Cecelia has been pet-sitting for 7 years now, and loves it more than ever! For the last two years, she’s been Pet Sitting full time, only spending max 5 weeks at her parent’s house a year in between jobs or for a break. Suffice to say, she’s got lots of experience and is in demand!
Read Cecelia’s pet sitting story, in her own words:
My first pet-sitting job was in 2017 when a family I babysat for asked me to take care of their 10-week-old golden retriever puppy for 2 weeks while they visited family interstate. It was a no-brainer, being 18 and thinking “oh boy, 2 weeks with this bundle of cuteness” (see photo below for full effect). I had two family dogs at this stage so I was wise to the care of dogs but ignorant to the effort of a puppy.
The two weeks were a blast and I’ve been taking care of that puppy, Teddy ever since. Sadly they moved to another state a year ago and honestly, it was heartbreaking, part of me considered him my own. Luckily by then, I’d built up a client base of about 20 dogs on regular rotation who I loved!
Straight out of school, I began volunteering at my local rescue shelter, 3 months later started working there and another 3 months later became lead kennel hand. Working with rescue dogs compares to nothing else, the bond you form with them as they overcome their trauma is unmatched. As some of my favourites started to trickle out of the shelter into wonderful homes, I’d often visit them and this snowballed into me pet-sitting them when their families went away. From 2kg Chihuahuas to 55kg Great Dane crosses I’ve seen and cared for (almost) all of it.
“Working at the rescue shelter enabled me to learn amazing handling skills, and not to toot my own horn but as a young female, I still feel proud I can manage 50+ kg dogs with ease even when they’re reacting like crazy or unfortunately trying to bite me.”
My journey with Mad Paws:
As I realised I wanted to petsit more I joined Mad Paws and created a profile that brought me some wonderful clients I still sit for today. My local area is however mostly oodles and little dogs, which I love, I have one of my own but I like to work with big dogs and somewhat complicated cases.
As the years went on I became a vet nurse and juggled that with working at the rescue so my handling skills improved even more and my growing medical knowledge enabled me to take medical cases like post-surgery rehab or diabetic dogs.
My full-time jobs allowed me to make some wonderful connections in the industry and I now have an extensive network of rescues, vets and trainers who recommend me to their clients and I direct them straight to my Mad Paws profile.
This often means my meet-and-greet process is very different. I sometimes spend months bonding with dogs before agreeing to do a pet sit for them. Honestly, my weakness is dogs who are shy, aggressive or reactive. Winning them over is unbeatable. I do this by slowly building a relationship, starting with a weekly or fortnightly walk with the Owner there and gradually making our way to walks alone, daycare without the Owner and then always, always, always an overnight trial!!
Whilst I learnt a tonne of skills from my jobs which I’ve been able to use to excel in my pet-sitting career I’ve learnt a lot of things from pet-setting.
- The benefits of Pet Sitting in their home! For more complicated dogs the more you can stick to their routine, the better. They prefer their home without a doubt.
- Airtags. Only once have I ever had a cat go neighbourhood wandering for a day (thankfully to return home safely) but I now put an Airtag on the collar of every dog in my care and ensure they have a quick-release collar so they never get trapped or caught on things.
- Meet & Greet, one isn’t always enough and 0 is always too few. I prefer to do 2-3 meet-ups with the dog before any booking as normally it’s 2+ weeks. The more comfortable the dog is with me, the easier the booking goes.
Spending time with dogs is one of life’s greatest pleasures and in today’s society filled with apartment living, housing crisis, and cost of living crises it’s a luxury to own a dog. I don’t ever intend to stop pet-sitting but I hope one day soon I’ll settle into my own place and foster dogs so that my pet-sitting skills can enable dogs to find the loving homes they deserve.
