Make Money Dog Sitting & Walking (Rover App)

Cheryl Calhoun

In this article, you will learn how anyone can make money, dog sitting, or walking dogs and how to find customers. I am going to break down exactly how much money I’ve made working on the Rover App being a pet sitter over the past 30 days.  I hope this article is helpful if you’re considering starting on Rover.

I was initially approved to be a Rover sitter on the first of January and pretty much right off the bat I started getting requests. Within a couple of days, I was at our local park meeting Dori and Dampier and their parents, and I was set up to watch them. They’re going to be at my house for a week. Three days later I was going to meet two other friends that are going to be staying for about a week. We met with the dog owner and her two dogs so we went to the park together, stayed there for about a half-hour and talked and then took maybe a 20-minute walk around. I have been as busy as I want to be since getting approved with Rover, it has been awesome.

Rover automatically goes ahead and suggests some prices for whether you’re dog sitting in your house, their house, whether you’re walking, doing 30-minute droppings. They kind of automate it and recommend that you start a little bit lower than I think. It’s a pretty fair price and pet sitting is something I enjoy doing.

Rover App Pictures for Clients

I just wanted to quickly explain why I feel like charging more on Rover, more than 25 dollars which 20 percent of that is going to go to Rover, and then also if you’re making more than $600 on the platform that is going to be taxable income as well. Really, once it’s not being a whole lot of money; and I feel like you should have the opportunity if you’re hosting someone’s dog or their dogs in your space, allowing them on your couches, allowing them to sleep in bed with you, keeping up with their feeding schedule, making sure they’re getting exercise, medicine, keeping in contact with their parents via text message, sending photos updates; things of that nature, you should be charging more.

If I were to take my dog into a kennel in my area it would be about sixty to seventy-five dollars per night, he would have time to exercise outside certain times throughout the day that he has let out of his kennel with other dogs his size. The interaction is a little bit more limited and calculated and there’s nothing wrong with kennels but I think Rover’s experiences are so much more personal and that is why I think you should be able to charge more. And that is why I plan on my rates going up soon once I kind of get my bearings on the App and develop a few repeat clients.

So, payment once you are ready to get paid, you’re going to have to wait a little bit. It’s not as instantaneous as a Venmo or PayPal transaction although PayPal is one of the payment options. For example; I just finished sitting with two dogs on the 17th of January. That has been booked since the day I was approved, so that money has basically been sitting in Rover’s hands.

After the pet owner made that payment, you are able to withdraw or begin the withdrawal process 48 hours after you complete the service. So, after you finish a job you need to wait a couple of days before the funds are eligible for withdrawals.

If you’re interested in setting up a Rover profile just know that nothing is required right off the bat. You can jump on and create a profile, upload some pictures of yourself, tell people what your fees are and what their expectations should be and that’s it. The only expense I had was I bought a couple of dog walker leashes that allow me to walk two dogs at the same time.  I had plenty of water bowls, and the pet owners provided their own food, so I was ready to start quickly right after my dog leashes arrived.

However, there are elective badges that you can earn such as Rover 101, running through some testing just to make sure that you understand how to safely take care of an animal. There’s also a background check that you can do for free. They have a paid background check. I believe I didn’t want to do that one and see it as a necessity because I am not in a large city.

I did the free one and it’s through a third-party company called Checker and that includes your driving history as well as your criminal background.

So, after completing the job and waiting two days,  I had two different options. I could either request a check from Rover directly which would take five days, or I could request a PayPal withdrawal. That wound up showing up about a day and a half later.

I would recommend Rover if you genuinely like dogs, if you know that off the bat it’s not going to be your main source of income, don’t expect it to pay all of your bills upfront. I’m sure that there are people out there that are able to make Rover their full-time thing, and kudos to them. Just manage your expectations to not think that this is going to be such a huge moneymaker especially right off the bat. I am sure during the summer when people take vacations, as the app grows in popularity there could be some really good side income made with this app.

For total transparency, over the last  30 days, I made just over $600. The $600 has been really nice because that’s just $300 shy of what my rent is so to know that I can cover my monthly rent soon, doing something I enjoy. It sure beats a second job, working minimum wage at a burger joint or something.  I plan on building my customers.

I also sell on eBay and have multiple side gigs that I do on the side, several of which I discovered here on SaveYourbucks.com, that is why I wanted to write this article.

I feel like I have friends visiting. Do you love having your friends over? Right now, I’m getting ready for Lady Bug the Collie that’s coming through. For me, the Rover App is the best side gig I have found because I am such a pet person.

We have some new friends coming and staying with us Sweet Thing, my personal pet is celebrating a birthday today. He’s six years old so we’re so ready to spoil him and he’s nice enough to celebrate his birthday with some guests coming to stay with us for a few nights.

All right guys thank you so much for reading my article about dog sitting with the Rover App. I hope that was helpful in giving you a little bit of insight into my personal experience starting on the App.

I am not a writer, but I love discovering great side gigs to make money with. As I said, I definitely want to continue on with it. If I am 100% honest, I kind of look at this app as my customer acquisition channel for my pet walking and pet sitting business. If you liked this article let me know and maybe the team at Save Your Bucks will ask me to do a follow-up article after I have been down the road a few months with the Rover App.

I’d be really excited to do that. Thanks for reading and your comments and feedback are appreciated.