Trade Pet-Services with your Neighbors!!

You may remember a few months ago I told you about Pet-It-Forward, well it is finally up and running and people in my area have already begun requesting help from neighbors and friends for their pet-care needs.

As I said at the time, "I am really excited about this site; it connects pet owners with other pet owners in their nieghborhoods, makes booking and paying for pet-care online quick and easy, and can save us up to 50-100% on pet care..." like feeding, house-sitting, walks etc...

 ( http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/blogs/four-legs-good/5196994/A-slave-to-other-peoples-pets)

Now that I get to use the site, I see how I can offer others a helping hand by offering to walk their dog or watch him over-night. I can earn points by doing this and use those points to have my dog walked in return. You can be a net reciever or a net provider (and actually earn points and cash out) or you can break even and share responsibilities with others.

You can also use it as a tool to meet new people and set up play-dates for your pets. I love this part! I sent out a request for a weekend play date for my two pitties because they are often unwelcome in the dog park but love to play and make friends.

This is what my play-date request looked like:

And when someone replies to your request- you can check out what their dogs and owners look like and see if it might be a good match! (Notice a play date costs 0 points!)

I think it is a great way to find other pet owners who will be willing to trade services. For example, I'd love to watch another pitties on the weekend and give Bruno and Winnie someone to play with, but it'd be hard to set that up with your neighbors without a site like this.


This is how the circular exchange works:

Hope you enjoy and make use of your neighbors! It ends up being a lot cheaper than using a boarding facility or a dog-walker because you use points which are equivalent to lower costs. (For example, $10 for a dog walk rather than $20.)

If you enjoy watching other people's pets- there may even be some money in it for you! Read this funny blog-post about a woman who watches other's pets on the side- and finds it very rewarding despite the strange things she has sometimes had to do!

You can also search for other dogs that are the same breed as your dog by joining a group. Bruno & Winnie are in the pit bull group, so hopefully we can find some more pitties for them to become friends with!! 

You can sign up for free here.