Pet Sitter Spotlight: Sharon Treweek, Home Pet Care

For Sharon Treweek, professional pet sitting has proven to be the perfect career—one that satisfies her need for working with animals, being on the move and spending time outdoors.

Sharon is the owner of Home Pet Care in Kalispell, Montana, and St. George, Utah. She joined Pet Sitters International in 1994, the year the association was founded.

With two business locations, Sharon has the unique opportunity to experience life in different locales during the year. She spends her summers in Montana and winters in Utah, with a pet sitter in each location to cover for her while she is gone.

Sharon first opened her pet-sitting business in Evergreen, Colorado, in 1993. With a background as a veterinary microbiologist, she wanted to stay in the animal field, and a few different people had suggested she give pet sitting a try.

Sharon quickly learned that professional pet sitting was her “thing.” Between her medical background and her experience being raised on a farm, she had a great foundation for becoming a pet sitter.

“It’s a happy, moving, active kind of job and you can’t get bored,” Sharon says. “It’s a fun way to spend a life.”

An early member of PSI

When starting out, Sharon tried to get insurance for her pet-sitting business, and someone suggested she read Pet Sitting for Profit by Patti Moran. After learning that Patti was starting Pet Sitters International, Sharon joined the association to get the benefit of connection with other pet sitters and access to pet-sitting insurance.

“It happened to be very timely for me and the organization, and exciting to be part of something new,” Sharon explains.

She says it is good to have a professional organization behind you.

Attending pet-sitter conferences allowed her to meet other pet sitters who were enthusiastic about their businesses, and taking pet first aid classes provided her with additional training.

Home Pet Care primarily services dogs and cats, and Sharon enjoys caring for birds. She also offers care for small animals and livestock, but the business doesn’t receive many calls for livestock care these days. Sharon cared for a lot of horses and farm animals early in her pet-sitting career, but now the towns have changed so much—from rural to more urban settings.

Sharon’s service areas are in rapidly-growing locations. She is seeing a lot of young professionals in her communities.

“If you can get in a growing community, that’s really helpful,” she advises.

An innovative business model

Sharon’s business initially serviced the area where she was living in Colorado. As her mother got older, Sharon went to Montana to help her out and started a second location for her pet-sitting business there, spending her summers in Montana. Sharon later started offering pet-sitting services in Utah as well.

With two business locations now—and at one point three locations—having a quality pet sitter to cover assignments while she is away has been vital for Sharon.

At first, it was difficult, because clients wanted her—the owner—to be the one visiting their homes. Sharon said people are used to her arrangement now.

“The secret is to be able to find good people and be able to introduce them to clients,” Sharon says.

Fortunately, Sharon has been able to find good sitters to cover for her in her seasons away. In one case, she brought on a client to be a pet sitter. A client called and asked if Sharon needed help, saying her husband was interested. Sharon said yes, and the man turned out to be a good fit for her business.

For other pet sitters looking for staff sitters, Sharon offers a suggestion: Consider if you have good clients whose personalities you like who are near retirement. They may be interested in pet sitting for your company, and they will already be familiar with your services.

Evolution in the industry

The pet-sitting industry has certainly changed over the past few decades. Sharon explains that because she was in smaller towns, a lot of her business was thanks to word of mouth.

“That’s really drastically changed with the internet,” Sharon says of the industry.

If she was going to grow her business, she would definitely have a website and social-media pages, Sharon notes.

Sharon is intentionally downsizing her business as she gets older and not doing any outside advertising, but over the years, an effective method for her was having business signs on her car. Also, she has always done promotions with veterinary offices in town.

“I’ve always wanted the veterinarians to know who I am,” she explains.

Sharon always visited veterinary offices for each major holiday to get to know the staff, leave business cards and provide small treats. She also checks in with veterinary offices to learn about any diseases detected in the area, which also provides her with an opportunity to tell them about her services.

Tips for other pet sitters

Sharon has learned many tricks of the trade over the years. For example, she encounters many overweight pets. If they always seem hungry, with dogs, she recommends moistening the food or putting water with it. That helps to not increase the number of calories, but makes the animal feel fuller.

She advises giving pets as much exercise time as possible.

Another tip: Always make sure your clients arrive home. Sharon leaves a note advising the pet owner to call as soon as they are home safely. If the pet owner doesn’t call, she calls them and visits the home if necessary. This ensures that animals are not left without care.

Sharon also likes to know where her clients are going so if disaster strikes, she will know if there is a possibility that the clients may not make it home.

Sharon recommends that pet sitters further their education. Pet first aid classes are good to take. She suggests pet sitters also take advantage of any training or resources that would help them run a business, because that can be tricky.

When asked what has contributed to her success in business, Sharon said: “I had so much enthusiasm for it and loved animals so much. This just turned out to be my thing. It satisfied my need to be on the move…and being outdoors.

“I also don’t like a real scheduled life where I go do the same thing every day, and with pet sitting, that never happened. With pet sitting you never have a boring day.”