Sitter Agreement

Effective November 6, 2026. This agreement is between you, a sitter, and Paw and Collar LLC ("Paw & Collar"). It applies in addition to the Terms of Service. You accept it by checking the agreement box when you create a sitter account, and again whenever we change it. We keep a record of each agreement: the date, the version and the device it came from.

1. You're an independent contractor

You run your own pet-care business. You choose your services, prices, availability and which requests to accept, and you decide how to do the work. This agreement doesn't make you an employee, partner or agent of Paw & Collar. There are no minimum hours, and you can work for anyone else, including other platforms. You pay your own expenses, equipment, licenses and taxes.

If you work in Washington: Washington uses a six-part test to decide who is an independent contractor, and one part is having a Unified Business Identifier (UBI) number. Adding your UBI and business details in the app is optional. Keep separate records of your business income and expenses, and file any business taxes you owe.

2. Joining

You must be 18 or older and legally allowed to work in the United States.
You complete a background check through Checkr and a photo ID check through Stripe (a photo of your government ID and a live selfie). You pay $36.50 once, in the app, non-refundable: $35 for the background check and $1.50 for the ID check, which includes up to 3 tries. Each yearly renewal is $35 for a new background check. You authorize each background check on Checkr's own form.
You complete Paw & Collar's short safety course in the app, covering leashes, escapes, heat and emergencies.
Your legal name is used for the background check and the ID check, and it can't be changed once your background check starts. Your profile shows the first name you go by and your last initial.
Paw & Collar decides whether to approve you, and approves no one until both checks pass and the safety course is done. If your background report contains something that might lead us to say no, we follow the federal adverse action process first: you'll get a copy of the report, a summary of your rights, and time to respond or dispute it with Checkr.
Your background check is good for 12 months. Before it runs out, you renew it in the app: you pay the fee again and authorize a new check on Checkr's form. We'll remind you 30 days ahead. You can't accept a booking that starts after your check runs out. If it runs out, your profile is hidden from search and you can't get new requests until the new check clears. Your profile, reviews and history are kept. If the new report contains something that might lead us to remove you, we follow the same adverse action process.

3. Fees and payouts

You set your price. Owners pay your price plus a 10% service fee, which goes to Paw & Collar.
Paw & Collar keeps 15% of your price and pays you 85%. On a $100 booking, you receive $85.
Discount codes you create come off your price, so you're paid 85% of the lower price. Add-ons you offer are part of your price.
Changing prices: before you accept, you can lower a request's price, or ask for more with a reason; more applies only if the owner approves. Changes to a confirmed booking need the other side's approval. When you raise your rates, owners who've already booked that service with you keep their old price unless you choose otherwise.
You're paid through Stripe to the bank account you connect, the morning after the booking's last day. Stripe then deposits the money on its schedule. By connecting payouts, you accept Stripe's Connected Account Agreement.
Payment when you accept: if the owner chose a saved card, accepting the request charges it and confirms the booking. If the charge fails, the booking shows Payment needed and isn't confirmed until the owner pays.
If a booking is refunded, you aren't paid for the refunded part. If a refund is decided after you were paid, such as through Report a problem, that part of your share is taken back from the payout through Stripe. If an owner's bank reverses a payment and Paw & Collar finds the care wasn't given as booked, you aren't paid for the reversed part. If you were already paid, it's taken back through Stripe, and anything Stripe can't take back comes out of your future payouts.
Problem reports and card disputes: an owner can report a problem from the start of a booking until 2 days after it ends. You can agree to the refund, which settles it, or explain your side within 2 days. If you don't answer in time, Paw & Collar decides. Your payout for that booking is held while a problem report or card dispute is open. If the owner's bank decides a dispute in the owner's favor, Paw & Collar reviews the booking's report cards, photos and messages. If you gave the care as booked, the owner owes the money back and you're paid once they pay it (or keep what you were already paid). If you didn't, the paragraph above applies.
Clients you meet through Paw & Collar must book and pay through the app for 12 months after you first connect. Taking payment outside the app is grounds for removal.
Tips are 100% yours, paid to your bank through Stripe. Owners can tip during a stay that lasts several days, from its second day, and for 30 days after a booking ends.
When an owner cancels: every sitter uses the same scale. For stays and other bookings that span several days, the owner gets a full refund 30 or more days before the first day, 80% back 15 to 29 days before, 65% back 7 to 14 days before, and 50% back after that. For walks, drop-ins, day care and training on a single day, on-demand walks, and each week of a weekly booking, the owner gets a full refund by the day before and 50% back on the day. You're paid your share of the part that isn't refunded once the booking's dates pass. If you cancel, the owner always gets a full refund and you aren't paid.
Weekly bookings: you're paid for each walk, visit or day of care you send a report card for. Any without a report card is refunded to the owner after the week.
Walk now requests: the first walker to accept gets the walk. Accept only if you can head over right away.

4. How you do the work

How you do the work is up to you. You agree to provide the care you accepted and follow the owner's written instructions. Whatever your methods, these minimums always apply:

Follow the law, including leash laws and animal-welfare laws.
Never leave a pet in danger, and keep doors, gates and leashes secure.
Do the booking yourself. Don't hand it to anyone else.
Don't drive a pet anywhere, or bring other people or animals, unless the owner agrees in the app first.
Never care for a pet under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Keep keys, door codes and everything you learn about the owner's home private. Return keys when the booking ends.
Keep your profile accurate, including your home, the pets you take and your skills.
Arrive within the visit time on the booking. If you'll be late, message the owner before that time starts.
Read each pet's profile before you accept, including bite history, medications and behavior, and ask about anything unclear.
If the owner's emergency info is missing (a backup contact, an emergency vet, and how much vet care you may approve), ask for it before the booking starts.

Report cards: send one after each walk or visit, and each day of an overnight stay. Each needs at least one photo and the safety checks for the pets on the booking. If something on a check isn't right, say what in a note. Report cards are your best evidence that a visit happened and went well.

Check-in and missed visits: when you start a walk, drop-in or house sit, the app compares your location with the owner's saved home pin, if your phone already shares location with the app, and shows the owner whether you checked in at the home. If a walk or drop-in hasn't started 30 minutes after its time, you, the owner and Paw & Collar are told.

Availability: your weekly hours, days off, away dates, busy hours and daily pet limit decide which requests owners can send you, so keep them current. You can also take repeat clients only. To take a break, turn off Taking requests or set an away date. Open conversations and unanswered requests never hide your profile from search.

Vaccine requirements: if you offer boarding or day care, you can choose which vaccines pets must have. The app won't send a request until the owner adds records that are current through the end of the stay. You can open the records on the booking. Paw & Collar doesn't verify them.

Dog training: you can offer training only after we've found your certification in the certifying group's public directory. Training is for dogs only.

Walk maps and location: when you tap Start on a walk or visit, the app records your phone's location until you tap End, to draw the map in the owner's report card. It's sent when you finish and is never shown live. You can turn off location for the app; the report card then goes without a map, and the visit without a check-in.

5. Emergencies

If a pet is sick or hurt, contact the owner, then their emergency contact. If neither answers and it's urgent, take the pet to the nearest vet. The owner has authorized this and pays the vet. The Emergency button on the booking has the numbers in one place.
If a pet gets loose, tell the owner right away, send a lost-pet alert from the booking, search, and notify local animal control.
Report any injury, illness, bite, fight, escape or property damage in the app with Report an incident within 24 hours. The owner and Paw & Collar are told right away.

6. Cancelling

Cancel only when you must, and as early as you can. Cancelling a paid booking refunds the owner in full, and you aren't paid for it. Repeated cancellations can lead to your account being paused.

7. Insurance

Pet-care liability insurance is strongly recommended but not required. Paw & Collar's own insurance doesn't cover you unless we tell you in writing that a policy we carry covers your bookings, and then only on that policy's terms.

8. Responsibility for your work

You're responsible for the care you provide and for harm caused by your own carelessness. You agree to defend Paw & Collar, and pay for (indemnify) its claims, losses and costs, including reasonable attorney fees, that arise from your services, your carelessness, or your breaking this agreement or the law.

9. Reviews, references and conduct

You and owners review each other under the same rules, within 30 days after a booking ends. Each review posts right away and is final once posted. You can reply once to a review of you, and report one that breaks the review rules in the Terms of Service. We never remove a review just for being negative. Reviews of owners are shown to sitters who get their requests.

References from before Paw & Collar must come from real past clients. Invite them through the app, and never write or change one yourself. You can hide any reference, and we may remove any that breaks these rules. The conduct rules in the Terms of Service apply to you too.

10. Notices, pausing and leaving

You can stop anytime. Finish or cancel your open bookings, then delete your account.

Paw & Collar may pause or remove your account for breaking this agreement, safety concerns, repeated cancellations or poor reviews, or a background check result after the process in section 2. Once you've been approved, we never pause or remove you without a written notice in the app that says why. A pause hides your profile from search right away; with a removal notice, your profile stays live until it's decided. You have 7 days to appeal in the app, and a person at Paw & Collar reads your appeal before deciding. You're still paid for bookings you completed.

11. Taxes

You're responsible for taxes on your earnings, including any Washington business taxes. Stripe collects your tax details when you connect payouts, and Paw & Collar sends any year-end tax form the law requires, such as a Form 1099, through Stripe. You can download a spreadsheet of each year's bookings, fees, refunds, earnings and tips in the app.

12. Changes, law and contact

We'll tell you in the app before any significant change takes effect, and ask you to agree again. Washington law governs this agreement. Contact us first and we'll try to resolve any disagreement within 30 days. If we can't, it goes to the courts of Cowlitz County, Washington, and either side can use small claims court. Questions: support@thepawandcollar.com.