to highlight how your clients can leave a tip for their sitters if they would like to commemorate a job well done.
To help you generate some ideas for your own form, you can take a look at our sample Payment Authorization form, which is available for download as part of our collection of free sample agreements here. Please keep in mind that these documents are meant as an example only and that you should have all of your service agreements reviewed by your attorney or a legal professional.
Once you have drafted your pet sitting contract and had an attorney or legal professional help you review and finalize it, you are ready to have pet parents sign it! You can require a client to sign your contract in several different ways.
Here at Time To Pet, we offer a simple and user-intuitive way for our customers to upload their pet sitting contracts to our platform and capture an e-signature from their clients on their included agreements. This is our Client Agreements feature, and once a pet sitting contract has been uploaded and enabled for your company, you can require all new or existing clients to review and e-sign these documents. If you make any changes or revisions to your agreements, you can also choose whether or not you want pet parents to re-sign their agreements or if you only want to require new clients to do so. We even offer the option for you to download these agreements as a PDF file if you want to keep the signed copies of the agreement for your records. However, they are always available to view in your Time To Pet account.
If you do not use pet sitting software like Time To Pet, you can also use an e-signature tool like DocuSign to capture these signatures and have your clients fill out the necessary information. You can also print them out and bring them along to Meet & Greets for pet parents to sign in person.
Regardless of how you choose to capture the signatures of your pet parents, it is vital that you ensure that all of your clients have agreed to your company’s terms and signed your pet sitting contract before providing them with services.
A solid pet sitting contract is a cornerstone to any successful dog walking or pet sitting business. It is intended to inform your clients, manage their expectations, and protect you, your staff members, and your company in the event of an emergency or client complaint. To ensure that everything is up to snuff, as we have advised earlier in this post, you should always have any documents you are drafting for your business overseen by a legal professional. They can help you craft your contract, set the terms and conditions for your company, and inform you of any restrictions or requirements it may require before you are ready to hand it over for clients to sign. Once you’re set, let it loose upon the masses and capture those signatures!
Thinking about becoming a certified pet sitter? Check out our blog post on Understanding Pet Sitting Certifications.
