The sitter application process

The process to become a dog sitter on doggos.com is made up of three phases, followed by a “Profile review” before your page can go live in search results. The three phrases of the application process are:

• Your initial application
• The sitter interview
• A background check

Each phase of our application process is designed to make it easy for great sitters to get onto the platform, but difficult for those without enough pet care experience to get past. Typically, it takes about a week to complete the sitter application process from start to finish, but this can vary based on application volume.

While we acknowledge that security is an ongoing effort, we're proud of the steps we've taken to protect our community and we thank you for your patience.

Your initial application

The very first step to becoming a sitter on doggos.com is to apply, via the sitter application page. In your application, we ask for several pieces of information from you, including:

• Your email address & phone number
• Your first & last name
• The address where you'll be hosting
• The type of building you'll be hosting in
• and a brief summary of your experience with dogs

This application is first reviewed by a machine for errors or indication of obvious spam/bot/worm submissions.

Note:

If your application doesn't pass machine review, it could be automatically discarded without ever being looked at by a real person, so it pays to make sure there are no typos or issues with your information before submitting the form.

After passing machine review, a member of the doggos.com team will review your application. If everything looks okay from there, you'll get an email requesting you schedule a “Sitter Interview”, if not, you'll get an email letting you know why we couldn't accept your application at this time.

If you get an email that denies your application, you're welcome to apply again or reach out to us to discuss your options.

The "Sitter Interview"

If you've been asked to schedule a Sitter Interview, it's because your original application has made it through our software-and-human review and we're moving onto the next step in the process. Congratulations!

The Sitter Interview is a 30 minute, camera-on, video call with a member of the doggos.com team. In this call, you'll be asked some general questions, such as:

• What is your experience with dog sitting?
• Do you plan on dog sitting part-time, or full-time?
• Will anyone else be helping take care of the dogs in your care?

You'll also be asked a mix of safety questions, questions about your home, and questions designed to gauge your knowledge & experience caring for dogs.

Making sure the dog sitters we allow into our community are providing a safe and trustworthy experience is an evolving challenge, but we believe having one-to-one contact with sitters is an invaluable aspect of this process. To preserve the integrity of this process, we change the questions we ask frequently, and do not publish a complete list of our questions online.

Does everyone make it past the sitter interview?

No. While a rejection from us during this part of the application can feel unfair, we do attempt to provide feedback about why your application was rejected, and resources for learning more about pet care, or pursuing pet sitter certification for even more in-depth training.

Your background check

If you receive a link to complete a background check, you have reached the final step in the sitter application process. During your background check, you will be asked for personally identifiable information, including:

• Your social security number
• Your age
• A photo of your drivers license
• Your drivers license number, and the city & state it was issued in (which must match the photo you submitted exactly)

This information is sent securely to a third-party identify expert, Checkr, who will search criminal records across the US with no time limit (including nuisance-only records) check the status of your drivers license, and verify your age based on your social security number.

You can learn more about this process here.

You must consent to our request for personally identifying information and agree to background check disclosures as a part of this process. The results of this check are not published, and are only shared with you.

Profile review

After completing the entire sitter application process, you'll receive an email from doggos.com with a link to access your new dog sitter account, however, your page still wont be live in search results until you fill out your profile.

We recommend taking all the time you need to create an eye-catching profile, with clear pictures of your home, your resident pets, and yourself. When you've filled out your profile, you'll see a green banner appear at the top of your page informing you that your updates are "Pending review." This is completely normal, and happens anytime you submit new or different information to the system.

You can continue submitting edits to your profile even if you see the green banner on your page. All of your updates will go live as soon as they're reviewed, and there's no limit to updates you can make, however, we may reach out to you if you're submitting information that does not correlate with the information you've already sent us.

Some edits are system reviewed, and others can be flagged for manual review. This is a security feature, which you can learn more about here.