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For sitters
We never take a cut of what you charge.
not a percentage. not ever.
BarkCheck does not handle the money at all. You agree your rate with the owner and you keep every dollar of it. What we do is the part that is hard to do alone: the plan written down before you arrive, and a signed record of everything you actually did.
3 free sits, then $9.97 a month or $89.99 a year. Owners are never charged anything.
Today · Bailey and Luna
Leash and treats are in the hall cupboard
7:00 AM
SignedBreakfast · both
8:30 AM
SignedWalk Bailey
1:00 PM
Due 1:30Litter tray
5:30 PM
LaterDinner · both
Your score
Every one you sign on time is on your own page.
written down before you got there
Sample plan and sample pets, invented for this page.
Built from what sitters said
The three that come up most.
We read 168,000 posts and comments from sitters and owners before building any of this. These were the loudest.
1,952
mentions in the research
“The home was not what was described.”
You see the job before you take it
The care plan is written by the owner, in advance, and you read it before you agree — every animal, every dose, every duty. A meet and greet comes first, and it is what releases the address. Nothing gets added on arrival.
1,228
mentions in the research
“There were two more dogs than the listing said.”
The work is a list, not a conversation
Every task is a line with a time and a window. If the owner changes the plan mid-sit you see the change, and anything added arrives as a task rather than a text you might miss.
265
mentions in the research
“They left a bad review after I did everything right.”
Your record is the evidence
Every task you signed carries your name, the time, and any photo you took. When somebody remembers a week differently from how it happened, the record is what actually happened.
Those counts come from communities where people go to complain, so they describe what goes wrong rather than how often it does. We use them to decide what to build, not to tell you the odds.
Yours from the first sit
Everything you get.
Sitting is a craft and a small business at the same time. This is the second half, which almost nothing built for this work bothers with.
A page of your own
Your record, your score, what you offer and how far you travel, at an address you can put on a flyer or send in a text. Owners find you and invite you. There is no job board and no bidding.
A calendar owners can read
Publish as far ahead as you want to think — one month or twelve, your choice. Days you have already agreed to show as taken, without saying whose sit took them.
Your clients, in one place
Everybody you have sat for, what you did, and when. Nobody is standing between you and them, and nothing here expires if you stop paying us.
The plan before you arrive
Written by the owner, read by you, agreed before anybody hands over a key. Changes reach you as tasks rather than as a message you have to notice.
A signed record of the work
Every task with your name, the time you did it, the photograph you took and the route you walked. Late is recorded as late, and reporting a problem never counts against you.
A BarkCheck Score you earned
Built from tasks signed on time across every owner you have worked for. It is a number about what you did, not stars somebody tapped on the way out of a conversation.
The owners you already sit for do not need an account to send you a plan, and nobody has to install anything to read one. A texted link is the whole thing.
Getting clients
Word of mouth, made shareable.
In the research, sitters mentioned word of mouth, referrals, neighborhood groups and their own flyers 130 times for every one mention of paid advertising. That is how this work actually finds people.
So you get a page of your own and a link you can put anywhere. Owners find you and invite you. Sitters talked about moving clients off a platform roughly five times as often as they talked about quitting sitting — people do not want out of the work, they want out of the middle.
Make your sitter page
96Your score goes on it, and it is yours.
Your page, sent to a neighbor
Do you know anyone good for two cats over Thanksgiving?
Maya did ours in October — here's her page, she keeps a record of everything.
Just booked her. Thank you!
What it costs
3 free sits, then a flat fee.
Not a percentage. What you charge is between you and the owner, and it does not change what you pay us.
$9.97 / month
or $89.99 a year. Your first 3 sits are free.
- No cut of your booking — we never touch the money
- Your own sitter page, and a link you can share anywhere
- A BarkCheck Score built from what you actually did
- The plan in writing before you arrive, changes included
- A signed record of every task, with your photos and times
- The owner is never charged, so asking them costs them nothing
Free, no account needed
The part nobody teaches you.
Written from the same research this page is, and open to anybody whether they use BarkCheck or not.
4 min read
Why the 8pm dose is the one that slips
Missed tasks are usually a memory problem, not a caring problem. There is a technique with real evidence behind it.
5 min read
Compassion fatigue is not burnout, and the difference matters
They feel similar and they are not the same thing. Telling them apart changes what actually helps.
4 min read
The work nobody sees
Staying calm with a frightened dog is skilled labor. There is a name for why it never gets counted.
3 min read
Small wins are the thing
The largest study of what makes a good workday found one answer, and it was not praise or money.
4 min read
What owners remember, and what they book on
Doing everything right is not the same as being asked back. The gap is almost always communication.
4 min read
The week that breaks you, and the one that does not
Two equally hard weeks can end completely differently. Researchers can tell you which parts to change.
5 min read
What to charge, and how to raise it
Most people in this work undercharge, stay undercharged for years, and burn out. Here is the arithmetic and the script.
4 min read
The clients who come back
A returning client costs nothing to win and already trusts you. Almost everything about a good business follows from that one fact.
4 min read
When a review or a rating goes badly
It will happen. What you do in the next day matters more than the rating itself.
4 min read
Keeping track without a system that owns you
The admin is not the job, but doing it badly costs you the job. The smallest setup that works.
Your record is yours, and it goes where you go.
Every sit you complete adds to a page you control and a score you earned. If you ever stop using BarkCheck, the owners you found are still your clients — we were never standing between you.
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