Finding the Right Pet Sitter When You Have a Reactive Dog

Brooke's Photography | Equine, canine and branding photographer serving Vancouver and the Lower Mainland

I've written before about what it means to hand something precious over to someone else and trust them to take care of it. Usually that's about a photo session, a gallery of images someone's waited years to have taken. This time it was about something else entirely. Finding a pet sitter for Ulu.

Whether you have a reactive dog or not, you understand why this felt like such a big decision. But if you have one, you already know. It's not just "who can watch my dog for a few days." It's "who can I trust to handle my dog safely".

My Mexican rescue Ulu is reactive to strangers and new people, and it takes very little to tip into a bad moment. So when I needed a pet sitter, I wasn't just looking for someone with good reviews and an open calendar. I was looking for someone who wouldn't make my dog feel unsafe.

Why Rover wasn't going to cut it

I started where a lot of people start, on Rover. The first few sitters worked fine but it took one bad experience for my dog and I deleted the app for good. Anyone can post a profile there. There's no vetting, no way to know who actually understands a dog like mine versus who's just looking to make some extra cash on weekends. For a lot of dogs, that's fine. For Ulu, it wasn't a risk I was willing to take again.

I needed someone professional. Someone with actual experience, not just good intentions. And the search for that was time consuming and stressful. Safety was the whole point of this search, and here I was running out of time to find it.

In-home sitting or boarding

Before I even got to comparing sitters, I had to decide what kind of care I was even looking for. In-home sitting or boarding. For a reactive dog, this isn't a small decision, it's the whole foundation of everything else.

Boarding means your dog is in an unfamiliar space, often around other dogs, sometimes in a kennel environment for stretches of the day. For a dog that's already overwhelmed by strangers, that's a lot of new stimulation stacked on top of the stress of you being gone.

If you do go the boarding route, you need to know exactly where your dog is staying. Not just the name of the place. Who's actually there overnight, how dogs are separated or introduced to each other, what happens if your dog has a bad moment. Ask to see the space. Ask what their protocol is for a dog that isn't comfortable with other animals or humans.

In-home sitting, whether that's someone coming to your house or your dog staying in theirs, keeps a lot more familiar. Fewer new dogs, fewer new sounds, fewer transitions in a single day. For Ulu, that made in-home the obvious choice. Less change meant less to react to.

Neither option is automatically right or wrong. But if you have a reactive dog, don't skip this decision or assume boarding is just the default. Think about what your dog can actually handle, not just what's convenient to book.

How I actually found her

I found the sitter I ended up booking through a local community group, not an app. She was posting about her own experience with reactive dogs, sharing a story about her own, and just genuinely trying to help people in similar situations. That's what got my attention before I ever messaged her. It wasn't a sales pitch. It read like someone who actually got it.

She also had a website and an intake form, which told me something too. It showed me she was treating this like a real business, not something she was doing on the side without much thought.

The meet-and-greet that sold it

What finally convinced me was the meet-and-greet itself. Before she did anything, she explained what she was doing and why. She told me she wasn't going to try to be Ulu's friend right away, that she wasn't going to push for that connection in the first few minutes. She was going to let Ulu set the pace.

Then she just did it. I watched her body language, listened to how she talked to Ulu, watched what she did and didn't do, and I could tell. She knew what she was doing. She wasn't guessing.

Along the way she told me a couple of stories about her own dog, the things she'd learned the hard way. It felt like she'd actually lived this. That's such a small thing to ask for, someone who tells you what they're doing instead of just doing it.

I felt something ease in me in that meet-and-greet. Not because it went perfectly, but because I finally felt like someone understood what I needed before I had to explain it twice.

What to actually look for in a Pet Sitter

If you're in the middle of this search right now, here's everything I was weighing, beyond just gut feeling.

Experience with reactive dogs specifically. Not dog experience in general. Ask how they've handled it before, and listen for real examples, not reassurances.

Professionalism. A website and an intake form are good signs. They don't need to be polished, but they should exist. It tells you this is a real business, not a side hustle. And this one matters, because this is someone who may be coming into your home. You need to know you can trust them, not just with your dog, but with your space.

Reviews, if they have them. Reviews can help, but keep in mind that a newer business might not have many yet, and that's not automatically a red flag. Weigh reviews alongside everything else, not instead of it.

Availability, and how much of it is actually yours. It's not just whether they have an opening. Ask how much dedicated time your dog will get, and how many other bookings or commitments they're juggling alongside yours.

What certifications does the company require. If they have employees, ask how those people are hired and trained. Whether it's one person or a team, you want to know the standard being held.

Insurance, this one's easy to forget until something goes wrong. A professional sitter should have it.

Responsiveness, kindness, and how they make you feel in that first conversation. This part isn't soft. It's information. If they're kind and patient with you before they've even met your dog, that tends to carry through.

The Pet Sitter I ended up going with

The sitter I'm talking about is Lilly, from Sit Down Stay Dog Training. I don't say this lightly. I would genuinely recommend her to anyone in a similar spot with a reactive dog. From my own experience with her and Ulu, she's exactly what I've described here, patient, experienced, and someone who actually knows how to read a dog like mine.

If she hadn't been available, my next call would have been Sit Stay Sparkle. Everything I saw and experienced in my first few introductions left a good impression, and they'd be a solid choice too.

What I want you to take from this

If you've got a reactive dog It's not really about finding someone available. It's about finding someone safe.

Don't settle for the first "sure, I can watch her". Ask the questions. Watch how they respond when you mention the hard parts. The right person won't rush you, they'll slow down for your pet, and go at their pace.

It's the same thing I try to give my clients in a  photo session. Whether it's a sitter or a photographer, the trust you're looking for isn't really about credentials on a page. It's about whether the person in front of you is willing to meet your dog exactly where she is, and let that be enough.

That's what I look for now. In sitters, and in the way I try to show up for every dog that sits in front of my camera.

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 If you've been meaning to get photos of your dog, let's talk. I'm based in Vancouver and photograph dogs all over the Lower Mainland, reach out and let's chat about a session

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