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Questionnaire for New Clients

Hello,

I'm currently a Rover sitter and have been over a year now. This past summer I took a family vacation and could not bring our pup. Thus I was on the other side and had to find a sitter. Upon selecting a good match, the sitter emailed me quite and extensive questionnaire to be filled out. Which lead me to wonder if I should be doing this?? This is why meet and greets are important to me. I feel all important questions are addressed then. I have some repeat clients who are very discreet and providing personal information (ie. home address) could be a deal breaker. If you do provide a questionnaire, how have your clients responded and what kind of information are you asking on your questionnaire?

Thanks Rosie

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I use a questionnaire for my clients. I also ask most of these questions during the M&G, but as most of my M&Gs are on the move (taking the dogs for a walk, letting them play) I don't have a good way to take notes. And even if I did, it's sometimes a long time between the M&G and the stay. The questionnaire allows me to keep a record of the most important info for each of my clients in a database that I can reference for any future stays, and covers any questions I may have missed in person.

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Hi. I will be new to this site pretty soon and love the idea of sending clients questionnaires. So my question is what kinds of questions to you give to your clients?

I ask for current vaccine info, so I know which activities are safe. Rabies is the only thing required by law, but I'll limit exposure to dogs with unknown vaccine history if they haven't also had their combo and bordatella for their safety. I ask about house training (covered on the Rover info, but it's another place to point out that we do only take house trained dogs). I ask under what conditions their dog vocalizes and what they do to prevent/control it. We have close neighbors, so it's in our best interest to not take loud dogs so we aren't making a nuisance of ourselves. I ask about medical, dietary and lifestyle restrictions, so I know what is safe to give them and what activities are safe. I ask what their favorite activities are, and what tricks and other commands they know. I ... (more)

Those are really good and important questions to ask that I don't think I would have ever thought of to ask them. I have one more question though. For certain reasons I can not dog sit at my house so I will have to become a Traveling Sitter. What questions would be good to ask regarding that I currently prefer to watch their pets in their home? Is it even a good idea to give them a questionnaire if I am to be a Traveling Sitter?

I developed my questionnaire after having a couple REALLY vocal guests and realizing that was something I needed to sort out before accepting a booking. After you've done a few stays (and had a couple that didn't go quite as well as hoped) you'll probably be in a much better position than I am to make up a list of questions pertaining to travelling sitting and what's important to you.

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I also use a Boarding Information sheet. It includes: Owner's name, address, phone number, alternate phone number, and email address. Dog's name, breed, sex, description, age, and any medical conditions. Brand of food fed and how much per meal Brand of flea and heartworm prevention and date of last dose Veterinarian clinic name, address, phone number, and preferred vet's name. Emergency contact name, phone number, and alternate phone number.

Other behavioral or lifestyle notes either come up during our conversation at the meet and greet, or make themselves apparent during the first few days.
Crating is required and I go over that during the meet and greet, and in the confirmation email sent several days before the visit.

Rough visits are hard, but great for education! I'm becoming much more blatant about the crating after a rough night with a dog that didn't like the crate. :/ As a trainer, behavioral issues aren't a huge deal for me-- although they become increasingly irritating the more back to back stays I do. Thankfully, I've never dealt with out and out aggression.

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I simply request that owners fill out the care instructions section on Rover with:

how much and when to feed their dog; *vet and vaccine information; *behavioral concerns (e.g., will bark at children passing by, *hates bicycles, etc.); *any training they want me to specifically reinforce (e.g., not jumping, staying off furniture, sitting for the leash); *medication information; *any grooming needs (e.g., my dog gets bad sleepers, so I request a sitter wipe his eyes out once every two days); *anything else they want to add

I check this, and if that info is not there, I request they fill it out or send it to me in a message (either is fine, but written is best because I am liable to forget if you just say it). I've had many clients new to Rover, and none have complained when I requested they fill the info in. I will show them how to do it if they need help, but I've only had to do that once (the client wasn't seeing the link to fill in the info...as soon as I specified where it was, they happily filled it in).

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I've been a Rover sitter for over a year. I save all my questions for the Meet & Greet, so I don't overwhelm them with too much - especially if it's the first time they are using http://Rover.com (and I write down the info during our M&G). I always ask them to complete care instructions and vet info on their dog's profile. I will check before drop-off day, and if the info still is not completed I will message them with a reminder to make sure their dog's info is up-to-date before their stay. This has been working well.

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I think questionnaires are great - there's quite a bit of information that can be covered in a Meet & Greet, but having it down on paper as well can be really useful once the sitter is with your dog and needs a quick reference.

I usually leave a long list of information for my sitter about each dog, even though she's watched them several times I don't expect her to remember every intricate detail so this fills in a lot of gaps in case she has a quick question and I can't be reached immediately during a stay. :)