Before Andrea Dewhurst’s dog-sitter arrives at her Hertfordshire home to look after her dogs – an adorable miniature dachshund and Irish terrier duo – Andrea is checking the fridge for food. But it’s not the dogs’ Pedigree Chum she’s worried about – it’s the dog-sitter’s very specific ‘rider’.

“My sitter’s contract includes a list of items we must have in before she arrives,” Andrea explains. “For example, a certain type of milk (whole, ideally in a glass bottle) and the bread she prefers (Hovis, but will accept any brown seeded). I’m also asked to leave out a block of butter (not spreadable or margarine) and to avoid using certain smells before she visits, which include paint, nail varnish and bleach. But I absolutely love her and she’s great with my dogs, so I just go along with it all.”

For anyone shaking their head in disbelief, welcome to pet ownership in 2022 – when demand for dog-sitting services is at an all-time high. More than 3.2 million households in the UK acquired a pet since the start of the 2020 lockdowns, and there are now around 34 million pets in the UK – the highest there has ever been, with dogs (all 13 million of them) ranking as the nation’s most popular. But as our hearts and homes expand for Fido and his friends, so too must our wallets, with consumer spending on pet-related products and services snowballing to an annual value of £9.66 million last year (a 270% increase from 2005). In fact in 2022, over 70% of pet owners now happily admit to spending more on their pets than on themselves.

As many of us return to workplaces post-pandemic and begin holidaying once more in far-flung locations, it’s hardly surprising that dog-sitting services (along with dog-friendly workspaces, cafes and hotels) are experiencing a dramatic boom in demand, with waiting lists rivalling that of schools and nurseries. Dog-sitting website Rover, for example, has enjoyed an enormous 246% rise in demand since the pandemic began, with an 81% increase in dog-sitting between the first quarter of 2021 and 2022. And with such a huge surge in interest, dog-sitters are firmly in the driving seat, knowing all too well the value their precious services now hold.

Inside the lucrative world of luxury dog-sitting