The short version

Most pet sitters are running on a contract they found on a forum in 2019, or worse, no contract at all. Just a text thread and a handshake. That works fine until a client’s dog bites another dog on a walk, or a client disputes a charge, or you need to make a $400 emergency vet call and nobody agreed in writing that you’re allowed to. Then the handshake is worth exactly nothing.

A pet sitting contract does one real job. It decides, in writing, who’s protected when something goes wrong. And in this business, something always eventually goes wrong.

What Has to Be in a Pet Sitting Contract

Here’s the full list. If your current contract is missing more than two or three of these, you don’t have a pet sitting contract. You have a piece of paper that feels like one.

Decide the notice deadline and what happens to the payment before anyone books. Your pet sitting cancellation policy answers both, and your office should never have to guess.

The Eleven Clauses At a Glance

Clause	What It Protects You From
Services offered	A client assuming a 30-minute drop-in includes a full walk, or that boarding includes grooming.
Service area	Getting talked into a booking 40 minutes outside your zone with no fee attached.
Rates and payment terms	Chasing a client for payment two weeks after the visit, with nothing signed saying when it was due.
Cancellation and holiday policy	Losing a paid holiday booking to a same-day cancellation with zero notice required.
Key handling	A dispute over who had access to a home if something goes missing or a lockbox code leaks.
Vet authorization and emergency spend cap	Standing in a vet’s lobby with a sick animal and no legal authority to approve treatment.
Medication	Being blamed for a missed dose or a refused pill with no written record of what you agreed to do.
Photo and social permission	A client upset that their dog’s face is on your Instagram with no permission on file.
Liability and pet behavior disclosure	Getting bitten, or hurt breaking up a fight, by a dog whose bite history the owner never mentioned.
Weather and lockout	Being expected to walk a dog through a tornado warning, or eat the cost of a visit you couldn’t get into.
Termination	Being stuck servicing a client relationship that’s gone bad, with no clean, written way out.

The Four Clauses Owners Skip, and Regret

Every owner puts rates in the contract. Almost nobody remembers these four until the night they need them.

The vet authorization and emergency spend cap clause is the one that saves you when a client is unreachable and their dog is in real trouble. Without writing down a dollar figure, you’re either under-treating an emergency out of fear of a bill dispute, or paying out of pocket and hoping to get reimbursed. Pick a number with the client up front. $200. $500. Whatever they’re comfortable with. Get it in writing.

The emergency time clause is the one most established companies are missing, and you find out at 11pm in a vet parking lot. You just spent four hours with a client’s dog at the emergency clinic. Do you bill for that? Your contract should already answer it. Write down your hourly rate for emergency time, what it covers (transport, waiting at the clinic, after-hours calls with the client), when it starts, and that it bills separately from the vet’s invoice. Clients agree to it without blinking when it’s on paper before the emergency. They argue about it when you bring it up after.

The Other Two Clauses Owners Skip

The liability and pet behavior disclosure clause protects you, not the client. It asks the owner to tell you, in writing, about any bite history, resource guarding, or aggression before you ever walk in the door. If they lied on that form and something happens, that paperwork is the difference between your problem and their problem. Pet Sitters International covers exactly this ground in its own guidance on pet sitter insurance and bonding, since a signed disclosure is often what a carrier asks for before it pays a claim.

The weather and lockout clause sounds minor until the first ice storm or the first time a lockbox code doesn’t work at 6am. Decide in advance what happens to the fee, and whether you’re expected to attempt the visit anyway, before you’re standing on a porch deciding it in the moment.

Copy This Prompt Into ChatGPT or Claude

Don’t start from a blank page and don’t copy a stranger’s contract off a Facebook group. Paste the prompt below into ChatGPT or Claude. It’s built to interview you first, one question at a time, and only draft your actual contract once it has real answers instead of guesses.

You are helping me write a pet sitting service contract for my own pet care business. Do not write the contract yet.

First, ask me these questions ONE AT A TIME, in plain conversational language, and wait for my answer before asking the next one:

0. What state or province is my business located in, and what's my business name and structure (sole proprietor, LLC, etc.)?
1. What services do I offer (dog walking, drop-in visits, overnight house sitting, boarding, etc.), and what's included in a standard visit?
2. Where's my service area? (city, town, neighborhood, or mile radius)
3. What are my rates and payment terms? (per-visit or per-night pricing, deposit required, when payment is due, accepted payment methods, late fee if any)
4. What's my cancellation and holiday policy? (notice required to cancel without penalty, refund or credit rules, holiday surcharge or blackout dates)
5. How do I handle client keys, lockboxes, or entry codes? (where they're stored, who has access, what happens to them when service ends)
6. Which vet am I authorized to use if the client's regular vet is unavailable, what dollar amount can I approve for emergency care before I have to reach the client directly, and what do I charge for my own time during an emergency (hourly rate for transport, waiting at the clinic, and after-hours calls)?
7. How do I handle medication? (what I will and won't administer, what happens if the pet refuses)
8. Can I post photos or videos of the pet on social media or in marketing, and can I tag the client?
9. What do I need the client to disclose about the pet's behavior, including any bite history, aggression, or resource guarding, and what are my limits of liability for pre-existing medical conditions or behavior the client didn't disclose?
10. What's my policy if I can't get into the home (lockout) or if severe weather affects a scheduled visit or walk?
11. How can either of us end this agreement, and what notice or conditions apply?

Once you have all twelve answers, write me a complete pet sitting service contract in plain English. Organize it with a clear heading for each section above. Use terminology appropriate to my state. Do not use dense legal jargon where a plain sentence says the same thing. End the document with a signature line for both the pet sitting business and the client, and a line stating that this contract does not replace the advice of a licensed attorney in my state.

Your Rates Belong in This Contract, Not a Verbal Agreement

The rates and payment terms clause only works if the rates behind it are actually right. A contract with a fair cancellation policy and an underpriced rate sheet still leaves you working for less than the job costs. Before you send this contract to a single client, run your numbers against our full walkthrough on how to set pet sitting and dog walking rates. Fix the price first. Then lock it into the contract.

Spell out the holiday dates too. Your pet sitting holiday rates belong in the contract, right beside your regular pricing.

If You Have Staff, They Need Their Own Agreement Too

This contract covers your relationship with a client. It doesn’t cover your relationship with a subcontractor or a W-2 employee who’s actually the one walking into that client’s home. If you’ve grown past a solo operation, your team needs a separate signed agreement, and an employee handbook and training manual that backs it up, and your hiring process needs to be just as tight as your client paperwork. Start with how to hire pet sitters who actually stay before you hand a new hire a set of house keys.

The Legal Details People Forget to Put in Writing

Owners constantly overlook photo permission, privacy, and what you can post online, right up until a client asks you to take something down. I go deeper on the legal side of contracts, photo sharing, and privacy policies in “Click Here To Agree” Contracts, Sharing Client Photos, and Privacy Policies on Your Website (Ep. 34). It’s an older episode. The advice hasn’t aged a day.

Frequently Asked Questions About Pet Sitting Contracts

Do I legally need a pet sitting contract?

A verbal agreement can technically be a contract, but it's nearly impossible to enforce or prove if there's a dispute. A written pet sitting contract, signed before service starts, is what actually protects you if a client disputes a charge, a pet gets hurt, or an emergency vet bill comes up. Most professional liability insurance for pet sitters also expects a signed agreement on file.

What should a pet sitting contract include?

At minimum, it should cover services offered, service area, rates and payment terms, cancellation and holiday policy, key handling, vet authorization with an emergency spend cap, medication instructions, photo and social media permission, liability and pet behavior disclosure, a weather and lockout policy, and how either party can end the agreement.

Can I really use ChatGPT or Claude to write my pet sitting contract?

Yes, as a first draft. Use a prompt that interviews you for your actual business details rather than one that spits out a generic template, then have a lawyer licensed in your state review the result before you send it to a single client. AI is excellent at organizing your answers into clean, plain-English language. It is not a substitute for a licensed attorney reviewing state-specific contract language.

What is an emergency spend cap and why does my contract need one?

An emergency spend cap is a dollar amount you're pre-authorized to approve for veterinary care if a client is unreachable during an emergency. Without one written into your contract, you're stuck choosing between under-treating a sick or injured animal and paying out of pocket with no guarantee of reimbursement. It is separate from your emergency time rate, which is what you bill the client for your own hours spent handling the emergency.

Should my pet sitting contract mention photos and social media?

Yes. Clients increasingly care about whether their pet's photo or video ends up on your business Instagram or Facebook page. A short photo and social media permission clause, with a simple yes or no checkbox, prevents an awkward conversation later and protects you from a client asking you to delete marketing content you've already used.

Is a pet sitting contract different from a cancellation policy?

A cancellation policy is one clause inside a full pet sitting contract, not a replacement for one. The contract covers the entire relationship, services, rates, liability, key handling, termination. The cancellation policy just governs what happens to a booking and a payment if a visit gets called off.

Your Next Move

Run the prompt above tonight. Get a real draft in front of a lawyer this month. Stop operating on a handshake and a hope. If you want a room of owners building out contracts, pricing, and hiring systems together instead of guessing alone, that's what happens inside the Jump Mastermind. Always keep jumping.