Whether you’re taking a few weeks off for vacation or will just be out of town for a day or two, Paw Pals Pet Sitting offers dog sitting services to love and take care of your pup anywhere in Northern Virginia.
Paw Pals provides a wide variety of personalized and loving in-home and out-of-home dog sitting services to keep your dogs happy and healthy while you’re away. We are a locally owned and operated business with a great team of fully vetted pet sitters and dog lovers at heart. Our dog sitting services are flexible and designed to help out dog owners who care deeply about their dogs and do not want them put in a kennel or into boarding while they’re away.
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Professional Dog Sitting
Paw Pals dog sitters are highly trained and fully certified professionals who will guarantee the “Best Care for your Best Friend” in all of Northern Virginia. Each of our sitters will care for your dogs just as you would and will love your dogs as if they were our own – because each of them are puppy parents as well! We give your dogs the interaction, exercise, and love they crave while helping to keep them in their regular routines while you’re away.
Paw Pals’ sitters are licensed, bonded, fully insured, and 100% PetTech certified in Pet CPR and First Aid. For your convenience, we offer regular vacation visits (non-overnight), in-home overnight dog & house sitting, and our bed & biscuit service where your dog stays overnight at a Paw Pals pet sitter’s home. Each of our services can be paired with our house sitting and garden watering services where our pet sitters look after your home while you’re away.
Dog Sitting Vacation Visits
Paw Pals pet sitters love to care for and play with your dog by keeping them happy in their regular routines while you’re away. This helps minimize stress, anxiety, and loneliness for your dog, as well as keeps them stimulated at regular intervals. Vacation visits are available from anywhere between 30-60 minutes depending on your preferences. Vacation visits include walks, playtime, attention and affection, brushing, treats, fresh food and water, cage cleaning (if needed), and medication administration. Our pet sitters are also able to take care of minor household tasks while you’re away to help secure your home and make it seem as if someone were home. These include bringing in papers and mail, alternating lights, opening and closing blinds, and plant sitting.
For the wellbeing of your dogs, they will require at least 3 visits per day while you’re away. This keeps them happy, healthy, and stimulated to avoid any misbehavior or home damage.
Vacation Visit Pricing
| Vacation Visits | Standard Visit | Extended Visit | Deluxe Visit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visit Duration | 30 Minutes | 45 Minutes | 60 Minutes |
| Idea For | Typical dogs and energetic puppies; may have cats or other critters as well | Dogs requiring more play time, walking, and attention; may have cats or other critters as well | Dogs requiring more play time, walking, and attention; may have cats or other critters as well |
| First Dog | $27.00 | $35.00 | $50.00 |
| Extra Dog (Each) | $3.00 | $5.00 | $7.00 |
| Extra Cat (Each) | $2.00 | $2.00 | $2.00 |
Includes:
- Walks, playtime, brushing, and treats
- Fresh food and water at scheduled visit
- Medications, if required (see medication administration)
- Attention and love as if they were our own!
Overnight House & Dog Sitting
If you’re reluctant to leave your dogs alone at night, our sitters can come to your home and stay with your pets overnight with our overnight house & dog sitting service. Overnight dog sitting includes a 30 minute walk for your dogs in the evening and in the morning, as well as walks, playtime, brushing, treats, fresh food and water, medication administration, and attention and love as if they were our own! In addition, our sitters will bring in all mail and papers, do some plant sitting, open and close blinds, alternate lights, adjust thermostats, and take out or bring in the trash and recycling. Our sitters are always respectful of and courteous toward your home, and will leave it at least as well as they found it, guaranteed.
A Paw Pals dog sitter will stay with your dog or dogs overnight. Overnight stays are for 12 hours with arrival times between 7-10 PM. Included is a 30 minute walk for your dogs in the evening and in the morning. Additional mid-day visits may be scheduled as needed.
Note: Subject to sitter availability.
Overnight House & Dog Sitting Pricing
| Cost Per Night | # of Dogs |
|---|---|
| $153.00 | First Dog |
| $16.00 | Per Additional Dog |
Dog Sitting Includes:
- Walks, playtime, brushing, treats
- Fresh food and water at scheduled visit
- Medications, if required (see medication
administration) - Attention and love as if they were our
own!
House Sitting Includes:
- Bringing in papers, mail, and packages
- Plant sitting and watering house plants
- Opening/closing blinds
- Alternating lights
- Taking out/bringing in trash and
recycling
Bed & Biscuit (Boarding) Pet Sitting
If you don’t want your best friend to be alone at night but prefer not to have a dog sitter stay in-house while you’re away, your well-behaved dogs may stay at a Paw Pals pet sitter’s home with our Bed & Biscuit boarding service. Each stay is highly personalized to allow your dogs to continue with their typical routine as closely as possible. Dogs are treated as part of the family when they stay with our sitters, and you’ll return home to find them with a smile on their face! To be eligible for bed & biscuit, dogs must be social, friendly, house trained, and be current on their shots and flea & tick medication.
This service costs $80 per night for one dog. Additional dogs are $40 per night.
Regular daytime vacation feeding/walk rates also apply. (see Vacation Visits above)
Additional Services
Dog Supply Pick-Up
We can shop at your preferred specialty store or the nearest pet supply store to pick up food, supplies, litter, etc, that a pet owner needs but is unable or unavailable to do so. Whether someone is out of town or is just too busy, Paw Pals’ dog and pet sitters can get all of the supplies your pets need to stay cute!
Note: We will shop at a nearby pet supply store. If a particular specialty store is requested, depending on the distance, additional costs may be incurred.
Cost: $20 plus amount of receipt
Dog Transportation / Dog Taxi Service
Paw Pals’ pet taxi service is available to help dog owners manage their time more effectively, and can be very useful when an owner is unavailable or on vacation. With this service, we can transport pets to the groomer, vet, or other places they might need to go to in our service area. We will be able to remain with a pet through the entire visit in order to reassure and give them the attention they need. Paw Pals requires our clients to make prearranged payments with their groomer or vet, and we must also require our clients to be reachable to make any important decisions during these visits. This service is available by appointment and can include up to 2 pets, with an additional charge for more.
Calculate Your Cost Estimate:
- Go to Google maps: Driving directions to get the route distance
- Multiply the distance by $3.00
- Add $20.00 for Drop-off and/or Pick-up charge for the first pet; $5 extra for each additional pet
- Add $15 per half hour waiting time (You do not pay both a Drop-off and Pick-up charge if we wait.)
Dog Medication Administration
Every Paw Pals pet sitter has training to administer pet medications. In most cases, pets will take the medication with a little coaxing, or willingly, and administering medication in food or treats would not require an additional charge when feeding your pets. However, medications including subcutaneous fluids and injections such as insulin require additional expertise and an add-on fee.
Cost:
- Topical – $5
- Oral in food – $0
- Oral without food – $5
- Injections – $15
- Subcutaneous Fluids – $25
Dog Waste Pickup (Poopie Patrol)
Sometimes dog owners are not able or available to pick up all of the dog piles in the yard. Nobody wants a shoe emergency on their hands, so our poopie patrol service can handle the realities of this daunting task. This can be performed by Paw Pals as an add-on to a regular pet sitting or dog sitting visit, or can be scheduled as a separate service.
Stand-alone Cost:
- $16.00 for the first 15 minutes
- $10.00 for each additional 15 minutes
Add-on Cost:
- $10.00 for the first 15 minutes
- $10.00 for each additional 15 minutes
House Sitting / Garden Watering
Don’t have dogs or cats, but you still need your house taken care of while you are away? Our house sitting can be done by us visiting your home once or twice a day to take care of the minor household tasks that you would normally do. Your home is made more secure by crime-deterring measures taken by your pet sitter, including:
- Bringing in papers, mail, and packages
- Pkant sitting and watering house plants
- Feeding fish and refilling bird feeders
- Opening/closing blinds
- Alternating lights
- Taking out/bringing in trash and recycling
Cost: $20 per day/visit
Garden Watering
Garden watering can be added onto either House Sitting or Pet Sitting visits.
Cost: $8.00 for each 15 minutes
Plant Sitting
When you are gone for a while, watering your plant can sometimes be a job that you might not remember and then regret. It can be a tedious task for anyone to drive over to your place just to water your plants, but it is a pretty easy job for someone who is already there. When our pet sitters are already taking care of your home and your sweet dog, they could also help to do some plant sitting. We are able to make sure that your plant is well watered and taken care of!
Dog Sitting Policies
Paw Pals has policies and procedures in place for certain situations which include:
Safety First!
First and foremost, our professional dog sitters put safety first. We do our absolute best to make sure there is nothing that could go wrong during any of our visits. Each of our dog and pet sitters is certified in PetTech PetSaver First Aid and CPR and must re-certify every two years in order to keep up with the best safety practices which could save the life of a pet in an emergency. Each of Paw Pals’ dog and pet sitters is truly an animal lover, and that is how we can always provide the care and attention that your dogs crave during the day.
New Client Setup / Meet & Greet
Before someone becomes one of our dog or pet sitting clients, we require an initial “Meet & Greet” at your home to make introductions with you and each of your pets. We’ll take this time to discuss the needs of you and your pets, determine a pet’s temperament and behavior, and analyze whether a dog is an acceptable candidate for our dog or pet sitting services. Once this has occurred, we can talk about a pet’s normal routine as we fill out all of our required paperwork and inform new clients on our policies and procedures.
We also use this as an opportunity for you to show us your pet’s routine, and for us to complete all the paperwork and go over our policies and procedures. However, you are under no obligation to obtain services as a result of this visit, and we reserve the right to refuse service if we believe a pet is not a good candidate for our services.
Cost: $25.00 (This fee will be waived if Paw Pals determines that your pet(s) will not be a good
candidate for our services.)
Note: For existing clients who add a new pet to their family and wish for their pet sitter to meet them and the pet before services begin, there will be a $15.00 visit fee.
Late Bookings
We understand that not everything happens as planned and will do our best to accommodate last-minute requests. These requests are not guaranteed and are subject to sitter availability. Please note that requests made after business hours will be considered as having been received the next business day.
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- Existing clients: Requests made with less than 2 business days’ notice will incur a $10.00/visit surcharge. Same-day requests will incur an additional $25/visit last minute booking charge. (If the request is for a series of visits, the surcharges will apply only to the visits within the late booking period, not all the visits in the series.)
- New clients: All new clients must have an initial Meet & Greet completed before any visits or services can be confirmed. Please see New Client Setup/Meet & Greet section above.
Inclement Weather
For days when there is severe inclement weather, a $20.00 fee may apply. This policy is most often associated with a federal government shutdown or if Fairfax County Public Schools are closed.
