You can tell within ten minutes whether a sitter has the information they need. A confident sitter walks in, glances at the feeding line, drops the bag, and starts being normal at your pet. An under-briefed sitter texts you the wrong question twice in the first hour.
The difference is almost never about how good the sitter is. It is about the brief. What follows is the eleven-point version of what to leave for your pet sitter — organized in the order it is actually useful at 7 a.m. in someone else's kitchen, not the order you would write it in your notes app the night before.
Why a real briefing matters
Sitters are professionals at handling other people's pets, not at decoding other people's homes. The information gap is not "what is a Golden Retriever," it is "where is the leash, when does she eat, and what do I do if she throws up." The point of the brief is not to teach pet care. It is to remove every avoidable question.
The 11-point sitter checklist
Save this — or better, save it inside PetPacket so the version your sitter sees is always current. Every line maps to a section of a care packet, but it works just as well as a page in your notes app.
Top to bottom is roughly the order a sitter needs each piece on day one.
- Vet name, address, after-hours number, and authorization to treat. If only one thing on this list is here, this is it.
- Current medications with dose, time, with-or-without-food, and a "skip if" rule.
- Allergies and what a reaction looks like. Specific, not vague.
- Feeding amount, time, and the brand they actually eat — not the brand you wish they did.
- Treats allowed and treats absolutely not. Name the real risks: chocolate, grapes, the neighbor offering things.
- Daily routine — walk times, nap times, when they sit at the door.
- Behavior notes — scared of thunder, will not pee in rain, snaps at the broom.
- House rules — which couch is fine, which room is off-limits, where the water bowl lives.
- Microchip number and ID tag info in case they get out.
- A second emergency contact who is not you — a neighbor or sibling.
- What "normal" looks like for your pet, so the sitter can spot "not normal" early.
How to actually write it
The common mistake is writing the brief as if you were talking to yourself. The sitter is not you. They do not know which bag is the "good food" and which is the "old food we are using up."
Write feeding like a recipe, not a memory
Weak: "She eats twice a day, the food in the bag." Strong: "7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. — 1 cup of the food in the pantry with the gold label. Add 1 tsp salmon oil to breakfast. Walk first, eat after."
Write meds like a tech would read them
Weak: "He is on his usual stuff." Strong: "Apoquel 16 mg, one tablet morning and evening, with food. Skip if vomiting — leave a note and call the vet."
Three formats, ranked
You have a few honest options for getting this into a sitter's hands. Here is how each tends to break.
| Format | Strength | Where it fails |
|---|---|---|
| Paper on the counter | No tech, sitter sees it immediately | Out of date the moment something changes; gets lost |
| Group chat / text | Easy to update | "See message above" hell; nothing findable at 2 a.m. |
| Shared notes doc | One source of truth | Sitter has to log in or find the right doc |
| PetPacket link or PDF | One source of truth, no signup for the sitter, prints clean | You build it once (about 10 minutes) |
Build a sitter packet in about 10 minutes.
Walk the five categories, share the link, and never write a 2 a.m. text again.
If you have more than one pet
Do not merge their care into one paragraph — the sitter will lose track of which one needs meds. Each pet gets its own page: feeding, meds, routine, quirks. In PetPacket each pet has its own packet, and you can share them as a bundle with clean tabbed sections.
How to hand it off
Three rules that save almost every multi-day handoff:
- Send the brief 24 hours early. Questions happen in normal hours, not at midnight.
- Walk through it once in person. Open the link together and point at the day-one parts.
- Do not rewrite it mid-job. Add a note instead — "skip the salmon oil tomorrow, loose stools last night."
Frequently asked
How long should a sitter brief be?
One to two pages is plenty for most pet parents. If yours is longer, it usually means the writing is not structured — the same content reorganized fits on a single page.
Should I list every behavior quirk?
List the ones that change what the sitter would otherwise do. "Hides under the bed for the first hour" matters. "Likes the red ball more than the blue ball" does not.
What if my sitter has cared for my pet before?
Still send the brief. Routines, meds, and vets change. If the sitter already knows half of it, the other half is exactly what matters.
Should I include vet authorization?
Yes. A one-line authorization with your name, the sitter’s name, the date range, and your card on file at the clinic covers routine and most urgent visits.
