In this episode we unpack what to look forward to for the month April. Why Responsibilities matter and how to apply them across the spectrum from the business owner all the way to what the client is accountable for.

Training Document Module 3

Over four years ago, I sat down with Collin Funkhouser on the Pet Sitter Confessional podcast (Episode 132) and tried to explain how we onboard cats into the Finicky system.

At the time, Collin called it “holistic.”

Collin Speaking 20:10 mark: But what you do with this environmental program is you back way up, and start from the top and do a whole assessment of this cats world and just do a holistic approach to this and go, Okay, what what is this? How can we approach this and give it the best level of care by asking all these in depth questions, and, you know, these videos and doing this, you know, just looking at the cat's behavior and recognizing that each one's unique and individual, it really takes it to a different a whole different level of care. I've said that a couple times here, but it but it really is. And I love hearing about that approach to this.

Not because “holistic” was vague or philosophical, but because there wasn’t better language yet for what we were building. A process of cat care evaluation that encompassed this cats whole world to ensure not just food, water, litterbox. But an entire care plan that included the cats own comfort and anxiety levels. Enrichments from music, cat TV, foraging treat games to the favorite snuggle.

That interview feels like it was a million miles and a million years ago. It was the early moment where pet sitting learned about something at Finicky we now call ‘enrichment.’ It is found to be so valuable in our day to day work that it is now taught throughout the industry and at conferences by the experts. We know it is a wonderful part of the care plans we put together for clients, it is a professional add-on, one that many of us realize is actually essential care for cats and dogs.

What happens when the USDA Starts to Catch-up

Everyone is talking about “enrichment,” but the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is asking a different question entirely: does it actually meet the standard for dog welfare? As they review a standard of dog care that’s over 30 years old they are asking should it move into a measurable standard of care?

Those are not the same conversation. Enrichment is widely discussed, frequently marketed, and inconsistently applied, but it is not defined, not measured, or documented as a condition of care. And once it influences behavior, it stops being optional.

And again the law is looking at outcome based care. A way of looking at what we do as pet sitters and dog walkers that I have been exploring with you for nearly 40 weeks. If you’ve been reading along here on Substack we have been working our way through a soft landing into the regulatory world and just what does that look like for the pet care industry.

The industry may still describe enrichment as an added benefit. But as the broader animal welfare framework evolves, the question will shift from whether it is offered…to how it is being used, and whether that use is sufficient.

There is no shared language for what “adequate” exercise looks like, no consistent way to evaluate socialization outcomes, and no framework for understanding how insufficient stimulation affects behavior in real-world handling conditions.

That absence matters because behavior is not neutral. It is responsive. It shifts based on inputs, and those inputs include stimulation, routine, environment, and change. When those inputs are inconsistent, behavior becomes less predictable. When behavior becomes less predictable, risk increases. That progression is not theoretical; it is observable in everyday pet care work, especially in the moments that precede incidents—the hesitation at the door, the stiffness during feeding, the dog that watches instead of relaxes.

Once enrichment is understood as an input that influences behavioral stability, it moves categories.

The industry talks about enrichment. Regulators are asking what counts.

How ‘enrichment’ becomes a legal standard

Right now, the industry treats enrichment as a benefit. It is positioned as an enhancement to care, something that improves quality of life but sits outside the core structure of pet sitting service delivery. But once it influences behavior, it becomes a variable that affects outcomes. And variables that affect outcomes require control.

And control, when questioned, requires evidence.

Without that shift, enrichment remains subjective, dependent on individual interpretation rather than consistent practice. That is exactly what USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and federal regulators are trying to understand right now, before any rulemaking begins.

This is where the regulatory question becomes sharper. If exercise and socialization are tied to welfare outcomes, then they are no longer optional features of good care; they are conditions of care. And conditions of care carry an expectation of consistency, documentation, and defensibility. It is not enough to say enrichment was provided. The question becomes how it was provided, whether it was sufficient, and what impact it had on the animal’s behavioral state.

Where the Pet Care Industry Lives

The pet care industry, as it currently operates, does not have a standardized way to answer those questions. Most providers rely on experience, intuition, and informal notes. Those are valuable, but they are not structured systems. They do not produce consistent data, and they do not demonstrate control over the variables that influence behavior. As even the federal government begins to ask the question…does enrichment matter in a regulatory or liability context, that gap becomes significant.

What is emerging, whether intentionally or not, is a shift from philosophy to measurement. The conversation is moving away from what good care looks like and toward what can be evaluated, compared, and verified. That shift does not require abandoning enrichment. It requires reframing it. Not as an optional add-on, but as a behavioral input that must be understood in terms of its effect on stability, predictability, and risk. Those factors are what affects animal welfare obligations.

Because once a variable influences behavior, and behavior influences outcomes, the question is no longer whether it matters.

Pet sitters already understand the value of enrichment. What they may not realize is that the moment it is recognized as a factor in animal welfare at the federal level, it begins the transition from something you offer…to something that is the baseline to good pet care and husbandry.

Years ago, we described this as holistic care. Looking at the animal’s whole world and adjusting it to support comfort and reduce stress. Today, those same inputs are being examined through a different lens—not as philosophy, but as factors that influence measurable welfare outcomes.

The comment period is open until April 20, 2026

Pet Sitter Confessional Episode 132

USDA Seeks Public Input on Updating Dog Welfare Regulations; Comment Period Extended to April 20, 2026

This effort reflects USDA’s commitment to strengthening dog welfare nationwide, a top priority for Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. The review will focus on care standards for breeding females, as well as requirements for exercise and socialization—areas where science and best practices have advanced significantly since the early 1990s.

This conversation is not theoretical. It is already shaping how care is being evaluated, both in the field and at the regulatory level.

I’ll be continuing this discussion in more detail during an upcoming Pet Sitters International FOCUS Summit session this May, where we’ll look at how behavior, environment, and decision-making come together in real-time care and how behavior knowledge, when applied consistently, protects the pet, the client, and the professional providing the service.

When dog’s lunge and cats hiss, but nothing happens? Do you treat that as safety data or just another day in pet sitting?

The Visit You’re Allowed to Walk Away From

Your Part of the Deal

Worker responsibilities — including the right to stop

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Full training packet is available at: Field Notes For Pet Pros

If you run a pet sitting or dog walking company, you already know the challenge. Safety training takes time. Writing policies takes time. Ever fed a safety policy into ChatGPT and gotten back a 20-page manual that sounds professional… but your team would never actually follow?

That pressure is exactly why many owners are experimenting with AI tools and large language models to generate safety programs.

But there is a growing danger hiding inside that shortcut.

When an LLM substitutes for the safety professional, the business owner is exposed to two risks at the same time. The program may be too weak to demonstrate “good faith” compliance if an incident occurs and an inspector arrives. Or the opposite happens: the AI produces policies and procedures the owner never intended to implement, quietly creating obligations the company cannot realistically meet.

“Good faith” isn’t about perfect paperwork. It’s about showing you recognized hazards and took reasonable steps to control them.

In some cases, the document may even look impressive enough that an attorney tells you it is well written. That assessment may be correct from a legal standpoint. But safety programs are not only legal documents. They are operational systems. A safety professional evaluates whether the policies match the hazards and realities of the work being done.

The problem is that safety programs are not judged by how they read. They are judged by how they operate.

There is a simple enforcement reality behind that distinction: if it’s written in your safety program, OSHA expects you to be doing it.

That is where AI-generated safety programs can quietly create risk. A language model may draft policies, procedures, and commitments that sound thorough and responsible. But if those procedures are not actually implemented, trained, and followed by your team, the document becomes evidence of a gap rather than proof of compliance.

A language model can generate text. It cannot recognize hazards, verify implementation, or manage accountability inside a workplace. That responsibility still belongs to the employer.

An underbuilt safety program and an overbuilt program both create regulatory exposure. ⚖️

Legal review asks: Is this language defensible?Safety leadership asks: Can this actually be done in the field?

Those two questions overlap, but they are not the same. And that difference is where many AI-generated safety programs begin to break down. 🧭

Understanding the Role of Best Practices

For pet sitters and dog walkers, “best practices” can sound like polite suggestions. In the safety world, they carry more weight than that.

OSHA regulations are the legal floor. They are the specific rules written into federal law. But many hazards in our field are not covered by detailed OSHA standards. There is no federal rulebook written specifically for dog bites, reactive animals, icy walkways, or entering private homes alone.

That is where the General Duty Clause comes in. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, employers must provide a workplace free from recognized hazards that could cause serious harm.

A hazard becomes recognized when an industry understands the risk and how it should be managed. OSHA often demonstrates this by looking at best practices. These may include professional organization guidance, industry training materials, manufacturer instructions, or widely accepted safety procedures.

So while best practices are not regulations themselves, they can become evidence that a hazard was known and that reasonable controls existed.

For pet sitters and dog walkers, industry guidance often references frameworks such as Pet Sitters International’s Global Standards for Professional Pet-Sitting & Dog-Walking Businesses (2025), NAPPS, PPG, or Fear Free. These outline baseline expectations like pet first aid and CPR certification, safe animal handling protocols, written emergency and bite-response plans, behavioral risk screening, lone-worker safety measures, and injury reporting.

These are not regulations in the same sense as OSHA standards. They function more like consensus guidance. But when widely accepted in an industry, they help demonstrate that foreseeable hazards were understood and that reasonable controls were available.

If conversations like this matter to you, consider subscribing. Field Notes explores how “best practices” quietly become expectations and how safety leadership is emerging inside the pet care industry.

Many industries rely on consensus standards developed by organizations such as ANSI/ASSP, ISO, NFPA, and others to guide how workplace hazards are managed. These standards are not laws on their own, but they often become deeply embedded in the regulatory system.

American Society of Safety Professionals also states that government agencies should make use of these voluntary standards:

Government agencies such as OSHA should be encouraged to utilize consensus standards as an efficient alternative to traditional rulemaking.

Dog bites are a simple example. Most professional pet care organizations acknowledge them as a foreseeable hazard in this work. Training on animal body language, screening new clients, and having a bite response protocol are widely recognized practices. If a company ignores those controls entirely, OSHA could argue the employer failed to address a known hazard.

AI-generated safety programs can complicate this picture.

A language model often pulls language from many industries at once. For example, an LLM might insert policies requiring chemical storage cabinets, lockout procedures, or extensive hazard labeling programs because those are common safety practices in other workplaces. A small pet sitting company may not store chemicals, operate machinery, or maintain a facility where those requirements even apply.

But once that language appears in your written safety program, it becomes an expectation.

This is why written safety programs must be realistic. If your policies promise training, incident reporting, or hazard controls, inspectors will expect those things to actually happen.

A strong safety program is not about impressive paperwork. It is about aligning written policies with the real hazards your team faces and the practices you are prepared to carry out every day. 🐾

Templates

Templates can be useful starting points. They provide structure and help business owners think through hazards they may not have formally documented before.

But a template is not a finished safety program.

Every pet sitting company operates differently. Some only perform cat visits in private homes. Others walk multiple dogs in busy neighborhoods, drive between clients all day, or manage teams entering unfamiliar properties. The hazards and controls will not look exactly the same in each case.

Like AI-generated content, templates must be reviewed and adapted. Remove what does not apply. Adjust policies so they match how your company actually operates. If a procedure is written into the program, your team should be able to demonstrate how it is carried out.

The responsibility for deciding what belongs in the program still rests with the employer.

The Fractional Safety Officer 🧭

Many pet sitting and dog walking companies are too small to hire a full-time safety professional. Yet the hazards of the work are real: animal bites, driving risks, slips and falls, working alone in unfamiliar homes, chemical exposure, and emergency response when something goes wrong.

That gap often leaves owners trying to build safety programs alone using templates, AI tools, or borrowed policies from other industries.

A fractional safety officer or competent person fills the space between do-it-yourself and hiring a full-time specialist.

*A competent person is someone capable of identifying hazards in the workplace and authorized to take prompt action to correct them.

In this model, a safety professional works with a company on a part-time or advisory basis. They help translate regulations into practical policies, review templates so they match the real work being done, and guide owners on implementing training and incident reporting that actually functions in the field.

The goal is not to hand a business a thick manual and disappear. The goal is to make sure the program reflects the real hazards of the work and that the owner understands what each policy requires in practice.

Technology can help draft the document.

A safety professional helps ensure that document reflects a workplace that actually exists. 🐾

Reflection Questions:

* If you reviewed your safety program today, how much of it reflects policies your team is actually trained to follow in the field?

* Have you reviewed any AI-generated or template language to confirm it actually applies to the way your pet sitting business operates?

* Could your team demonstrate the safety procedures written in your program if an incident occurred tomorrow?

* What hazards are most common in your daily work with pets, homes, and travel, and are those hazards clearly addressed in your current policies?

* If an inspector asked how your safety program is implemented, what evidence could you show beyond the written document?

¹ The American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) has noted that government agencies such as OSHA should be encouraged to utilize voluntary consensus standards as an efficient alternative to traditional rulemaking. See: ASSP regulatory comments on consensus standards, available at assp.org

What is a workplace in pet sitting? If you have employees you need to understand this key component of Safety Culture

Field Check: 8 quick yes/no questions before you read.

Your responses help shape future Field Notes on safety governance.

When you go back and read my earliest Field Notes, you may notice something.

There is a small thread running through them. At first it looks like nothing more than a loose piece of string, the kind that appears in quiet reflections about presence, boundaries, or the small decisions we make during a visit.

But over time the string keeps unwinding. In one essay it shows up as a moment in a hallway with a defensive cat named Norman. A cardboard tray in my hand, a growl at the top of the stairs, and the quiet calculation of whether the work should continue.

In another, it appears as a realization that pet sitters do not actually sell minutes. We sell outcomes. If that remains true, then minutes are administrative scheduling, not marketing points. The moment when a nervous cat finally eats. The moment when a dog settles. The moment when a client breathes again because they know things are truly okay, because it was never about minutes anyway.

At the time, those pieces felt like reflections about care. You may have never realized they were also reflections about safety governance. Because long before I ran a pet sitting business, I spent years writing risk assessments for crews heading into environments most people will never see. Places where their lives and work hinged on how well the safety plan was written, understood and implemented. Places where a worker saying ‘NO’ really was a complete sentence between life and death.

The question was always simpler. Did the outcome remain safe? That mindset doesn’t disappear when you change professions. It follows you quietly into new work.

And when you apply that same lens to pet sitting and dog walking, something unexpected happens. The work begins to reveal itself differently. A visit is no longer just a scheduled block of time. It becomes an evaluation of conditions.

The pet that needs 5 minutes extra or the cat that’s happy you leave after 20 minutes. The environment that remains calm and unchaotic. And the Pet Sitter or Dog Walker who can tell responsibly when all those conditions change. The interaction between the all three. In order for all that to work though, you the business owner, needs a safety governance framework.

Outcome-based care, I’ve come to realize, is simply risk assessment wearing a softer sweater.

Puppy Kisses and Kitty Purrs

When we, as pet sitting business owners, set aside the puppy kisses and kitty purrs, we begin evaluating the work.

Many of us already have pieces of the formal structure. A Workers’ Compensation manual sitting on a shelf. Maybe something your attorney helped assemble. Maybe a safety statement buried in an HR handbook. Those documents matter.

But governance doesn’t really live in the binder. It lives in the moment you step into a situation and start asking yourself the questions that determine whether the work should proceed at all. It might live in your Meet & Greet paperwork or in your pet sitting app.

Governance isn’t the binder on the shelf. It’s the moment a sitter stands in a doorway and quietly asks:

Do the conditions in front of me meet the conditions my business agreed to are safe?

Last year, I wrote about one of those moments in Field Note #7: Stormin’ Norman. Norman wasn’t subtle about his feelings. Hisses. Growls. A hallway standoff that left me holding a cardboard food tray like a makeshift riot shield while I calculated my next move.

It may have looked like an ordinary cat-sitting assessment visit from the outside. Do enough cat visits and you know cats will change the rules for you.

Inside my head, though, a completely different process was running.

* Risk Assessment

* Threshold Evaluation

* Decision authority.

Years earlier I had written risk assessments for crews working around tetrachloroethylene being pumped into 55-gallon drums. In the wrong conditions the vapor could knock a worker unconscious in minutes. You respected the hazard, monitored the air, and never assumed the environment was safe simply because it looked quiet.

Standing in that suburban hallway, the same reflex surfaced again. The hazard wasn’t solvent vapor this time. It had whiskers, claws, and a set of teeth.

An aggressive animal can be just as volatile as chemical fumes. The warning signs are different, but the rule is the same: if you ignore the signals, the environment can turn on you faster than you expect. 🐾📋

Not minutes. Outcomes. Was the situation safe enough to proceed? Was the animal defensive or truly dangerous? Could the work be done without escalating the situation?

And most importantly: Was this a job that could be delegated to someone else? If I scaled my business, even adding just one other person. Would they be able to do visits with Norman.

That last question is where governance begins to appear.

Beth Pasek is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Why this is difficult for pet sitters

Because our work is wrapped in affection.

Puppy kisses. Kitty purrs. The quiet intimacy of caring for animals inside someone’s home. Those things are real, and they matter deeply. But they also soften the edges of the work in a way that can make it harder to recognize the structural responsibilities underneath it.

We rarely think of ourselves as operating inside a workplace safety system.

And yet every day we walk into environments we did not design, handle animals we did not raise, administer medications we did not prescribe, and make decisions without immediate supervision. Each visit asks us to evaluate conditions, recognize thresholds, and decide whether the work can safely continue.

In other professions, those judgments are called risk assessment. In pet sitting, we often call it instinct. But instinct is rarely just instinct. It is experience, pattern recognition, and professional judgment quietly doing their work in the background.

Outcome-based care gives that judgment a name.

Governance and the safety policies you set gives it structure.

Reflection Questions

* When you walk into a client’s home, what are you actually evaluating beyond the tasks on the visit checklist?Are you noticing conditions, thresholds, and subtle changes—or simply completing the scheduled routine?

* Think back to a moment when your instincts told you something wasn’t quite right during a visit.What signals did you notice, and how did you decide whether the situation was safe to continue?

* If a sitter on your team encountered a situation like Stormin’ Norman, would they know where their safety threshold is—and would they feel supported in honoring it?

* What decisions in your business are currently made in the moment that might benefit from written policy instead of improvisation?

* When you think about the professionalism of pet sitting, do you measure it primarily by time served—or by the outcomes and conditions you leave behind in the homes you visit?

Before You Touch The Door

Why safety starts before you step inside.

Module 1 available at Field Notes For Pet Pros

Module 1 covers Safety Culture: what it means, why it matters, and how to actually build it into your daily operations — not just hang a policy on the wall and forget it.

It has taken me longer than I expected to push this safety policy manual template to where it needs to be. Weeks, not days. Three snowstorms slowed it down. Early mornings with frozen keyholes and wind cutting sideways across driveways. Visits rescheduled. Routes adjusted. Decisions made in real time.

And in between those visits, I kept reading the same kind of post from other pet sitters: Do I go? Is this safe? What if I can’t reach the client? What if something happens on the road? What if something happens inside the house? Different words all the same anxiety.

When you live inside policy language for weeks longer than you planned to, you start to notice something. Most of those questions should not be decided in the moment. They should already be written down. You need a decision before you need to actually make one.

There is a quiet current in this industry. The need to be the reliable one. The one who shows up no matter what, better than the mailman. Sometimes we call that professionalism. Sometimes it’s hero syndrome. The belief that pushing through risk proves commitment.

Having a Safety policy interrupts that. When expectations are written down, decisions stop being personal tests of dedication and start being structural choices with plans. You are not a hero for absorbing preventable risk. You are a professional for managing it.

This past month here on Field Notes Substack we reviewed three pet care businesses. All three had Standard Operating Procedures. They had onboarding materials. They had training checklists. They had step-by-step instructions for how to walk a dog, complete a visit report, handle a meet and greet.

They could teach someone how to perform the work, but they did not have “policy.”

Beyond a client service agreement, there was no written safety policy. No formal injury reporting procedure. No hazard assessment framework. No HR governance document outlining expectations, discipline, documentation, or acknowledgment. No environmental handling policy.

They had SOPs. They did not have structural governance.

Two of those businesses were cited after OSHA investigations. The citations were small. Two hundred dollars. Six hundred dollars. Administrative. Manageable. Nominal. It would be easy to look at that and think, “That’s not so bad.”

But OSHA does not cite you for being unkind. It cites you for lacking systems.

SOPs answer the question: How do we do this task?

Policies answer the question: How does this company govern?

That distinction matters when something goes sideways.

And then there was the third case. A small team. Busy, growing. Certainly not reckless or chaotic. Just moving and hustling like we all do in pet sitting.

A dog nipped a finger. The team member did their own first aid. Later the finger became infected leading to an amputation, a serious injury that occurred during the course of work.

The injured employee sought medical treatment. The medical system reported the injury, as it is required to do in certain cases. That is how OSHA became involved.

Because amputations, hospitalizations, and fatalities carry federal reporting obligations within specific timeframes for all employers, not just the ones with more than 11 employees.

They are not handled quietly through workers’ compensation alone. The team believed their responsibility ended with filing a claim. It did not. Now the case is under full investigation.

And here is what OSHA will evaluate:

* Where is your written safety policy?

* Where is your injury reporting procedure?

* Where is your documentation of hazard assessment?

* Where is your recordkeeping system?

* Where is your supervisory structure?

Training manuals cannot answer those questions. SOPs cannot answer those questions. A client contract cannot answer those questions.

Policy answers those questions.

This is the shift I see happening across our industry. For years, professionalization meant better branding. Better scheduling software. Cleaner onboarding. Certifications. Polished client communication. All of that matters.

But regulatory visibility is increasing. Pet sitting businesses are workplaces. And workplaces are governed.

Standard Operating Procedures live at the operational level. They protect consistency. They reduce improvisation. They empower team members to perform tasks correctly. But SOPs do not define reporting obligations. They do not establish disciplinary pathways. They do not outline regulatory compliance. They do not document hazard recognition processes. They are essential. They are not enough.

A Human Resources Manual governs relationships. Expectations. Conduct. Documentation. Acknowledgment. It prevents “I thought” from becoming a liability issue.

A Safety Policy Manual establishes reporting timelines, defines recordable injuries, clarifies responsibilities, outlines lone-worker considerations, and formalizes hazard evaluation. It defines the safety system your business operations use.

An Environmental Policy defines how the business handles waste, chemicals, medication disposal, and environmental impact. It signals stewardship and regulatory awareness.

These documents are not decorative. They are the bones of you business.

Three snowstorms made that clear to me in a different way. Every time I saw a sitter asking whether to risk the drive, whether to enter a home during unsafe conditions, whether to override their instincts because “the client expects it,” I heard the absence of policy. If your procedure says you always show up, then you need a policy that makes that procedure safe to do.

A written inclement weather policy changes that conversation. A lone-worker safety protocol changes that decision. A documented escalation pathway changes that hesitation. Policy removes improvisation from high-stress moments. They replace panic with reference. They guide you on what to do on the worst days.

The businesses we reviewed in February were not careless. They cared deeply about animals. They invested in training. They believed that teaching someone how to do the work was the same as governing the work. It is not.

Skill transfer and structural governance are different layers of professionalism.

Two hundred dollar citations are signals.

An amputation under investigation is a signal.

Snowstorms full of frantic decision-making are signals.

The industry is not invisible anymore.

We walk into private homes. We handle medication. We transport animals. We employ people. We create workplace exposure whether we acknowledge it or not.

And when exposure becomes incident, regulators do not ask about passion, loyalty, or dedication.

They ask about documentation.

The longer I sit inside this safety policy manual template, revising language that I hope no one ever needs to reference in a crisis, the more I understand that policy is not bureaucracy. It is maturity. You can love animals deeply. You can build beautiful SOPs. You can train exceptionally well.

But if you are building a company that extends beyond your own hands on the leash, it needs governance that can withstand scrutiny. Not because you expect disaster. Because you understand responsibility.

* When a high-stress decision arises in your business, are you relying on instinct and experience, or can your team point to a written policy that guides the response?

* If an injury requiring hospitalization occurred tomorrow, would you know your federal reporting obligations and timelines without looking them up?

* Beyond your client service agreement, what documents define how your company governs safety, conduct, documentation, and environmental responsibility?

* Where in your business are you assuming that training is enough, when what you actually need is structural policy?

* If a regulator, insurance carrier, or attorney reviewed your operation today, what written evidence would demonstrate that risk is anticipated rather than improvised?

Ask a hundred seasoned pet sitters—the really good ones—what makes them successful, and most won’t cite certifications or technique. They’ll just shrug and say,

“I’m just a dog person.”“Cats like me.”“I don’t know… they trust me.”

Clients might call them dog whisperers or cat whisperers. Colleagues admire their calm energy. But nobody can quite explain why some sitters seem to float through tense visits with anxious pets and leave behind wagging tails, purring heads, or slow blinks from under the bed.

So what is it, really? What is this thing we struggle to name?

We call it presence.

But presence is more than just “being there.” It’s not a poetic flourish. It’s a way of entering the room—any room—with intentional softness, stillness, and curiosity. It’s the opposite of rushing. It’s why one sitter walks into a house and immediately senses the cat needs space… while another reaches too quickly and ends up at urgent care with a puncture wound.

And no, it’s not something you can learn from an app.But it can be practiced. And it should be taught.

What Presence Actually Means (and Doesn’t Mean)

Presence isn’t about staying longer. It isn’t about doing more. And it certainly isn’t about having some mystical bond that only “cat people” understand.

Presence is how you enter a room.It’s how you breathe when you open the carrier.It’s what your energy does before your hands do anything at all.

And sometimes, presence is knowing not to touch.Not to help.Not to fix.

One of the most powerful real-life examples I’ve seen is on Instagram, shared by Southend Pet Sitting. Auntie Julie is visiting Orange, a 20-year-old deaf cat with plenty of personality. In the video, Orange protests. He hisses. Gives a swat when Julie offers help up the ramp. He makes it crystal clear: “No touching. No help. I’ve got this.”

But here’s the important part:That moment didn’t happen in a single visit.It came after several days of quiet, respectful presence. Days of being predictable, calm, non-threatening. Days of letting Orange lead.

Eventually, on his terms, Orange climbs the ramp—and chooses to sit beside her. No petting. No pressure. Just shared space. Peace.

Because presence isn’t just about building trust.It’s about honoring agency.And that’s what Orange came to understand: Julie wasn’t a threat. She was a companion. A constant. A witness, not a force.

The real magic wasn’t in “winning him over.”The magic was that he had the freedom to choose her.

You can’t fake that.You can’t rush it.But you can practice it.

The Cost of Absence: When Things Go Sideways

If you’ve been in this business any length of time, you’ve probably had that moment: a visit or series of visits is going just fine… until suddenly, it’s not.

A dog growls at you out of nowhere. A cat who tolerated your presence now lunges or swats. You feel your own stress hormones rise as you try to get through your core duties—litter, meds, feeding—while wondering what just happened?

Sometimes you leave unscathed but rattled. Other times, you walk out with a scratch or worse—and a lingering sense of confusion.

These moments are not just about behavioral unpredictability. They are often the cost of absence—ours or someone else's. The pet, who had been managing their anxiety in silence, hits a threshold. And if we’ve been distracted, rushed, or relying too heavily on the checklist… we miss the early cues.

It’s one of the reasons I’ve long advocated for:

* Not hunting down the shy cat.

* Encouraging larger sitters to stoop down and appear less imposing.

* Recognizing when Adaptil or Feliway might help—and when the animal’s stress is past the point where pheromones can touch it, and medical intervention might be more appropriate.

Presence helps you feel those thresholds coming.Absence leaves you reacting in hindsight.

Animals are exquisitely tuned to energy. And they will almost always give us information—if we’re willing to listen to the invisible shifts in the room.

When Presence Meets the Past: Working with Toxic Stress

One of the most eye-opening lessons I took from Fear Free training was their course on Toxic Stress in Animals. It completely shifted how I think about working with pets whose brains and nervous systems have been reshaped by what they’ve been through.

We like to talk about presence and agency—as we should—but presence without context can still fall short. If an animal has experienced early trauma, chronic stress, or repeated threat, their brain might not respond “normally” to even the calmest, kindest approach. Their triggers can be baked in. Their fear isn’t always logical—and it definitely isn’t personal.

As professional pet sitters, we have to hold space for that reality. And I know what some of you might be thinking:

But Beth, how are we supposed to know any of that?

Truth is, often we don’t.We didn’t ask the right intake questions.The owners may not know the pet’s full history.Or the pet may have been “fine” in previous visits—until they weren’t.

That’s why presence can’t just be a posture. It has to be a practice layered with curiosity and respect for the unknown. It means giving the animal space even when you don’t understand the behavior. It means not taking things personally. And it means knowing that some animals will never be “fully comfortable”—but they still deserve to feel safe.

Muddy’s Story: The Ones Who Trust Us Just Enough

Years ago, I adopted a cat named Muddy.

She wasn’t aggressive or mean—just intensely shy. Watchful. At times, deeply fearful. The only time she’d let me touch her was at feeding time. Even then, just a gentle stroke or two. Outside of that, if I looked at her the wrong way or moved too quickly, she’d quietly leave the room.

And yet, Muddy was perfect.She never missed the litter box. Never raised a claw.She kept a respectful distance but always stayed nearby—in the evenings, sitting just across the room while I watched TV, or lounging by the window to watch birds.

We lived this way together for 13 years.

Then one day she seemed off—lethargic, ill. I rushed her to the emergency vet. They took full-body x-rays. And what they found stunned me: Muddy was riddled with pellets. Small metal fragments from a long-past trauma that had never been removed.

And suddenly, it all made sense.

Her behavior wasn’t just her personality—it was her nervous system, reshaped by violence. Her brain could trust, but only to a point. And I had unknowingly lived within that line for over a decade.

In my home, she found peace.Play. Companionship. A rhythm she could manage.I always told pet sitters not to worry about “getting eyes on her.”

“She has eyes on you.”

And that, in many ways, is what presence looks like.Not insisting on closeness. Not needing affection as proof.Just being steady enough… that even the most guarded soul can breathe in your company.

Training Can’t Cover This (But Mentorship Might)

Most pet sitting companies, if they’re responsible, will put new hires through the basics:A ride-along. Route orientation. Maybe a pet first aid course. Some dog and cat behavior training.The gold standard might even include Fear Free certification.

But how do you mentor something as intangible as presence?

Most companies hire based on a mix of experience and the sitter’s demeanor at the interview. But once the onboarding process ends, that sitter is—functionally—on their own. They show up to each visit solo. They interpret animal behavior alone. They make in-the-moment decisions with no one watching but the pet.

So what happens when the sitter is silently struggling?

What happens when Miss Hissypants gives them a daily hiss or swat? When the sitter tenses up with every visit and doesn’t realize they may be reinforcing the stress pattern themselves?

Do we offer space for the sitter to ask for help—without shame?

Do they have the agency to call a colleague or manager and say,

“Hey, this isn’t going right. What else can I try?”

Or are they more likely to take the advice we see too often in pet sitting forums:

“Just muscle through the visits and then drop the client.”

Thus leaving the next pet sitter hired to deal with the pet. And a pet in distress and an owner confused as to what is happening.

But presence thrives in reflection. In conversation. In mentorship.

Without those supports, even the most gentle sitter can become reactive, discouraged, or disconnected. And that’s when both sitter and animal begin to lose.

Why It Matters Now—More Than Ever

Pet parents today are more behavior-savvy than ever before.They’re reading body language. They’re watching how their pets respond to strangers. And yes—they’re watching us, the pet sitters they trust to walk into their homes and into their animal’s inner world.

And you know what? They’re noticing.

They notice when their cat doesn’t vanish under the bed like she used to.They notice when their reactive dog doesn’t come home overstimulated from a walk.They notice when the update photos feel calm and connected—not rushed.

Presence isn’t a soft skill—it’s a game changer.It changes the experience of a basic dog walk.It changes how we handle meds, fear, trauma, and trust.It changes us.

Presence says: I see you. I’m with you. I’m not here to overpower or ignore.

So I’ll leave you with this:

What does presence mean to you in your pet sitting practice?How do you implement it, especially on hard days?How do you model or cultivate it in others—your colleagues, your mentees, your staff?

Because the more we talk about this, the more we can name it.And the more we name it, the better we can protect it, mentor it, and pass it on.

Because presence isn’t loud.It’s not flashy.But it just might be the most important thing we bring to the work.

Thanks for reading. Subscribe for free to receive new posts and walk with me as I reflect on a lifetime spent standing in the gap for animals.

Field Note #3 – A Legacy in the Quiet Moments

I’ve spent decades building trust with animals who didn’t owe it to me.

Not because I was the fastest or most skilled—but because I was willing to slow down. To listen with more than my ears. To see trust not as a goal, but as a gift.

If there’s any legacy I hope to leave behind in this work, it’s not just in the number of clients served or the certifications earned—it’s in the moments no one else sees. The ones where a pet takes a breath and decides, “You’re safe.”

Presence can’t be measured on an invoice.But it is remembered—by every animal who ever watched us from under the bed and chose to stay just a little longer.

That’s the kind of work that lasts.

This essay is part of an ongoing legacy project rooted in presence, emotional literacy, and soft-skills mentorship for animal care professionals. You are welcome to share this piece in staff meetings, mentorship circles, or quiet reflection spaces—with credit.

Please do not republish, repackage, or monetize this content—in part or whole—without written permission. These stories come from lived experience and are offered with care.

© Beth Pasek, 2025. All rights reserved.