Updated 17 Sep 2026
After the sitter is booked
You already booked the person.These notes are about handing them the house, and about staying with the animals.
The handoff
Name who may decide if you cannot answer
The AVMA says to pick an authorized person before you leave, and to write spend limits and what they may approve.A clinic may still want a call.A note on the fridge is not that letter.
Write the daily routine, not a guess
AAHA tells owners to leave a pet profile, the daily routine, where supplies live, and a plan for storms or injury.The point is the sitter can keep the same day you already run.
Sitters still wait on the Welcome Guide
Sitters on the host forum say they will not start a stay without the notes.Some ask for the guide within days of the booking.Hosts still write it after they find the person.
A door left open at dusk is the flock risk
Keepers writing for 2026 say a door left open at dusk is the biggest risk of an unattended coop.They still tell you to leave written instructions.Automation cannot count a limping hen.
TrustedHousesitters added a list before you leave
Three weeks before a booked stay, hosts now see a reminder to share the Welcome Guide, set supplies, and ready the home.The stay is already booked.Writing the house is still a later step.
The Dashboard
Booking them is not writing the house
Search tools keep getting funding.Handing them the house is still a guide you write later.We write the house once and reuse it on the next stay.
Dusk Latch
Dogs and hens each get their own list
Sitters are already being asked to run flocks and barn animals next to dogs.Animals that eat and go out together stay on one list.Lock-up at dusk is part of the day, not a tip in the margin.
Dusk Latch
Who may spend, and who may decide
If you may be unreachable, the sitter needs the clinic, the spend, and the backup person in the Dashboard.That is part of leaving, not a text after midnight.
Dusk Latch
Around the stay
2.6 million nights away last year
TrustedHousesitters says its members covered 2.6 million nights away in 2025, with more than 250,000 pets in the community.That is a lot of houses handed over.Each one still needs a written house.
TrustedHousesitters is testing a typed search for stays
Search Plus lets a sitter type what they want instead of only using filters.That is still a search for a house to stay at.It is not the notes for the person you already have.
Sitters are now watching chickens, goats, and sheep
In Chester County, sitters say a dog house often adds hens a year later.The Inquirer cites a study of more than 85 million backyard chickens in the country.The hens have their own lock-up at dusk.
Rover bought a cat-sitting app
Rover Group acquired Meowtel to grow cat-specific sitting.They already bought Mad Paws in Australia last November.Money is still going into finding the person, not writing the house.
In-home sitting is a few-billion-dollar job
Paid reports put global pet sitting around two to four billion dollars in 2025 and 2026, and growing.They disagree on the exact number.They agree people want the animals kept at home.
Create a house plan now.The next stay will not wait.
If you still need a sitter, this is not that.
Create a house plan now