How much do you pay the teenager next door to feed your dogs while you are out of town?

[VickiR]

Originally Posted by NewUser

Thanks for the replies everyone! I think that we'll go with $15/day, or maybe $10/day + a gift from our trip. Now if only I could think of something a teenage boy would like from the beach. . . . . that his parents will also approve of.

I'd go with paying the $15 per day and forget the "My neighbor went to the beach and all I got was this lousy t shirt" gift!!!

Vicki

[Lisalrenee]

Originally Posted by VickiR

I'd go with paying the $15 per day and forget the "My neighbor went to the beach and all I got was this lousy t shirt" gift!!!

Vicki

Agreed. I don't think we ever found out the age of this teenager? All kids are different, for sure, but if this is a16-17-18 year old kid, $15 is not an entirely compelling reason to spend the time you're hoping w/ your pets.

[ech86]

I used to cat sit when I was a teenager. The first people I cat sat for paid me $2.50 per trip. I would go twice a day (mornings and evenings) so that was $5.00 per day. I would charge the same for 2 cats as I did for one cat. But I didn't have to clean the litter box. Later on, I started catsitting a cat that was indoors only. The owner would give me about $30 for a week. But I had to clean her litter box.

I didn't really care how much I was paid. I love cats so I was happy to do it, it was fun. I just took whatever the owners wanted to give me. I didn't charge them a specific rate.

[Francois]

Originally Posted by ech86

I used to cat sit when I was a teenager. The first people I cat sat for paid me $2.50 per trip. I would go twice a day (mornings and evenings) so that was $5.00 per day. I would charge the same for 2 cats as I did for one cat. But I didn't have to clean the litter box. Later on, I started catsitting a cat that was indoors only. The owner would give me about $30 for a week. But I had to clean her litter box.

I didn't really care how much I was paid. I love cats so I was happy to do it, it was fun. I just took whatever the owners wanted to give me. I didn't charge them a specific rate.

Only thing is, dogs are more high maintenance than cats (believe me, I've ha both).

Now if only I could think of something a teenage boy would like from the beach. . . . . that his parents will also approve of.

Who says his parents have to know!

[roscomac]

Originally Posted by VickiR

I'd go with paying the $15 per day and forget the "My neighbor went to the beach and all I got was this lousy t shirt" gift!!!

Vicki

Ditto. You'll have to spend time trying to figure out what to get, you'll spend more than $5, and he won't want it.

[NewUser]

I found out that this boy's mother dog sits for another family in the neighborhood. I'm guessing that she now thinks that the son, who is in his early teens, is ready to join in now that he's old enough. There are lots of families with pets in our neighborhood! The family has been giving her $10/day and that includes house sitting duties as well (bringing in mail, taking trash can to street, watering plants, etc). So, considering that we're not asking for any house sitting tasks, and this is the son and not the mother, I feel comfortable with $10/day to start out. I'm sure that the mother will accompany him.

[michgc]

For several years our neighbor's kid fed our dog while we were away. She came twice a day to put out dog food. And she'd play with the dog for a bit. We had a doggie door with a fenced yard, so the dog could go out and do her business on her own. We paid the kid $10 per day, which was $5 per visit. There was no travel involved (she lives across the street), and she loved playing with our dog anyway. We would usually bring back a food present for the family when we returned - like a bag of oranges from Florida or a box of fudge from the beach. We never had any problems, and we did this for several years. In fact, we started with the older brother, and when he got too old, we moved on to his younger sister. They were about 12-15 years old when did this, so it was pretty decent money for them.

[Juanvald]

Seems like 10 bucks is the going rate, which is what we paid our neighbor recently. He is only 10 or 11. When I told him I'd give him 80 bucks for 8 days, he was like, "Can we do half of that?". I laughed and told him that 10 bucks a day was not a problem for us and that a professional sitter would cost a lot more. Then he agreed. Nice to see some kids aren't completely obsessed with money.

Oh and when we used professional sitters, they charged us 17 bucks PER VISIT for our two dogs/3 cats. I always found it annoying that they would charge us so much for our cats even though they never had to feed them(we have an automatic feeder with plenty of food) and we really only needed litter cleaned every three days or so. When we go out of town for the weekend(and take the dogs), we don't even worry about someone watching the cats.

[jamangirl]

We pay $10 per day- 4 visits with at least one walk included on one of those visits. She takes in the mail and waters plants. I also tip on top of that. Averages out to about $12 per day.