6 services
Pet sitting services, from one visit to a fortnight away
Updated By Petym
Pet sitting services cover everyone who looks after your pet while you are out or away: a sitter who stays overnight in your home, drop-in visits for a cat, dog walking, home boarding in a sitter's home, doggy day care and special-needs care. The right one depends on your pet, how long you are gone and where it is calmest.
Petym is opening city by city and is not taking bookings yet. Each service below says what is included, what is not, and who it suits, from the welfare and veterinary sources named on its page.
All services
- Pet boarding in a sitter's home Your pet stays in a checked sitter's home, not a kennel. From Rs 1,399 a night for a dog.
- Doggy day care in a sitter's home Daytime care for your dog in a sitter's home while you work. From Rs 999 a full day (up to 10 hours).
- Overnight pet sitting A sitter sleeps in your home and keeps your pet's routine going. From Rs 1,799 a night.
- Drop-in visits 30 or 60 minute visits at home, one to three a day. Best for cats. From Rs 499 a 30-minute visit.
- Dog walking 30 or 60 minute one-to-one walks, your dog only, at your dog's times. From Rs 279 a 30-minute walk.
- Special-needs pet care Puppies, seniors and pets on medicine, cared for to your vet's plan. From Rs 2,299 a night of overnight care.
What do you need?
- “I'm away and want my dog to stay with someone”Pet boarding in a sitter's home →
- “I don't want my dog in a kennel”Pet boarding in a sitter's home →
- “I'm at work all day”Doggy day care in a sitter's home →
- “My dog hates being home alone”Doggy day care in a sitter's home →
- “I'm away overnight”Overnight pet sitting →
- “I'm travelling for a week or more”Overnight pet sitting →
- “I'm away for a few days and have a cat”Drop-in visits →
- “My cat hates travelling”Drop-in visits →
- “I work long hours”Dog walking →
- “My dog needs more exercise than I can give”Dog walking →
- “My pet takes medicine every day”Special-needs pet care →
- “My dog is old and slowing down”Special-needs pet care →
How do the services compare?
| Service | Where your pet stays | Company | Best for | Typical trip |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pet boarding in a sitter's home | The sitter's home | The sitter and their household, day and night | Sociable dogs used to flats and new people | One night to several weeks |
| Doggy day care in a sitter's home | The sitter's home, daytime only | The sitter, and only dogs agreed in advance | Sociable dogs left alone on working days | A working day, drop-off to pick-up |
| Overnight pet sitting | Your home | A sitter stays every night | Dogs, anxious or older pets, pets on medicines, homes with several pets | Two nights to several weeks |
| Drop-in visits | Your home | Short visits, alone in between | Healthy adult cats, small pets, midday breaks for dogs | A day to about a week |
| Dog walking | Out from your home | A walker for 30 or 60 minutes | Working owners, energetic dogs, midday toilet breaks | Daily or weekly, while you are in town |
| Special-needs pet care | Your home or the sitter's, as your vet advises | A sitter following your vet's written plan | Puppies, seniors, pets on medicine or after surgery | A day to several weeks |
What is the difference between pet sitting, boarding and day care?
Pet sitting brings the carer to your home. Boarding and day care take your pet to the carer. Everything else follows from that one choice.
With overnight pet sitting the sitter sleeps in your home for every night of the booking, so your pet keeps its own bed, food, walks and smells, and your flat is lived in while you are away. Drop-in visits are shorter calls, usually 30 minutes to an hour, to feed, refresh water, scoop the litter, play and check; your pet is alone between visits, which suits many adult cats and very few dogs. Dog walking is the same idea for a working day: one or two walks that break up the hours your dog is alone.
With home boarding your pet goes to stay in the sitter's own home, with the sitter's household around it at night. It suits social dogs and homes where nobody can stay. Doggy day care is boarding by the day: your dog spends the working day in company and comes home in the evening. Special-needs care is not a separate place but a level of care, for puppies, senior pets, pets on several medicines or pets recovering from surgery, given either in your home or in the sitter's.
None of these is better in general. A healthy adult cat on a short trip is usually happiest with visits at home; a young Labrador that hates being alone may be happiest boarded with company all day; an old dog on tablets is usually safest with someone living in.
How long can your pet be alone, and which service covers the gap?
How long a pet can safely be left decides the service more than anything else. These limits come from the welfare bodies named; your vet knows your own pet best.
| Alone at most | A long working day | A week away | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Healthy adult dog PDSA | About four hours at a time | Dog walking or day care | Overnight sitting or home boarding |
| Puppy Merck Veterinary Manual | Much less than an adult dog | Day care once vaccinated, or visits | Overnight sitting or special-needs care |
| Older dog RSPCA | Shorter, if it needs the toilet more often | Visits or a midday walk | Overnight sitting |
| Healthy adult cat Cats Protection | Around 12 hours, a day or one night | Usually fine alone | Drop-in visits twice a day, or overnight sitting |
| Kitten Cats Protection | A few hours at most | Two or three drop-in visits | Overnight sitting |
| Male cat with past urinary trouble Cornell Feline Health Center | Tray seen at least twice a day | A visit to check the tray | Overnight sitting |
| Rabbit pair RSPCA | Checked twice a day in warm weather | Usually fine alone | Visits twice a day or overnight sitting |
Even with an automatic feeder or a camera, PDSA advises someone checking a cat at least a couple of times a day on any trip away.
Which service suits your trip?
Start from the length of the absence and your pet, then check the service page for what is included.
If you are out for a long working day with a dog at home
A midday walk breaks the time alone into shorter stretches. A dog that is sociable and vaccinated may enjoy day care instead. Dog walking PDSA
If your dog barks, howls or chews at the door when alone
A walk helps, but it may need company for most of the day: day care, or a sitter at home. Talk to your vet about the anxiety. Doggy day care RSPCA (England and Wales)
If you are away a weekend or a few days with a healthy adult cat
Two drop-in visits a day, morning and evening, keep its routine close to normal in its own territory. Drop-in visits International Cat Care
If you are away overnight with a dog
Book overnight sitting or home boarding. A dog cannot be covered by visits overnight. Overnight sitting RSPCA (England and Wales)
If your dog loves other dogs and nobody can stay in your home
Home boarding with a sitter Petym has walked through on video, within the home's pet limit. Home boarding
If your pet is old, on several medicines or recovering from surgery
Special-needs care: every dose given as your vet wrote it and logged, at a pace that suits the pet. Special-needs care US Food and Drug Administration
If you have two or more pets, or a dog and a cat
Overnight sitting keeps them together in the home they already share, with no new animals to meet. Overnight sitting
What should you check before booking any pet sitting service?
The same questions apply whoever you book, through Petym or anyone else. If an answer is vague, keep looking.
- Meet the sitter before you book, and arrange an introduction with your pet at home. The RSPCA advises meeting a sitter before you employ them. RSPCA (England and Wales)
- Ask how the sitter's identity was checked, and by whom. On Petym, identity is verified with PAN before a sitter is listed.
- Ask whether the sitter has pet first-aid training and which 24-hour vet they would go to at night.
- For boarding, ask whether the housing society has given permission for paid pet sitting, and how many pets the home takes at once.
- Check your pet's vaccination card: the puppy series complete, rabies current and booster dates written in. WSAVAstudy
- If your dog will meet other dogs, ask your vet about the kennel cough vaccine. Kennel cough spreads fastest where many dogs are kept close together. Merck Veterinary Manual
- Keep tick and flea prevention current all year, and write down the product and the date. Tropical guidelines advise tick control all year. Tropical Council for Companion Animal Parasites
- Leave every medicine in its original labelled container, with your vet's written instructions. Mix-ups are a known cause of medication errors. US Food and Drug Administration
- Agree in writing how long your pet may be alone in a day, what the daily update will contain, and who decides if your pet needs a vet.
- Leave your vet's name and number, saved in the sitter's phone as well as on the fridge. PDSA
What changes for pet sitting in India?
Flats, gated societies, a long hot summer, the monsoon and festival fireworks all shape what a sitter does every day.
Most Indian owners live in a flat or a gated society, so the sitter has to get past the gate, into the lift and through your door every day. Give the society office and the guard the sitter's name and dates, and add them to the visitor app if your society uses one. Under the Animal Welfare Board of India's guidelines for residents' welfare associations, a society cannot ban pet dogs or stop them using the lifts, and dogs must be leashed in common areas. Those rules apply to a sitter walking your dog just as they do to you.
In summer, walks move to early morning and after sunset. PDSA's test is to hold your palm on the road: if you cannot keep it there for seven seconds, it is too hot for paws. Flat-faced breeds, overweight, very young, very old and thick-coated dogs are most at risk of heatstroke. During a power cut the sitter needs to know where the inverter is and which room stays coolest. The Animal Welfare Board's hot-weather circular reminds everyone in charge of an animal to provide shade and fresh water.
In the monsoon, a sitter avoids floodwater and deep puddles, dries paws after every walk and checks the coat for ticks. Dogs catch leptospirosis through contact with contaminated water or urine. Around Diwali and New Year, the evening walk happens while it is still light, doors and balconies stay shut, and a frightened pet is never scolded. Check your dog's ID tag and microchip details before you leave: a scared dog can bolt through a gate.
| What | The rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Housing societies | Cannot ban pet dogs or stop them using lifts; dogs leashed in common areas (AWBI, 26 February 2015). | Animal Welfare Board of India |
| Pavement test | If you cannot hold your palm on the ground for seven seconds, it is too hot to walk. | PDSA |
| Hot weather duty | Shade, water and care in the heat for every animal in your charge. | Animal Welfare Board of India |
| Monsoon | Leptospirosis spreads through contaminated water and urine: avoid floodwater. | Merck Veterinary Manual |
| Fireworks | Walk before the crackers start; keep ID and microchip details up to date. | PDSA |
How will booking a Petym service work?
Petym is not taking bookings yet. When your city opens, every service will follow the same steps.
Checks before listing
Identity verified with PAN, pet first-aid training before the first booking and a named 24-hour vet within reach. Sitters who host pets also pass a video walk-through of the home, show the society's permission and have a pet limit.
A free meet and greet
The sitter meets your pet before the first booking and sees where everything is kept. If it does not feel right, you do not book.
Your care plan
You write feeding, walks, medicines and house rules. The sitter follows the plan as you wrote it and logs each part as it happens.
Book and pay through Petym
The rate card price is what you pay, with no booking fee on top, and the sitter is paid after the booking.
A photo update every day
Photos and a note on meals, walks, toilet and medicines, every day of the booking.
If something goes wrong
The sitter calls you and takes your pet to the nearest 24-hour vet on the city's list.
Your review
Written by you, about a booking that really happened.
How do you hand your pet over to a sitter?
A calm handover and a written plan matter more than which service you chose.
Do
- Book the meet and greet a week or more before you leave, and introduce your pet to the sitter at home. RSPCA (England and Wales)
- Leave the same food for every day, plus a little extra. A sudden change of food can upset the stomach. PDSA
- Send or leave bedding and something that smells of you, and keep meal and walk times as they are at home. Merck Veterinary Manual
- Keep your departure calm and low-key, so your dog learns that leaving is nothing to worry about. PDSA
- For a first boarding stay, try one or two nights before a long trip. Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine
Don’t
- Do not leave a dog alone overnight with only a neighbour feeding it once a day. RSPCA (England and Wales)
- Do not rely on an automatic feeder or a camera alone for a cat on a trip away. PDSA
- Do not ask a sitter to change a dose, or give a human medicine to a pet. Merck Veterinary Manual
- Do not hand over keys in an envelope labelled with your address.
Does a pet sitter need a licence in India?
No central licence exists for pet sitting in the owner's home. Two welfare rules touch the pet trade, and the cruelty law's duty of care applies to every sitter.
The Dog Breeding and Marketing Rules, 2017 require breeders to register with the State Animal Welfare Board, and they define a boarding kennel operator as a kind of breeder; whether a boarding-only home must register is not settled by the text. The Pet Shop Rules, 2018 cover places where pets are sold. City rules, such as a municipal dog licence for your own pet, still apply to you as the owner. The rules page has the detail and the date it was checked.
| What | The rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Dog Breeding and Marketing Rules, 2017 | Breeders register with the State Animal Welfare Board; "boarding kennel operator" is included in "breeder". | Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Gazette copy on AWBI's site) |
| Pet Shop Rules, 2018 | Cover premises where pets are sold or kept for sale, including online. | Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Gazette copy on AWBI's site) |
| Duty of care | Anyone in charge of an animal must take reasonable measures for its well-being. | Animal Welfare Board of India |
Questions owners ask
Which pet sitting service do I need?
- Start with where your pet is calmest and how long you are away. For nights away with a dog, choose overnight sitting or home boarding. For a healthy adult cat on a short trip, drop-in visits twice a day are usually enough. For busy days at home, dog walking or doggy day care fits. Older or unwell pets suit special-needs care.
What is the difference between pet sitting and pet boarding?
- With pet sitting the sitter comes to your home and your pet keeps its own bed, food and routine. With pet boarding your pet goes to stay in the sitter's home. Sitting avoids travel and new animals and keeps your home lived in; boarding suits social dogs and homes where a sitter cannot stay overnight.
Are drop-in visits enough for a dog?
- Only for short daytime gaps. Welfare charities say an adult dog should not be left alone for more than about four hours at a time, and a puppy for much less. Visits cannot cover a dog overnight, so for nights away a dog needs overnight sitting or home boarding instead.
Can one sitter offer more than one service?
- Yes. A sitter may offer several services, such as drop-in visits, dog walking and overnight sitting, and you choose what your trip needs when you send your dates. A sitter who hosts pets in their own home passes extra checks: a video walk-through of the home, the housing society's permission and a pet limit.
How much do pet sitting services cost on Petym?
- Overnight sitting is Rs 2,199 a night in Mumbai, Delhi NCR and Bengaluru and Rs 1,799 in other cities, for one pet. Drop-in visits start at Rs 499, dog walks at Rs 279, boarding at Rs 949 and day care at Rs 999. Extra pets, festival dates and injections add a fixed extra. The care plan tool adds up your trip.
How are Petym sitters checked?
- Before a sitter is listed, Petym verifies their identity with PAN and the sitter completes pet first-aid training before the first booking, with a named 24-hour vet within reach. Sitters who host pets also pass a video walk-through of their home, show their housing society's permission for paid pet sitting and keep to a pet limit.
Can I meet the sitter before I book?
- Yes. A free meet and greet comes before the first booking. The sitter visits, meets your pet, sees where the food, lead and medicines are kept and asks about the routine. The RSPCA also advises meeting a sitter before you employ them and arranging introductions with your pet.
Does a pet sitter need a licence in India?
- No central licence exists for pet sitting in an owner's home. The Dog Breeding and Marketing Rules, 2017 cover breeders and define boarding kennel operators as breeders, and the Pet Shop Rules, 2018 cover selling pets. The cruelty law's duty of care applies to every sitter. Petym's rules page has the detail.
Do I need to tell my housing society about a pet sitter?
- Yes. Give the society office and the gate guard the sitter's name and dates, and add them to your visitor app if your society uses one. The Animal Welfare Board of India's guidelines say a society cannot ban pet dogs or stop them using lifts, and dogs must be leashed in common areas.
Is Petym taking bookings now?
- Not yet. Petym is opening city by city, and a city opens only once its sitters have passed Petym's checks. You can send your dates and join your city's waitlist now, and Petym will tell you when a checked sitter can take them.
Going away soon? Tell us your dates.
A checked local sitter feeds, walks and keeps your pet company at home, follows your care sheet to the letter and sends a photo every day. Petym is opening city by city: send your dates and we will tell you when a sitter can take them.
- Meet your sitter first, free
- PAN-checked, first-aid trained
- A photo every day
- Pay through Petym, never cash
Keep exploring
Sources
Each source was opened and read on the date shown. How Petym checks its sources
- RSPCA (England and Wales): Pet sitting (opens in a new tab)
- PDSA: Separation anxiety in dogs (opens in a new tab)
- Animal Welfare Board of India: Guidelines on pet and street dogs, their care-givers, and residents' welfare and apartment owners' associations (26 February 2015) (opens in a new tab)
- Merck Veterinary Manual: Puppy care (opens in a new tab)
- RSPCA: Caring for older dogs (opens in a new tab)
- Cats Protection: How long can you leave a cat alone? (opens in a new tab)
Show all 27 sourcesShow fewer
- Cornell Feline Health Center: Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease (opens in a new tab)
- RSPCA: Flystrike (opens in a new tab)
- RSPCA (England and Wales): Separation-related behaviour in dogs (opens in a new tab)
- International Cat Care: Stress in cats (opens in a new tab)
- US Food and Drug Administration: Medication errors happen to pets, too (opens in a new tab)
- Merck Veterinary Manual: Kennel cough (canine infectious tracheobronchitis) (opens in a new tab)
- Tropical Council for Companion Animal Parasites: Guidelines for the control of ectoparasites of dogs and cats in the tropics (2022) (opens in a new tab)
- PDSA: First aid for pets (undated) (opens in a new tab)
- PDSA: Heatstroke in dogs (opens in a new tab)
- Animal Welfare Board of India: Request to ensure care and protection of animals from direct heat during extreme hot weather (4 May 2026) (opens in a new tab)
- Merck Veterinary Manual: Leptospirosis in dogs (opens in a new tab)
- PDSA: Dogs and fireworks (opens in a new tab)
- PDSA: Diarrhoea after a change of food (opens in a new tab)
- Merck Veterinary Manual: Planning for travel with pets (opens in a new tab)
- Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine: Planning ahead: reducing stress when boarding your pet (opens in a new tab)
- PDSA: What to do with your cat when you go on holiday (opens in a new tab)
- Merck Veterinary Manual: How drugs are given to animals (opens in a new tab)
- Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Gazette copy on AWBI's site): Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Dog Breeding and Marketing) Rules, 2017: G.S.R. 496(E), 23 May 2017 (opens in a new tab)
- Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Gazette copy on AWBI's site): Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Pet Shop) Rules, 2018: G.S.R. 844(E), 6 September 2018 (opens in a new tab)
- Animal Welfare Board of India: The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, as amended in 1982 (AWBI's copy) (opens in a new tab)
- WSAVA: 2024 guidelines for the vaccination of dogs and cats (WSAVA Vaccination Guidelines Group, Journal of Small Animal Practice) (opens in a new tab)