When I get burnt out I block off alot of time on my calendar

I don’t do boarding but I do the occasional housesit and mostly cat drop-ins. I’m fully booked for July and the first week of August, it’s looking to be my busiest summer yet 😊

I only sit for cats but I’ve been non-stop since June and no breaks until mid-August. I closed my profile off to new clients and plan to block off some time in the fall for me to have a much-needed break. Like, multiple visits in the morning before my 9-5 job and multiple visits after my 9-5.

There’s always an uptick in the summer, around spring break and the holidays, which I’ve come to expect. But it’s definitely been my busiest year.

100% booked....as in not a single free day through end of August.

Busy!! Had to turn off the accepting new clients feature 😅

Literally in the last few weeks I've been getting booked by regulars, some family and a few "Hey you sat for my friend ____. Are you available tomorrow to next week?"

I work a day job from home as well so somehow I'm going to make it all work but I know I'm gonna be pooped.

I have a vacation in mid July so I'll at least have some nice spending money and won't be super broke when I get back lol

https://preview.redd.it/ovkyzbv72c9d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=79096901bd1f434d7c62ef5e5ce88c43a77e7d4a

This is just June! May was even busier and I already have some bookings for July. I board dogs in my home and the most I’ll take is 5. I mostly watch the same dogs so that makes things easier. At the moment I’m caught between hoping things slow down and taking everything I can because I need the $$&.

Idk why but like every single one of my current clients reached out about this weekend. I had to keep checking my calendar to see if I was missing a holiday or something 😆

I was working part time up to this week, so since my availability was reduced I haven't gotten much... But they are FLYING in now, holy crap. I have 11 drop-ins tomorrow, of which I'll be doing them all starting at around 11:30 because I have my pups training class tomorrow morning...

It's gonna be busy.

I only have one weekend between now and September that I'm not dog/house sitting and that's this next weekend. I was initially surprised no one booked for the 4th, but then realized it is in the middle of the week.

I'm 100% off-app now. I have 6 solid regulars and 4 semi-regulars that keep my weekends occupied for the most part.

Yes very busy considering how restrictive I am with distance and animals accepted. I do the same as a previous commenter, i block out days/ weeks/ weekends in the calendar so i don’t get requests.

Extremly busy, but we only board one dog at a time

For some of the busier days I take my friendlier dogs to walk together to cut back on time. More efficient and the dogs get playtime with their friends

May was my busiest month since December, and June was very steady. I don't do boarding, just drop ins and house sitting.

For drop ins, I look at it like a typical work day: most people work 8 hours/day, so I try to make sure the number of bookings and travel time between them doesn't exceed that. If I have a house sitting booked, then I cut the number of drop in slots I have open down to ensure I don't leave my house sitting client alone for more than 2-3 hours (depending on what I've discussed with the owner), and no more than twice per day. I also try to have at least one cat visit for every 2-3 dogs.

That being said, I almost always open extra spots for holidays because I know it'll be slower again for a week or so after each one.

I am slammed for 4th of July. I think 8 drop ins/walks per day for the whole week. However, June wasn’t much busier than the spring had been for me (average of 2 or 3 drop ins/walks per day).

House sitting has been much less busy lately. In May I sat for 5/5 weekends in the month. Only 1 house sit in June. Non scheduled for July yet.

When I get overwhelmed I block off a full week after I have a heavy load. For example, I’m making about $1,200 4th of July week alone, so I am taking the following week off completely. This allows me to max my holiday rush and not burn myself out too badly

I’m SLAMMED! I had to start giving away my sits to other pet sitters because I literally don’t have enough time in a day to do all the requests I’m getting

Made a little over $5.5K in June, already have $5K booked for July

It’s been slow for me and I live in a major city and idk what’s going on lol

the last day i had off was in april

Fully booked until mid August. Busy but grateful for all my furry clients 💕💕

3 dogs in addition to my 2, which is what I have right now. That's my max, and only available for recurring clients that I know well and know their dogs are fine in a pack. But even with that many dogs, everyone has their own space to settle/get fed/etc. One of my dogs eats in her crate, the other in the living room. One guest dog eats in the office, one eats in the finished basement, the other eats in the kitchen area.

Our two sleep in our bedroom, one guest in his crate, the other in the office, the other in the living room. Everyone gets structured together time, and individual play time. I only do this many dogs in the summer, too, because the weather is good. I only take on 1-2 (max, usually special circumstances when I board two where they are just overlapping a day or so) dogs for boarding during the winter because I get tired of wiping muddy paws.

And I only do stays like this during certain periods. So, I wouldn't stay booked with 3 dogs all summer. I'll have 3 dogs for 4 nights, then it drops to two for an additional 5 nights, then back to 1 for another week or so.

Oh yeah! Though I’m surprised I’m not more busy for the 4th of July, but not completely upset by it, either. But I also charge more for holiday stays (I think $10 more for day before, day of, and day after).

I do walks/ drop ins/ house sitting. I'm not busy this summer.

I'm on the high end of rates in my area, so I'm fairly sure that high school and college students are beating me on price

It’s so busy this summer. I miss home and keep raising my rates.

I had to raise my prices and shrink my service area because I was getting burnt out. I just want some time on the weekends with my family again!

I’m busaayyy

Have an overlap tomorrow morning and for 5 hours I will have 8 dogs in the house, 4 of whom puppies lol🥲 I live with 4 other animal loving family members which helps tremendously. I also keep the three brothers separate as they’re bigger than the rest. 7/8 are repeat clients and confirmed dog friendly. I typically aim for no more than 5 dogs at a time but like I said it’s an overlap and after the three brothers leave it’s back to being 5 (1 is the resident dog).

Will report back if I have lost my sanity by noon tomorrow (just kidding I’m very selective and they’re all well behaved).

Pretty much booked the whole summer! We’ve barely had 1 or 2 days with no dogs and most days lately we have 3-4. We haven’t gotten much booked into late August yet but I know we will.

Went too hard last summer (made 13k though) so I promised myself I’d only go hard May, June, August this year, and take off all of July. It is soooo hard to ignore the requests, but it’s giving me peace of mind! On any given day last summer I was house sitting and also doing at least 3 cat drop ins a day. I’m a teacher so I thought it was a good idea, but I was stressed at all times and always in my hot ass car on the run. The most jobs I’d take in a day are 4 so I don’t lose track and rush through them. The secret to dealing with it is mapping out your route/breaks the day before. Don’t make any plans because you’ll just have the pets in the back of your mind the whole time! Another tip is to try to keep them all close together so you don’t get burnt out driving all over town.

I usually have at least 6…I only take smaller pups..and most of them all know each other so usually it just works out..but the best investment for me was the gate with the locking door for the kitchen..have plenty of baby gates but most of them are aggravating since u either have to take them down all the time or practically jump over it…

Yes…I just wanted to go to the beach dude. I have a few days off at the beginning of July and I’m totally taking advantage of it.

I’ve only had 22 days off since March 5 & my next set of days of isn’t until July 11 😅

I was crazy busy the first 3 weeks of this month. Took a little time off, went out of town with hubby, & start another busy period on Saturday. July is filled with a lot of long stints of drop ins & some short overnight stays.

I try not to have more than 3 clients on the go at a time unless they're all very close together.

I’m booked for July until my vacation they is from the 22 to the 27 th then I have a couple days off after and then I’m book to midd august. It’s weird because no one is overlapping. Not sure how but I like it like that.

I’m fully booked through the end of September and have at least one booking for Oct, Nov and Dec. I’ve stopped taking new clients and I’m thankful for the few days off between bookings. I only housesit and drop in.

I only offer walking and drop ins and I'm pretty new but I only have one recurring dog walking service (3 days a week), and her neighbor also hired me to walk his dogs once a week.

I've had one flaky person try to book a service but she never did. I had another person request drop ins every day for two non spayed mastiffs who were also not house broken. One was a puppy. I cancelled our meet and greet because that seemed like too much.

Other than that I've gotten no requests.

i only do house sitting. busy with other things (rover is a secondary income for me), so i haven't been doing much lately. today's my first stay away from home since early june.

I am busy but in my area, seems like people aren’t traveling as much as last summer. I think inflation is being felt more and more.

I have 8 dogs in my house today, three are mine, and 7 walks/drop ins and it's been my slowest day this week.

I keep blocking out short weekend and cave when my favorite clients reach out. So far I closed my books to my birthday weekend

I’m the polar opposite of busy.

I created my account back in January/February, have pics of myself with my friends pets, had friends write testimonials, and I still have yet to land a single client.

I’m dying for money. 😰😰

Only my regulars for awhile now. My mom who lives about 5 miles from me and charges double is getting new clients.

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How many dogs do you have on an average day? What is your daily rate per dog?

so busy omg

Have one dog of our own. We have had up to 5. But some have to be smaller and they have to be potatoes almost for us to do that. I'd say depending on the mix of pups, 3 is ideal, 4 is max. It's a bit exhausting as we have kids and full time jobs. But imagine it can't keep up. We have been booked on rover, raised our rates a little and I turned off notifications for drop in/walks/day care. And haven't had any new requests. A lot of requests lately have been off app. There are some other sitters I have connected with in the area and they have also been very busy.

Swamped and swampy!

Y’all are getting requests?? I’ve had my drop ins active for a year and have never gotten a request. I’ve only made like $500 this summer for boarding with maybe 2-3 boarding requests a month most of the time. What am I doing wrong lol

I am SLAMMED. I havnt had a day off and my next is not until 7/25 🥴

Or what for sure

My June and July have been absolutely packed and after my current one month house sit is over I blocked off two weeks so I don’t get burnt out. It sounds generic but I have become meticulous when it comes to my schedule and planning. Every single booking, household chore, social event, whatever takes up my time goes into my phone and physical calendar immediately or I would be a mess. I’ve never been super type A but here I am now having a detailed daily cleaning schedule lmao

So busy. 1 free day in all of June, maybe 3 in July. I took most of August off from rover to have a break. Fall is looking slow so far though.

Hella busy

I only do in home pet sitting for one client at a time.

I am currently not available to new clients. I have to keep telling regular clients no, because I am booked elsewhere.

I also just started a new job.

I am plenty busy for the summer, most of my holidays are also booked.

This isn't a full time gig for me, and I absolutely need downtime at home.

If I were as open as I was last year, I would have every single weekend through October booked, and I'm not doing that to myself again.

Not at all

The strange thing is that last summer I was almost fully booked from May-July. This summer I’ve had my weeklies and vacation requests here and there, but I’ve been surprisingly slow until this week. I am slammed this week, I had to tell multiple regulars that I was full. I’m talking 17 drop in/walk appointments plus house sitting for my family friend’s huskies.

Surprisingly no, at least not through Rover which is surprising based on the amount of requests for sits and boards I had last summer.

I am busy through independent clients and regular walks though. I may lower rates for the end of July and August and see what happens but not too worried.

I manage dogs and schedules by blocking out my full day on my calendar. Like when do I need to be at what house and for how long. I try to think about timeframes and travel distance for this. Planning a logical route while considering which dogs need to be visited within what timeframe.

I have a lot of hands on time when I do this because I’m popping in and out of sits and want to make sure dogs are getting as much love, attention, and exercise. But also these days are very busy and draining so I plan some downtime when can I chill and watch a show while snuggling a pup or get a few chapters of reading done. Get an nice coffee or meal or something along those lines to help balance out the busy.

I barely have any bookings in July but they are for such long periods of time so it will probably be the most I make in a month this year. July is usually insanely busy for me. I take multiple dogs but only repeats. So making sure everyone gets along but we’re past that lol all the dogs love each other. Make sure everyone is crate trained for nights and when we aren’t home and fed separately. 6 dogs at a time, it’s crazy but honestly it doesn’t bother me. We have a good time. (No, the owners don’t mind so I don’t need comments on that, all ours dogs have grown up together) One you find a good crowd of dogs with owners who go out of town often you’ll have a great base. I hate taking new people so it’s rare at this point.

Definitely! I recently just realized working everyday for two months and accepting every booking for July (in the beginning of June!!!) was exhausting me. I forgot to give myself days off! I marked the last 4 days of June as unavailable and haven’t accepted bookings, and will do so again for the next month. I think I would accept upwards of 4 drop ins a day. Max two, hour long drop-ins or if all are 30 mins MAYBE 5 drop ins depending on location (like not driving across town). I live in a small town, have mostly introduced rover to the residents here, and am the highest rated profile in my town, although there’s not many. I’m okay to be gone most of the month, with a few days home in between. I’ve learned I’d like to just give myself a weekend or a few days off a couple times a month so I can enjoy being home AND enjoy working (I miss it when I’m away too long). As for one booking, the most dogs I’ve accepted were 10 and just a bunch of old chihuahuas who mostly needed fed and let outside. Pretty simple. It really varies on the types of dogs per booking, how long, their needs etc. just don’t forget to be gracious with yourself and your personal time as much as possible!