Please be advised that Poochy Doos LLC reserves the right to refuse service to anyone.

All policies, pricing and fees are subject to change without notice. Payment for pet sitting services are due prior to care – payment finalizes your pet care reservation and protects it against price increases, should they occur. Should a price increase occur, prior to payment of any approved Schedule Request, the Schedule will be adjusted to reflect the increased rates.

PET CARE

Pets We Service

We service dogs, cats and other small animals. For vacation care, we require three visits a day, to occur during our Normal Care visit time frame (7:00AM thru 8:30PM) – assuming a full day of care is required to accommodate your departure and return times. This requirement is waived if your pet has a location to void and eliminate, i.e. a cat box or access to the outdoors through a doggy door.  Early Bird visits (6:00 - 7:00 AM) and Nite Owl visits (8:30-10:00 PM) can be added if your pet needs extra care.

For the safety of your professional pet sitting team, we do not provide pet care in houses where exterior doors are left open or you have doors or windows that do not lock. Likewise, we must be able to secure all doggy doors.

For the safety of Poochy Doos, LLC, our clients, the public and all the pets we care for, we require all pets we service to be safe and non-aggressive. Please do not call us if your pet is aggressive or dangerous – we’re not the solution. We’re happy to refer you to a well-qualified trainer who can help you.

Aggressive behaviors include the following:

• Snapping at people, especially children
• Biting
• Stiffening, growling or exhibiting protective behavior of people or resources
• Dilated pupils or raised hackles
• Strong prey-drive or lunging at stimuli

Did You Know:

Aggressive behaviors can be caused by health problems? Be sure to have your pet checked by your veterinarian if their aggressive is atypical. If no medical causes exist, feel free to contact us and we’d be happy to recommend a professional trainer.

UNATTENDED PETS
Some folks want us to take care of their dogs but ignore their other pets, such as their cat. While cats can be independent, they still need attention every day. We’re happy to care for all of your pets, but we’re unable to accept jobs where certain pets in the house are to be left unattended. Likewise, we cannot skip days in-between feline pet sitting visits.

GUEST PET SERVICES
We’re happy to accommodate up to two “Guest Pets” at your household providing the Guest Pets get along well with your pets and have no behavior problems. We need to meet all Guest Pets before providing care and we require a signed Client Service Agreement authorizing care from the Guest Pet’s legal owner. All Guest Pet services will be provided for an Additional Pet Fee of $10/per each Guest Pet per/each visit. We are unable to “split the bill” on separate invoice for Guest Pet Services.

JOB SHARING
For liability reasons, we’re unable to job-share with non-Poochy pet sitters. This likewise means that we can't "fill-in" if you've hired a different pet sitter and they can't cover all your visit needs.

Why Can’t You Job-Share?

Once you retain Poochy Doos, LLC to care for your animals, we are then legally responsible for their care. Introducing non-Poochy pet sitters can expose our pet sitters to a “he-said-she-said” situation, relative to the wellbeing of your pets, privacy and personal belongings.

This policy does not include “bookend” care by family or friends, i.e., care that does not run concurrent with days we are providing care.

Any breach of this policy during your absence will be considered a Late Cancellation and result in our immediate inability to continue care.

If you think your situation is unique, please contact us prior to requesting care so that we can discuss your situation.

WELFARE CHECKS & WELFARE VISITS

It’s important for us to know when you’ve returned home after an overnight absence, so that we can ensure a successful “hand-off” has occurred and your pets are being looked after. Towards that end, we’ve established a process to be notified of your return status. If we can’t confirm you’ve returned home, we have to arrange for the continued care of your pet.

WELFARE CHECKS

A Welfare Check is the last calendar entry on your Pet Sitting Schedule, when you’re absent overnight. It’s an internal, administrative reminder for Poochy Doos, LLC to reach out to you in order to ascertain whether you’ve returned home safely.  A Welfare Check is not a pet care visit to your home.

It’s your responsibility to let us know you will be out of town overnight and what time you’re expecting to be back home with your pets. Simply scheduling an evening visit and a following morning visit doesn’t communicate that you’ll be gone overnight. Likewise, to avoid administrative and Welfare Visit fees, the time you expect to arrive home should be an accurate reflection of when you’ll be home and should never be Short Scheduled.

“Short Scheduling” occurs when you tell us you’ll arrive back home after being absent overnight, earlier than when you actually expect to arrive home, such that your actual arrival time will occur past the frequency of care established in your pet care schedule.

Needless to say, telling us you’ll arrive home by 1:00PM when you know you won’t be home until 10:00PM is highly disruptive to your pet sitter. As a result, an established history of repeated Short Scheduling will result in our inability to provide future care.

Likewise, if additional Welfare Checks are necessary due to Short Scheduling or a failure to communicate a delay in your return, an administrative fee of $26 may be assessed to compensate Poochy Doos, LLC for its administrative time in re-conducting your Welfare Check.

WELFARE VISITS

A Welfare Visit is a visit to your home to check on your pets, when your return has been delayed past the frequency of care established in your pet care schedule or when we’re unable to ascertain if you’ve returned home safely.

It is your responsibility to let us know that you’ve returned home safely or that your return has been delayed. Your Pet Sitter will leave you a courtesy “Welcome Home Card” which will remind you to text us when you’ve arrived back home. If we don’t hear from you, or your return will be delayed past the frequency of care established in your pet care schedule, a Pet Sitter will dispatch to your home to perform a Welfare Visit, at their earliest availability.

We charge a premium for Welfare Visits as they are unscheduled, highly disruptive and require Pet Sitters to be available at a moment’s notice. Welfare Visits are quick in-and-out “vital care” visits.

$50.00/Welfare Visit
Fee assessed upon Pet Sitter’s Dispatch.

Welfare Visits and Final Pet Care Visit
If Poochy Doos, LLC is not performing the final visit of your pet’s care during your absence, i.e., if a friend or family member is providing “Bookend” care, you do not qualify for a Welfare Check. Whomever you have performing your final pet care visit is the one responsible for ensuring the welfare of your pets until your return.

Poochy Doos, LLC is not on-call to cover for the failure of friends or family to provide Bookend care.

SCHEDULING & VISIT TIMES

We’re here to serve you!  All of our visits and pricing is available on our website. Please let us know if your pets have any time-sensitive needs and we will do our best to accommodate them. For the wellbeing of your dog, if you’re going to be gone all day with a late night arrival home or overnight – we require three visits per day, for all dog clients who do not have free access to the outdoors via doggy doors. With all crated dogs we require two of the three visits to be a minimum of 30-minutes in length. Likewise, our cat clients must schedule daily care – we cannot accommodate infrequent feline care by skipping days.

Scheduling Online

Established clients can request care at pre-specified time slots utilizing their online account. All of our visits (unless a pet requires medications or special needs care) are subject to change (in order to suit our availability) while meeting the needs of your pets.

Our care visits are broken up into four main sections and occur within 2-4 hour time intervals:

Visits Time Intervals

Concierge Scheduling
For a nominal administrative fee, Clients may also choose to contact Poochy Doos directly via email or phone (care cannot be requested via text) in order to have us schedule care for them. This fee is waived for the aged and/or ability-challenged.

Concierge Scheduling | $10.00/per schedule

Convenience Services
We are happy to try and accommodate all of your last minute service needs. Convenience Services are services requested with less than 48-hours advanced notice. Due to the last minute nature of these requests, Convenience Services are only available to clients who have stored credit cards in their account, thereby enabling AutoPay. AutoPay gives us permission to process your stored credit card at the time of booking, in order to secure payment and reserve service. See below for services associated with Convenience Services.

USE OF CAMERAS AND AUDIO COLLECTION

Audio/Video During Overnights:
We have a “no camera policy” (no audio or video recording) when we’re performing overnight care in your home. During overnight care, your home becomes our “workplace” and given no other person is in your home, we enjoy an expectation of privacy. This does not include exterior property cameras, such as cameras inside doorbells, common in systems such as “Ring.”

Audio/Video At All Other Times:
Use of video is not allowed in any bathroom at any time, as such facilities may be used by your Pet Sitter. Likewise, many cameras now collect audio and video, simultaneously. Pursuant to 18 U.S. Code Chapter 119, Audio capture of our oral communication is not permitted at any time while we are working in your home. If we are at your home alone (no other person is present) we need to know that we can freely discuss private business matters and/or private client concerns, should such communications be necessitated, without such communication being captured, i.e., collected, stored, disclosed or archived, as such communications are protected by law.

All of our video and audio policies are guided and in keeping with both Federal and State laws governing surveillance and expectation of privacy. Any suspicion of illicit video surveillance will be reported to the appropriate authorities.

PET SITTER PRIVACY
Contacting your pet sitter directly for the purposes of inquiring about availability, scheduling care, etc. is explicitly prohibited and may result in the immediate termination of your Service Agreement. With hundreds of clients, we’ve found it necessary to insulate our pet sitters from being inundated with administrative questions so that they can concentrate on what they do best – providing excellent pet care.

During your absence, your pet sitter will contact you frequently with texts and pictures of your pets to let you know how they’re doing. Please be cognizant of time zones and your pet sitter’s personal life, i.e., “down time.” Communicating about your pets, unless it’s an emergency, should occur between our hours of operation, 9:00AM - 6:00PM, Mountain Time.

Please respect the privacy of our pet sitters at all times.

COMMUNICATION

We do our very best to communicate with our clients frequently as a normal part of our care practice. Communication can occur via notes left at your home, texts, emails, pictures and videos.

Texting

We are also responsive to clients who desire a text after each visit. While we do our very best to accommodate this request, texting after each visit is not guaranteed. Texts can be subject to hardware/software malfunctions, mobile device operations, coverage issues, carriers, cell towers and cell-to-cell SMS irregularities.

Professional Boundaries

We ask that our clients be mindful of professional boundaries. Your pet sitter’s personal time and privacy must be respected at all times. Unless it’s an emergency, all texts to Poochy Doos, LLC and your pet sitters should be cordial and occur during our normal business hours. Likewise, please be aware of your time zone when texting, if you’re out-of-State. Your 9:00AM may be our 5:00AM and texting could disrupt your pet sitter’s rest. We try to reply to all text messages every 1-3 hours, during our business hours of 9:00AM – 6:00PM.

Client Communication Responsibilities
Client’s can access their secure, online accounts at any time and are responsible for updating their online account profiles or otherwise notifying Poochy Doos, LLC of updates that affect care or safety, such as:

• notifying Poochy Doos of moving to a different area of town
• home re-keying
• new pets (including fosters)
• guest pets
• disclosing accurate day/time leaving/returning
• letting us know when you have returned home (through your door)
• restraining orders filed against any individual with past access to your home
• home security devices or changes to security, i.e., windows/doors that do not lock or recent criminal activity
• updates to pet health, wellness, safety and routines

Please contact Poochy Doos, LLC for all general inquiries and scheduling needs during our business hours. If you need immediate attention, please give us a call: (970) 658-5717.

Communication & Account Deactivation

If we're unable to communicate with clients, clients will necessarily have their accounts deactivated, as we're unable to service clients with whom we can't communicate.

KEYS

We require two keys in order to perform pet care services. One is used by your pet sitter or dog walker and the other is kept as a back-up in case of accidental lock-out. We will test the keys before we leave to make sure we are able to unlock and lock your door. We cannot use garage door openers, electric key pads, etc. in lieu of keys due to IOT Security issues and malfunctions that can occur during power outages, cold weather or low batteries.

Quick Key Service
Quick Key Service enables you to leave your keys with us once your initial service has been completed. This allows us trouble-free access for future service and saves you key pick-up and key-return fees. All keys are kept in a secure, locked location. You are automatically enrolled in Quick Key when you sign-up for service.

Key Pick-Up and Key-Return Fee
An $26.00 fee will be charged for each trip we have to make in order to pick-up or drop off keys. Keys returned by regular mail are subject to a $32.00 fee to cover our time, materials, handling and postage. Unless you request your keys on the final visit of your schedule, you are automatically enrolled in Quick Key so that we have quick access to your key the next time you need service.

If you are moving we will return your house keys on the last date of service at your old address, or destroy your house keys upon notification that you’ve moved.

INCLEMENT WEATHER

Please arrange for the removal of snow that could block or impede our access to your driveway, especially if your home is out in the country or foothills. Likewise, for the safety of your pet sitter, please keep all walkways clear of ice and well-lighted. Although we are equipped with reliable vehicles, we recommend you have a trusted neighbor who has access to your home, in the event we are restricted from or unable to get to your home. If we're unable to get within reasonable walking distance to your home, due to inclement weather or road closures, we will contact your trusted neighbor immediately and notify you of the situation. You can update your trusted neighbor in your secure online profile.

All dog walks, during extremely hot or cold weather, may be shortened or made into a hybrid outside/inside visit, for the wellbeing of your animals and our pet sitters. With regard to certain types of dogs who thrive in cold weather, please keep in mind that our pet sitters can’t stay out in inclement weather for hours at a time, i.e., your snow-loving pup is not the only fur baby your pet sitter will be caring for during freezing cold days. Oftentimes your pet sitter will have just started to "thaw out" when arriving to your home to walk your dog.

Your pet sitter will inform you if they've had to shorten or adjust visits due to heat or cold weather concerns.

WELFARE & HOUSEKEEPING

Cleanliness & Comfort

With regard to overnight care, we are happy to accommodate all of your overnight pet sitting needs!

For the comfort and wellbeing of our pet sitting team, we require their accommodations to be:

• clean
• comfortable
• environmentally friendly
• safe
• conducive to a healthy and restful night’s sleep

Additionally, all environments we work in must be compliant with public health, safety and cleanliness standards, including air quality.

Non-Compliant Environments

If such requirements are discovered not to be the case once service has started, the following may occur:

• service may be cancelled and Animal Control contacted for intervention or
• scheduled overnight service will be replaced with one hour evening visits and an additional thirty-minute visit will be added in the morning through the duration of care, for all pets requiring a morning visit

All morning care routines that were scheduled in excess of 30-minutes, as established by the preexisting schedule, will be dealt with on an individual basis. Differences in price for such replacement services will not be refunded or credited and the additional morning services will be billed and charged to your credit card.

Examples of breach of this policy are, but not limited to:

• rodent or other infestations
• suspected criminal activities
• suspected illicit surveillance

Poochy Doos, LLC pet sitters make the sole determination as to whether their accommodations adhere to this policy.

Extended Overnight Stays

For extended overnight stays (in excess of 10 days) we may require your house cleaner to provide house cleaning service(s). This is especially necessary if you have multiple animals or animals with long hair.

Added Comforts

Likewise, anything you can do to add to the comfort of your pet sitter while they are caring for your pets overnight, is greatly appreciated. This may include:

• Having space in your refrigerator for their food
• Providing clean towels for showering
• Leaving television/cable instructions
• Providing guest access to your internet, including network name and password
• Having night lights in hallways or bathrooms
• Having a reading lamp and bedside table
• Allowing garage parking (if available) in the winter
• Making sure your outdoor lights work
• Extra batteries in case smoke alarms run low

Thank you in advance for your thoughtfulness in ensuring your pet sitter’s comfort!

Cleaning
Our cleaning service, when available, may be used for atypical messes which can occur during the normal course of other pet sitting services.

Such messes are often very difficult and/or time consuming to clean up and can even make us late for our next scheduled appointment.

Because cleaning is outside the scope of our normal, daily pet sitting services, we charge a premium for our time.

$50/Hour

CANCELLATIONS
Need to cancel service? No problem! You can cancel any scheduled service without incurring Late Cancellation Fees, if received in a timely manner, please see below. Failure to cancel in a timely manner may result in a Cancellation Fee being assessed, equal to the value of the visits being cancelled.

Cancellations: Non-Holiday Scheduled Services
Schedules not occurring during Holiday weeks can be cancelled without incurring a Cancellation Fee, if we receive 72-hours advance notice, prior to the Scheduled start date.

Cancellations: Holiday Scheduled Services
All services occurring during Holiday week(s), i.e. all services scheduled 7-days either side of a Holiday, can be cancelled without incurring a Cancellation Fee, if we receive 10-days advance notice, prior to the Schedule start date.

Cancellations: Mid-Schedule Cancellations
Cancellations that occur in the middle of a scheduled service period (including early returns) will not be refunded or credited.

Cancellations: Same-Day Schedules
All Schedules submitted and approved without any notice, i.e., same-day schedules, that are later cancelled on that same day, will not be refunded and may jeopardize our availability for any future care.

Why We Charge Cancellation Fees
Your pet sitter stays in town or otherwise clears their schedule on weekends, evenings, holidays, etc. in order to care for your pets. Relying on the Schedule you submit, they also turn away other work, as they can’t be in two places at one time. Our pet sitters need to be able to rely on income from booked services. Accordingly, Cancellation Fees go to compensate your pet sitter for living with unpredictable schedules, time spent away from their own families/friends and their unwavering commitment to client care.

There are no exceptions to our cancellation fees.

How To Cancel Care
To cancel service, please login to your account and submit a cancellation request or email care@poochydoos.com.

SPECIAL VISITS, SURCHARGES & FEES

Early Bird Visits
These are visits that occur early in the morning between 6:00AM – 7:00AM. Because these pet sitting visits are unusual and therefore cannot be added to routes frequented by your pet sitter, there is a $5.00 surcharge for all Early Bird visits.

Night Owl Visits
These are visits that occur late in the evening between 8:30PM – 10:30PM. Because these pet sitting visits are unusual and therefore cannot be added to routes frequented by your pet sitter, there is a $5.00 surcharge for all Nite Owl visits.

Holiday Surcharge
We are happy to spend our holidays with your pets! All services provided on a Holiday will be charged a $5.00 surcharge per each visit as a bonus to your pet sitter.

Holiday’s Observed:
New Year’s Day
MLK Day
Easter
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Columbus Day
Thanksgiving
Day After Thanksgiving
Christmas Eve
Christmas
New Year’s Eve & New Years Day

Service Area Surcharge
A $5.00 – $10.00 surcharge will be charged for all services outside of our service area.

Special Handling Surcharge
We are happy to care for your “in-training” or “difficult” dog as well as positively reinforce your training routines, as long as all such routines are force-free. Behaviors such as on-leash reactivity, high arousal, fear, timidness, environmental sensitivity and other issues may require advanced handling skills and/or handlers with K9 Coach Training, to ensure the well-being of your dog. Often Special Handling needs cannot be assessed during a Meet & Greet but rather present during our first walk, or subsequent walks as we encounter stimuli. Should your dog require Special Handling, a $10.00 surcharge will be assessed to each visit.

Additional Pet Fee
Have more than two pets? Additional pet fees may apply, depending on the number of pets and care routine involved.

Convenience Fee
Due to significant scheduling challenges required to accommodate last minute service, a Convenience Fee will be added to cover the additional administrative time of Poochy Doos, LLC and its pet sitters.

Services requested without 48-hours advanced notice are subject to an additional 25% fee added to the cost of each relevant visit. Likewise, services requested without 24-hours advanced notice are subject to an additional 50% fee added to the cost of each relevant visit.

Convenience Fee advanced notice time calculations toll around our hours of operation, i.e., schedule requests are considered submitted between the hours of 9:00AM - 6:00PM, i.e., Schedule Requests submitted by clients at 6:01 PM will toll to 9:00AM the following morning.

Dog Waste Fee
Please keep in mind that the time you schedule for visits is slated for pet care, not yard maintenance. We do not provide yard or kennel cleaning, as an independent service. Client yards and kennels should be clean when we arrive, in order for us to pick up new waste that occurs during your absence. If your yard is clean upon our arrival, we will do our best to pick up all waste that occurs during our care. We do not guarantee that we will find/remove all waste.

If your yard is full of waste, we may need to perform a waste removal service in order care for your dog. Such service is at the sole discretion of Poochy Doos, LLC and its pet sitters.

/$44 Flat Fee

Errand Fee
A $26.00 errand surcharge will be assessed for any supplies we need to pick-up in order to care for your animals, i.e., medication, pet food, litter, etc.

Litter Box Cleaning Fee
During the first day of service, if there are litter boxes soiled with multiple days of pet waste, we will assess a cleaning fee of $10.00/per box, for each box that needs cleaned.

SERVICE CHANGES

All services are subject to change without notification. Due to the unpredictability of animals and/or conditions and emergencies that may arise, we may (on occasion) need to modify the services you’ve ordered in order to accommodate uncontrollable circumstances. For example, inclement weather may necessitate changing a walk to an indoor play session, etc. Likewise, concerns about your pet’s welfare or behavior may result in an additional visit or extended visit. Finally, we may have to shorten visits to accommodate emergencies. You will be notified of all such changes.

PAYMENT POLICY

Payment Methods
We accept most major credit cards, except American Express and Discover. Credit card payments can be made in two ways:

SelfPay Credit Card Transactions
SelfPay payments are initiated by the client upon receipt of an invoice, payable 72-hours in advance of the start date of service performance, and five days in advance of all services performed on a Holiday.  SelfPay clients are not eligible for Convenience Services.

AutoPay Credit Card Transactions
Clients storing their credit cards in their secure, online profile authorize Poochy Doos, LLC to automatically process payment by processing their credit card. Payment is due 72-hours in advance of the start date of service performance, and five days in advance of all services performed on a Holiday. AutoPay clients (client who have their credit cars stored in their online account) are automatically qualified for Convenience Services.

Clients who have monthly Recurring Schedules, with changing days, will have their cards processed at the beginning of the month for that month’s services.

Clients who have monthly Recurring Schedules, with set, unchanging days, will have their cards processed on the 15th and last day of each month.

Gratuities
If you’d like to leave your pet sitter a tip, please feel free to leave cash, check or add a gratuity to your credit card payment.

POOCHY PALS REFERRAL PROGRAM

Poochy Pals is a referral program for everyone who wants to share The Poochy Love!

How It Works
Our clients receive a FREE $26.00 Service each time they refer a friend who signs-up and uses our pet sitting or dog walking services! Just have them mention your name when they contact us and we’ll do the rest!  FREE service has no cash value, is non-transferrable and is subject to our policies.