Case Study - Home sitting is good fun – we really enjoy it

Posted on 8 February, 2016

Sitters Mr & Mrs Clark

Retirees Jill and Tim Clark from Gloucestershire have been homesitting for 10 years and have looked after over 30 different breeds of dog. Says Tim “It started when we saw an advert for Homesitters Ltd in a magazine at the doctors. We’d just come back from America where I had retired early from sales and marketing. We applied and had to provide various references, be vetted and go for an interview before starting.

We are particularly lucky because we both really love dogs and love to walk. We now do an average of 160 days homesitting a year. It’s our choice to do that much, but Homesitters allow you to do as many days as you like.

We’ve now got regular clients we go to. Trust is very important as the client has to be sure that you will look after their pet and property and have confidence that their “children” (pets) are being left in good, loving and capable hands.

We relate so well to the dogs we look after. We have had many a client say that their dogs have “sobbed” after we have left. So long as you feed, walk and play with dogs, they trust you. We’ve looked after over 30 different breeds – Bulldogs, Irish Wolfhounds, Spaniels, Setters, Labradoodles, Rhodesian Ridgebacks – the list is endless.

I particularly like big dogs that I can play with, whereas Jill tends to prefer the little ones.

But it’s not just dogs; we’ve looked after alpacas, sheep, donkeys, horses, cats, fish, birds and even 24 pythons on one occasion!

For us it’s like being on a mini holiday. You get to go to parts of the country you wouldn’t normally go. We will go anywhere. We’ve been to France several times, as well as Guernsey and the Isle of Man. We don’t do it for the money. We do it because we enjoy it.

The important thing is for clients to feel confident with you. I would say a Homesitter needs to be calm, confident in a crisis and have some life experience behind them as well as experience of pets. Confidentiality is also important (as some clients are well known or important people).

Homesitters are a very professional company and extremely caring and supportive to us as employees. We really do enjoy what we do, particularly because of the interaction with the animals.”

Interested in Becoming a Homesitter? Browse our Become a Homesitter page to find out more and to apply, or contact Rebecca Irvine - Human Resource Manager - on 01296 630 730 or rebecca.irvine@homesitters.co.uk.

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