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Doggy Day Care in the Client's Home pricing?

Hi-- I have a request to watch a dog in the client's home from 8:30am-5:30pm (9 hours) on Tuesdays and Fridays. The dog gets severe anxiety when left alone, and I cannot leave the house during that time. What would you charge per day for this? I can only find rates for doggy day care in my own home or overnight stays. The owner wants to pay me $20 ("for the use of my home and wifi"), but I want to make sure I am not getting taken advantage of.

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I can't comment on rates because I live in an entirely different continent to you, but this idea that use of the client's home and wifi is a notable perk is in my opinion not valid. You are the one providing the service of caring for the dog in its familiar environment, which necessitates you being in their home.

Yes, it's nice that you can use the wifi. But that is not a big deal.

Aside from your care of the dog, the time you will spend walking and feeding the dog, there is also the opportunity cost to you of what you could be doing INSTEAD.

Sometimes you are fortunate: the dog has no anxieties about being left alone and the owner gives you permission to leave the dog alone for several hours. This is clearly a more challenging case and not being able to leave the house for a 9 hour stretch is a severe burden on you. For me, that would warrant an increase in my normal charges.

My advice is for you to look what other sitters are charging. If you can find no examples of other sitters, look what boarding kennels are charging. Use of the client's home and wifi is not a consideration. Do this a few times and you will find a price point at which you are comfortable.

You will from time to time come across extremely strange owners who are very concerned with whether you use their wifi, TV, how much water you use, what temperature you set the heating to. Some of them will have nanny cams and will obsessively watch you. If you get bad feelings about an owner, do not accept the booking. Owners are (presumably) humans, and some humans will always try to take advantage of or even outright scam others.

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For continuous care where I cannot leave, I charge hourly just like a babysitter. My hour-long drop in rate for the first hour and then minimum wage +$1 for each additional hour.