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Editable Document Pack for Professional Pet Sitters and Dog Walkers
If you are viewing this lesson before you enrolled in the certification, please note, once you enroll you will get access to download all of the editable example documents.
All of the forms and documents can be edited using MS Word or Google Docs
A List of All of the Example Documents
Visit Leave Behinds
- Care Sheet
- Medication Chart
- Plant Care Chart
- Thank You Sheet
- Satisfaction Survey
Meet & Greet Folder Documents
- Meet & Greet Checklists
- Policy Highlights Explainer
- Certification Sheet
- Trash day reminder
- Referral Sheet
- Company Magnets
Office Documents
- Order sheet
- Quick update card
- Time sheet
- Voicemail Sheet
Electronic Documents VS Paper Documents
Some agencies use electronic versions of their forms rather than paper versions. Electronic forms are usually managed through your pet sitting app, your website, or google forms.
Every document shown in this course could be turned into an electronic document. Using electronic documents will save on printing costs, and cut down on the logistical challenges of supplying your team with paper documents. However, paper documents do have some advantages.
Paper Documents
Paper documents provide a tangible document for sitters and clients to easily review. Many sitters like to use at least a few paper documents. Such as the:
- Care sheet
- Medication Chart
- Thank you leave behind
These are nice items to leave behind at the visits for your client to review when they get home.
A Note About Sustainability
At one time there was a widespread concern about the sustainability of paper products. However, nowadays nearly all commercially available printer paper is grown and produced in a sustainable and eco-friendly way.
Look for printer paper that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®), or has the Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC™) and you can be sure the paper you are using is environmentally friendly.
A Note About Printing
When you first start out a consumer grade laser printer might be all you need. However, if you plan to grow your company into an agency, you may want to consider investing in a laser printer.
An inkjet printer is good for printing around 100 pages a month, but beyond that you will save money by investing in a laser printer.
You can often find a good HP Color Laser Printer on craigslist or Facebook marketplace that has plenty of life left and can print 1000 – 3000 pages from a set of toner cartridges.
For toner, look on eBay for “open box” Genuine HP toner cartridges for a better deal. Avoid generic toner cartridges as they can damage your printer and the colors are usually off.
A Note About Organizing Paper Documents
If you require your sitters to use paper forms, it can be helpful to organize all of the forms into a pocket folder. More information about how where to buy these pocket folders and how to use them are in the Equipment 101 section of the Certification course. Click here to view that lesson.
How to Use the Document Pack
The Care Sheet
The care sheet is a visit checklist that serves as a log that sitters and clients can review to see what was done at each visit. Care sheets are most commonly used for pet sitting visits and are usually not needed for dog walking.
An Introduction to the Care Sheet
The care sheet is very easy to use. You simply:
- Write the date and time you arrived at the visit at the top of each column.
- As you complete pet sitting tasks, initial the corresponding boxes.
It is important to fill out your care sheet accurately. Your teammates will rely on this log to check if daily tasks have been completed.
Filling Out the Top Section
When you arrive at a visit mark the date and your arrival time at the top of the column for that visit, as shown above.
Tracking Completed Tasks
Below you can see how each checklist item is organized.
Pet Happiness - Blue
Pet Chores - Green
House Chores - Tan
Custom Tasks - Grey
This grey custom section is for line items that are unique to individual clients. Many visits have custom, client-requested tasks to complete.
Adding the custom line item will help make sure you remember to complete each task.
Some common custom items are:
- Filling bird feeders
- Cleaning bird baths
- Feeding squirrels
- Checking thermostats or temperatures
- Gathering chicken eggs
- Rotating lights or blinds
- Bringing a dog bed out to the porch
- Giving supplements
Do Not list medications on the Care Sheet
Medications have their own specific chart / sheet, please list medications there.
It is OK to list supplements on the care sheet because supplements are often not fatal if administered incorrectly. However, giving the wrong medication to a pet could kill them.
The Medication Chart
The medication chart is the most important forms. Using this chart and following a few simple guidelines will help prevent critically serious errors when administering medication.
When to Use a Medication Chart
Fill out the medication chart whenever a pet needs a medication.
How to Fill Out a Medication Chart
Before you fill out a medication chart, review all of the information you have about the pet and the medication.
- Pet’s Name
- Pet Description and markings
- Medication Name(s)
- Medication Instructions
- Look for any hand written notes the client may have left out with updates about the medication
- Read the medication instructions on the medication’s container
- Call the office if you have questions
- Call the client if needed
Make sure you fully understand the medication instructions, and make sure you are administering the correct medication to the correct pet at the correct time.
Once you are confident you understand all of the details about a pet’s medication, fill out the top section of the medication chart.
Fill out each section in a clear, detailed manner. Write the instructions in a way that leaves no room for confusion or doubt about how to administer the medication, and which pet to give the medication to.
Watch the Video Lesson
A full description and video lesson about how to fill out the medication chart is available in the Certification Course. To view this lesson now, click here.
The Plant Care Chart
Plant care chart is used at pet sitting visits where the clients leave instructions for watering plants, or asked for plant care at the meet & greet. I like to use them because they are cute, and they show that the sitters pay attention to the client’s plants, too.
To fill out the plant care chart you simply add the date you watered the plants and mark your initials in the column for:
- Watered indoor plants and / or outdoor plants
The Thank You Sheet
The “Thank You Sheet” is something that is left out to remind the client to notify the office that they arrived home safely.
When do you use the Thank You Sheet?
Thank you sheets are left at pet sitting visits. Since dog walks are often reocurring, you usually don’t need to leave the thank you at dog walks.
The Satisfaction Survey
The satisfaction survey could be left behind at pet sitting visits or from time to time at dog walking visits.
It is a short, anonymous, customer survey with a self addressed, postage paid, envelope. The client can fill these out and send them back to the office. This example document could, of course, be turned into a google form or a form on your website.
Regular client surveys are key to understanding how clients feel about your company’s services. They provide insight on what needs improvement and allow your company to track quality over time.
The anonymity of these surveys allows clients to provide honest feedback without fear of retaliation. If a customer has a complaint, the survey is a way they can voice their concern without feeling the only way to be heard is by writing a negative review publicly online.
If you want to use the paper version, you can pick up the envelopes here at Micheals. We use Avery 18695 and Avery18660 address labels, rather than hand writing the address.
You would use your address in both the “To” address and the “Return Address”
Time Sheet
The way staff logs and reports hours will differ from company to company. Some companies pay by the hour and for mileage. These companies simply track the total number of hours worked and miles driven using a time sheet or a time tracking app like hours tracker.
Other companies pay by the visit (which is tracked using pet sitting software), and they track any time a sitter spends doing tasks other than visits on a timesheet. Example of time spent outside of visits are:
- Shadow / training visits (for new hires)
- Meetings
- Writing Blogs / Social media work
- Office admin / Manager work
- Anything else you want to track by the hour
It is best to have sitters / staff round to the nearest 15 minutes rather than trying to track everything down to the minute. When you ask sitters to round to the nearest 15 minutes, they will have more time to do quality work rather than feeling rushed.
The Meet & Greet Folder
The meet & greet folder is a welcome packet given to clients at the meet & greet. It includes everything clients need to get started off on the right foot.
Here is what is usually included in a meet & greet folder:
- Policy Highlights Sheet
- Certification Sheet
- Trash Day Reminder Sheet
- Referral Card
- Business Card
- Magnets, Stickers, Pens, etc.
Some companies send a “welcome email” to new clients rather than using a paper folder. Either way works well. What is important is that you get the information included in the meet & greet to the client somehow.
Policy Highlights Sheet
This sheet includes some of the main points of your company’s policy. It is a handy reference for the client, and helps them understand what to expect from your service. The included policy highlights sheet is a great start, however you may want to update some policies to fit your business.
Certification Sheet
Once your company achieves certification, you can include a certification sheet in your meet & greet packet. You will get a copy of the certification sheet by email when you finish the certification course.
Example Trash Day Reminder
This is a sheet the client can fill out and leave for the sitters to remind them which day to bring trash to the curb.
Referral Slip
Many companies have a referral program. A very successful program is to donate $10 to a local pet rescue in the referring client’s name. This can help generate some word of mouth marketing, which often is harder to generate for pet sitting and dog walking companies. You can read more about this referral program and other marketing tips here.
Refrigerator / Car Magnet
A magnet clients can put on their refrigerator or their car. These are great for increasing word of mouth marketing and awareness of your brand. When clients have friends over, people often gather in the kitchen. When they have your magnet on the fridge, it’s sure to be a conversation starter. We get a ton of referrals from these custom magnets, printed by Sticker Mule.
Meet & Greet Checklists
There are two types of meet & greet checklists:
- Pet sitting Meet & Greet Checklist
- Dog Walking Meet & Greet Checklists
Instructions for how to use these checklists is covered in the Certification Course.
Example Office Documents
Order Sheet
The order sheet is a handy sheet for writing down any items you may need to order soon for your business. Such as:
- Poop bags
- Meet & greet folders
- Lockboxes
- Post It notes
- Etc.
It can be handy to make a list of everything you need soon and make an order at the beginning or end of the week.
Quick Update Card
This is another helpful document. You can print these off and cut them down into business card size. I keep a few of these in my wallet and write down any last minute updates that I get from clients while I’m out in the field.
When I get back to my office, I’ll use the quick update cards as a reminder for what to update in our online system.
Voicemail Sheet
After you have been pet sitting for a while, you will have lots of clients calling you. I usually don’t answer my sales line when it rings. Rather, I let it go to voicemail and pick and choose which clients I want to schedule a sales call for.
For more information about sales and client onboarding, click here for the sales course included in your membership.
This voicemail sheet is a nice way to keep track of who called you so you can be sure you don’t lose track of voicemails.
This information is very helpful in getting my business up and running! Thank You so much!
You’re welcome 🙂
Looking forward to getting started in my new career. All these documents will definitely be helpful.