If you search for help with a pet, you'll find pet sitters, dog walkers, boarding kennels and, more recently, pet borrowing or pet-visit apps. They all involve someone else spending time with your animal, but they exist for different reasons and work in different ways. Picking the wrong one leads to awkward conversations, so here is how they differ.
Pet sitting: care while you're away
A pet sitter looks after your pet while you can't: a holiday, a work trip, a hospital stay. They may stay in your home, visit several times a day, or take your pet to theirs. They handle feeding, medication, litter trays, walks and everything else.
- Who pays: the owner pays the sitter. It is a service.
- Length: days or weeks, often overnight.
- Responsibility: the sitter is responsible for full care for the whole period.
- Best for: owners who will be away and need complete, dependable care.
Dog walking: exercise on a schedule
A dog walker takes your dog out while you're at work, usually at the same time each day, sometimes with other dogs in a group.
- Who pays: the owner pays the walker.
- Length: thirty minutes to an hour or two.
- Responsibility: the walker during the walk; you the rest of the time.
- Best for: working owners whose dogs need a reliable midday break.
Pet borrowing: shared company, no money between people
Pet borrowing, or pet visits, is a different idea. Someone who loves animals but can't own one spends a few hours with a neighbour's pet: a walk, a trip to the park, an afternoon on the sofa with a cat. The owner is nearby and stays in charge of everything else.
- Who pays: on Tomopaw, nobody pays the owner and the owner pays nothing. Members pay Tomopaw a membership for verification and safety tools.
- Length: one to four hours, with limits on how often a pet can have visits.
- Responsibility: the borrower is responsible for the pet's safety during the visit; the owner remains the pet's carer.
- Best for: people who want regular animal time, and owners who'd like their sociable pet to have an extra friend.
The key differences
Whose need comes first. Sitting and walking exist mainly for the owner's schedule. Borrowing exists for the relationship: the borrower wants time with an animal, the owner wants company and enrichment for their pet. That is why borrowing is short and flexible, and why owners can say no to any request.
Money. Sitting and walking are paid work, and good sitters and walkers are worth every penny. Borrowing keeps money out of the relationship between people entirely. That keeps the incentives clean: an owner never lends a pet because they need the income, and nobody can treat a pet as a product. In some places, charging people for time with animals is restricted or needs a business licence, which is one more reason Tomopaw doesn't allow it.
Skill expected. You hire a sitter partly for their experience. A borrower may be anything from a lifelong dog person to someone who wants to find out if they're ready for a cat. That is why visits are short, start with the owner present, and come with clear house rules.
Which one do you need?
- You're going away for a week: a pet sitter or a trusted friend. Not a borrowing app.
- Your dog is alone from nine to six every weekday: a dog walker, possibly plus a regular borrower on weekends.
- Your dog loves people and you'd like them to have more company: pet borrowing.
- You love animals but can't have one: pet borrowing, volunteering, or fostering.
Many owners use more than one. A paid walker covers the weekday routine; a borrower who adores your dog takes them to the park on Sunday afternoon. Your dog gets a bigger, happier world, and so does the person on the other end of the lead.
Spend time with pets near you
Tomopaw connects verified members with neighbours' pets for visits of one to four hours. Owners lend for free.