Policies

1. Sentinel Pet Care will provide service only after a mutually satisfactory initial interview and a Service Agreement is signed.
2. Sentinel Pet Care publishes its rates and client agrees to pay those rates. Rates for each service are published on that page. There is a $15 daily surcharge for services provided on all major holidays. We do not provide a lesser or shortened service for cheaper rates.
3. All pets must be current on their rabies vaccinations.
4. Sentinel Pet Care does not provide service for aggressive animals and/or those with a history of biting.
5. Sentinel Pet Care does not provide service for pregnant animals.
6. Sentinel Pet Care will provide service to homes in areas that we deem to be safe to visit during day and evening hours.
7. Visit times are approximate, not exact. Sentinel Pet Care will make every effort to meet the agreed upon visit times, however, some factors such as traffic and emergencies are beyond our control and alter schedules. We have redundancies built in to our system in case of emergencies and if our schedule is altered for any reason, we make sure that interim times are consistent.
8. For safety reasons, Sentinel Pet Care cannot walk dogs off leash, even at the owner’s request.
9. Special requests must be agreed upon in advance. Sentinel Pet Care does make accommodations for many and varied requests, however, we must know about them in advance so we can schedule the appropriate amount of time to perform them.
10. Sentinel Pet Care requires a secure fenced yard to be place for dogs that have access to the outdoors via a doggie door.
11. Sentinel Pet Care urges owners of cats who have access to the outdoors to outfit them with identification tags, microchips, tatooing, or other means of identification. We strongly urge that these pets remain indoors during the course of our visits. Many horrible things can happen to outdoor cats (we see it all the time) and we urge our clients to keep them indoors.
12. Sentinel Pet Care administers many types of medications to pets. Obviously, some pets are more receptive than others. We will make a determination during the initial interview process as to the potential difficulties of administering these medications. If we determine that we will be causing undue stress to a pet that is very unreceptive to taking medications, we will require the client to sequester the pet in a separate room or other acceptable area of the house to make this process as stress-free as possible for the pet. We may even have to discontinue administering the medication altogether, depending upon the particular circumstances.
13. Sentinel Pet Care requires the client to inform us upon their return, regardless of the hour of the day, so that we know you and your pets are safe and they are once again under your care. If we do not hear from you or cannot reach you upon your scheduled return, we do not consider our work complete and we will provide additional visits at current published rates. This can lead to wasted time on our part, wasted money on your part, and potentially dangerous and/or embarrassing situations when we arrive. We have had guns pointed at us as well as walked in on clients in their birthday suits who have not notified us of their return nor returned our phone calls. We all prefer to avoid these situations, so please call us upon your return.
14. Sentinel Pet Care does not “job share” with client’s friends, neighbors, relatives, etc. That is, we should be the sole caretaker of your pets and home during your absence for the sake of safety and continuity. As the saying goes: Too many cooks can spoil the pot, and we’ve learned this the hard way.
15. In the event of severe weather or natural disaster, Sentinel Pet Care will make every possible effort to keep our visit schedules. In the event that you live in an area prone to flooding and road closure, we suggest that you give a neighbor a key to your house in the event that we can’t get to your house. If heavy snowfall is predicted we will, at our discretion, collect those pets that require special care and/or multiple visits per day, and take them to our home until roads are clear and they can safely be returned to their homes.
16. Sentinel Pet Care will return clients keys upon request. We do not lock keys in the house on the last visit and we do not leave keys under the mat. Keys become the property of Sentinel Pet Care. We strongly urge clients to let us maintain a key for future pet care services as well as to avoid potential problems should your arrival home be delayed. Also, many of our clients enjoy knowing that should they ever find themselves in a pinch (ie stuck at the office late, locked themselves out of the house, etc, we have a key and would be more than happy to help out.

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