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Pet Costs

What does pet sitting insurance cost?

Estimate the annual premium to insure a pet-sitting or dog-walking business, from the general liability and care, custody and control cover at its core through the bond, the additional insured endorsements clients ask for, hired and non-owned auto if you transport pets, and the added premium for each sitter you employ. See the total, a realistic range, and what the premium works out to per visit, because a pet-sitting policy is priced on your operation rather than on how many pets you book.

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The yearly premium for the general liability at the core of a pet-sitting policy: the cover that responds if a dog you are walking bites someone, a pet is hurt, or you damage a client's home while you are there. This is the line almost every sitter carries, and for a solo operator it is the bulk of the premium. The default is ours and a placeholder; yours is on the quote for your state, your services and your claims history.
The add-on that covers an animal actually in your charge, which a plain general liability policy often excludes. If a pet in your care is injured, falls ill or dies on your watch and you are found responsible, this is the cover that answers, so it is the coverage a pet-sitting business is built around rather than an optional extra. Some policies fold it into the base; if yours does, set this to zero and read it as part of the line above.
A surety or dishonesty bond that reassures clients you are covered if money or property goes missing while you hold their keys. It protects the client rather than you, and clients and referral platforms often ask a sitter to be bonded as well as insured, so it is a low line that opens doors. Priced separately from the liability policy, which is why it sits on its own row here.
How many clients, apartment complexes, HOAs or referral platforms ask you to name them as an additional insured on your policy, which is a common request from anyone whose property you enter. Some insurers include a few of these at no cost and charge for the rest; enter the number you expect to add, and set the per-endorsement fee below to what your insurer charges beyond any it includes.
What your insurer charges to add one additional insured beyond any it includes for free. Endorsement fees are small individually, but they add up for a sitter serving many buildings that each require one, which is why they get their own line rather than hiding inside the base premium. Set this to zero if your policy names additional insureds at no charge, which many do.
Cover for driving a client's pet in your own vehicle, which a personal auto policy may not answer for once the driving is for business. If you transport pets to the vet, to daycare or between visits, this is the endorsement that closes that gap; if you only ever sit and walk without driving pets, leave it at zero. It is defaulted to zero because a solo drop-in sitter often does not need it, not because it is unimportant when it applies.
How many sitters besides yourself you put under the policy, whether employees or subcontractors. This is the input that turns a solo policy into an agency policy: each additional person is another set of hands in clients' homes and another exposure the insurer prices, so the premium scales with the team rather than with the pets. Left at zero, the page prices a solo operator.
The premium an insurer adds for each employee or subcontractor you cover. It is the load that makes a two-sitter operation cost more than a solo one, and it is roughly linear, so a team is the base package plus a charge per sitter rather than a separate solo policy for each. Employees may also trigger workers compensation, which is a separate policy your state sets the rules for; the default here is ours and stands in for the liability load, not the comp premium.
How many visits, walks or bookings you expect to complete in a year. It does not change the premium, because a pet-sitting policy is priced on your operation rather than your volume, but it decides what the premium works out to per visit. That per-visit figure is the point of the page: a fixed premium spread over more work costs less per booking, so a busy sitter insures each visit for pennies while a quiet one pays more per booking for the same cover.
Estimated cost
$495

Typical range $297 – $1,485

  • General liability base premium$250
  • Care, custody & control coverage$100
  • Bonding / dishonesty bond$100
  • Additional insured endorsements$45
  • Hired & non-owned auto coverage$0
  • Employee & subcontractor coverage$0
  • Total$495
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$400 to $1,200 is where the premium goes once you transport pets, take on a subcontractor or two, or serve enough endorsed buildings that the fees add up. The per-worker load and the auto endorsement are the lines doing the work here, so the number tracks the team and the driving rather than the number of pets.

What this assumes, and where it could be wrong

Every one of these is a place the number could be off. They are here because you should be able to check our working, not because we are hedging.

EVERY NUMBER HERE IS YOURS, BECAUSE A PREMIUM IS A QUOTE.
The general liability rate, the care-custody-and-control add-on, the bond, the per-endorsement fee and the per-worker load are all prices an underwriter quotes you for your state, your services and your claims history, and two sitters across town can be quoted differently for the same cover. There is no federal source to look them up in, so we would rather itemise our own model in front of you than dress it up as a measurement. Every default above is ours and every one is editable. Get a quote from a pet-business insurer or a broker and type the real lines in.
INSURANCE IS PRICED ON YOUR OPERATION, NOT YOUR PET COUNT.
A pet-sitting policy is rated on what you do and who is doing it, which is why the number of pets you book does not appear as a premium line. Booking twice as many visits does not double the premium, so the same fixed cover spreads over more work and costs less per booking. That is why the visits box changes the per-visit figure but not the total, and it is the reframe the page is built around: the question is less what insurance costs than what it costs to insure each booking, and that answer improves the more you work.

The bond and the insurance are different promises, and clients ask for both. Insurance protects you if a pet or a property is hurt on your watch; a bond protects the client if money or property goes missing while you hold their keys. A bond pays the client and then seeks the money back from you, so it is not cover for you in the way the liability policy is, which is why it sits on its own line and why being bonded and insured is the phrase clients and platforms tend to ask for.

THIS IS THE SITTER'S POLICY, NOT THE PET OWNER'S HEALTH PLAN.
If you are a pet owner weighing whether to insure your own dog or cat against vet bills, that is pet health insurance and a different question entirely, and the pet-insurance pages on this site are built for it. This page prices the business insurance a pet SITTER carries to operate: liability, care custody and control, and a bond. The two get confused because both are called pet insurance, so we say it plainly here rather than let a reader price the wrong thing.

Employees change the shape of the premium, and they may add a second policy. Covering subcontractors loads the liability premium roughly per head, which the per-worker line captures. Actual employees can also trigger workers compensation, a separate policy whose rules and rates your state sets, which this page does not price because it is not a pet-sitting figure but a payroll one. If you are hiring W-2 staff, treat the total here as the liability side and ask your broker about comp as its own line.

Frequently asked questions

Do pet sitters really need insurance?
Most professional sitters carry it, and many clients and referral platforms ask for proof before they book. The exposure is real: a dog you are walking can bite a passer-by, a pet in your care can be hurt or fall ill, and you can damage a client's home while you are in it. General liability answers the first and third, care custody and control answers the second, and a bond reassures a client about their keys and valuables. Whether it is required is a matter for your clients and any platform you work through, but the cover is what lets you take work that asks for it.
What is care, custody and control coverage, and why is it a separate line?
It is the cover for an animal actually in your charge, and it is separate because a plain general liability policy often excludes property in your care, which is exactly what a pet in your custody is. General liability handles harm to other people and their property; care, custody and control handles the pet itself being injured, lost or killed while you are responsible for it. For a pet-sitting business that is the heart of the policy rather than an optional extra, so it gets its own row here even though some insurers fold it into the base premium.
What is the difference between being bonded and being insured?
Insurance protects you: if a pet or a client's property is hurt on your watch, the policy answers. A bond protects the client: if money or property goes missing while you hold their keys, the bond pays them, and then the bonding company seeks the amount back from you. So a bond is not cover for you in the way insurance is, which is why it sits on its own line and costs little. Clients and platforms tend to ask a sitter to be bonded and insured because the two promises cover different worries, one about accidents and one about honesty.
Why does the premium show up as a per-visit figure?
Because a pet-sitting policy is priced on your operation, not on how many pets you book, the premium is close to fixed while your workload is not. Spreading a fixed premium over the visits you actually complete turns it into a cost per booking, and that figure falls the more you work: a busy sitter insures each visit for pennies, while a quiet one pays more per booking for the same cover. The visits box does not change the total for that reason, but it is the number that answers the question a lot of sitters are really asking, which is whether the cover is worth it per job.

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