Daniel and Libby are much-loved pet sitters in Sydney and have been on the platform for over 2 years now, and have certainly embraced the adventure of looking after a plethora of breeds and personalities….And they couldn’t be more fulfilled with their side hustle of pet sitting.
It’s even lead to their engagement… Keep reading to find out how!
This is their Mad Paws story:
When we moved to Sydney 2 years ago, Libby (my partner) had previously dog and house-sat when we lived in London. I was looking for work at the time and saw Mad Paws as a chance to earn some income whilst interviewing for full-time work. Plus getting paid to play with puppies is pretty awesome!
We signed up, completed the course and by that weekend had our first meet and greet at a cafe with Oscar – a 16-week-old German Shepherd puppy. His dad was having to go back into the office more and needed someone to care for him during the day. I said we could have him at our place for daycare or I could come spend the day at his house.
We’ve watched Oscar grow up over the last two years and when I finally did get a job, he was able to join me in the office. He’s now a very friendly, excitable 2.5-year-old puppy that we look after regularly as his father is travelling more and more. We love being able to have dogs in our lives especially because we couldn’t own a pet in our apartment.
We’ve been pet sitters in Sydney on Mad Paws for two years now and have stayed all over the city. We’ve been able to explore several different parts of town, and after dog sitting (at the Owner’s house) over Xmas/New Years in Balmain watching the fireworks from their balcony, we decided we wanted to live there so moved not long after that dog sitting job. Now we have about a dozen regular pets in the area that we look after. It’s always nice to see them and their Owners out and about in our neighbourhood.
We have had some really beautiful dogs and cats, in some really nice homes too. We have learnt to be really honest with Owners each time we meet and greet. We tell them we both work so won’t be home full time, ask if they have cameras, and if there’s anything else we can do to help them whilst they’re away (water the plants, take the bins out).
We set up WhatsApp groups with families so they can all see their pets whilst they’re away. We ensure that we leave the house as clean (or cleaner) than when we got there, that way they know that we take care of their home and pet 😻
We’ve really enjoyed our time as pet sitters in Sydney and London and now have had more exposure to what we want in a pet and the expectations we have around pet ownership. We know what kind of pets we want! We’re not afraid to let pet parents know how their animals are behaving, especially if there’s something not quite right.
Surprisingly they appreciate knowing that their pets 💩 aren’t quite normal or that their dog has scratched up the doorframe getting too excited. Open communication is important from both parties. We like Mad Paws for the comfort that the insurance offers us and the calendar functionality. It’s also pretty cool to see how people review your services knowing that so many other pet owners will read these reviews.
Our key rings have at least a dozen different keys and we’ve learnt the hard way the importance of labelling them.
Looking after all these dogs has been an amazing journey, one that’s not over yet! But one of the best things to come out of this was that I used all my Pet Sitting money and bought Libby my now fiancé a dreamy engagement ring!
– Daniel & Libby
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