Pet sitting grows in popularity

Pet sitters send photos of their clients' pets to the owners to let them know their pets are fine. gettyimagesbank

Demand for pet sitting services rises in vacation season

By Bahk Eun-ji

Yim Ji-hye, 30, an office worker, had to leave her cat at home for a week recently when she went on a business trip to Jeju Island.

She was worried about her pet staying home alone ― especially during a heat wave ― but couldn't leave the air conditioner on for the whole week, or leave the window open as she worried about her cat's safety.

None of her relatives or friends were available to take care of the pet due to having their own commitments or animal allergies.

Yim learned about a pet care service, but was reluctant to use it as it would mean the sitter, a stranger, would come into her home while she was away.

“But the sitter used an action cam on her body to record every step of the service from her entering my home to her playing with my cat. I was so relieved because I could check in real time,” Yim said.

As the number of pet owners here has reached nearly 15 million, they have growing concerns over where to leave their pets when they are traveling or are away from home for other reasons.

According to a report released by KB Financial Group in March, 6.04 million households, or 29.7 percent of the total in Korea, were raising pets as of the end of 2020.

As such, the number of people looking for pet sitters is increasing rapidly. People can easily find pet-sitting service providers on the internet, such as Dogmate, Petner, Pet Planet and Petfemm. Some of these companies require certain qualifications of their pet sitters, such as having experience raising a dog or cat for more than five years.

Pet sitters provide various services according to the client's request, such as feeding, adjusting room temperature and walking dogs. gettyimagesbank

There are also several training institutes that give education to would-be pet sitters.

“Compared to the first time we started a dog trainer certificate course with the agreement of the Gyeonggi Do Provincial Institute of Lifelong Learning in 2019, people's interest in pet sitting has increased explosively,” said Lee Seung-ju, chief director of the Korean Standard Dog (KSD) Education Center, one such institute, told The Korea Times.

The center, a private non-profit organization of pet experts, formed a partnership with Pet People, which operates a platform called Pet Planet, to develop and provide a pet-sitting expert course, and only those who have completed the course are permitted to work for the platform.

“Especially in the summer when many people go on a vacation, more and more pet owners are inquiring about pet sitting services,” Lee noted.

He said the biggest feature of the pet-sitting service is the one-on-one personalized care service. Owners can request services they want, such as taking their dog for a daily walk or giving them a bath. Pet sitters send photos and video recordings of the pets and the services they perform to the owners who may be worried about how their pets are doing.

Pet owners can choose between having the sitters come to their houses for the service. or leaving their animals at the sitter's place. The latter is usually sought after by long-term business travelers or pet owners who travel frequently.

“The job of a pet sitter is to take care of them diligently with love, like a parent raising a child,” Lee said.

He said people initially were interested in pet sitting services in the past as a means of finding work, but now there are also many who enroll in the course to learn how to take care of their pets more professionally.

Amid the growing number of pet sitters and rising demand for their services, experts are calling for establishment of relevant policies and laws to regulate and develop the pet-sitting industry.

“The pet sitting industry is expected to grow, but many pet owners are still worried about whether they can leave their pets under care services safely,” said Lee Won-bok, CEO of the Korea Animal Protection Association.

“The question about the qualifications of pet sitters has been constantly raised. The certification system should be managed by the government in the future, making it more reliable.”