Pet Sitting Insurance

What Is Pet Sitting Insurance?

Pet sitting insurance is a type of business insurance. It’s designed to protect your business against claims related to accidents, injuries or damages that happen while you’re caring for a client’s pet. Just like any small business, your pet care or dog walking business faces unique risks that can be costly. If you’re a professional pet sitter, you know that sometimes pets can be unpredictable. With pet sitting insurance, you will have peace of mind knowing that you’re covered when the unexpected happens.

Although The Hartford does not offer pet sitters insurance, we’ve partnered with Tivly to help you get the coverage you’re looking for.

Why Do I Need Pet Sitter Insurance?

Your pet care business can be held liable for any injuries, damages or theft that occurs while a pet is in your care. Without a pet sitter insurance policy, you would have to pay out of pocket for expensive medical bills if an animal you’re caring for gets injured, ill or hurts someone. This coverage also protects your employees at your pet sitting business.

The following scenarios are examples of how pet sitting insurance can help your business:

Dog bite: While on a walk, the dog you’re pet sitting bites someone and they file a lawsuit against your business. Pet sitter insurance can help cover their medical expenses and settlement costs if you’re held liable for the accident.
Animal injury: As your employee was entering a client’s home, the dog ran out of the house and got hit by a car. The dog sustained injuries and needed emergency medical treatment. Your pet sitting insurance policy can help pay for the animal’s medical bills and your legal fees if the client sues your business.
Theft: One of your employees forgets to lock a client’s front door while on their way out of the house. This results in the client’s home getting burglarized. Your pet sitting business may be held liable for any property damage or theft that occurs, so your pet sitter insurance policy can help you stay protected in these situations.

Petcare Insurance Coverages

When it comes to protecting your petcare business, you’ll want to make sure you have the right amount of coverage. You can customize your business insurance policy with additional insurance coverages, such as:

General Liability Insurance to help protect your pet sitting business and its assets if you’re involved in claims of negligence, bodily injury, libel, slander or property damage. Without this liability coverage, you’ll have to pay for these lawsuits out-of-pocket.
Workers’ Compensation Insurance, which covers your employees and helps them recover from a work-related injury or illness.
Commercial Auto Insurance to help cover the costs of an auto accident that occurs while you or one of your employees is using a company-owned vehicle for business reasons.

What Does Insurance for Pet Sitters Cost?

What you pay for pet sitting insurance will vary. Insurance companies use different factors to determine your costs, including:

Number of employees
Location
Type of coverage
Claims history
Selected coverage limits

Pet Sitting Insurance FAQs

What Are the Risks of Dog Sitting?

No matter how careful you are, working with other people’s pets puts you at a higher risk for accidents. As a professional pet sitter, you could be financially liable for accidents, property damage or theft that happens while you’re taking care of a client’s pet. For example, if you lose a client’s house key, your dog sitting insurance policy can help cover the costs to replace the locks or a missing key.

What Does It Mean When a Pet Sitter Is Bonded?

If a pet sitter is insured and bonded, it means that your customers are protected against any losses caused by you as the pet sitter. Being bonded as a pet sitter gives your clients compensation if a covered property damage incident or theft takes place. While bonding is not required in every state, you might need to have it when purchasing insurance in some states. It’s a great business practice to have a pet sitting bond for your pet sitting business. A pet sitting bond will give you and your clients comfort knowing that you’re covered if something unexpected happens.

Covering Your Pet Sitting Operations

We know that you care for your client’s pets like they’re your own. Sometimes, despite your best efforts, accidents can happen. With the right kinds of coverage, you can have peace of mind knowing your business is protected.

General Liability Insurance for Pet Sitters

“While I was playing indoors with a client’s cat, she accidentally tore a hole in the couch. The cat was okay but the couch needed to be replaced.”

General liability insurance for pet sitters can help cover claims alleging that your business caused an injury or damaged someone else’s property while you were on the job.

Animal Bailee Insurance

“While playing fetch in a client’s yard, their dog jumped to catch a ball and then started limping. I had to take him to the vet for medical care right away.”

Animal bailee insurance helps cover expenses if an animal in your care gets hurt or lost. This coverage can also help pay for veterinary bills. It can even help cover advertising and reward costs incurred to help find a lost pet.

Protecting Your Pet Sitting Property

Pet care is more than just a job for you. You’ve worked hard to build your business and make it successful. With pet sitting insurance, your personal property and any other property in your care are protected when you need them most.

Animal Damage Coverage

“While pet sitting overnight, my client’s dog got nervous and chewed part of the dry wall and scratched the trim. It ended up causing some extensive damage.”

Animal damage coverage can help if a pet in your care causes damage to buildings or your business’ personal property. This coverage can help cover the costs for any repairs that are needed.

Data Breach Coverage

“A hacker got into my computer system and copied our stored customer data. I had to reach out to all my customers and let them know that their personal information was stolen. I also had to purchase new computer security systems after this. I never thought hackers would target my pet sitting business – sadly, I was wrong.”

Data breach insurance helps small businesses respond to a system breach. If personal, confidential or sensitive information gets lost or stolen, this coverage can help pay the costs to notify impacted individuals and replace lost income.

Taking Care of Your Pet Sitting Team

Pet sitters know how to handle all types of domestic animals, but it only takes a second for an accident to happen. With the right type of pet sitter insurance, you can make sure you and your employees are protected.

Workers’ Compensation

“One of my employees was visiting a new client’s home and was warned that their dog can be uneasy with new people. Unfortunately the dog bit my employee’s arm and they needed to go to urgent care.”

Workers’ compensation insurance helps cover your employee’s treatment costs if they sustain a work-related bodily injury or illness. It can also help replace their lost wages if they have to miss work while recovering.

Commercial Auto Insurance

“One of my employees at my pet care business was on her way to a client’s home when she hit a patch of ice and lost control of her car. Luckily she was okay, but it caused damage to someone’s fence.”

Commercial auto insurance helps protect you and your employees while driving a covered vehicle for work. This coverage can help pay for medical costs and property damage associated with a car accident that happens while on the job.

Get a Quote for Pet Sitters Insurance

Make sure you have the protection you need to help keep your pet sitting business running. Get a pet sitters insurance quote through our partner, Tivly.

Find out more about other insurance policies for animal services professions:

Last Updated: September 14, 2023

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