At Critter Sitters, we believe that taking care of your pet in your home is a better option than boarding. That’s why we started our company over 40 years ago and remains why we provide the service we do. Just like people, pets prefer routine, their own space, and accustomed smells. Boarding disrupts all of those. But what happens when your darling cat or dog isn’t experiencing a good quality of life any more, due to illness and/or age? The only options used to be either to hope your pet died peacefully in its sleep or to drive your animal to the veterinarian’s office, a place that provokes fear in many animals, for euthanasia. Both of those had their downside, but in-home euthanasia is more and more common and seems to solve the problems of the other options.
In-home euthanasia is provided by several services in the Atlanta area and throughout the state and the country. A veterinarian comes to your home, where you and your animal feel comfortable, and gently administers two injections to your pet, allowing you to share your pet’s last moments in comfort and privacy. Pets shouldn’t be afraid to go to the vet, but many of them are, and there’s no way to explain to them that they shouldn’t be. Forcing your cat or dog into that situation is stressful for both of you (as well as for the vet), and the end of your pet’s life is a moment you may want to come more gently. In the past, in-home euthanasia wasn’t always available on a flexible schedule, but things have improved as more vets provide the service.
Different providers have different services. You can find a directory of them at https://inhomepeteuthanasia.com/, searchable by county. The first step is always consultation, during which the veterinarian may discuss Dr. Alice Villalobos’ Quality of Life Scale with you, a good method for assessing whether you feel euthanasia is the right decision. The quality of life scale asks questions about pain, hydration, hygiene, mobility, happiness and other areas of your pet’s life and provides a tool that can help you and a trained professional come to well-guided decision on this important step.
Once you have decided on in-home euthanasia, you should ask as many questions as you can of the provider. Euthanasia requires a veterinarian no matter what, but some providers have technicians to assist them, leaving fewer details for you to take care of. Most of them will provide transportation for your pet’s body to the crematorium you choose, if you desire cremation, but not all of them will do that for large animals. You don’t want to be surprised, especially while you’re in a vulnerable state, and how you feel about the answers to your questions may vary. There’s no one right way to feel. Some people may want to take their pet’s body to the crematorium themselves or even witness the cremation. Others may find it too difficult and emotional. What’s important, again, is that you know what to expect.
In-home euthanasia always begins with a sedative for your pet, either taken orally or injected. This soothes your animal into a deep sleep, at which point an injection is given that gently stops your pet’s vital functions. The whole process can be very peaceful, especially with your pet in a familiar environment, surrounded by a favorite blanket, some much-loved toys and humans who can provide some final cuddles. It should not take more than an hour from start to finish. Special meals on the day are allowed by most providers. It’s possible that your regular veterinarian may even provide in-home euthanasia services, helping to make your pet more comfortable. Have an unusual pet? Once again, ask. Even if the provider you’re talking with doesn’t deal with anything more complicated than cats and dogs, he or she may know another provider who does. The end of your beloved family member’s life is a sad time, but in-home euthanasia can help make it easier for everyone.
Wag!, an app that resembles Uber or Lyft but for dog-walking recently launched in the Atlanta area, promising to let busy folks schedule walks for their dogs with only 30 minutes’ notice. Are we worried about the competition? We are not. Critter Sitters has advantages that Wag! does not.
Unlike Uber and Lyft, Wag! doesn’t do surge pricing, but neither do we. Our prices are the same regardless of whether it’s a holiday, a busy summer month or a regular week in February. We believe consistent, simple pricing is the way to do business. We charge a little more than the Atlanta branch of Wag! for a 20-minute walk ($17 as compared to $14, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution), but you can believe that our prices will remain stable. We also only charge $3 per additional dog, as compared to $5. And it’s hard to find out ahead of time, without going through the sign-up process, what Wag! charges. We post our prices here.
Wag! can schedule a meeting with a walker if you’re setting up regular service, but that part of the job doesn’t appear to be standard, unlike Critter Sitters. We don’t charge for the initial interview. Great service means that you meet your sitter (that person who will be in your home and taking care of your loved pets) and that he or she meet you. Details can easily get lost in the shuffle without an initial consultation, and dogs can be unhappy around a new person showing up to take them for a walk. Have an entrance code to your condo or an alarm system? Keep your pet food in a special place? Need to communicate and set expectations with regard to medication, plant watering and the like? All of these issues are discussed in the interview so that both client and sitter are on the same page. Wag! leaves it up to the client to supply that information in the app, which can lead to things falling through the cracks. Sitters can be surprised by the type of dog they’re asked to walk, have difficulty locating a lock box or any number of other issues.
Wag! provides free lock boxes to its clients, and that’s one way of approaching the job, but we feel lock boxes present a security risk because they demonstrate that the client may not be at home. Instead, we encourage our sitters to receive a key during the initial interview and return it at the conclusion of service. For regular clients, sitters may arrange to keep a key on a more permanent basis, but they do not carry those keys unless out on a job, and all keys are kept secure and coded for confidentiality.
Finally, as we’ve established before, we have a different business model than most pet-sitting and dog-walking companies, one that leads to greater professionalism and sitters who are happier and make more money. Our use of territories means sitters aren’t competing with one another and we can cover plenty of ground. One of the complaints sitters have about Wag! is that it’s very difficult for new sitters to drum up business because there’s so much competition. We also do business the old-fashioned way: over the phone.
Apps can be helpful, but they can also be a hindrance, especially when they don’t work properly, and anyone who’s tried to get in touch with a person for customer service lately knows the frustration of a system that doesn’t seem to have any accountability. Call Critter Sitters at 404-377-5475, and you won’t be stuck talking to a robot or someone who’s been on the job for a week. Instead, you’ll talk to Carol Hensley, a real, live person who loves her corgis and has been working for us for over ten years. She will answer your questions and match you with your sitter.
So we’ll ask you again: are we worried about competition from Wag!? We are not. There are many pet owners who still don’t know about pet sitting, so there’s lots of business to go around. We believe in what we do and the way we do it. Our clients do too, and many of them have stayed with us for years and years (just check our reviews).
Do you have an especially sweet-natured dog that you’ve thought might make a good therapy animal? Or do you know someone who could be helped by time with a therapy dog? Therapy dogs aren’t service dogs, but they are helpers. They’re calm, gentle and focused, ready to give and accept love in a way that can help a lot of people.
A therapy dog isn’t at the same level of certification as a service animal, at least in the United States. Instead, they’re trained to provide comfort to people who need it. That might be patients in the hospital, people in hospice, those affected by disaster, the elderly who live in nursing homes or people on the autism spectrum. They also visit libraries, to help children practice reading in a low-pressure environment, and college campuses around finals, to help students de-stress. A therapy dog doesn’t have the same legal rights as a service dog, meaning you can’t bring your therapy animal everywhere. Instead, it’s up to the individual business to decide whether or not it allows therapy animals.
Several organizations offer training, and the one step is often ensuring that the dog can pass the American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizen (CGC) test. This 10-part test results in a certificate and the right to use the letters CGC after your dog’s name. CGC isn’t just for therapy dogs. It can be for any dog whose owner wants to teach him or her good manners.
Both purebred and mixed-breed dogs can participate in CGC. They just have to be old enough to have received their immunizations, such as rabies vaccines, and owners must agree to care for their dogs with a veterinarian and maintain a regular schedule for vaccines and other health care procedures.
What’s on the test?
- Accepting a friendly stranger
- Sitting politely for petting
- Appearance and grooming (the dog must allow someone to check its ears and front feet)
- Walking on a loose lead
- Walking through a crowd
- Sit and down on command and staying in place
- Coming when called
- Reaction to another dog (behaving politely around other dogs)
- Reaction to distraction
- Able to maintain good manners during supervised separation
The American Kennel Club maintains a list of places that offer CGC classes, but you’re welcome to go elsewhere or train your dog yourself to achieve certification. There are subsequent levels of training that can be achieved, too.
Once you feel your dog is trained to an appropriate degree, there are several organizations, such as Therapy Dogs International (TDI), that offer testing and certification as an official therapy dog. TDI details its requirements here, in an online brochure. It has evaluators all over the country, including two currently in the Atlanta area. You can search by ZIP code on its website, here. Pass the test, and you can join a TDI chapter, so that people looking for a therapy animal can find the two of you. The Alliance of Therapy Dogs provides similar services. None of it is rocket science. Like any training, it just requires patience and at least two willing participants who want to learn how to help others.
