What to Tell Your Dog Sitter Before You Leave

A good sitter handoff should make your dog’s ordinary day easy to recognize. It tells another person what usually happens, where everything lives, who can make decisions, and what to do when the day does not go as planned.

The goal is not to write a biography of your dog or leave a stack of instructions no one can absorb. It is to create a calm, usable bridge between your routine and the person caring for your dog while you are away.

Start With the Handoff, Not the Packing

Before writing instructions, decide what kind of care you are arranging: overnight care in your home, scheduled drop-ins, walks, boarding, or a handoff between several caregivers. Confirm the dates, arrival and departure windows, visit length, overnight expectations, key access, communication plan, and services included.

Pet Sitters International recommends clear onboarding information, written policies, communication expectations, emergency criteria, and required forms as part of a professional sitter-client relationship.^[1]

The best sitter instructions make the normal day obvious—and the next call easy to make.

Create a One-Page Dog Snapshot

Place the information a caregiver may need quickly on one page:

• Your dog’s name, current photograph, age, breed or mix, color, and identifying features
• Microchip number and registry—not account passwords
• Your mobile number, travel contact method, and expected response window
• A local backup person who has agreed to help
• Primary veterinary clinic and the veterinary service you want contacted when the clinic is closed
• Insurance or membership details only when they are relevant and safe to share
• Where the full instructions and veterinary documents are stored

Use the same name and phone numbers across the sitter sheet, collar tag, microchip registry, clinic record, and emergency contact list. Consistency reduces questions.

Describe the Routine in the Order It Happens

A chronological schedule is easier to follow than scattered notes. Write the day from morning through bedtime:

• Wake-up and first bathroom break
• Meals, using the owner-provided amount and measuring tool
• Walks, yard time, play, rest, and enrichment
• Any veterinary-prescribed medication, copied exactly from the current label and written directions
• Usual location during quiet time or when the caregiver leaves
• Evening routine, final bathroom break, and sleeping arrangement

Include ranges where the routine is genuinely flexible. If something must happen at a specific time because your veterinary team directed it, identify it clearly and provide the clinic’s written instructions. Do not ask a sitter to interpret or change a medication plan.

Explain the Details That Are Easy to Assume

Caregiver confusion often begins with information that feels too ordinary to mention. Write down:

• Which door and gate should be used
• Whether the dog waits before thresholds or tends to rush through them
• How the leash, harness, and collar are fitted
• Where waste bags, towels, cleaning supplies, food, and backup supplies are kept
• Which rooms or furniture are off-limits
• Whether the dog should meet visitors, delivery workers, children, or other animals
• Words, hand signals, and routines the dog already knows
• What a relaxed, ordinary day looks like for your dog

Use observable language. “She usually pauses at the back door and looks at you before going out” is more useful than “She is always good at the door.”

Write Feeding Instructions That Can Be Repeated

Leave the dog’s usual food in its original packaging or a clearly identified owner-prepared container, along with the exact scoop or measuring cup you use. Record the serving amount and routine supplied by you or your veterinary team.

Also note:

• Where meals are served
• Whether the dog eats separately from other animals
• Approved treats and chews
• Foods, table scraps, toys, or chews the sitter should not offer
• What the caregiver should record about meals
• Who to contact if the routine changes or the caregiver has a question

Do not leave the sitter to estimate portions, substitute products, or invent a response to a missed meal. Your written escalation plan should tell them whom to call.

Make Walk and Door Safety Specific

Walk the sitter through the actual route and equipment before you leave. Identify permitted routes, off-limits areas, known fence gaps, doors that do not latch reliably, wildlife or neighborhood patterns, and whether dog-to-dog greetings are allowed.

Show—not merely describe—how you secure gates, attach the leash, use the harness, and move through the front door. For a weekend away, a ten-minute practice handoff can reveal more than a page of polished instructions.

If the caregiver will also drive your dog, agree in advance on the owner-approved travel setup. The CDC advises planning ahead, using secure travel arrangements, keeping identification current, and never leaving a pet alone in a parked vehicle.^[2]

Copy Medication Directions; Never Reconstruct Them

List every current prescription, preventive, supplement, topical product, and other product the veterinary team needs the caregiver to know about. Keep each item in its labeled container and copy the current directions exactly.

For each product, provide:

• Name and strength shown on the label
• Directions exactly as written
• Where it is stored
• How the sitter should record that it was given
• Who to call about a missed, refused, spilled, or uncertain amount

Do not add general internet advice about missed doses or substitutions. Those answers depend on the product and the dog.

Build a Short Communication Plan

Agree on what updates will look like before the trip. For example:

• One morning and one evening update
• A short note about meals, bathroom breaks, walks, and medication records
• A photograph only when it can be taken safely
• An immediate call for the specific home, access, safety, or veterinary situations you identified
• A backup contact method if the first message is not answered

Keep “routine update” and “call now” situations visually separate. Leaving Emergency Instructions That Actually Get Read explains how to build that second layer without burying it in the daily schedule.

Two related guides cover situations this handoff often runs into. If the dog is traveling with you rather than staying home, Road-Trip Packing for Dogs covers what to bring and what documentation to have ready. If you are receiving a dog rather than leaving one — as a foster or temporary caregiver — Foster Dog Intake: What to Capture on Day One is the same handoff written from the other side.

Leave Decision Authority in Writing

Ask your veterinary clinic and sitter what forms they require before the booking. Pet Sitters International notes that many professional sitters use a veterinary release form because an owner or emergency contact may not be immediately reachable.^[3]

A general article cannot determine what authorization is valid for your clinic, sitter, insurer, state, or situation. Confirm the correct process directly with the people and organizations involved. Never leave account passwords, unrestricted payment information, or vague authority where a narrower written arrangement will do.

Do a Five-Minute Read-Back

Before leaving, ask the sitter to show you:

1. Where the dog snapshot and full instructions are kept
2. How the primary door, gate, leash, and harness work
3. Where food, supplies, and labeled medications are stored
4. Who they call first for a routine question
5. Who they call when they cannot reach you

This is not a test. It is a chance to find the missing sentence while you are still standing together.

For a concise handoff sheet, use Everything My Sitter Needs to Know. It is designed for anyone leaving a dog with a sitter and gives the caregiver one dependable place to begin.