Most dog walkers and pet sitters start the same way: a phone full of WhatsApp threads, a notes app with door codes in it and a paper diary that only makes sense to them. That works for the first ten clients. By thirty, you're spending your evenings confirming next week's walks, someone's been double-booked, and you can't remember whether the Hendersons' cat has her tablet in the morning or at night.
Software for a walking or sitting business has to cope with three quite different jobs, and it helps to be clear about them before you look at anything.
Three kinds of booking, not one
Walks
Walks are short, they repeat, and you do a lot of them in a day. The things that matter are duration (a 30-minute solo walk and a one-hour group walk are priced differently), how many dogs you can take on, and who is walking them.
Drop-in visits
Drop-in visits happen at the client's house while they're away. A typical job is a feed at nine and a walk and a fuss at five, every day for a week. Each visit has its own time, so the software needs to treat them as separate calls on your round, not one vague appointment.
House sits
House sits are about someone being there: overnight, all day, or living in for a fortnight. They're priced per night or per day, and clients often want the same sitter as last time.
A lot of tools handle one of these well and force the others into the wrong shape. If you offer all three, check each one separately.
What to look for
A daily cap that counts dogs
Your real limit is how many dogs you can safely handle in a day, not how many bookings you have. A client with three dogs is three places, not one. The software should count it that way and stop taking bookings, including online ones, once you're full.
Repeat bookings that are quick to confirm
Your regulars book the same walk every weekday. They should be able to book Monday to Friday as one booking, and you should be able to confirm the lot in one go rather than clicking through five confirmations.
Assigning walkers and sitters
Once you have even one other person working for you, each booking needs a name on it. Some businesses like clients to see who's coming. Others keep it internal so they can swap people around. Either should be possible.
Pet details that travel with the job
Feeding routines, medication, vet details, emergency contacts, key safe codes and "don't let him off the lead near the river". These belong on the pet's record, visible to whoever picks up the job, not in the phone of whoever took the call.
A portal where clients book and pay
Clients should be able to book from your website, pay up front or leave a card on file, and update their own details. If you want to meet a new dog before taking it on, the portal should let you hold new bookings as pending until you approve them.
Cancellation fees
Short-notice cancellations hurt a walker more than most businesses, because you can't usually fill a slot at 8am. Set a notice window and a fee, either fixed or a percentage, and have the software apply it, so it isn't a conversation every time.
Updates for owners
Owners love a photo halfway through the day. Some walking apps build their whole product around live GPS maps and report cards. Decide whether that matters to your clients or whether a quick photo and a note does the job. KennelBooker lets you email a photo postcard from the booking, but it isn't a GPS walk tracker, so if live route maps are central to how you sell, weigh that up.
Marketplace apps vs your own booking system
When people ask "what's the most used pet sitting app", they usually mean the big marketplaces where owners search for a sitter. Those are good for finding your first clients. The catch is that the client relationship belongs to the platform, the platform sets a lot of the rules, and it takes a share of each booking.
Your own booking system works the other way round. The clients are yours, you set the prices and policies, and you pay a flat subscription rather than a cut. Many walkers use a marketplace to get going and move their regulars onto their own system once they have enough of them.
When you add premises
Walking and sitting businesses often grow into daycare or home boarding. If that's a possibility, pick software that already does those, so you don't have to move all your clients again in two years. We've written a step-by-step guide to starting a dog boarding business if that's the direction you're heading.
How KennelBooker handles walking and sitting
KennelBooker treats walks, drop-ins and homestays as separate booking types:
- Walks are booked by duration, with a daily limit that counts dogs, a walker assigned to each one and an option to show the walker's name in the client portal.
- Regulars can book a whole week as one multi-day booking, and confirming the first confirms the series.
- Drop-ins can be booked several times a day, each at its own time, with a daily cap so the round stays achievable.
- Homestays are priced per night or per day, remember the client's preferred sitter, and reprice automatically if the dates change.
- Cancellation fees can be a set amount or a percentage within your notice window.
All of it shares one calendar with boarding, daycare, grooming and training, and every plan includes every service, from $49.99 a month. See the pages for dog walking, drop-in visits and house sitting, or read how other businesses handle drop-in and cat sitting bookings.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most used pet sitting app?
The apps most pet owners have heard of are marketplaces, where owners find a sitter and the platform takes a cut. If you run your own walking or sitting business, you need a different kind of tool: booking software where the clients are yours, you set the prices, and the platform doesn't take a percentage of each booking.
Is there a good app for scheduling pet sitting services?
Look for one that treats walks, drop-in visits and overnight house sits as different booking types, lets regulars book a whole week at once, caps how much work you take on per day and gives clients a portal to book and pay. Test it with a real week of your schedule during a free trial.
Can I limit how many dogs I walk in a day?
In KennelBooker, yes. You set a daily limit and the system counts dogs rather than bookings, so a client booking three dogs uses three places. When you reach the limit, that day stops taking walk bookings, online ones included.
Is there free dog walking software?
There are free calendars and some free tiers, but they rarely handle repeat bookings, payments and caps together. Our guide to free booking software goes through the trade-offs.