678: Making Professional Pet Sitters Week More Than a Hashtag
Brought to you by:
Pet Sitters Associates. Use ‘Confessional’ at checkout
What does it actually mean to be a professional pet sitter in 2026? In this episode, we explore the history of Professional Pet Sitters Week, established by Pet Sitters International in 1995, and why its message is more relevant than ever. We unpack how the industry has matured from informal neighborly help into structured, insured, system-driven businesses built on trust and accountability. We also walk through practical ways to leverage this week to educate clients, elevate expectations, and strengthen your brand. Most importantly, we challenge you to communicate your professionalism clearly and confidently.
Main topics:
History of Professional Pet Sitters Week
Defining Professional Standards Today
Client Education and Expectation Setting
Strategic Marketing During Industry Weeks
Building Long-Term Industry Stability
Main takeaway: Professionalism is not assumed. It is communicated.
As pet sitters and dog walkers, we work incredibly hard behind the scenes. We invest in insurance, backup systems, emergency protocols, education, and training. But if we never communicate those things, clients can’t fully understand the value they’re receiving.
Professional Pet Sitters Week is your opportunity to explain what goes into running a structured, dependable business. Show your systems. Talk about your standards. Highlight your team.
When we clearly communicate our professionalism, we don’t just elevate our own businesses — we elevate the entire industry.
Links:
PSI Standards: https://www.petsit.com/standards
Episode 640: https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/640
Episode 676: https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/676
ProTrainings: For 10% off any of their courses, use CPR-petsitterconfessional
Give us a call!(636) 364-8260
Follow us on: Instagram and Facebook
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Professional pet sitters, Pet Sitters International, Pet care standards, Client education, Insurance coverage, Emergency protocols, Continuing education, Client appreciation, Team recognition, Media outreach, Referral campaign, Social media transparency, Business systems, Risk management, Industry growth
Hi, I'm Meghan. I'm Collin. We are the hosts of pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Welcome back. We appreciate you being here today. We'd also like to thank our sponsors, pet sitters, associates and dog Collin, and we can't forget our Patreon supporters, who are pet sitters and dog walkers just like you. They love the podcast. They want to keep it going, and so they've gone to pet sitter confessional.com/support, to help out, and we appreciate that very much. This week is professional pet sitters week established by pet sitters International in 1995 so it's the 31st year, and it takes place every year during the first full week of March. It exists for two primary reasons, first, to recognize professional pet sitters. We are awesome, and then to educate the public about the value of professional In Home Pet Care. The second part is the one that we really want to focus on today, because appreciation is good. We like that. Celebration is good, but clarity, ultimately, is better. Professional pet sitters week is not just a feel good social media holiday and to let your clients know. And it is a good thing to let them know, but it's an opportunity to step back and ask, what does professional actually mean in 2026 and does the public understand the difference? Do they get what we do today, we want to talk about the history of this week, how the industry has evolved in the current state of professional pet care, and then spend significant time on how you can actively leverage this week to strengthen your business. So the history of it, how did this start? So in the early 1990s pet sitters International was started by Patti Moran, and in home, pet sitting was still relatively new as a structured profession. Not a lot of people knew what this was, what we do. People had been watching neighbors pets for decades, and that can't still be the case today. By the majority of pet care being by neighbors, friends and family, but formalized, insured, bonded, contract based pet sitting businesses were still emerging back in the 90s, so when pet sitters International was founded, it helped create a structure about what had been informal. So more standards. We're even seeing that today. Last year, they came out with their global standards for what a professional pet sitter is, but even back then, they were requiring, you know, insurance and contracts, continuing education, conferences, certification programs. The whole concept of this week was to elevate the awareness that this was not just someone who likes animals. Yes, we love to sit on the floor and pet a cat or walk a dog, but it really is a growing industry built around responsibility and trust. Think about what that meant. At the time, it was just neighbors helping out neighbors, and that is a good thing, but we wanted to take it to the next level. Pet owners were ultimately inviting strangers into their homes. Keys were being entrusted. Medication was being administered. Travel plans depended on reliability. I don't like that. My neighbor cancels every other time that I have to go out, or I can no longer rely on Mary Ann down the street because she's getting older, or whatever the case may be, this was serious responsibility. Professional pet sitters week was designed to tell the public that this is a legitimate profession, and hopefully, over the past 30 years, they have come to respect us and rely on us more because we are professional. We know what we're doing. We have the education in the background in order to guide them through taking care of their pet for the long term. So when we fast forward 30 years, that message is arguably even more important than it was then. When we talk about what a professional means in 2026 I want to reference back to the episode 640 that we did that was called Raising the bar inside psi is global standards for pet sitters. We kind of outlined exactly what they had in that document and everything that they said. This is what a professional is. But when we talk about it, it's defining it clearly. It's characterized by insurance and bonding. Do you have those who are they with? Are they? Is it just like a State Farm Insurance policy, or is it a specific pet business insurance? You have clear written client agreements. Do you make them sign that before services? You have defined emergency protocols. You have a backup system in place. Is it a team? Is it just another sitter that you call when you're sick or can't do the visits? You have documented visit reports? Do clients know exactly what's happening when you are over. Then you participate in ongoing education and conferences. You understand different pet behaviors and what they're telling you with their body language. You have transparent pricing. Is it on your website? Do you outline it for the clients before they go to books so they know exactly what they're getting? Do you integrate technology automation, AI, these things that are important, that are not going away, that we need to be on board with. And speaking of onboarding, do you have a good, robust Client Onboarding system? If you have a team, do you have a hiring pipeline? Do you have a marketing plan? Do you have operational redundancy? Professionalism is not a vibe, it's a system. We can't just shuck and drive our way through this. No, no, there is a standard. There is a level here that we need to be at. It's the difference between, I'll try to make it, and you are on the schedule. It's that confidence that we really want to instill in our clients. Of No, I'm not just going to show up, but I can be here for the long haul, for 1020, years, because I have these systems the process. Is in place throughout the entirety of my business, and I have the pricing structure to back that up in order to serve the for you for the lifetime of your pets. Professionalism is also the difference between text me if something goes wrong and here is our emergency escalation plan. We have a plan. We have thought these things through. We're not just a hobby sitter who's here today and gone the next but we have potential. Potentially dealt with these things. You know, earthquakes, hurricanes, all the natural disasters. We know how to prepare for a storm. But also, if your garage door doesn't work, or your power goes out, or your dog is laying there lethargic, we have a plan for all of this. It's not just about loving pets more. It's about managing risk better. We have gone the extra mile. We have thought through and planned and can anticipate problems. Professional pet sitters week gives you permission to explain that without sounding defensive. Being professional means having insurance. And as a pet sitter, you know how much trust goes into caring for someone's furry family member, but who's got your back for over 25 years, pet sitters Associates has been helping pet care pros like you with affordable, flexible insurance coverage, whether walking dogs, pet sitting or just starting out. They make it easy to protect your business. Get a free quote today at petsit llc.com as a listener, you get $10 off your membership when you use the code confessional at checkout. That's pets@llc.com because your peace of mind is part of great pet care. If you consider yourself a professional, and we hope you do by listening to this podcast and other podcasts, reading books, going to conferences, you carry an additional responsibility. You are not just serving clients here. You're not just loving on cats and playing with dogs. You are shaping expectations for the future clients who experience you now, they're taking those expectations into the world of 510, 20 years from now. Collin and I always say that, you know, what clients come into our business with is what the previous experiences that they've had with other sitters, with neighbors and friends and family who have taken care of their pets over the years. And a lot of times, those are bad experiences. And so we get to show them what is actually possible, the professional side of this. When you raise your standards, you raise the baseline. When you invest in education, you elevate the field, when you go to conferences, when you hate crazy thought, when you even speak at conferences. Because yes, you have a story, you have something to tell. When you do this, you are saying, Hey, this is, this is the professionalism that we get to have when you communicate clearly. You train clients to value that clarity, that transparency of you know exactly when I show up, you know exactly when I leave. I am here for the full time because I have timestamps. You know what is coming up next in the onboarding process? Or even for hires, you know again, what's coming up next this whole week is not about bragging. It's not saying, you know, we're better than your neighbor who takes care of pets or your your neighbor is not doing it the way that they should. And so we're here and we're awesome and we're better. We are awesome. But it's not about bragging. It's about modeling what is possible, the professional standards, the level of care, the above and beyond expectations and executions that clients receive. It's also about modeling for the next generation coming after us, the networking groups. You can say, Hey, these are the extra steps, the extra certifications that I have, and I know you've only been in business two months, but you really should consider getting these as well. This isn't about stiff arming the competition or making sure that nobody else can get to our level. We do want to make sure that we are welcoming and a happy heart to all of those pet sitters and dog walkers that aren't yet knowledgeable. When I think about when we started 14 years ago, we didn't know even a fifth of the things that we were going to learn over the past decade, we have learned so much through interviewing people on this podcast and going to conferences and reading books and talking to people in Facebook groups and meeting up with people, there is so much to learn, and a lot of times we are just ignorant when we first start out. So this again, this isn't about trying to make sure that we push down the people who are just starting but educating them that there is a better way out there, and we do that by demonstrating the structure that we have in place in our businesses, the policies and the SOPs and the backup plans and all of these things. It demonstrates that confidence that we have and that clarity, that transparency builds long term stability. Again, we're here for decades, and hopefully others coming behind us are also here for the long term. We don't want to see this continuous cycle of pet sitters entering the industry and then leaving and entering and leaving. We want people here for the long term, because that solidifies to clients in their minds that, oh, this actually is a professional industry. This is an industry that, yes, at some point probably will need regulations, but it is something that is real. People actually make a career and a living out of this.
Collin Funkhouser 09:45
I think that stability also comes into the fact that as clients become more and more educated about their possibilities, like you were talking about Megan, people bring in their past experiences well, as they continue to have good experiences with quality and high level. Professional service. They will continue to seek that out. They will continue to ask good questions. They will continue to look for insurance and look for backups and look for these things. We actually get to play a role in training client behavior for the next 30 years of the industry, and that should be really exciting to us when we set that bar. It's not just about saying how we're better than others. I know you mentioned that, Megan, it's actually about saying, hey, pet owners, here is what you should be looking for. And we rejoice and are happy when more people are at that level and are working towards a better care and a better level of service. That then, in turn, changes what they look for. It changes how services are booked and what people want for their pets, that they start looking for better. And that's what we want. So that stability comes from, yes, us reaching and attaining those standards and those levels of expectations. It's also then the clients taking those and moving those forward, whether they move to a different town, or whether they look for more in additional services, or they get another dog, or their kids then grow and have dogs, and they know what that expectation is. It actually just, it makes it just lasting and so more robust.
Meghan 11:15
Yeah, and instead of them posting on Facebook, I need my dog watch for a week, and I've got 20 bucks. Who wants to do it? They then go, I want my dog watched for a week, who is insured, who is bonded, who is licensed, who has a backup in place, because I want to make sure that my dog is cared for. So now let's get practical. How do we leverage this week for our benefit? How do we actively use this week in our businesses? So the first one is an educational email. Send a client email explaining what professional pet sitters week is, because there's still not a lot of people that know, but explain its origin, that in 1995 it was established through pet sitters International. And even better, if you are a pet sitters international member, you can tout that as well and then explain what the professional standards mean in your company, how you implement them and live those out, you can hype it up, but make sure that there is education on the back end. Have your clients understand exactly what this means well.
Collin Funkhouser 12:09
And that starts with having email and using email to market and communicate with clients. That is something that you may be saying, isn't email dead. No, email is not dead. It's very useful for instances just as this. And so whether you use MailChimp or other kind of email campaigns, or if you just want to type something up and send it in the standard method of communication that you do to your clients, what we're saying here is send them information, get something in front of them so that they can start looking and saying, Oh, wow, look, man, my pet sitter, my dog walker, is amazing, because look at what they know and look what they are connected to. If you
Meghan 12:47
don't have all your clients emails, then think about social media. Post behind the scenes transparency about how you operate in your business and the professional insights that people can get from you. Post about your insurance coverage and show your team training exactly how you train them, or different videos that you send them. Share conference photos. We just came back from the Texas pet sitters Association Conference, and it was an awesome time. We shared some of those photos on our social media and then highlight certifications as well. Are you also a dog trainer or fear free certified, or a pet for state and CPR certified, all of these other certifications you can talk about as well.
Collin Funkhouser 13:23
You may even consider posting a video again, also scary, of what it takes for you to get ready for the day. How do you prepare? How do you review, how do you schedule, how do you plan? Talk about your backup plans and your policies and your emergency procedures that you have in place. The thing is, is that we have all of these things in our businesses, and we never talk about them. We never share about them, because they're they're, Oh, nobody wants to know about that. Well, here what we're saying is clients are meeting. They are wanting to know that they are getting the best care possible. And if we keep everything secreted away in a back underground vault behind 19 levels of security and thumbprints and retinal scanners that doesn't do them any good, that actually doesn't give them any peace of mind. Sometimes it's not the fact that a policy has to be used that gives people peace of mind. It's the fact that they know that that policy exists. It's insurance clients never want to have to use insurance for their home or for their cars or for anything. They don't want to have to use that policy, but they want to know what's in it. They want to know what those repercussions are. They want to know what standards are being met there, so they can drive with security and they can live with peace of mind. Same thing with us and with how they use our services.
Meghan 14:40
It would also be helpful to define what professional means on your website. So if your homepage says professional pet care or professional dog walker, professional pet sitter, define what that actually means. Spell it out. What does that mean for you and your business? Does it mean insurance or systems or backup coverage? How is your care more thought out than anybody else's?
Collin Funkhouser 14:59
And if. Struggling for words or what to put here. Go to pet sitters International and copy and paste their standards there, if you meet them, and how you meet them, and what that means for your clients,
Meghan 15:10
maybe during this week. Also think about a client appreciation. That doesn't necessarily mean throwing this huge event, though it could, if you can pull that off in a few days, but thank your long term clients publicly, social media, email, just a video from you, not necessarily for revenue to generate more money from them, but for trust, so that they know, hey, there is a face behind the computer, a face behind the phone, and that person, or those people, actually do care,
Collin Funkhouser 15:37
and that trust is also built with people who are watching your social media. They will see, oh, wow. This person is shouting out this client. It gives them a level of security, knowing that other people are using your service and that they were satisfied with it. So it is shouting out long term clients. It is posting reviews. It is allowing people to see these people are trustworthy. And I'm kind of social proofing my business so that other people see that as well.
Meghan 16:01
Don't just think about client appreciation this week, but also team recognition. If you have a team, shout them out, not only internally, but externally as well to your clients. Highlight employees, maybe one person a day, or, you know, explain their training to your clients. What exactly do they know and do they understand? And are they trained on and shadowed on don't just
Collin Funkhouser 16:21
celebrate their reliability, celebrate their personality, celebrate their gifts their talents. Celebrate what they bring to your business. How do they make you better and how they serve your clients better? And that, again, that allows your clients to see the faces behind the care, and it allows your community to see the work that you're doing in your business.
Meghan 16:42
Also think about doing a media outreach this week. Reach out to a local radio station or a community group and offer to speak about pet safety while traveling. I know 1 Million Cups is always looking for volunteers for speakers, so while they may not have availability this week for you to speak, you can reach out to them anyway.
Collin Funkhouser 16:58
Or if you have a local influencer, people who are doing reviews of coffee shops or reviews of trails or reviews of whatever, reach out to them and partner with them on something like this, to bring that knowledge and that expertise to the forefront, whether it is that radio station or whether it is the news outlet or whether it is the whatever that is, find ways to help contribute and give back this week.
Meghan 17:19
Another idea is to set up a referral campaign. If you don't already have one, you can frame it around education, specifically for this week, so not necessarily discounting like we have a, you know, February promotion or something like that, but specifically for this week, it's share the value of professional pet care with your friends and family. You know how much it means to you, so share it with those that you love, too,
Collin Funkhouser 17:40
and that whether it is a give one to get one, or whether it's give one get X percent off or whatever that is, you have to look at your numbers. You have to be very careful each time that we do these kind of campaigns or referrals or discounts or margins off or whatever that is, you don't give away everything. Don't put yourself in a bad situation. Here, look at the numbers and make sure you know exactly what you can do
Meghan 18:03
on social media. You may think about doing a content series five days for this week, Monday through Friday. First day is what is this week about? The second one is what insurance actually covers. Day three could be how emergency protocols work in your business. Day Four is what continuing education looks like, specifically for you, and then day five is thanking your clients. A lot of times we can think, what do I post today? Or I've got no new ideas. Well, here were five that are pretty simple, specifically tied for this week.
Collin Funkhouser 18:31
And if I want to challenge you this week, if you are not used to or you don't normally, post photos of yourself, now is the week to do that. Now is the week to post that selfie of you smiling with the dog, or post that selfie of you grooming the cat, or whatever it is, so that people can see you. It's professional pet sitters week. It's not professional anonymous person behind the camera week. It's not anonymous Business Week or coolest logo week. It's you, highlight you and highlight your team this week.
Meghan 19:00
And now a word from dog co launch. What
Speaker 1 19:03
does it take to scale your pet care business? My name is Michelle Klein. I'm the founder of dog co launch, where pet care companies come to grow and scale. And I want to send you a case study of how one of my clients took his monthly revenue in just one year from $17,000 to over $73,000 and yes, that is monthly revenue, not annual. To get this case study and learn more about dog CO and what we do and how we help companies go to dog CO, launch.com forward slash case study
Meghan 19:38
today, the professional pesitaine needs differentiation. The industry is not shrinking. It is growing. It is maturing. It is coming into its own.
Collin Funkhouser 19:47
We actually talked about that on last week's episode 676, about the tier system that's growing in the industry and how it is maturing and meeting specific client type needs, and how. Not just a one size fits all.
Meghan 20:02
Clients are more informed than ever. They're asking better questions, so you better be ready. Technology is more integrated, there's more automation, there's more AI. The risk awareness is higher,
Collin Funkhouser 20:14
meaning that clients are looking to make sure that they have peace of mind. They know the things that can go wrong. Everybody sees the news articles and the five o'clock news showcasing the latest attack or the latest missing dog or the latest whatever clients see that they know that they fear that and they want to know that that is not going to happen to them
Meghan 20:35
because you run a structured Business. This week is not optional. It is strategic, and we need to use it for our good. It's an opportunity to clarify our position in a segmented market. We should be telling other people how we are different. It's an opportunity to raise expectations, continuing to elevate the standard we only want, better care for the pets. Isn't that what we all want? It's an opportunity to educate instead of complain. Again. We're not shoving other people down. We are elevating ourselves and what it means to be a professional, professional pet sitters week is not about ego. It is about stewardship. If you are insured, structured, trained and accountable, say so and do it clearly. Do it in a transparent way. We're not hiding anything. We can show you all our cards. We can show you all our financials. We can show you everything you want to see, all of our certifications and all of our documentation and all of our backup plans and our background checks, because we have them out there. You can hold us accountable, because we are not going to shrink away from your questions. We are going to answer them and answer them proudly. If you are investing in systems and software and processes. Explain why, explain why. That's important if you are building something sustainable, and we hope you are, let people understand what goes into that you work really, really stinking hard. Allow people to peek behind the curtain a little bit this week, because professionalism is not assumed. It is communicated. We have to be telling our clients and showing others and educating what we are. It's weeks like this that exist so that we can do exactly that. If you have found this episode helpful, please share it with a friend, another professional pet sitter. Maybe we appreciate you listening so much today. Use this week intentionally. Elevate your standards. Continue building businesses that are beautifully boring, structured and dependable. We'd like to thank our sponsors, pet sitters, associates and dog co launch for sponsoring and you for listening. Thank you. We will talk with you next time bye. You
