Many veterinarians and pet experts believe that keeping pets in their familiar surroundings helps to alleviate the stress imposed when their owners have to leave home. Pets are then also able to maintain their diet and exercise routine, and enjoy the personal attention provided by a professional pet sitter. This also eliminates the trauma of being transported and minimizes their exposure to illnesses of other animals.

Professional Pet Sitters and Dog Walkers are accountable and come with experience, glowing references, and are committed to delivering quality care.

The Peaceful Pup provides in-home pet care, plain and simple. This means our Pet Care Professionals travel to our clients’ homes to care for their pets.

Descriptions of the services we offer (and rates) can be found on our Rates and Services page. We currently offer dog walks, pet sitting (drop-in feedings and exercise), potty breaks, subcutaneous fluid administration, and home care (no pets).

Our clients hire Pet Care Professionals from our roster when they travel, have long work hours, have a late meeting, are recovering from surgery, are working from home but not enough time to walk the dog, or don’t trust the kids to care for the animals properly. Whatever the reason, we’ll be there!

We will also bring in the mail, take out the trash, rotate the lights, and open and close the curtains to give the home a lived-in look at your request.

Recently passed California labor laws preclude The Peaceful Pup roster from providing Overnight Pet Care. We do our very best to keep our rates reasonable and competitive,  so charging upward of $200/night didn’t sit well with us nor our clients (nor did we have very many clients that required Overnight care in the first place). Please note that Minimum Wage in California as of January 1, 2023 is $15.50 and it now includes sleeping time. A 10-Hour Overnight Visit (for labor alone) would cost $170.50 which is why instead, we recommend scheduling 3-4 visits per day.

As pets generally just sleep at night and don’t need supervision while sleeping, 3-4 visits per day has always been our most popular (and economical) “vacation visit” arrangement.

Many of our clients with pups (and no doggie door) book visits as follows:

• Early Morning: Mealtime+ (breakfast, exercise, and more)
• Mid-day: Dog Walk
• Evening: Mealtime+ (dinner, exercise, and more)
• Late Evening: Potty Break (and tuck-in)

Love, mealtimes, exercise, playtime – it’s all included – and they are usually so pooped by the end of the day, sleeping through the night is not an issue!

For pets requiring extra love, we now offer a new service we call our “Almost Overnight”. This includes a:

• 2 Hour Evening Visit
• 1 Hour Morning Visit

Additional visits can be booked to fill the day if needed.

For those whose pets require overnight supervision (pets with medical issues or severe separation anxiety), we recommend boarding at a licensed and insured boarding facility or veterinary facility. Contact our office for our trusted recommendations. We’re happy to help and love to support local professional businesses!

No. We believe in in-their-home care, which most pets prefer as they are comfortable in their own environment.

Our Pet Care Professionals can visit their clients homes up to 4 times per day.

• – The Early Morning time slot is between 7 & 8 AM.
• – The Morning time slot is between 8:30 & 10:30 AM.
• – The Mid-day time slot is between 11:30 AM & 1:30 PM.
• – The Afternoon time slot is between 2 & 4 PM.
• – The Evening time slot is between 5:30 & 8:30 PM.

You choose the duration of the visits and can mix and match to design the best plan for your pet.

For the safety of your pets and home, all visits MUST be scheduled through the The Peaceful Pup’s office by way of using the mobile app or web-based client app. We use a high-tech scheduling program, which ensures that “no pet is left behind.” It’s very easy to use–just a couple of clicks and you’ll be all set!

Bookings can be requested in our app 24/7 at your convenience, and we process visit requests during our normal office hours of Monday through Friday, 9:00am to 5:00pm (closed on major holidays).

For your convenience, payments can be made via major Credit Card in our Online Client Portal, or through the Venmo app (@thepeacefulpup).

Tips for your Pet Care Professional are much appreciated for a job well done, but not required and may be included with your chosen payment method. All tips go directly to your Pet Care Professional(s).

We consider the following to be our major annual holidays: New Years Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Easter Sunday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve Day, Christmas, and New Years Eve.

There is a $10 surcharge per visit plus the standard charge for the service being provided on these dates. 100% of these holiday surcharges are paid to your Pet Care Professional(s) to incentivize working on holidays.

We’re more than happy to schedule pet care for last-minute needs, however we cannot guarantee that a Pet Care Professional is going to be available on short notice (though 99% of the time it really isn’t a problem). A $12 late booking fee is added when less than 24 hours notice is given.

We only address scheduling requests during our regular office hours (9AM-5PM, Monday through Friday, closed major holidays). Any requests made outside of office hours will be addressed the following business day.

Since we understand what it’s like to have a busy and ever-changing schedule, we’ve implemented extremely flexible cancellation policies

We adhere to a strict policy of NO OVERBOOKING. Therefore, once you have contracted services, we will turn away business in order to accommodate your schedule. You will be charged for all visits without proper notice of cancellation. 

These policies apply to individual visit cancellations, full trip reservation cancellations, as well as unexpected early returns.

The Peaceful Pup reserves the right to deny or terminate service because of safety concerns, financial concerns, or inappropriate and uncomfortable situations.

Standard Cancellations must be received 24 hours before scheduled visit in order for the full visit fee to be credited. 

• 50% of visit fee will be applied if less than 24 hours cancellation notice is given. 
• 100% of visit fee will be applied if cancellation is received less than one (1) hour of scheduled visit.

Fall/Winter Holiday Cancellations and Changes: Due to high demand on specific holidays, our cancellation fees are strictly imposed during these times and differ from our Standard Cancellation policy. A Fall/Winter Holiday reservation consists of any reservation containing any of the following holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, and/or New Year’s Day.

• Payment is due at time of reservation booking. 
• 100% of visit/reservation fees to be refunded if cancellation notice is given a full 14 days prior to the first scheduled date of holiday reservation. 
• 50% of visit/reservation fees to be refunded if cancellation notice is given a full 7 days (and under 14 days) prior to the first scheduled date of holiday reservation. 
• 100% of visit/reservation fees are applied if notice of cancellation is received under 7 days prior to the first scheduled date of holiday reservation Therefore, no credits or refunds will be given. (Example: Client books a service reservation for 12/23 through 12/27 and cancels the entire reservation on 12/17, so Client will be responsible to pay 100% for the entire reservation from the first scheduled service on 12/23 to the last on 12/27.) 

Since you’ll have gotten the administrative bit set-up out and of the way prior to, the Meet and Greet/registration meeting is a visit that allows you and your pet(s) to get to know and feel comfortable with your assigned Pet Care Professional (and a back-up, if available).

During this visit your Pet Care Professional(s) will also confirm/review the information you’ve entered in the app about your home and pet care routine to be sure everyone is on the same page and your pet(s) receive the best care possible.

Our office is available and happy to answer any questions pertaining to visit types, scheduling, payments, policies, etc. beforehand so the visit can be purely focused on building trust with your pet(s).

We can not provide service until this meeting has taken place. There is a fee of $27 for the Meet and Greet/registration meeting. This fee covers administrative costs related to account creation, as well as compensates the Pet Care Professional(s) for their time.

Our roster is chock-full of excellent Pet Care Professionals that would love to care for your pet(s) if your primary or back-up are unavailable. Since we’ll have all of your pet care information in our secure database, it’s really not necessary for you to meet with the alternate sitter. However, if you feel more comfortable having a meeting with them, we are more than happy to schedule a “Repeat Meet and Greet.” The cost of this meeting is $22, which covers the sitter’s time and expense for driving to your home.

If your pet has aggressively bitten someone in the past then no, we cannot provide service as that is too much of a liability for us. If your pet is skittish and maybe just growls around those he/she doesn’t know, then we will be happy to work with you to see if a pet care plan can be designed that works for all. Our Pet Care Professional will interview you and the pet to determine if this is possible.

If additional visits are necessary to socialize your pet, then you will need to be present at all visits and pay the normal service fee until your pet is socialized. If at any time you or your Pet Care Professional feels that it is unsafe to perform a service, we will reserve the right to discontinue service without notice.

If we suspect something is wrong with your pet, we will first contact you in the app and/or at the phone numbers we have on file. If you believe the veterinarian should see your pet, we will transport your pet to the veterinarian’s office for examination and treatment.

In the event we cannot reach you, we will decide if the veterinarian should see your pet. If necessary, we will take your pet in for treatment, which is why we have all of our clients sign off on a Veterinary Release Form, for such a case. You will be billed by the veterinarian for treatment and by The Peaceful Pup for any extra time we spend for these services.

A dishonesty bond is an extra precaution that is intended to give you peace of mind that you would be reimbursed if anything were stolen from your home while your pets and home are under our care. Anyone that has workers enter their home should be sure those workers have a dishonesty bond.

We also carry a liability insurance policy that protects from financial loss in the event that we were liable for accidents that occur while caring for our clients’ pets. Any responsible, professional business should carry liability insurance.

We are happy to provide our clients with proof of insurance and our bond. We can easily email a copy of our certificates if need be.

Actually, we don’t. Keys remain in your control. We strongly believe in this and believe it to be the safest option.

We have a few options for key exchange. Our personal favorite is using a lock box. It makes it so easy and is super safe! You can purchase one from our office for $24. (They retail for around $30, so it’s a great deal.) You leave the lock box on a door or in a location of your choosing. When your Pet Care Professional arrives, they remove the key from the lock box and hold onto it for the duration of the visit. Then the sitter returns the key to the lock box. You can then remove it when you return home. It’s so easy, and the key is there for the back-up sitter in case of an emergency (no lost keys, no missed visits!).

If the lock box isn’t a good fit, you may also leave a key hidden in a pre-determined location. 

Note: The Peaceful Pup will not be held responsible for keys that a client asks a sitter to keep.

While busily working in a demanding career in the film industry, I (Brandy, the owner and founder) found it difficult and rather stressful to locate a professional, accountable, mature, communicative, trustworthy pet sitter and dog walker for my best friend, Audrey the Great Dane. 

Since I was a little girl, I was a bit “animal obsessed” and would find myself working with animals in one capacity or another from childhood and up to adulthood. Following a particularly challenging film project, I decided to refocus my energy and time on working for myself, surrounding myself with the healing and unconditional friendship of animals. So in June of 2010, The Peaceful Pup was born. 

By 2016 I’d become so busy, I realized in August I hadn’t taken a single day off, so I consulted with a brilliant business coach who helped me find professional pet care providers to trust and work with here in the Ojai Valley. So we grew into what we are now, with me stepping back and handling all of the administrative duties (whilst being surrounded by my own sweet pups) and leaving the pet sitting and dog walking to an incredible roster of professional pet lovers who are every bit of what I was looking for when I needed someone!

I feel incredibly lucky and grateful to have found my niche in this world and to be able to provide such an important service to our community. Giving our clients and their pets peace of mind is our ultimate goal and I’m excited to continue to find ways to do so.

Click “Get Started” on our website and complete our brief questionnaire which will help us to determine how we can best be of help as well as help us to schedule a Meet and Greet at your convenience. You are welcome to call or email the office with any questions. Our office message number is 805.646.PUPS (7877) and our email is hello@thepeacefulpup.com.