Sooner or later, hiring a dog walker or pet sitter becomes a conversation about your front door. How do dog walkers get into your home while you are at work? How does a pet sitter get in while you are traveling? Do you hand someone a key, give them a garage code, or put a key in a lockbox? One thing is certain. No matter your plans when you need professional dog walking and pet sitting your professional dog walker or pet sitter is going to need access.
All of those can work. At Stable Hands Pet Care & Services, we use physical keys, lockboxes, smart locks, garage codes, building fobs, concierge access, and other arrangements that fit the home. We do not require every client to use the same method because homes are different, and people have different comfort levels about access to them.
We do have preferences based on more than a decade of walking through other people's front doors. Garage codes, smart locks, and lockboxes tend to make access easier for everyone involved. A physical key works perfectly well too. The goal is to choose an arrangement you are comfortable with that also lets your care team reliably reach your pets.
Smart Locks, Garage Codes, and Lockboxes
Electronic codes have made home access considerably easier for dog walking and pet sitting. If you already enter your house through a garage keypad or smart lock, there is often no reason to create a completely different system for your pet sitter.
The advantage is practical. The access method stays with the house instead of traveling around on someone's key ring. A smart-lock or garage code can also be changed by the homeowner when needed. With a lockbox, the physical key remains at the property rather than leaving with the sitter after each visit.
For Stable Hands, these are the easiest access arrangements to manage. They reduce the opportunity for a loose key to be misplaced or stolen while still giving the assigned care team a reliable way into the home.
That does not make a code the correct choice for every household. Some clients would rather give us a key. Some apartment buildings determine how anyone entering the property will gain access. We work with the setup that makes sense for the client and the home.
What If You Want to Give Your Dog Walker or Pet Sitter a Key?
Physical keys are still common, and clients who give Stable Hands a key have two choices.
The first is to have the key returned after the service ends. If you book with us again, we will need to arrange another key pickup before the next service, and the key-pickup charge will apply.
The second option is to let Stable Hands keep the key for future dog walking or pet sitting visits. Because our clients are cared for by an assigned care team, the lead member of that team keeps a key and the other assigned members receive copies. We also maintain a backup at the office.
That arrangement allows the people assigned to your household to reach your pets without moving one key back and forth every time the schedule changes. It also gives the care team backup access when another assigned team member is providing the visit.
Clients who prefer not to have copies of their house key in circulation often choose a smart lock, garage code, or lockbox instead. Both approaches work. They solve the same practical problem in different ways.
Apartments and Secured Buildings Work Differently
Not every dog walker walks up a driveway and enters through a front door. Apartment buildings, condominiums, secured communities, and other controlled-access properties can add another step before the sitter ever reaches the pet.
We have clients who provide building fobs or other entry devices. Some buildings use a concierge or front desk. Others have a combination of secured building access followed by a separate key or code for the apartment itself.
These arrangements are handled during setup just like access to a single-family home. We need to know how the property works and what the building allows so the sitter can follow the same entry process each time.
This is one of the details we review during the dog walking and pet sitting meet and greet. Standing in the actual home is far more useful than trying to describe every door, gate, lobby, lockbox, and keypad over the phone.
Who Can See Your Door Code or Access Instructions?
A garage code is not especially useful if the sitter cannot find it at 11:30 on a Tuesday morning. It also does not need to be available to every employee in the company.
Stable Hands stores home-access information in the client's Time To Pet profile. Access details are visible to the administrative team and the care team members assigned to that household.
That profile can hold the information needed to enter the home, including codes, lockbox instructions, building-entry information, and other details specific to the property. The sitter can review the same information used during prior visits rather than relying on a text message from six months ago or someone's memory of which key opens which door.
Home access is one part of the larger care profile we use for dog walking and in-home pet sitting. Feeding instructions, medications, pet routines, household information, and other care details live alongside it so the assigned team has the information needed for the visit.
What Happens If a Smart Lock or Garage Door Stops Working?
Technology is convenient right up until the battery dies.
Of all the access problems we have encountered, a dead battery in a door lock or a power outage affecting electronic access are among the most common. Nothing dramatic has to happen for a perfectly good access plan to stop working for an afternoon.
If we cannot enter the home, we contact the client. We also ask clients who rely on electronic access to have a backup available before we need it. That can mean a physical key secured somewhere on the property or an emergency contact who lives locally and can provide access.
The backup rarely matters. When it does, it can be the difference between a normal pet care visit and a sitter standing outside a locked door trying to reach someone who may be in a meeting, on an airplane, or several time zones away.
A backup does not need an elaborate system behind it. It needs to exist before the electronic option fails.
How Should You Let a Pet Sitter Into Your Home?
Use the method that makes you comfortable.
If you already have a smart lock and like using it, give your pet care company a code. If you prefer a lockbox, use a lockbox. If handing over a physical key feels simpler, that works too. If your building has its own process, your sitter needs to work within that process.
A professional dog walker or pet sitter should be able to explain how they will use the access method you provide, how access information is handled, and what happens if the original method does not work. The conversation can be straightforward because the subject itself is straightforward: your pets are inside, and the person scheduled to care for them needs a dependable way to get through the door.
For our clients, the access discussion happens while we are learning the rest of the household. During the meet and greet, we walk through the home, meet the pets, review their routine, and learn how you want us to enter and leave.
Once that is settled, home access should become one of the least interesting parts of pet care. Your sitter arrives, gets inside, cares for your pets, secures the home, and goes on to the next visit.
Professional Dog Walking and Pet Sitting in Hampton Roads
Stable Hands Pet Care & Services has provided in-home dog walking and pet sitting in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, and Norfolk since 2015. In that time, we have entered client homes through just about every reasonable arrangement a homeowner or building can provide.
We can tell you which methods tend to work best for our care teams, but you do not need to redesign your home around your pet sitter. We adapt to most access methods and work with you to find an arrangement that fits your home, your pets, and your comfort level.
If you are considering dog walking or pet sitting with Stable Hands, home access is one of the details we can walk through with you before care begins.
FAQ
Should I give my dog walker or pet sitter a key?
You can, but you do not have to. Physical keys, lockboxes, garage codes, smart locks, building access systems, and other arrangements can all work. Stable Hands asks clients to use the access method they are most comfortable with and that can reliably get the assigned care team into the home.
Can my pet sitter use my smart lock or garage code?
Yes. Smart locks and garage codes are among the access methods Stable Hands prefers because they allow the homeowner to control access without requiring a physical key to travel with the sitter. We store the access information in the client's Time To Pet profile, where it is available to the administrative team and the care team assigned to the household.
What happens if my electronic door lock stops working?
Stable Hands contacts the client if we cannot enter the home. Because batteries can die and power outages can affect electronic access, we ask clients using electronic entry to have a backup physical key available on the property or a local emergency contact who can provide access.