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Pet sitter burnout and compassion fatigue: What you should know

By Beth Stultz-Hairston



Understand that as a pet sitter, you are going to have times that you feel overwhelmed, stressed out or just dog-tired…it’s normal! But, always keep in mind why you began pet sitting in the first place. Most likely, your love for animal and desire to be your own boss were driving factors. When you have bad days, focus on those perks. As a business owner, you control the course of your career—so if you are not able to enjoy time with the pets anymore, or if you are letting your business “run you,” take a close look at your business, learn more about burnout, compassion fatigue and what changes you can make to ensure that you can enjoy your career as a professional pet sitter for years to come.

While many think of burnout or compassion fatigue as issues experienced by industry veterans only, understand that professional pet sitters can be impacted at any stage of their careers...and understanding the causes, symptoms and necessary responses to burnout and compassion fatigue when you first open your pet-sitting service can help you implement measures to prevent and manage future issues.

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Please Note: 
Many of the tips below can help pet sitters prevent burnout or work through compassion fatigue, but keep in mind this advice does not provide or replace advice from a healthcare or mental-healthcare professional—so if your symptoms are not manageable, consult an expert!

Burnout, Compassion Fatigue and the Professional Pet Sitter

It’s no surprise that small-business owners are prone to experiencing burnout, but it often seems that pet-care professionals, in particular, are susceptible to burnout and “compassion fatigue.” 

While the symptoms may be similar, burnout and compassion fatigue are not the same.

Burnout is typically associated with where you work—and if you leave the job, you would leave the burnout. [An example could be developing burnout from a specific job or employer that constantly asked you to work overtime, paid very little and didn’t encourage positive relationships between co-workers.]

On the other hand, compassion fatigue is more associated with the work you do—so it follows you wherever you go. [For example, while a nurse could go to work for a different hospital, the fatigue he or she experiences from dealing with life and death situations, seeing individuals suffer, etc. would still be present]. 

pet sitter burnout and compassion fatigue-self care

Pet Sitter Burnout:

Since professional pet sitters often own their own businesses and work for themselves, it can be confusing to understand how burnout applies: If burnout is associated with where you work and can be improved by leaving that specific job, what does that mean for pet sitters who work for themselves?

While no one wants to experience burnout, professional pet sitters who own their own businesses are in a unique position to determine the causes of their burnout and make changes in their business to alleviate the problems. If you worked for another company, finding another job might be the only way to improve working conditions--but because you are your own boss, YOU are in control of changing and improving your working conditions to improve your quality of life and job satisfaction.  

Learn more about pet sitter burnout, the causes and the symptoms.

Pet Sitter Compassion Fatigue:

Professional pet sitting is by definition a career that provides care and service. Because of the depth of that caring and the stresses of that service, professional pet sitters can fall prey to compassion fatigue.

Because compassion fatigue is associated with the work you do (and not just your specific working conditions), the causes cannot be eliminated like you can the causes of pet sitter burnout. However, understanding what compassion fatigue is, recognizing the symptoms and identifying the causes can help you prevent, address or manage compassion fatigue.

Learn more about pet sitter compassion fatigue, the causes and symptoms.

Additional resources:

Comments

Lori

August 17, 2024  |  9:k AM
Thank you for this article. I've been a full-time pet sitter for 8 years. While I feel blessed with being busy and having the business coming in, I've always loved my work but lately I'm feeling overwhelmed. The past year or two it's taken it's toll on me: many early mornings & late nights, schedules where I'm starting at 6 or 7 am and working until 10:30 at night with barely enough break time in-between to eat, take a potty break and fed my own pet, let alone errands and chores. I have one client (she's one of a couple examples) where I let her dog out for potty breaks while she's at work a few days a week. Lately, she's needed extra days I cannot always do due to an absolutely overwhelming schedule, I don't even have an extra 15 min to give anyone, she wasn't very understanding. I'm treated like I don't have a REAL job and I can just drop everything I'm doing to appease her, I'm ready to quite this particular client but cannot afford to. Clients need to realize sitters have lives, they have errands and chores like the rest of the world and our own fur kids to care for. Our personal lives get put on hold constantly. I've started saying no and caring less & less if I made this client upset, I'm not her "on call" dog nanny. We also need to have office hours as sitters because I have people text at very late and very early hours. Sorry for such a long comment lol

S k

March 15, 2024  |  10:k AM
I have been pet sitter/dog walker for a dog pet sitting company for all most 2years and have worked my butt off working late hours . holidays.tuck ins for 4 weeks at a time with no time off I have hit the point of burnt out.dealing with pet owners i think owners need to be trained not the pets on how to treat pet walkers and yes give tips we walker pet sitters do a service for pet owners a thank you goes a long way also.i love working with pets trying to find a happy balance is not easy im learning to find ways to destress and shut my phone off at night so i can get a good night sleep because clients do leave late messages not respecting dog walkers boundaries if not emergency don't call after hours and be understanding that we are people not dog walker robot's . positive points of pet walking get fresh air pets love us great exercise and yes some customers actually tip bonus wish every pet sitter good luck and take time to smell the roses along your walkers and the pets we take care of love us and really enjoy our company

Diane Kuschel

August 15, 2023  |  2:k PM
Thank you for this useful article. Because I have a lot of health problems myself, I do my best to keep a slower paced schedule and fewer, quality clients. In part, I do this by charging higher prices. I have the privilege of a husband who has a steady job and good insurance to help support me, which I know many pet sitters do not.
This along with counseling about my limits and business decisions, as well as self-care, help me to take better care of myself. But I had many lessons to learn along the way, and still do. Like the 31 days in a row of work with no time off...and subsequent complete burnout. And the realization that I, like many caregivers, give too much: way more than is needed or offered to the human clients. So I've worked at backing off of that bit by bit, and they still love my work and how I care for their babies. Another lesson in progress. Thanks!

Aimrr

June 24, 2023  |  5:k AM
Finding this helped me mentally , im feeling exhausted between never having holidays off to the occasional rude client, or high maintenance dogs that you don’t get paid extra and people not thinking this is a real job when my work doesn’t go home it stays for 24 hours 7 days a week lol .. one person in another post made a good point I can’t find pet sitter friends because they do look at you like competition . I was surprised to find this article I thought this was all in my head and no one else probably feels this way as a sitter. Thank you for this article and everyone’s stories!

MT

January 31, 2022  |  12:k PM
After almost 14 years owning a pet sitting business I'm barely finding out what compassion fatigue is... I'm always too swamped to be able to look into the PSI articles or webinars. But something made me try and look up to see if other pet sitters were experiencing the feelings and emotions I currently am. And sure enough it's a thing! Boy, am I the walking definition of that term right now and I'm sure many of my pet sitter colleagues feel the same. One of the hard things is finding camaraderie among other pet sitters who view you as competition. In all my years of doing this I've yet to find another sitter to vent to or confide in. I hope others are luckier in this area.

Kathy

January 23, 2022  |  1:k PM
I have been taking care of pets since 1998 and recently retired from the business. When things are going well, it’s a good business. However, this is usually not the case. Many pets have separation anxiety and medical issues that their owners may not know about (or not share with you). Many times I’ve been overwhelmed with the stress of dealing with these issues and rushing a pet to the emergency vet to save it’s life. There are conditions that come on extremely quickly (bloat, heart issues, and anaphylactic shock, to name a few) and are often fatal no matter how hard you tried to help the pet. This is absolutely devastating to the pet care provider and often the owner will blame you even though you made every effort to save the pet and are 100% not responsible. These sad moments will stay with me the rest of my life and are why I had to close my business.

JH

November 23, 2021  |  10:k AM
Ive been pet sitting for years, I'm at the point I'd rather spend time with my own animals then dealing with someones ill behaved animals or clients that try to short change me.

Puppy Sitter

March 6, 2020  |  8:k AM
It is so important to prioritize self-care, especially as pet sitters. I think a lot of the personalities that get into this line of work are by nature very compassionate and caring people, so caring for others tends to become the overwhelming priority at the expense of any care for yourself. It's a conscious effort to make the time and make it important enough to replenish yourself.

Misty Freeze

June 12, 2016  |  10:k AM
Thanks so much for the article! Everyone thinks pet sitting is so easy. It is fun being with the sweet animals but the hours are very demanding, every holiday, every weekend, early mornings and late nights....still all in all, it beats punching a time clock and nothing beats being my own boss!