How to write pet sitter instructions your sitter will actually use

Why most pet sitter instructions don't get read

You've been there. You wrote three pages of detailed instructions: morning routine, evening routine, which treats are allowed, what to do if the cat hides under the bed, how to administer the eye drops. You left them on the kitchen counter. Your sitter read the first paragraph and then texted you six questions anyway.

The issue is format, not effort. Most pet sitter instructions are written like a memoir when they should be written like a dashboard — the critical information first, the nice-to-knows later, and nothing the sitter doesn't need at all.

What to include (in this order)

Organize your instructions by urgency, not by time of day. Your sitter needs to know what could hurt your pet before they need to know what time dinner is.

1. Emergency contacts (top of the page)

• Your phone number and a backup contact who can make decisions if you're unreachable
• Your regular vet's name, address, and phone number — include hours so the sitter knows when to call the ER instead
• Nearest emergency vet — name, address, and phone number. Don't make the sitter Google this at 11 PM
• Pet poison control — ASPCA: (888) 426-4435 (a consultation fee applies)

2. Medications and allergies

This is the section that saves lives and the one most often buried at the bottom of a printable template.

• Current medications: drug name, dose, timing, and how to give it (with food? empty stomach? hidden in cheese?). If the timing matters — like insulin or seizure medication — say so explicitly: "This must be given within 30 minutes of the scheduled time."
• Known allergies: food allergies, medication allergies, environmental triggers. Be specific: "allergic to chicken" is actionable. "Sensitive stomach" is not.
• What to do if a dose is missed: your vet's guidance for each medication. Don't make the sitter guess.

3. Feeding

• What food (brand and variety — leave the bag visible)
• How much (cups, scoops, or grams — not "a little")
• When (specific times or range: "between 7 and 8 AM")
• Treats: what's allowed, what's not, how many per day
• Water: any special notes (filtered only, elevated bowl for a large dog, fountain for a cat who won't drink from a bowl)

4. Behavioral notes

This is where you prevent the panicked texts. Focus on three categories:

• Fear triggers: thunderstorms, fireworks, vacuum, specific sounds. What does the pet do, and what should the sitter do?
• Escape behavior: Does the dog bolt through open doors? Does the cat squeeze through screens? Does the ferret open cabinets? This is the kind of thing a sitter discovers the hard way if you don't warn them.
• Aggression or reactivity: toward other dogs on walks, toward strangers at the door, toward the mail carrier specifically. If your dog is leash-reactive, say so — and say what the sitter should do (cross the street, redirect with treats, shorten the leash).

5. Daily routine (brief)

• Walk times, duration, and route preferences
• Litter box: location, how often to scoop, what litter to use
• Crate or free-roam overnight
• Any end-of-day rituals (some dogs need a final backyard trip at exactly 10 PM or they'll wake up the sitter at 3 AM)

What to leave out

Resist the urge to include everything. Your sitter doesn't need:

• Your pet's full life story or adoption backstory
• The brand history of their food
• A play-by-play of every possible scenario
• Photos labeled "just for fun" (save these for your own phone)

If you're writing more than one page, you're writing for yourself, not for your sitter. Edit ruthlessly.

The printable template problem

Printable pet sitter instruction templates — the kind you find on Etsy, Pinterest, or pet blogs — are a good starting point. They remind you what to include. But they have a fundamental flaw: they're frozen the moment you fill them out.

Your vet changes your dog's thyroid medication dose in March. You print new sitter instructions in June. Those four months of notes stuck to the fridge? Wrong dose. Your sitter follows them in good faith and gives the old amount.

The same applies to vet contact information, vaccination status, and allergy lists. Anything that changes at a vet visit — and something changes at most vet visits — makes the printed version unreliable.

A better approach: the digital sitter card

A sitter card is a shareable link your sitter opens in any browser. No app, no account, no download. It shows exactly what the sitter needs: feeding, medications, allergies, quirks, emergency contacts, and your vet's information — pulled directly from your pet's health record.

When your vet updates a medication or records a new allergy, the sitter card reflects it automatically. You share the same link with every sitter, walker, groomer, or boarding facility, and it's always current.

With Voocie, the sitter card is built from the same record your vet updates by emailing your pet's private @pets.voocie.com address. The vet sends the visit summary to the pet's address; the record updates; the sitter card updates. You add the behavioral notes and feeding schedule once, and from that point forward, the medical side stays current on its own.

If you have multiple pets

Multi-pet households need one set of instructions per pet. Combining two dogs and a cat onto one page leads to confusion — which dog gets the allergy pill? Which one isn't allowed chicken treats?

In Voocie, each pet has its own record and its own sitter card. Your sitter gets separate links for each animal, each with the right medications, the right feeding schedule, and the right behavioral notes. No mix-ups, no "wait, was that for Luna or for Bear?"

For more on managing records across multiple pets, see multi-pet household health records.

What to tell your sitter about vet visits

Before you leave, tell your sitter two things:

1. When to call the vet vs. the emergency vet — give clear criteria: "Vomiting once is normal. Vomiting three times in an hour, call the emergency vet."
2. Whether the sitter is authorized to approve treatment — some vets won't treat without owner consent. If you want the sitter to be able to authorize emergency care in your absence, call your vet before you leave and put the sitter's name on file.

If your pet has a health condition that requires monitoring — diabetes, seizures, heart disease — write a specific protocol: what to watch for, when to act, and who to call. This should be a separate, clearly labeled section, not buried in the daily routine.