When do you charge for walks on overnight stays?

It is important to consider that an overnight stay is considered a 24-hour visit, and therefore should include 3 walks during the day. Taking the dog on a nice walk will not only help with separation anxiety, but will also help burn off some of that pent up energy the pet may have from being in a new situation (whether the pet is staying at your home or the pet's home, having someone new around is exciting for them). I suggest editing either your rate to include this many walks, or to make it clear how many walks you intend to do.

There are exceptions. If this dog is exceptionally high energy and requires a specific routine that is going to conflict with your normal daily activities, consider increasing your rate for that dog.

According to your profile, you do overnight stays at clients and drop-in visits (of 30 minutes each). So, if you've booked an overnight stay, it is the equivalent of what other sitters, who board dogs at their own homes, would provide. Any dog staying with me would be walked a minimum of 3 times a day, with the final one being rather short. There is no extra charge for another walk or if I decide to take the dog to a park. Given what is entailed in sitting at someone's home, you should probably just raise your rate. Remember, it is for a 24-hour period and dogs need to go out more than once a day. Just because it says "overnight," doesn't mean you show up at 9 pm and leave at 9 the next morning and you only have to take the dog out in the morning. Take a look at your rate and compare it to what other housesitters charge.

It's up to you - if you normally only include 1-2 walks per day when you are boarding dogs, then your overnight price includes 1-2 walks. If adding an additional walk or park time to your routine is a significant change to your routine, than it makes sense to adjust your rate so you get compensated for the extra effort, especially if it's something you're doing only for this one guest.

I usually do 1-2 walks per day, but I also vary activities depending on the needs of the dog, so for mellow dogs, just walks are great, but for higher energy dogs I can take them out with the bike jogger so they can run as fast and as far as they're comfortable, or arrange playdates with friends' dogs (I don't do dog parks generally with dogs I don't know well, and neither of my own dogs enjoy them very much), or go to a safe, enclosed area we can play fetch off leash. I also love to pose the dogs to get great pictures for the owners, so I work with a lot of my guest dogs on some basic posing and self control (like sitting and waiting on a park bench, etc), which helps wear them out mentally. But in nearly all cases, the extra activities benefit my dogs as well, so I wouldn't charge extra. In your case, where the owner is asking for a very specific routine, I'd be more likely to charge extra as it would be more likely to disrupt my day, and it would necessitate me leaving my own dogs/any other guest during the park time.

I walk my dog at least three times a day, usually four or more. So, when I've used a sitter, I've discussed his needs to determine if it is a match for the level of care they provide. Otherwise, I'd keep searching. With my clients, I also ask about their dog's routine and needs to ensure I'm a match. Generally overnight care is everything the dog needs during a 24 hour period to be healthy and happy in a home environment and walks are just if you're going to visit and walk (meals/snacks etc.), but not stay. Most dogs I've cared for also walk at least three times daily, so that doesn't sound excessive to me. My opinion is that an overnight stay should definitely include 3 walks, but the park outing could possibly be additional, especially if that involves taking the dogs in the car (travel/gas expense) or extra grooming (due to dirtier play area). If that seems like more than you are prepared for, you may want to review if you need to change your pricing to reflect the care that you find clients need.