Pet sitting over Christmas: book early, hand over properly

Flights booked for the 23rd, back on the 2nd. The sitter you used in August is going to her mother’s. The kennel’s voicemail says it is full until the new year. It is the first week of November.

Book Christmas pet sitting early, because sitters and kennels can fill up. Gather the records a kennel or sitter will ask for, allowing time for a vet appointment if one is needed. Plan for an emergency while your own clinic is closed. The handover itself is the same as any other, and our pet sitter handoff checklist covers it. This guide covers the holiday details: when to book, what to check, and who to name for the days your usual clinic is closed.

When should you book?

When your dates are fixed, and before you assume anyone is free. Sitters may have their own family plans and kennels can fill up early; the sitter marketplace Pawshake says on its own blog that many boarding kennels are booked out early for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Which weeks fill first differs by city, so the only reliable answer is to ask your own sitter now; whether they are free in the last week of December is a one-minute question.

Booking early buys a second thing: time to fix the paperwork. If the kennel wants a vaccination given a certain number of days before arrival, or your vet needs to issue a record, allow time to arrange it. Give your vet the kennel’s list in November.

What should you check before the stay?

The same things at Christmas as in March, with less room to fix a gap. The Ontario SPCA’s advice to owners before a holiday is the best short list we found. For a sitter: ask about their training and insurance, whether they have “someone to call as a backup if they become ill”, ask for references, and have them meet the animal first. For a kennel: visit it, ask about the animal-to-staff ratio, whether animals are monitored after hours, what vaccinations are required, and “protocols and available veterinary care in the event of a health concern or emergency”. In either case, the SPCA says, “always have a written contract spelling out services and fees”.

The microchip line is the SPCA’s too: before heading away, “ensure your pet is up to date on vaccinations and your microchip address is up to date”. Our guide to checking a microchip record takes ten minutes, and what a stranger does with the tag on the collar is in found a dog with a rabies tag.

For a cat, Cats Protection’s guide to preparing for a cattery stay lists cat flu, feline infectious enteritis and feline leukaemia as the common vaccinations a cattery asks for, says a cattery may ask for proof of recent flea and worm treatment, and suggests bringing the cat’s usual food and bedding. Our cat boarding checklist has the full list.

What changes when the clinics are closed?

The emergency plan has to name a place that is open. The Toronto Humane Society, for example, says plainly on its contact page that it is “not an emergency veterinary clinic”, and its public clinic was closed from December 25 to 27 in 2024. The Veterinary Emergency Clinic at 920 Yonge Street advertises emergency and critical care “24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including holidays”; confirm that it will accept your pet before you leave. Whichever city you are in, find the equivalent before you leave and write its address on the sitter’s sheet.

Then write down who may decide. The SPCA’s list ends with “an alternative emergency contact who can make decisions about your pet’s health if you can’t be reached”, and that person should be named at your own clinic too; the College of Veterinarians of Ontario’s consent guide advises clients to designate authorised representatives who can consent “in situations when the client cannot be contacted”. Our guide to what a pet sitting contract should cover explains how to set a spending limit on that authority.

How do you hand over when the house is full?

Write the routine down even though you will be there to say it. The SPCA’s advice is to tell the caregiver about “your animal’s likes, dislikes, fears, habits, medical conditions, medications, and routines”, and to outline feeding and care instructions. Visitors, an overstimulated dog and a sitter who arrives as the taxi does can all complicate a Christmas handover.

Two things help. Put the routine where the sitter can read it alone, after you have gone, rather than only saying it at the door. And agree how the sitter confirms each visit, so that you know on December 26 whether the 7 a.m. meal happened. The daily report a sitter can reuse is built for that.

If the sitter is a relative staying in the house, the written routine matters more, not less: in a full house it is easy to assume another adult fed the dog.

What should you plan for the return?

Your flight home may be late. Winter cancellations mean a sitter who was booked to the 2nd may be needed on the 3rd, and the SPCA’s advice includes having “a plan in place to ensure your pet sitter knows you have returned home if they will be leaving before your expected arrival”. Agree in the contract what happens if you are delayed, and who the sitter calls if they cannot extend.

For a kennel, ask what the pickup window is on the day you return and what a late pickup costs. If the first stay is also the first time the dog has boarded, our guide to boarding your dog for the first time covers what the kennel needs and what to decide before you leave. Ask about a few daycare days before a first overnight stay; a dog’s first day at daycare explains what those involve.

Where Dana fits

A holiday handover can involve more people while fewer clinics are open. Dana gives a sitter limited access to the pet’s tasks for the dates of the stay. You can see who logged the 7 a.m. meal and when, the medication schedule is the one you set, and the access expires on the date you set. A sitter’s view is the tasks, not the health record, so the vet’s number, the emergency hospital and the authorisation go on the written sheet you leave. The roles and expiring invites are described in Dana’s shared pet care app, and the system behind them in the complete guide to sharing pet care.