04/04/2024
I have made the difficult decision to close my overnight sitting and walking services to new clients. I have been fortunate to build up such an amazing client base for these services and I look forward to continuing these services for already established!
To get wayyyy too personal, this decision came from deep reflection on my current stress levels and work/life balance. I had to ask myself: what parts of this job are stressing me out this much? And what part of this job brings me the most joy?
To answer the first, I’ve struggled with uncontrolled dogs approaching on walks for years. Most of these encounters will end without issue. But a handful of these experiences left me with residual anxiety that I experience on most walks now. Which sucks, because I actually really enjoy dog walking! I will continue servicing all previous walking clients, nothing will change for them. I just think a break from new walking clients will be best for now.
As for overnight sitting, I’m sure all of my current clients were hoping this would happen 🤣 My books are just simply too full to take on new overnight clients. Within 24 hours of opening my books for Oct/Nov/Dec, my current client list booked out 30% of what I had available for overnights!
As for what I love most about my job:
I love playing fetch in the backyard, sunbathing on the patios with elderly dogs, cuddling with cats on the couch, playing games and setting up treat puzzles, hand feeding veggies to bunnies/bearded dragons/guinea pigs, and more. I realized that the common link with everything listed is that they are all drop-in activities. Which is why I am still accepting new drop in clients and will be expanding this service in the near future with some fun new options! So keep an eye out for that announcement soon 🐾