May is Pet Sitter Safety Month™

KING, N.C. - April 27, 2017 - PRLog -- Educating professional pet sitters and dog walkers on important safety precautions and tips will be at the forefront of Pet Sitters International's efforts this May, the inaugural Pet Sitter Safety Month™.

Pet Sitters International (PSI), the world's largest educational association for professional pet sitters, created Pet Sitter Safety Month to highlight the importance of promoting safe practices for today's professional pet sitters and dog walkers, who are in higher demand than ever before.

"When I began pet sitting in 1983, the safety of myself and my staff pet sitters was a major concern—and when I founded PSI in 1994, that concern carried over to our pet-sitting members," says Patti J. Moran, PSI's president and founder.

"During Pet Sitter Safety Month, I encourage pet sitters to review PSI's safety tips, as well as their policies and procedures, to ensure that they—and the pets in their care—remain healthy, happy and safe," Moran continues.

Each week in May, PSI will highlight a different safety-related topic for pet sitters, with posts on The PSI Blog and PSI's social media accounts.

PSI has also joined forces with Wearsafe Labs to make pet sitting and dog walking safer. The Wearsafe Safety Service and wearable "panic button" is now available to pet-care providers and pet owners at a discounted rate on the PSI website at petsit.com/wearsafe (https://www.petsit.com/wearsafe).

"Each day pet sitters meet with potential clients (often strangers), enter clients' empty homes and walk dogs alone," says Beth Stultz, PSI vice-president, marketing and operations. "While professional pet sitters have likely selected their service areas carefully, have an emergency plan in place and exercise caution to ensure they and the pets in their care remain safe, new technology can help keep them safer—and enable them to pet sit more confidently."

To assist professional pet sitters in taking charge of their safety, PSI's Pet Sitter Safety Month (http://www.petsit.com/safety) section on petsit.com includes a listing of safety tips and resources for professional pet sitters. The site will address a variety of topics—from the types of pet-sitting assignments pet sitters should turn down to tips for preventing dog bites.

"More than three decades ago when I started pet sitting, there were no pet-sitting specific resources available to me," Moran says. "That's why it has always been so important to me that PSI provides members with easy-to-access tools that enable them to provide excellent pet-care services with confidence."

For more information on Pet Sitter Safety Month, visit www.petsit.com/safety. To learn more about PSI or to locate a professional pet sitter in your area, visit www.petsit.com/locate.

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About Pet Sitters International

Founded in 1994 by Patti J. Moran, author of Pet Sitting for Profit, Pet Sitters International (PSI) is the world's largest educational association for professional pet sitters, with member pet-sitting businesses in the United States, Canada and more than 20 other countries. PSI members have access to the widest array of business services and educational resources available in the professional pet-sitting industry. PSI's Official Pet Sitter Locator is the largest online directory of professional pet sitters, and pet owners can visit petsit.com/locate (http://www.petsit.com/locate) to find local professional pet sitters.