Terms & Conditions

Current pricing: $32 per 30-minute walk and $70 per night for house-and-dog sitting (the checkout/return day itself isn't charged as an extra night). A real walk add-on during a sit is +$30 per night, a same-day/last-minute sitting booking is +$10, and paying on the day (instead of online) adds +$10. Exact pricing for your booking is always shown before you confirm.

Payment is either online (currently via Ko-fi or PayPal) or on the day of service. A booking is only confirmed once payment is received (for online payment) or the booking is accepted (for pay-on-the-day).

House-and-dog sitting is charged per night, for every night you book. If you return earlier than the dates you originally booked, the reserved night(s) you don't use aren't automatically refunded just because you left early — that time was already reserved for your booking. See Cancellations & Rescheduling below for how cancellations and refunds actually work.

House-and-dog sitting does not include continuous 24-hour supervision. Provided I'm following your dog's agreed care requirements and the alone-time limit you've told us, I may need to leave the property for reasonable periods — this can include other Dog Trot bookings, groceries, exercise, appointments, errands, and other normal day-to-day activities. It's your dog's comfortable alone-time limit that matters here, not the specific reason I'm away. Dogs that can't be left alone at all need a different arrangement, reviewed and agreed with you individually before the booking is confirmed.

Proposed policy — not yet finalised by Tama, shown here as a starting point: walk bookings can be cancelled or rescheduled free of charge with at least 24 hours' notice; overnight sitting bookings need at least 48 hours' notice, given how much harder a late sitting cancellation is to fill. Cancellations inside that window may be charged in part or in full. If The Dog Trot needs to cancel a confirmed booking, you'll be told as early as possible and any payment already made will be refunded in full.

You're responsible for giving complete and accurate information about your dog, your property, and anything else reasonably relevant to providing the service safely — see Safety, Care & What We Need From You for the full list (behaviour, bite/aggression history, escape behaviour, triggers, medical conditions and medication, allergies, mobility issues, vet and emergency contact details).

If information you provided turns out to be incomplete or inaccurate in a way that creates a safety risk, The Dog Trot may decline or end a booking, and you remain responsible for any resulting cost or harm to the extent it was caused by that non-disclosure.

Staying overnight to care for your dog means I need reasonable access to basic household facilities for the length of the stay — a toilet, shower or bathroom, running water, kitchen facilities, some fridge/freezer space for my own food, power, and a suitable place to sleep. Wi-Fi is appreciated where you're able to offer it, but isn't required.

If your property has any cameras or recording devices, please let me know before the stay begins.

• Provide the booked service with reasonable care and skill.
• Follow the instructions you've given about your dog, home, and any medication, within the limits described on the Safety & Care Info page.
• Keep your access details (keys, alarm codes) secure and used only for the booking.
• Tell you promptly about anything unusual, concerning, or urgent that happens during a booking.
• Treat your home and belongings with reasonable care and respect.
• During a stay, keep the areas I use reasonably tidy — washing up after myself and cleaning up ordinary mess from caring for your dog. General house cleaning, laundry, gardening, and other household chores aren't included unless we've separately agreed to them.

If something goes wrong — an escape, a bite, an injury, illness, property damage, a dispute about what happened — the approach is based on cause and responsibility, not automatic blame in either direction. Concretely, that means:

• An incident gets documented and looked into before anyone is held responsible for it.
• A customer not disclosing a known risk (e.g. a bite history or escape tendency) is treated differently from a carer ignoring clear, correctly-given safety instructions — responsibility follows whoever's action or omission actually caused the outcome.
• An allegation on its own — for example, that something was stolen or damaged — isn't treated as proven; it's investigated fairly first.
• Where genuine negligence, deliberate misconduct, or a clear breach of an agreed responsibility caused a loss, that's where responsibility for it sits.

This section works alongside Liability & Limitations below.

If your dog needs urgent veterinary attention during a booking, the first step is contacting you and/or your listed emergency contact. If that's genuinely not possible in time and the situation is urgent, veterinary treatment may be sought without reaching you first, using your provided vet details where possible. You're responsible for reasonable, authorised veterinary costs arising from care your dog needed during a booking, except where the need for that care was directly caused by The Dog Trot's negligence — see Incident Responsibility above.

Photos or short videos of your dog may be taken during a walk or stay to send you an update, and may occasionally be used for The Dog Trot's own social media or marketing. If you'd rather your dog's photos weren't used publicly, just say so when booking and that's respected.

If something about a booking wasn't right, get in touch at thedogtrot.admin@gmail.com with what happened and when. Complaints are looked into properly rather than dismissed, and you'll get a real response — not just an acknowledgement.

The Dog Trot takes reasonable care in providing every walk and sit, but working with animals carries some inherent risk that can't be eliminated entirely. Liability for any incident is worked out based on what actually caused it — see Incident Responsibility & Investigation above — rather than assumed automatically in either direction. Nothing on this page is intended to exclude liability for anything that can't lawfully be excluded under New Zealand law (including under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and Fair Trading Act 1986).

The Dog Trot is a sole trader business. Public liability insurance has been priced and is being arranged, but is not yet in place — this section will be updated with confirmed cover details once a policy is active. If insurance status matters to your decision to book, feel free to ask before booking.

These terms may be updated from time to time, most recently 19 September 2026. The current version is always the one on this page at the time of your booking.