Donna's Pet Sitting offers a great solution for your pet care needs when you go away on vacation or business. Instead of bringing your pet to a kennel, you can now leave them in the comfort and security of your own home without worrying about imposing on friends or neighbors.

I am Donna Doherty, owner and operator of Donna's Pet Sitting and I know your pets are as special to you as mine are to me and I know how hard it is to have to leave them behind when you go away. I can make this easier for you by providing lots of tender loving care in your absence.

I believe in positive dog training. I recently came across these excerpts and thought they spoke volumes and decided to post them here.

Excerpts from, "The Complete Idiots Guide to Positive Dog Training", second edition, copyright 2005 by Pamela Dennison (author.)

Page 9: "The most notable role models for positive methods are the trainers at SeaWorld parks. They train a killer whale to stay still for dental work without Novocain, to urinate on cue into a paper cup, to allow blood to be drawn, and many other behaviors needed for animal husbandry. Use punishment on these animals and you'll see the need for new trainers increase because all of the trainers will be dead. So they use positive training by necessity. It only takes nine months to train a whale, including name recognition, "Come" on cue, and daily animal husbandry (does your dog allow grooming?), eye contact, not eating the trainer or any other animals - even prey - plus all of the behaviors needed for the show."

Page 10: "Why some people seem to think that a 25-pound Sheltie needs more punishment than an 8,000-pound killer whale at SeaWorld is beyond me."

Service Area - Donna's Pet Sitting covers Ashburnham and a little bit of Westminster and Ashby. Please check my service map to make sure I cover your area.

Request Service - New clients can use my request form to set up an initial consult and current clients can use it to make reservations.

Donna's Pet Sitting will be closed the following dates:
The weekend of May 23rd - 25th. My son is graduating from college!
The weekend of July 4th. (7/4 - 7/6)
The week of August 2nd - 10th.

Due to a pretty full summer schedule already (July is full!!) I am accepting a very limited number of new clients.

At this time my midday dog walking schedule is full and I'm not accepting any more regular midday clients

Pet Food

Pet Food Recall - By now I'm sure all pet owners have heard of the recent pet food recalls. Here is a great site that lists all food recalled regardless of the manufacturer. Click here.

Recommended Pet Food - Speaking of pet food, what are you feeding your pet? There is a huge difference in pet foods and all pet owners should know what to look for. For a list of recommended foods, click here.

How does YOUR dog food rate? Click here to find out.

Pet Sitters Need Time Off Too

Working 7 days a week, week after week, was starting to wear me down. While I love pet sitting and spending time with your pets, I do also need some down time to just sleep in late or spend some time with my own family and pets or sometimes a chance to just get away. I will now be scheduling occasional weekends or even just a day off here and there. This time is important to me so I can continue to be the best pet sitter I can be. Instead of getting burnt out I will come back refreshed and ready to go and looking forward to doing my job. Also my daughter is playing on a basketball team that will be attending some tournaments out of state and I really want to be there for her. In a few more years she will be off to college so this last family time is important to us all. I hope you will understand. As soon as I know any dates they will be posted on this website. If you need pet sitting services during these times you can try calling some of the nearby sitters listed on the Other Area Sitters page. Thank you!

Cancellations

Please be aware of my cancellation policy. 72 hours notice must be given for all cancellations or you will be charged for the visit. This applies to all visits except for regularly scheduled daily visits which must give cancellation notice by 7:30 a.m.

Please remember to make your reservations early! I only accept a very limited number of sits to ensure that each pet gets the care they deserve and I often get booked up. If you are a new client I need time to do an initial consultation before starting service. Thank you!

ALL pet sitting requests made with less than 48 hours notice will be charged an additional $5 per visit. I have been lax about enforcing this in the past but can not continue to do so. Thank you for your understanding.

Serving most of Ashburnham, Massachusetts
(and a tiny bit of Westminster)
(Please check service area map.)