PET SITTING CHECKLIST
Free pet sitting checklist — everything the sitter needs on one sheet, ready to print
Feeding, medication, walks and litter, the house, and the vet and emergency contacts written in, with a check box on every line and room for the dates and both phones. Free in Word and PDF, with the sitter's visit checklist for every drop-in, walk and overnight.
Word and PDF · Free · No email, no sign-up
The short answer
A pet sitting checklist is the sheet an owner fills in before a trip so the sitter can run the pet's day without a phone call: what it eats and when, every medicine with its dose and time, the walk or the litter box, where the pet sleeps, how the house works, and who to call — the regular vet, the 24-hour emergency vet and someone local with a key. The visit checklist is the other half: the checks a sitter runs on every drop-in, walk and overnight, in the same order, ending with the photo and the two-line update the owner is waiting for.
If you're the owner, print the first sheet, fill it in and leave it on the fridge. If you run a pet sitting or dog walking business, this page is written for you too: put your name and phone on the Word files, send the owner's sheet to every new client before the meet-and-greet, and keep the visit checklist on your phone or clipboard. The client who fills in the sheet has thought about the medicine and the vet before you ask; the visit sheet is why nothing gets missed on the third visit of a long day.
Below: the printable pet sitting checklist, the visit checklist, who writes down what, every block explained, and how the same sheet goes on a pet sitter's website.
FREE CHECKLIST · WORD AND PDF
The pet sitting checklist, ready to print
Five blocks — feeding, water and treats; medication and health; walks, litter and routines; the house; before you leave — with a check box on every line, the pets, the owner, the dates and the sitter at the top, and write-in lines for each medicine and for the vet, the emergency vet and a local contact at the foot. Letter size, portrait. Free, no email address, no sign-up.
Checklist · the owner fills it in
| [Your pet sitting business] | |
| Pet Sitting Checklist | |
| Everything your sitter needs, on one sheet — check off each line as it's set out or written down | |
| Pet(s): ______________________________ Owner: ______________________________ | |
| Owner's phone: ____________________ Away from: ____________ Back on: ____________ | |
| Sitter: ______________________________ Sitter's phone: ______________________ | |
| Feeding, water and treats | |
| ☐ | Food measured out or marked on the tub: the brand, the amount per meal and the meal times |
| ☐ | Where the food, bowls, treats, scoop and can opener live |
| ☐ | Treats: how many a day, and what's off the menu for this pet |
| ☐ | Water bowls: where they are and how often they're refilled |
| ☐ | Anything this pet steals or can't have: people food, the trash, the other pet's bowl |
| Medication and health | |
| ☐ | Each medicine on the write-in lines below: the name, the dose, the time and how it's given |
| ☐ | Medicines, pill pockets and the syringe or dropper set out where the sitter can find them |
| ☐ | Allergies, conditions, and anything that's normal for this pet but wouldn't be for another |
| ☐ | Vaccination record and tag where the sitter can find them; microchip number written down |
| ☐ | What this pet does when it's unwell, and when a call to the vet can't wait |
| Walks, litter and routines | |
| ☐ | Walk times, the usual route and how long each walk runs |
| ☐ | Leash, harness and poop bags by the door; whether the pet goes off leash, and where |
| ☐ | Dogs this pet shouldn't meet, and how it behaves with other dogs, kids and strangers |
| ☐ | Litter box: where it is, how often it's scooped, where the litter and bags live |
| ☐ | Bedtime, crate or free roam, where the pet sleeps, and the doors that stay open or shut |
| ☐ | Favorite toys, hiding spots, and what calms this pet in a storm or fireworks |
| The house | |
| ☐ | Keys, codes and the alarm, and who else has a key |
| ☐ | Where the towels, cleaning supplies and the vacuum are, for accidents |
| ☐ | Thermostat setting, lights to leave on, blinds, and the rooms that stay closed |
| ☐ | Trash day, mail, plants and anything else the sitter is looking after |
| ☐ | Wi-Fi name and password, if the sitter is staying over |
| Before you leave | |
| ☐ | Enough food, litter and medicine for the whole trip, plus a few extra days |
| ☐ | Carrier or crate where the sitter can grab it |
| ☐ | This sheet on the fridge, and a copy with the sitter |
| ☐ | A photo of each pet on the sitter's phone, in case one gets out |
| ☐ | Tell the vet you're away and who's looking after the pet |
| Medication | |
| Medicine: __________________ Dose: ________ Time: ________ How: ____________ | |
| Medicine: __________________ Dose: ________ Time: ________ How: ____________ | |
| Vet and emergency contacts | |
| Regular vet: ______________________________ Phone: ______________________ | |
| 24-hour emergency vet: ______________________ Phone: ______________________ | |
| Someone local with a key: ______________________ Phone: ______________________ | |
| Where you're staying: ______________________ Second phone: ______________________ | |
| Keep one copy on the fridge and give one to the sitter. A pet sitting business sends this sheet to every new client before the meet-and-greet; the owner fills it in, the sitter works from it on every visit. | |
| [Your pet sitting business] · [Your phone] · [Your website] | |
The Word file is a standard .docx — put your pet sitting business's name and phone in the brackets, add your logo, change the lines to match how you work, and save it as your master copy. The PDF prints as-is. Print at “Actual size”, not “Fit to page”.
THE SITTER'S VISIT CHECKLIST
The visit checklist — the same checks on every drop-in, walk and overnight
Six blocks in the order of a visit — on arrival; feeding and water; medication; walk, play or litter; the house; before you leave — with the pet, the client, the date and the times in and out at the top, and two lines of notes for the owner at the foot. One sheet per visit, or one per day of a long stay.
Checklist · one per visit
| [Your pet sitting business] | |
| Visit Checklist | |
| Every drop-in, walk and overnight: the same checks, in the same order, every time | |
| Pet(s): ______________________________ Client: ______________________________ | |
| Date: ____________ Time in: ________ Time out: ________ Visit: drop-in · walk · overnight | |
| On arrival | |
| ☐ | Door locked behind you; alarm off and checked |
| ☐ | Find every pet and look it over: eating, moving and acting as usual? |
| ☐ | Check for accidents, vomit or anything chewed, and clean up |
| ☐ | Check the water bowls and the litter box |
| Feeding and water | |
| ☐ | Feed the amount on the owner's sheet, at the time it says |
| ☐ | Fresh water in every bowl |
| ☐ | Treats only as the owner's sheet allows; nothing from the trash or the counter |
| ☐ | Note anything left uneaten |
| Medication | |
| ☐ | Give each medicine as written on the owner's sheet: the name, the dose, the time, how |
| ☐ | Watch it go down; note anything spat out or refused |
| ☐ | Put the medicine back where it lives |
| Walk, play or litter | |
| ☐ | Harness and leash on and checked before the door opens |
| ☐ | The route and the time on the owner's sheet; poop bagged and in the trash |
| ☐ | Playtime or a cuddle: the pet's usual game, not a new one |
| ☐ | Litter box scooped, litter topped up, the bag tied and out |
| The house | |
| ☐ | Lights, blinds and thermostat as the owner asked |
| ☐ | Mail in, plants watered, trash out if it's the day |
| ☐ | The rooms the owner keeps closed are closed |
| Before you leave | |
| ☐ | Head count: every pet where it should be, crate or room as the owner's sheet says |
| ☐ | Stove, faucets and windows checked |
| ☐ | Keys back where they live, door locked, alarm on |
| ☐ | A photo and a two-line update to the owner: fed, medicine, walk, mood |
| Notes for the owner | |
| __________________________________________________________________________ | |
| __________________________________________________________________________ | |
| Anything off (not eating, limping, vomiting, hiding, a door found open): call the owner first, then the vet on the owner's sheet, and write it here with the time. | |
| [Your pet sitting business] · [Your phone] · [Your website] | |
Print a stack and keep them in the car, or open the Word file on your phone. The last line is the update to the owner — the photo and the two lines that end most of the texts a sitter gets.
Build the website
Start your pet sitting website now
Add your business name and your town to the sentence, and Zarla builds the site, with a page for each service and town you list. You edit it in chat and publish when you're ready.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.
WHO WRITES DOWN WHAT
The owner's sheet and the sitter's sheet, side by side
The same six things from both sides: what the owner writes down before the trip, and what the sitter does with it on every visit.
| What | The owner writes down | The sitter does |
|---|---|---|
| Feeding | The brand, the amount per meal, the meal times, where everything lives, what's off the menu | Feeds the amount at the time, refills the water, notes anything left uneaten |
| Medication | Each medicine with its dose, time and how it's given; where it's kept | Gives it as written, watches it go down, notes anything refused |
| Walks and routines | Times, route, leash rules, dogs to avoid, bedtime and the crate | Walks the route at the time, plays the usual game, scoops the litter |
| The house | Keys, codes, alarm, thermostat, lights, trash day, mail, closed rooms | Leaves the house as asked, mail in, trash out, rooms closed |
| Emergencies | The regular vet, the 24-hour emergency vet, a local person with a key, where the owner is staying | Calls the owner first, then the vet on the sheet, and writes down what happened and when |
| The update | How often and how: a text after each visit, a photo a day | A photo and two lines after every visit: fed, medicine, walk, mood |
STEP BY STEP
How to use a pet sitting checklist with your clients
For the pet sitting business: ten minutes to set up once, then the same two sheets on every client.
Make it yours
Open the Word file, put your business name and phone in the brackets, add your logo, and change any line to match how you work. Save it as your master.
Send it before the meet-and-greet
Email the owner's sheet to every new client with the quote. The owner arrives at the meet-and-greet with the medicine, the vet and the house already written down.
Walk the sheet at the meet-and-greet
Go through it line by line in the home: where the food lives, how the leash goes on, which door sticks. Fill in anything the owner skipped.
Keep the visit sheet with you
One per visit, in the car or on your phone. The order is the order of the visit, so a drop-in at the end of a long day gets the same checks as the first.
End every visit with the update
A photo and two lines: fed, medicine, walk, mood. It's the last line on the visit sheet because it's the one the owner is waiting for.
Put the same list online
A “before your first visit” page with the owner's checklist is what a new client reads the week they book a trip. The checklist is that page, already written.
Every block on the checklist, explained
Feeding is where most sitting goes wrong, and it's the easiest block to get right. A pet on the wrong amount for a week comes home with an upset stomach; a pet fed the other pet's food comes home worse. The brand, the amount and the times, written on the tub as well as the sheet, settle it. The off-the-menu line is for the counter-surfer and the trash raider.
Medication needs its own lines, not a sentence. The name, the dose, the time and how it's given — in food, in a pill pocket, by syringe — each on its own line at the foot of the sheet, with the medicine set out where the sitter can find it. The health line above it is for the things that are normal for this pet and would alarm a stranger: the cat that hides all day, the old dog's cough.
Walks, litter and routines are what the pet notices. The same route at the same time is what keeps a dog settled while its people are away; the leash rules and the dogs-to-avoid line keep the walk safe. For a cat, the litter box line is the whole routine. Bedtime and the crate are on the sheet because an overnight sitter should never have to guess.
The house block is for the sitter, not the pet. Keys, codes and the alarm; where the towels and the vacuum are when there's an accident; the thermostat, the lights and the rooms that stay closed; the trash day, the mail and the plants. Each one is a text message the sitter doesn't have to send.
Before you leave is the last-day list. Enough food, litter and medicine for the trip and a few days more; the carrier where it can be grabbed; a photo of each pet on the sitter's phone; a word to the vet that the owner is away and who's bringing the pet in if it comes to that. It's the block most owners skip, so it's printed.
The contact lines are the reason the sheet exists. The regular vet and the 24-hour emergency vet, with phone numbers; someone local with a key; where the owner is staying and a second phone. A sitter who has to search for the vet's number is a sitter whose owner forgot the fridge.
The visit checklist is the sitter's half. Arrival checks first, because a pet found unwell or a door found open changes the whole visit. Then feeding, medicine and the walk or the litter in the order the owner's sheet gives them, the house as the owner asked, a head count before the door locks, and the update. The notes lines are where anything off goes, with the time, so the owner and the vet get facts rather than a memory.
For pet sitting businesses: the rules behind the paperwork
In the US, the states we checked license no pet sitter or dog walker who works in the client's home — Texas's licensing programs and California's boards and bureaus list no such occupation — so this checklist is a hand-out, not a form a state asks for. The lines that do bite are boarding in your own home (Colorado licenses a home that cares for or houses more than three pet animals at a time for pay as a boarding facility) and one city's walker permit (the San Francisco park lands issue a commercial dog walking permit for four to six dogs at a time). Nothing on these two sheets is written as terms: they're the plain list the owner fills in and the plain checks the sitter runs. Pet-business rules differ by state, city and country, so check your local rules before you promise a client anything about the paperwork.
Put the checklist on your website, and send the quote from the same place
The owner who searches for a pet sitting checklist is an owner about to leave a pet with someone. Most pet sitting websites say “drop-in visits, dog walking and overnights” and leave it there; the ones that get the meet-and-greet show that owner the sheet — what to write down about the medicine, the vet and the house — with the business's name on it. The checklist on this page is that page, already written.
If you build your pet sitting website with Zarla, add your business name and your town to the sentence above, and Zarla builds the site, with a page for each service and town you list. Then tell the editor “add a before-your-first-visit section with the lines on my pet sitting checklist” and the list goes on the site, in a section you can edit any time.
The quote and the invoice come from the same dashboard. Zarla sends a quote as one link: your customer picks an option, checks off any extras and accepts it online, and Zarla drafts the invoice for exactly what they chose, with any deposit you asked for. Send the owner's checklist with the quote, and the pet sitting invoice template shows what the invoice itself should carry — each visit or overnight by date, every pet named.
Want to see a finished site first? Browse pet care website templates, see how Zarla builds pet care websites, look at six pet sitter website designs and what agencies charge for them, or browse pet care website examples.
Starting or pricing the business?
How to start a dog walking and pet sitting business covers the insurance, the first clients and the route; how to become a dog walker or pet sitter covers what is and isn't licensed, state by state; dog sitting rates has the 2026 prices per night, per drop-in and per walk with a calculator; the dog walking business plan puts the numbers together; how to write a quote prices the booking, and the pet sitting invoice template bills it.
Pet sitting checklists: common questions
Yes. The pet sitting checklist and the visit checklist on this page download free as a Word document and a PDF, with no email address and no sign-up. Edit the Word file for your own pets or your own pet sitting business, or print the PDF and fill it in by hand.
One sheet with everything on it: what the pet eats, how much and when; every medicine with its dose, time and how it's given; the walk times and route or the litter box routine; where the pet sleeps and which rooms stay closed; how the house works — keys, alarm, thermostat, trash day; and the contacts — your regular vet, the nearest 24-hour emergency vet, someone local with a key, and where you're staying. The checklist on this page has a line for each of those, plus the practical things: enough food and medicine for the trip, the carrier where it can be grabbed, and a photo of each pet on the sitter's phone.
The same sheet, with the dog's lines filled in: meals and treats, medicine, the walk times and the usual route, whether the dog goes off leash and where, the dogs it shouldn't meet, how it is with kids and strangers, bedtime and the crate, what calms it in a storm, and the vet and emergency contacts. For the sitter, the visit checklist adds the harness check before the door opens and the head count before it locks.
Use the same checklist and fill in the cat's lines: the food and the water bowls, the litter box — where it is, how often it's scooped, where the litter lives — the hiding spots, which doors stay shut, and the vet. A cat that hides from a stranger for three days is normal for many cats, and the health line is where the owner says so, so the sitter doesn't spend the visit searching under beds.
Yes — the owner's sheet is the instructions template: the lines the owner checks off as each thing is set out or written down, with write-in lines at the foot for each medicine and for the vet, the emergency vet and a local contact. It's a plain checklist with room to write, not an intake form: nothing on it but the pet's own details, and nothing written as terms.
Three ways. The owner's sheet goes out with the quote, before the meet-and-greet, so the client arrives with the medicine, the vet and the house written down and the business's name on the fridge for the whole trip. The visit checklist keeps every drop-in, walk and overnight to the same checks, whoever on the team does it. And the update line at the end of the visit sheet — a photo and two lines — is the text the owner is waiting for, done the same way every time.
On arrival: the door and the alarm, every pet found and looked over, any accidents cleaned up, the water and the litter. Then feeding as the owner's sheet says, medicine as written and watched down, the walk or the litter box, the house as asked, and before leaving a head count, the stove and the windows, the keys and the alarm, and the update to the owner. Anything off — not eating, limping, vomiting, hiding, a door found open — goes in the notes with the time, and the owner gets a call before the vet does.
In the US, not in the states we checked: Texas's and California's licensing lists carry no pet sitter or dog walker who works in the client's home. Caring for other people's pets in your own home is the line that changes things in some states — Colorado licenses a home that cares for or houses more than three pet animals at a time — and San Francisco's park lands issue a permit to walk several dogs at once for pay. A checklist is a hand-out, not a form any state asks for. Pet-business rules differ by state, city and country, so check your local rules.
Yes — that's what the Word file is for. Put your business name, phone and website in the brackets, add your logo, change the lines to match how you work (your own update routine, the services you offer, the things you ask every client), and save it as your master copy. The PDF is the same checklist for printing as-is.
It should — as a before-your-first-visit page. A new client wants to know what you'll need from them, and the checklist already answers it line by line. If you build your site with Zarla, tell the editor to add a before-your-first-visit section with those lines — it's a section you can edit any time your process changes — and send the quote and the invoice from the same place.
Sources
Read November 2, 2026.
- Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation — licensing programs — the state's list of licensed occupations; the only animal entry is licensed breeders, with no pet sitter or dog walker program
- California Department of Consumer Affairs — boards and bureaus — the state's list of licensing boards; the only animal board is the Veterinary Medical Board
- Colorado Department of Agriculture — PACFA licensing — a home that cares for or houses more than three pet animals at one time for pay is a licensed boarding facility
- National Park Service — commercial dog walking, Golden Gate — the San Francisco park lands issue a commercial dog walking permit to walk four to six dogs at a time for pay
Put the checklist on the website that books the first visit
Add your business name and your town, and Zarla builds the site from that one line — with a page for each service you list and a meet-and-greet request form, ready to edit in chat.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.