what’s on your mind

FAQ

THE BASICS OF PET SITTING

Do you take my pet to your home?
We feel that the best place for your pet is in his own home on his regular routine. We come to you! You don’t have to transport your pet during narrow drop off and pick up times, no stress on your pet dealing with strange smells and sounds and happy tails wagging upon your return.
Who will be coming over to take care of my pets and my home?

When you sign up for Athens Pet Sitter services, a member of our team  will come to your home to meet you & your pets, to confirm that all required information is included in the instructions and to see the routine. This is called a Meet & Greet. After that, sitters are assigned to you based on your needs and location. Each of our sitters have clean background & reference checks and are fully insured & bonded. We work as a team to ensure that your pets are Happy @ Home!

What does a Pet Sit consist of?

We call our pet sits visits. A visit is each scheduled time we come to your home. Most people find a 25 minute visit sufficient, though we offer 45 minute visits and overnight visits as well. During a visit, APS will feed, medicate, walk, clean-up after, and love each of your pets according to the instructions you provided through our online system. Your visit is complete when your sitter sends you a pic through our online system. As a courtesy, we also check for packages & mail.

How do I know someone came to my home and followed my instructions?

Our online system allows you to communicate with your sitter in real time, see your scheduled visits on our calendar and make payments via credit card. At each visit, your sitter will email a quick note and usually a pic of the fun your pets are having safely at home with Athens Pet Sitter. When you get home to a relaxed pet, a swept litter area and neatly stacked mail, you will know your pets and home were handled with care.

What about my garden and/or house plants?
Our goal is to allow you to travel worry free. If coming home to a well tended garden is just as important as well cared for pets, then we can help. Some ways previous clients have handled this: extend a 25 minute visit into a 45 minute visit giving us time to water a small garden, or adding an additional visit to focus on watering. Please include watering directions on the details page of your instructions and point out what is needed during initial get acquainted visit. Client’s have drawn maps and placed flags which is very helpful!
What kind of animals do you pet sit?
We have done farm visits with chickens, goats, horses, llamas, even a donkey.
We have pet sit birds, rabbits, chinchilla, sugar gliders, iguanas, bearded dragon, snakes, rats, frogs, fish, guinea pigs, pocket pets, lizards, & ferrets.
We have walked and scratched behind the ears of just about every breed of dog and cat.
My dog has a lot of energy!! Can you help?
We can help you Be your dog’s H.E.R.O.
Hit the Create an Account button
Easily schedule dog walks to get that energy out.
Receive pics of tongue draggin’ & tail waggin’
Obey your dog’s request to schedule more walks!

ABOUT SCHEDULING

Do you schedule service in my area?

Athens Pet Sitter covers much of Athens, Bogart, Statham, Winterville, Clarke County, Oconee County and select Winder addresses. Please include your address early in the onboarding process and we will let you know if we do not have a sitter near enough to your home to serve your address.  We have little availability south of Jittery Joe’s in Watkinsville. We have no service available in Oglethorpe or Madison County.

How early or when do I need to schedule service?

Before your first service, it is best to schedule your Meet & Greet several days in advance. Our online system allows you to make reservations 24 hours/ day 365 days a year. If you need service with less than 24 hour notice please call/text APS directly. 706.254.5232 There is a $10 per visit fee for all visits with less than 24 hour notice but we can often accommodate last minute requests.

How do I pay?

Payment is expected before each set of visits begins. Leave cash on your first visit. Pay via credit card through our online payment portal – hosted by Time To Pet ( TTP). Please specify your preference at the “get acquainted” visit. If you plan to leave payment but forget, you can pay through TTP.

What are the times my pets can be visited?

Our staff are available for 25 or 45 minute pet sits from 7am – 9pm. You can schedule visits within blocks: Morning 7am-9am, Midday 11am – 2pm, Dinner 4pm – 6pm, Evening 7pm – 9pm. Overnight visits are also available and include 10 hours overnight from 9pm – 7am. Holidays have very limited availability.  Holidays fill very early and there is a $10 holiday fee on holidays and days surrounding holidays. *

*Please check our Banner Announcement in our mobile app or online portal for the most up-to-date Holiday fee days.

What if I need to make changes to the instructions I provided on the Time To Pet App?
It is easy to adjust instructions by logging on in your secure TTP portal anytime. The office and the sitter assigned to your job will get a notification email of any change made. When we confirm scheduled pet sits, you will be reminded to double check your instructions for up-to-date accuracy.
How will you access my home?

Tens of thousands of pet sits every year since 2006 have taught us a lot about getting into homes! We have crawled in a
window or 2 and had the police called for setting off the alarm!

How to avoid this: Please have 2 ways to access your home ready to share at the meet & greet. Our favorite is a door passcode or garage code with a backup key in a secure lockbox on your property. WE CAN NOT TAKE KEYS WITH US. WE WILL NOT DOWNLOAD AN APP TO ACCESS YOUR HOME AND WE CAN’T WAIT AT A GATE TO CALL YOU TO LET US IN.

In other words, we must have a way to access your home AT your home.

Alarms: if you feel comfortable skipping the alarm, we would love that! If you set a specific code for your pet sitter, PLEASE make a note in our system that reminds YOU to set the proper code when you depart to avoid the police coming!

If you foresee any issue, please email or call to discuss before the meet & greet.

MEDICATION & THERAPY

Can you medicate or provide therapy to my pet?
Many sitters that work with us have experience administering a variety of medications to all kinds of pets. While we are capable of medicating most pets, please note the following:

We will do our best to be within an hour of your requested medication time. We are dealing with pets though so we can’t have an exact arrival time!
A medication fee of $6 per pet that needs medication applies to each visit where medication is administered.
If an occasional missed dose is fine, or if meds can just be offered at next visit please include this in care instructions. This helps us avoid having to change your visits to 45 minute visits due to extra time needed to catch/ administer.

Cat medication:
Please keep doors closed to confine your cat to limited hiding spots so our sitter has best chance of catching your cat.
If your cat scratches when getting oral meds, leave a towel designated to wrap cat in.

You may chose to board your pet at your vets office in the following cases:

If medication is life/ death situation
If exact timing is critical
If you have a particular situation, consider scheduling a meet & greet ($25) with the sitters that will be caring for your pets. We will do our very best to limit the number of different sitters that will come each trip. The more notice the more likely to have one sitter providing care.

PET SITTING AND NEIGHBORLY HELP

My neighbors will help with my pets. I just need you to cover a few visits.
Athens Pet Sitter has a strict no job sharing policy. We feel like your home and pets are our responsibility while you are away and we can’t control what someone else does unless they are on our staff. Even simple things like, did she get all her “business” done, gets lost when multiple parties are involved. We are not trying to be difficult, we take the care of your pets and home seriously.

The only exception is if you have someone else in charge of your pets and we are only coming in for scheduled midday dog walks.

CANCELLATION POLICY

What Is Your Cancellation Policy?
A non-holiday cancellation fee is charged to your card on file if you cancel within 48 hours of your first visit in the amount of 20% of any visits that fall within that 48 hours.

Holiday Cancellation fee: The 20% deposit required for all days that have a holiday fee is NON- REFUNDABLE if cancellation is made within 7 days of first visit.

Overnights cancellation fee: The 20% deposit is NON-REFUNDABLE if cancellation is made within 7 days of first visit. 

 

DISCOUNTS

Do You Offer Discounts?
Discounted dog walks are available when scheduled Monday – Friday 9am -4pm. Only $20!
You get a discounted visit & you get to Be your dog’s H.E.R.O.
Hit the Create an Account button
Easily schedule dog walks to get that energy out.
Receive pics of tongue draggin’ & tail waggin’
Obey your dog’s request to schedule more walks!

A 10% discount is also available between your meet & greet and the first visit of your trip. You might like to have an additional meet & greet if your pets are anxious or a medication review would be helpful. Mostly this time is used for a trial run. When you are gone, have a sitter come by if you want to confirm your dog is friendly with strangers entering your home. This is VERY RARELY an issue but if it helps provide peace of mind then we are happy to oblige and offer a discount too!

ATHENS PET SITTER

We are a family run business and we consider our clients, both humans and pets, to be part of that family.

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