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By Beth Stultz-Hairston | November 1, 2020

Experiencing the loss of a beloved pet—whether your own or a client’s—never gets easier and is, unfortunately, a situation you will deal with many times over the course of your pet-sitting career.

If you are a professional pet sitter or dog walker, the death of a client’s pet presents a unique challenge—while dealing with your own sense of loss over the passing of a pet you’ve bonded with, you also want to support your client and have your business acknowledge their loss and honor the pet’s life.

It’s a question we see posed time and again in PSI’s private, members-only Facebook group and in emails sent to us here at PSI:

Should I send some type of gift to a client who has lost a pet and, if so, what?

The short answer is YES—as a pet-sitting or dog-walking business you should acknowledge the pet’s passing in some way.

As a professional pet-care provider you are an integral part of the pet’s care team (and extended family), providing care for a pet at all stages of their life—and honoring their passing should be a natural part of the care you provide.

However, there are many options for how you can honor a pet that passed and express your sympathy to the pet parent—and there are various factors to consider when deciding what your company’s process will be. These factors may include your personal preferences, the relationship you have with specific clients (and what their preferences may be) and your company’s budget, among others.

Also keep in mind that you don’t have to follow a one-size-fits-all approach and use the same pet memorial option with each client that loses a pet. Many pet sitters we speak with have specific memorial gifts for long-time or frequent clients but have different gifts or memorial ideas for less frequent or newer clients. Others focus on online postings or donations made in the pet’s honor, instead of physical gifts.

Tip: You know your clients best. If you are considering posting about a pet’s passing on your social-media pages or website, ensure you aren’t violating the client’s privacy. You will likely have many clients who are comfortable publicly sharing about their loss, but some may prefer to grieve privately.

As the business owner you decide which pet-loss memorial idea(s) your company wants to implement, but it is important to have procedures in place for your business in advance. Having set procedures for what your business does when a client loses a pet ensures that you aren’t rushing to decide on a memorial gift when a pet passes and can get the gift to the client in a timely manner. It also ensures that you do not have the extra stress of trying to determine how you should honor the pet in the moment when you are already dealing with grief yourself.

PSI members, log in to read this entire blog post with pet memorial ideas and photos.

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