I have attended the Texas Pet Sitters Conference four times. My first year attending was after the pandemic, when the event was virtual. I then participated in person in 2023 and 2024 and again this year. It's usually one of my favorite annual pet industry events, and this year was no exception. The 2025 Texas Pet Sitters Conference took place aboard Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas and celebrated 10 years of what started as a grassroots effort to bring pet sitting business owners together. Today, I'm sharing my highlights from the 2025 Texas Pet Sitters Conference. Boy, were there many!
10 Years of the Texas Pet Sitters Conference
The Texas Pet Sitters Conference was founded by two Texas-based pet sitters who wanted to attend an industry event closer to home. While Pet Sitters International and the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters have offered excellent conferences for at least two decades, they can sometimes be inconvenient to attend, as they alternate locations each year.
The Texas Pet Sitters Association, founded in 2015, was created to host a pet sitting conference that focused on the opportunities and challenges that pet sitters in Texas, Louisiana, and similar Southern states face. While it stayed that way for a short time, this conference is now popular with pet sitters from all over the United States - they've even had Canadian and Irish participants in the recent past!
This year, the conference brought together 93 participants - on board a cruise ship! We celebrated with cake and lots of great memories.
All Aboard the Conference Cruise
The founding members of the Texas Pet Sitters Conference had no idea how successful their conference would be. For this reason, the Board of Directors was keen on celebrating the 10th anniversary in a big way - as big as Texas. They chose a cruise out of Galveston because it would technically still be in Texas - at least on embarkation and debarkation day. This is a photo of me at Katie's Seafood House in Galveston.
As always, the conference was beautifully organized and featured presentations by some of my favorite pet industry coaches and experts. We discussed digital and local marketing strategies, the importance of creating a collaborative company culture, and how to care for diabetic pets and those with kidney failure.
I learned about proper insulin dosing for cats, how to connect with local media to pitch pet-related stories, and how to organize my client communication so that clients feel welcome and supported. All this, while on a cruise in the Caribbean!
Colleagues Turned Friends
The greatest thing about this year's Texas Pet Sitters Conference is that it allowed longtime colleagues to become true friends. It's amazing how close one can become with a colleague when you're dining, swimming, and laughing together on what feels like a vacation. It felt wonderful to let our hair down, soak up the fantastic weather, and share stories from the field.
One of the things I love most about attending conferences is learning from my fellow pet sitters. They inspire and encourage me, and I strive to do the same for them. We often face similar challenges. Knowing we're on a similar journey and collaborating to elevate the industry is always a treat, being on a cruise and visiting Cozumel with them was the cherry on top!
Bringing the Best in the Pet Industry to Hampton Roads
I try to attend as many industry events as I can each year. While traveling while managing a business can be costly, time-consuming, and downright exhausting, I do it for the following reasons:
Education is My Priority
The education I access when I attend industry conferences is unlike anything I could access locally. Because it's specialized content, taught by leaders in the industry, it makes sense for me to be present and take it all in. That way, I can bring it back to the Hearts at Home team.
Industry Trends Matter
As a professional pet care provider, I know how quickly best practices, technology, etc. can change. For this reason, it's important that I stay informed of new pet-specific products, pet industry technology, automation tools, AI, etc. I love being a part of the pet care industry and recognize that it's up to us to stay on top of trends to improve our services and support our clients and their pets in an optimized way.
We Won't Settle for Less Than The Best
At Hearts at Home Pet Sitting, we strive to be the best dog walking, dog adventure, and pet sitting provider in all of Yorktown, Poquoson, Newport News, and Hampton, Virginia. We set out to offer exceptional care and peace of mind, which can only be done with proper training, contingency plans, and a team made up of outstanding individuals. By attending these industry events, I learn how to recruit, train, and motivate my team. I also learn how to meet our clients' needs - both the humans and their pets.
Join the Hearts at Home Family
Hearts at Home Pet Sitting offers dog walking and cat sitting services in Yorktown, Poquoson, Hampton, and Newport News. To register your pet(s) or home with us, please complete a new client questionnaire here. Existing clients may request services here. Those outside our service area are encouraged to find a pet sitter near you at the Pet Sitters International or National Association of Professional Pet Sitters websites.
Please visit our website or contact us by email at Hello@HeartsAtHomePetSitting.com or by phone at 757-745-9868 to learn more.
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