Can you make a living from Rover?

Yes. But before you quit your day job, here are some things to consider:

1) Do love working with dogs enough to do it all day?
2) Have you done high volume dog sitting before?
3) What kind of lifestyle do you want/cost of living do you have?
Let’s dive in:

1) Do you love working with dogs enough to do it all day? So you think you’re a dog person because you have a dog and love your dog. That’s great. However, as a professional/semi professional dog sitter, you don’t always have the option of picking only dogs that you like especially if you’re dog sitting for a living. Ask yourself this: “how am I going to react if I wake up in the middle of the night, hear a dog whining, and realize that there was a major diarrhea accident that is going to involve 30 minutes to an hour of cleanup?” This happens more often than you would think and if your response is freaking out or screaming at the dog, this type of job is not for you. You absolutely cannot make a living dog sitting if this type of thing freaks you out.

2) Have you done high volume dog sitting before? I would not recommend suddenly starting high volume dog sitting overnight. This is something that you build into over time. See how you do with 1-2 dogs, then 3-4 dogs, and then try 6 at a time. Six dogs in an average size house <2000 square feet is the point in my opinion that this is no longer a casual side hustle – it’s dipping into full time job territory simply because that is the highest comfortable number you can have in a typical house in my opinion. (Note: I have sat up to 12 dogs in my house which is only 1800 square feet but that isn’t necessarily ideal and I will only do it occasionally.)

Once you’re sitting around six dogs at a time, you have a much better idea of the issues that start to arise from high volume sitting. Dogs may not get along, one of them is usually whining about something, a lot more dog poop to pick up, a lot more house cleaning needs to be done, etc. If you get to a point with your 6+ dogs that you have a solid method for managing the dogs together, keeping up with maintenance on your house, and still are loving it, dog sitting might be right for you as a full time job.

3) What kind of lifestyle do you want/cost of living do you have? Ah yes: finances. Dog sitting does not pay as well as most other professional jobs and there is an inherent cap on the amount you can make since there’s limited space in your house.

I live in Arkansas so I’ll give you an example using my state. Let’s say I sit 6 dogs every day of the year at $35/per dog per night. Reality doesn’t play out quite this nicely but let’s just assume it does for this example. Six dogs multiplied by $35/night, multiplied by 360 days equals $75,600 in gross booking fees. Sounds great right? Well, you then have to take out 20% in Rover fees which leaves you with $60,480; then you have take out approximately 5% in ancillary miscellaneous costs which brings the total to $57,456; then you have to take out approximately 1/3rd of that amount to cover employer and employee payroll taxes as well as whatever your marginal income tax rate dictates which brings the total to $38,495. The 1/3rd is a rule of thumb for self employment income but does vary based on your other income, state income tax rates, etc. If this is your only income, the 1/3rd is lower, and if you’re a higher earner it could be higher but I’m using 1/3rd for broad strokes purposes and simplicity here to approximate your total federal and state income tax liability.

This is not a lot of money, folks, and it is a lot of work. This annual income equates to $3,208 per month in take home pay. The median mortgage in Arkansas was $1,216 in 2022 (the latest year stats were available). In 2023, with increases to interest rates, using a bunch of averages and median home value, the median mortgage is closer to $1,600/month. That would make mortgage alone half of your monthly take home pay. Now, realistically, a dog sitter with that as their only income is probably not going to own a home so the comparison to home prices isn’t completely valid but does provide perspective. If you are willing to live a more conservative life style in Arkansas you can make dog sitting your full time job.

Concluding thoughts:

It may seem like a lot of data points are pointing away from trying to dog sit as a replacement for your 9-5 and the truth is you probably should not try to do this full time and this is going to be true for the majority of people. However, your specific situation may be different. In some states dog sitting in a major metropolitan area is known to be an easy six figures where you’re mostly doing drops in, house sitting, and dog walking and you can easily charge double what I charge in Arkansas for any of these services. You can certainly also build a content/social media business on top of your dog sitting and maybe develop a product to sell or endorse products that you find useful. It can be made to work but at the end of the day you are going to have to love it enough to put fourth the same or more effort that you would for a traditional 9-5 job. I guess the take away is do this job if you’re a patient person who loves dogs, is ok with not making a fortune, and is willing to work hard and diversify dog sitting related income.