Free pet sitting and dog walking contract template

It should say what a visit includes and costs, how clients cancel and pay, how you handle keys, emergencies and vet care, and who is responsible if something goes wrong. Signed forms at the back cover the vet, medicines, keys, a backup guardian and the card you charge. The template has 18 sections.

1. 1. Services and pricesEach service, what one visit includes, its price, holiday extras, and 30 days' notice of a price change.
2. 2. ScheduleAgreed visit times, a window either side for traffic, and how to add, move or skip a visit.
3. 3. Backup carerWho comes if you're ill, told to the client first, or a box to tick to cancel instead.
4. 4. CancellationsThe notice to cancel a visit, a longer notice and a deposit for overnight stays, and no charge when you cancel.
5. 5. Severe weather and emergenciesYou decide if a visit is safe, and what the client pays when you can't get there.
6. 6. PaymentWhen payment is due, how clients pay, late and returned-payment fees, and the card on file form.
7. 7. Keys and home accessKeys labeled with a code, codes kept private, lost keys replaced, and everything returned at the end.
8. 8. Your homeThermostat, rooms that are off limits, alarms, cameras, and supplies for the whole booking.
9. 9. Health, medicine and the vetVaccinations, medicine only as written, and vet care up to a limit when you can't reach the client.
10. 10. Behavior and safetyBites and escape attempts told up front, dogs on leash outside, and the right to stop care.
11. 11. Lost or escaped petWho you call, where you search, and who pays for the search.
12. 12. If a pet dies in our careWho you call first, where the pet goes, and the client's choice of aftercare.
13. 13. If you don't come homeCare continues at your rates, then the emergency contact and pet guardian, and pets are never rehomed.
14. 14. PhotosPhotos during visits, and social media only with a Yes, never showing the client's home.
15. 15. PrivacyThe address, codes and schedule kept private, and never posting that the client is away.
16. 16. LiabilityWho is responsible for what, your insurance if you carry it, and the client's initials.
17. 17. Ending this agreementEither side can end it in writing with 14 days' notice, or at once if someone isn't safe.
18. 18. Standard termsThe whole agreement, changes in writing, notices, electronic signatures and your state's law.

Every choice that's yours to make is in [brackets]: the notice periods, fees, limits and your state. Change them, and delete what you don't use.

Only with written permission, and exactly as written. The form lists each medicine with its strength, dose, time, how it's given and where it's kept. You never change a dose, and you tell the client the same day if a pet won't take one or seems unwell after it.

Permission to give medication

• Pet, medicine and strength
• Dose, when, and how it's given: pill, liquid, drops or injection
• Where each medicine is kept
• A new form, or a change in writing, for any new medicine or dose

The person the client names on the emergency pet guardian form. If you can't reach the client a set time after the booking ends, the client allows you to hand the pets, their food, medicines and records to that guardian. The client asks them first, and your rates apply until they collect.

Emergency pet guardian

• The guardian's name, phone and town
• Whether they have a key to the home
• The pets they agree to take
• A second guardian if the first can't be reached

No. The same agreement works for dog walking: set the walk length and what it includes in section 1, and keep the leash rule in section 10 and the lost pet steps in section 11. Delete the overnight lines if you only walk. Group walks and off-leash play are permissions on the intake form.