Caring 4 Sydney Pets

Name: Caring 4 Sydney Pets
Address: Sydney, NSW, 2066, AU
Telephone: +61400039554

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Caring 4 Sydney Pets

Caring 4 Sydney Pets provides an affordable and reliable petsitting and dog walking service for our customers Do you work night shift?

Caring 4 Sydney Pets is entering our 3rd year as pet sitters and dog walkers in 2016 and we are looking forward to caring for the pets of our existing customers as well as for new customers we meet along the way. We are a professional pet care service offering our customers a pet sitting or dog walking service different to our competitors. With pet sitting we do not believe 40 minutes pet sitters

normally spend with pets is enough time...so we have a minimum visit of 1 hour with your pet which it will benefit from. We also do not charge the customer for every pet they own and we charge simply for the visit at a nice affordable rate. We are a 24 hour sitting service so pet owners can call us any time day or night if they need a sitter urgently. We have taken calls at 2am from people whose sitter let them down aty the last minute and where the pet owner is getting on a plane in 4 hours time. We also take calls from pet owners who need to get hospital treatment and have no one to look after their pets. Our 24 hour service means we can visit your pets during the night while you work.

30/01/2016

While walking dogs we often come across Common Myna birds that are angry and want to swoop down on the dogs we are walking.

The baby Mynas usually leave the nest between the months of December and March so this time of year we still find these birds want to swoop if we get near their nests.

When we walk the dogs, we pay attention to what is around us and the first thing you will hear is the Myna making a lot of noise. Then you see them flying down into a nearby tree or sitting on the overhead wires watching as we get closer.

This is your first sign of their intention to swoop.

As soon as we see this we use our free hand held at a 45 degree angle over the dog which effectively blocks the Mynas from flying over the dog. Adjust the hand accordingly to the size of the dog.

This is a pretty effective defense from swooping by any bird, including magpies, but it is equally important to protect yourself from swooping as well as protecting the dog.

26/01/2016

Over the last week Sydney has had some very big storms and a lot of rain and as a petsitter I have been out there in the worst of it.

Last week I was picking up keys from a new customer and due to a lack of parking my car was about 10 to 15 minutes walk away.

Heading back to my car after meeting the customer the rain was pelting down and I could hear thunder close by. So I quickened my pace.

Over the next 5 to 10 minutes I had 3 lightning strikes in close proximity...the air actually sizzled around me. I got to a stage where I was concerned I was in real danger of being hit by lightning and there was no place to take cover with a busy road on the left and huge trees on the right. Thankfully I made it back to my car ok.

Two days ago one of my customers had arranged to meet me at 10:30 pm and as I left another storm hit. On my way back to the car....about 10 minutes away....... everything around me went white and a huge bang as lightning hit somewhere behind me.

2 or 3 more close strikes and while I am looking up the street I see a lightning bolt hit the roof of a house just 10 houses away....and then an almighty bang which had me ducking for cover.

Again I made it back to the car ok but two pretty frightening episodes in the space of a week.

With dog walking we check for storms in the area before arriving for the walk and if we see a storm moving into the area we automatically delay or cancel the walk.

Storms generally pass withing 20 minutes so the walk can be delayed by an hour in that case...but if there are rolling storms with one storm after the other then the walk is cancelled.

26/01/2016

It has been exactly a month since the an elderly pet sitter had a stroke while on his way to visit some pets he was looking after for some friends of his.

We have kept an eye out for any news of how this story ended with the owners of the pets supposedly being back from holiday 11 days ago.

There has been absolutely no news since the 16th which in our opinion is good news as it seems to suggest more than ever that the cat and dog being looked after had a co-carer.

If the pets had not been fed and given water for 3 weeks then the elderly pet sitter would have been called. There is no indication of this happening so we are taking this as being a happy end to what could have been a very sad story.

We do again ask other pet sitters to review their procedures to make sure this does not happen to them.

Caring 4 Sydney Pets has since we started this business full documentation stored in 3 different places indicating who our customers are, which pets are being looked after and the contact details of our customers in the case of an emergency happening.

23/01/2016

This week I am facing a challenge of looking after a dog which is openly aggressive towards me and clearly does not want me in it's home.

In a situation like this the priority is to make sure that the safety of the pet sitter has priority over everything else.... namely my safety. Dogs can do a lot of damage to people and this dog has snapped at me with teeth five times and done a lot of snarling.

Always a scary moment when you have a dog 2 feet away from you showing it's teeth and looking downright unfriendly.

As always when dogs are being aggressive never run as this wakes the dog's instinct to chase you.

My understanding of a dog's body language gives me all the information I need to work out what the dog is thinking. Today for example I walked in and the first thing I see is the dog's eyes and it is clearly a message not to approach.

The challenge is to get into the kitchen, entry blocked by the dog, feed the dog and refill the water, and head back to the safety of the living room while the dog eats.

Got through the visit ok and the dog has had both meals today and has plenty of water.

The thing to remember is that dogs...as well as cats..... can become aggressive and you should look at the body language as a dog will almost always give a warning before it attacks.

While having lunch today, a guy walking two black dogs lost control of one of the dogs who ran off straight towards a young kid. As soon as I saw this I was on my feet heading for the dog with a lead in my hand.

The kid did the right thing by putting his arms down by his side and not moving and the dog owner grabbed the dog and led it away.

The dog's eyes were directly on the kid and it was possible the kid reminded the dog of someone who had bullied the dog. Thankfully this did not end badly but there are plenty of people who get hurt by cats and dogs and it is important that they are animals and not just someone's pets and need to be respected.

16/01/2016

Caring 4 Sydney Pets has had a really busy Christmas period and I would like to take this time to thank our customers for choosing us to look after their pets while they went away on holiday.

Our pet sitting visits over the Christmas period started on the 20th of December when our customers began leaving, but we started getting busy on the 13th as we arranged to pick up house keys from these customers.

For the last 30 days Caring 4 Sydney Pets has been leaving at 5:30 in the morning heading out to visit homes between Stanmore in the south and Hornsby in the North and from Frenches Forest in the east to Ermington out in the west... a huge coverage area.

The Christmas period is the busiest time of the year for pet sitters and for the Christmas period in 2014 we were taking bookings right up to 10 pm Christmas Eve from pet owners leaving the next morning.

Recognizing that many pet owners make last minute plans to go away for a few weeks over Christmas, and then discover their usual pet sitter is booked out, Caring 4 Sydney Pets always leaves a percentage of spaces open for last minute bookings. As a result we have many new customers and had the chance of meeting some great pets who loved us being there every day.

So today is the 30th day of Christmas visits as well as being the last of the Christmas visits as the few remaining Christmas customers return home today. Time to recharge the batteries and relax.

However, tomorrow we still go out to visit the pets we see every week....and we have 3 new customers we start visits for as of tomorrow and another 4 starting later this week.

Time to recharge batteries may be shorter than hoped but we really love going out to people's homes and looking after their pets...... there is no better business than this one.

15/01/2016

Took an early morning call from a pet owner who needs a pet sitter urgently. Organised a meet with her in a few hours time to pick up keys and meet the cats. It is great that I am starting to take my calls after midnight as it means that pet owners who need to organise pet sitters after hours are now finding my 24 hour service.

Since taking the call I have been working in my office and one of my two cats has been lying down on the table next to the computer and keeping me company.

Eventually he fell asleep and started snoring. Very cute.

After finishing my visits for the day I always love coming home where I am greeted by both of my cats. My youngest cat loves her food and when I walk in the front door she is already sitting by her food bowl in anticipation of her dinner.

She really loves eating.

15/01/2016

The saga of the elderly man who was on his way to visit a cat and dog in the Haberfield area when he had a stroke is likely to be resolved today one way or another.

January 16 is supposedly the day when this family is supposed to return home and I am hoping that this is resolved in the right way when this family comes home and finds their cat and dog have been looked after by a co-carer.

If however their pets were only looked after the guy who had a stroke and who last visited them on boxing day..... well that is something I don't even want to think about.

With this situation expected to be resolved today, I am once again asking other pet sitters to review their procedures to make sure this does not happen to them.

Whether you are a professional pet sitter, a sometimes pet sitter or a friend who has volunteered to look after someone's pets while they are away, you need to have a paper trail on you identifying that you are looking after someone's pets that day and for days or weeks to come.

If something happens to you then that paperwork will tell others that you were looking after pets and the police for example can make sure that other pet sitters are available to look after the pets.

Above all else, the name and address of the owners of the pets you are looking after need to be either in your wallet or purse or at the very least on paper back at your home.

As a pet sitter I walk around every day with a diary listing the names of customers and their mobile numbers when I am visiting their pets each day. The diary identifies that I am a pet sitter and if I am injured the diary will show that I am looking after 8 or more pets a day. This is duplicated on the office computer and in a daily log book next to the computer.

When you have the responsibility of looking after pets, you need to make sure there is a written trail telling others how to contact the owners of the pets you are looking after in case you have a stroke, a heart attack or get struck down by lightning.

14/01/2016

I arrived at a home on Tuesday to walk and feed two dogs and while getting the dogs ready for the walk, I discovered one of the dogs had a small injury on the right side of the body with a small amount of bleeding.

I cleaned the area and applied antiseptic and contacted the owners to see if they wanted me to take the dog to their vet for a checkup.

It looked like while both dogs were playing the other dog had given a small bite. Injury looks clean, no sign of infection and is being monitored both visits of the day until the owner returns on Saturday.

14/01/2016

Today I spent two and a half hours with a cat who, though not showing any signs of stress, was clearly not his usual self and needed more care time. With his owner in hospital for a few days the cat was jumpy and knew something had changed in the routine it liked to follow every day.

Not only was it's owner suddenly not there ( now in hospital ) but before she had left she had a white cast on her foot and was hobbling around on crutches. As a result the cat sought refuge under the bed and did not even want to see his favourite petsitter at all.

The cat then hid away in a hiding spot and did not reappear again until I did my third visit for the day at which stage I stayed for several hours calming the cat down now that I knew where it was.

Before I left the cat was purring and I had managed to get it to eat dinner.

Despite the additional time spent with the cat the owner is only being charged for one visit with the additional one and a half hours being covered by Caring 4 Sydney Pets.

The priority was to make sure the cat was ok before I finished up there for the day.

13/01/2016

I was talking to one of my customers just after 2 this morning. Yesterday she had a labrador run into the back of her legs which resulted in her falling down and as a result she has suffered a Complicated Fracture B. Ouch!

She will be in surgery later this morning and has arranged with me to look after her pets while she is in hospital for however long that is. She will be on crutches for a while and she has a large dog that will need walking and I will need to discuss with her any assistance I can provide with the feeding of some of the pets which I think would be difficult for her on crutches.

Caring 4 Sydney Pets has procedures in place to help out when emergencies occur and we will be offering to help this customer out with her pets at a heavily discounted rate. The longer the customer is out of action the bigger the discount we can offer to help them out.

This is the reason why Caring 4 Sydney Pets is reachable 24 hours a day. Our customers can call us any time of the night when emergencies occur that cannot wait to be organised at 8 in the morning. This way I can meet the customer, pick up the key to her place and have everything organised before she goes to hospital.

11/01/2016

Today I stopped off at the office to pick up the key for a customer who wanted me to walk her dog this afternoon. When I returned to the car there was a puppy near my car standing on the grass ..... similar to the one shown in the picture below.

As soon as the puppy saw me it came running over to me and started rolling around on the grass wanting some attention.

The puppy had a collar and after a few minutes I checked the collar.....but no name tag attached at all.

I pointed to the puppy and told it to sit...which it promptly did and I went to the car to grab one of my dog leads as the puppy was clearly lost.

However, after getting the lead out of the car I found the puppy had gone. I checked the local driveways and gardens and stayed in the street for another 20 minutes but the puppy did not come back. I am assuming it went home but don't know that.

It is important for all pet owners to have their pets microchipped with the pets current home address but it is equally important that the name of the pet, its address and its phone number are also tagged to the collar.Even if your pet is indoors or in a secure garden one day it might get out.

I have found a number of dogs running around the street over the last two years and have been able to contact the owner to let the owner know where the dog is.

It is a little frustrating when there is no name tag or number as it is much harder to reach the owner who is probably frantically searching for the dog.

10/01/2016

Protecting the dog from other dogs
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Not all dogs are as cute and friendly as the 2 dogs shown below that we looked after last year.

Protecting the dogs we walk from getting injured is our number one priority and before we begin the walks we go through some pre-walk procedures including checking the collar, lead or harness are attached to the dog securely. We don't want the dog to pull it's head out of the collar during the walk so this is a priority check.

Our dog walker has had many years of experience with walking dogs and this experience with dog behaviour helps him protect your dog from injury.

When dog walking there is always the chance that a stray or feral dog will take offence at us being there and will attack. Our dog walker takes a number of preventive steps to make sure this does not happen. Dog attacks do occour which can lead to the injury of the dog as well as the walker.

Being alert to what is around you is a key factor to preventing dog attacks. When you see a dog in the distance, look at its body language..... especially the eyes and the tail. If the dog is going to be aggressive these two areas will give an indication of its mood.

When I was walking 3 dogs in the Ryde area another dog walker came up to me telling me his dog had just been attacked by another dog. I asked him if it was a black and white dog and he said yes and asked how I knew that. I told him I saw the dog 10 minutes before, did not like the way it was looking at us and decided to stay well clear of it.

If the other dog advances towards us, our dog walker steps forward placing himself in front of the dog he is walking giving a commanding NO to the other dog. If it keeps advancing and becomes menacing the dog walker takes steps to protect your dog..... these steps taken depend on the breed of the dog, its size and how aggressive it is.

The number one preventive measure is to be alert at all times and watch the body language of other dogs to avoid a dog attack. Be on guard even if the other dog is on a lead...... keep an eye on its body language, its eyes, mouth, the expression on its face and whether its tail is wagging as these will tell if the dog is likely to be aggressive.

10/01/2016

Protecting the dog from swooping birds
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When walking dogs for our customers there is always the possibility that we are going to get near a birds nest and the dog will suddenly become a target of a swooping bird such as a magpie.

If the bird connects with the dog it can cause an injury and that is something we always like to avoid.

To prevent dogs being injured by swooping birds, Caring 4 Sydney Pets has devised a procedure to protect the dog at all times.

Firstly, the dog walker looks out for birds showing body language that they are about to swoop. For example, you will see magpies fly down and perch on power lines up ahead and they watch as you pass by.

Secondly, Myna Birds just before they will swoop will make a lot of noise as they alert others of the dog's presence.

As soon as our dog walker sees the birds showing such behavior, he knows they are about to swoop on the dog and he immediately protects the dog.

I photoshopped the picture below to show how we do this. Note : I am not as muscular as the guy in the picture.

In the picture, the dog is walking on the right side of the walker and we will assume the lead is being held in the walkers left hand.

To protect the dog, our dog walker places his right arm at a 45-degree angle over the dog providing it a protective umbrella from swooping birds. If you look at the picture you will see there is very little space beneath the arm and the dog and this prevents birds from swooping as their flight path is blocked. This is using a theory that if you block the bird's flight path over the dog it will not swoop down.

Depending on the size of the dog being walked we lower the arm so as to keep the space between the arm and the dog as minimal as possible.

We recommend this is a technique that all dog walkers should use when walking dogs as it does prevent swooping birds if done right.

10/01/2016

Today we met a new friend who we are looking after for a few days for her owner.

She is normally shy around people but came up to me straight away as soon as I arrived there. She is very cute and was hanging around the door, then coming over to me and rubbing against me before going back to the door again making little-meowing noises.

She likes to go outside but I had strict instructions to keep her inside .....

Sorry kitty.....not today.

10/01/2016

Below is a picture of 3 very young kittens found by one of the searchers in Summer Hill a few days ago. Apparently these 3 were found dumped in grass in the open.

It breaks my heart when I see things like this happen to animals who are too young to care for themselves.

The kittens are now being cared for by The Mini Kitty Commune and are being fed and treated for flu.

UPDATE

Apparently these 3 have been checked by a vet and have mild conjunctivitis and not cat flu as originally thought.

09/01/2016

An update on the Summerhill Pets story.

The search for the pets by hundreds of volunteers who were door knocking and handing out leaflets in Summerhill and Haberfield wound down yesterday with both suburbs being heavily blanketed and with news that there is a strong possibility that the pets have a co-carer looking after them.

Organisers of the search are calling for the co-carer to call them so that we all know that the pets are well and being cared for.

During the search for these pets there were some other good results.

- a cat had been reported missing for three days and was found by searchers and has been reunited with her owner.

- Three tiny stray kittens were found and are now being cared for at a cat shelter.

With this story it is important that pet owners know who is looking after their pets and most importantly if you have not arranged your sitter to give you updates every couple of days at least make contact with your sitter by email or sms to make sure that everything is going well with your pets.

This is also a call for pet sitters to review their procedures and make sure that something similar does not happen with them. Look at all the worst case scenarios that could happen and work out a strategy to make sure they don't happen. This is very important for the safety and well-being of the pets under your care.

09/01/2016

Caring 4 Sydney Pets looked after Gidget for a few weeks and made sure she got plenty of exercise...... which was a bit of a challenge with all the rain we had in Sydney.

Took this picture of Gidget after our last walk with her yesterday....
After the walk she was a little tired and very happy as she really loves her walks.

Looking forward to seeing her next time.

09/01/2016

One of the many cats we looked after for pet owners who went away for the Christmas holidays.

06/01/2016

Just a quick share to the 7 News Story on the search for these pets.

I have heard that there are roughly 700 people who have being or are still involved with trying to find the pets.

As for the Brown and White Border Collie mentioned at the end of the story there have been a number of sightings of the dog since Saturday so hopefully she will be found soon and returned to the owners.

06/01/2016

Finally it looks like the rain is easing up in Sydney at last. I leave at 5:30 in the morning to head out to some of the more distant suburbs and give pets their early morning feed and the road conditions have been very bad in some places with a lot of water on the road.

There has been no news as yet for the search for the pets in the Haberfield area of Sydney after an elderly man who was looking after pets for a friend had a stroke on Boxing Day and cannot recall the address of where those pets are. Even though it has been almost 2 weeks there is still hope that the pets are still alive.

- After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans pets were being rescued from homes after 4 weeks.

- These pets may have access to outdoors and the rain we have had in Sydney will hopefully give them a source of drinking water.

- If the cat and dog are being fed dry food they may have broken into the boxes and have had perhaps 3 to 5 days of food.

More information from the sitter who had the stroke has changed the search area from Summer Hill to Haberfield. If you are in Haberfield and have heard a distressed dog barking please contact the number below or call Ashfield police.

04/01/2016

We have added a contact Us button at the top of the page if you would like to visit our website.

The website will be getting some updates soon but at no stage does the site go down for maintenance. As we do 24 hour marketing of our business we do the updates and testing offline and then simply copy the new web pages across once the changes are complete.

04/01/2016

As professional pet sitters Caring 4 Sydney Pets follows strict procedures put in place to prevent situations occurring such as what has happened to the elderly pet sitter who had a stroke and the pets he was looking after are now in a very bad situation.

To prevent disasters like this happening we listed every conceivable problem that may happen and have put in policies and procedures to prevent those problems from occurring.

We identified the number 1 issue would be that the pet sitter locks the key inside the house and cannot get back in. We solved that by the petsitter having the key to the home attached to a lanyard and a policy that at all times when leaving a pet's home that the key is in his hand when the door is closed and locked.

The number 2 issue is what if the pet sitter is hit by the proverbial bus. Detailed records are kept on the office computer which is backed up daily as well as in a daily job log book kept beside the computer identifying the customers whose pets we are looking after now or in the coming weeks. The pet sitter has a diary which he takes with him containing the addresses of homes he is currently visiting and looking after pets with contact phone numbers in case of emergencies. Additions to the pet sitter diary on a daily basis are then written up in the office job log book as well as entered into the computer. This gives 3 sources of information of who our customers are and where the pets are if something happens to the pet sitter.

The number 3 issue is something we have started enforcing as of the beginning of 2016. We are requesting our customers contact us when they return home so we know they are back and taking care of their pets. If we do not hear from the customer when they return we will call them as we need to make sure the customer has returned home safely to feed their pets.

Number 4 issue is a threat to a home containing pets by a nearby bushfire. We monitor any fires in the Sydney area and if we determine a customer's home is in danger we have an evacuation plan for the pets until the danger has passed.

Those are some of the issues we have identified and the procedures we have in place to prevent problems occurring. We believe that prevention is better than responding to a problem occurring.

At the time we take on new jobs we will also be asking for alternative contact numbers for people we can call in case we cannot contact the pets owners in case of emergencies.

04/01/2016

Yesterday I was on the road heading towards a customer's home in St Ives to feed their dog and 2 cats. I then heard on the radio that an elderly pet sitter has had a stroke on Christmas Day and is now unable to recall the address of a home where he has been feeding a cat and a dog.

I rang up 2GB and spoke to the lovely lady who answered the phone and went through a couple of suggestions on how people may be able to find the address of where this cat and dog are.

It sounds like the pet sitter was helping out a friend by looking after their cat and dog while they went away to the South Coast on holiday so we are looking at only one home and not 8 to 12 homes with pets inside.

The issue is that the dog and cat have been inside this house waiting to be fed since Christmas Day or Boxing Day.....depending on whether the elderly guy was able to do his visit before he had the stroke. We are now at Day 11 that they have been without food and this breaks my heart thinking of what those pets are going through.

The receptionist at 2GB told me she would pass my information on and after that I rang up the Vets at Summer Hill which is the suburb where it is thought these pets are living.....possibly Haberfield. Spoke to the vet about possible means of finding where these pets are but unfortunately there is no written records of where the elderly pet sitter was going apart from a note on the fridge saying See Pets.

I finished up my visits yesterday and then drove on over to Summer Hill and Haberfield and drove around each of the suburbs to see if I could hear a dog howling..... sadly I did not hear a thing. After all this time without food and water it is very likely that the dog is not well enough to do much barking.

For any chance of a happy end to this.... the pets need to be found today and seen to by the vet. I am leaving for my visits at 5:30 am and once I have those finished I am heading out to Summerhill again and hopefully meet up with the people who have been searching and door-knocking the area.

It is important that these pets are found and taken to the vets but equally important that they are found before their owners return home and find the pets themselves...no pet owner should experience that.

Address

Sydney, NSW
2066

Telephone

+61400039554

Website

http://www.caring4sydneypets.com.au/

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