Helpful support team
Support replied fast and explained the details clearly. That is what made the difference for me.
About pawshake.com
Data updated- Website
- pawshake.com
- Category
- Animals & Pets
- Location
- United States
- Status
- Unclaimed
- Last 12 months
- 202 reviews
- Replies to negative
- 97% (28/29)
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About this business
Pawshake - Experienced pet care with peace of mindLoving pet sitters who treat your pets like familyAt Pawshake, we connect pet parents with friendly, reliable and vetted pet sitters. So whether you are going away, need someone to drop in to check on your pet while you’re at work or take your dog for a sniff around the block, we’ve got a pet loving sitter for you.Loving home environments - no cages!Your pets will stay in loving home environments and be treated just like family. Pawshake pet sitters are able to cater to your pet’s needs and are also a great alternative to dog boarding kennels or catteries.Get daily updates about your pet and relax knowing that they will get plenty of love and attention while you are away.Convenient, safe and flexible pet careSimply, search for a sitter, arrange a free meet and greet and then confirm your booking online. Payments are held securely by Pawshake until the booking is complete. There are no subscription fees and you only pay for the sitter you choose. Pet parents can also leave a review at the end of each booking to share their experience with other pet parents.The Pawshake Guarantee All bookings are covered by The Pawshake Guarantee which includes veterinary coverage, Happiness Guarantee and in-house customer support.
Written by the business, not verified by us.Is pawshake.com legit?
pawshake.com (pawshake.com) has a 4.4 out of 5 rating on OK.one, based on 202 user reviews collected here. It is listed under Animals & Pets and its reputation is good. 84% of reviews are 4 stars or higher and 13% are 1 star; The business has replied to 97% of negative reviews. Last updated 2026-08-29.
What reviewers say
AI generatedReviewers overwhelmingly had a great experience with this company. Customers praise the website for being extremely intuitive and easy to navigate when searching for local pet sitters to care for their beloved animals. Reviewers frequently state that the staff and sitters provide exceptional care, keeping owners completely informed by sending regular photo and video updates throughout the entire booking. Some reviewers were not happy with unexpected account deactivations occurring after contacting customer support with questions about their status. A few people also mentioned serious concerns regarding high commission fees and restrictive booking terms imposed on active users.
Auto-generated from all reviews of this business. For reference only.What people say
Bettina on Pawshake was brilliant
Bettina on Pawshake was brilliant. It was a last minute booking due to an injury and Ludo came back happy and relaxed and well cared for. Would defiantly be happy to book her again. Not far from where we live in the WN4 area and regular photos and updates. Thank you .
Unilateral Travel-Day Cancellations, Verbal Abuse from Support, and Destroyed Sitter Livelihoods [Ticket: 62MWND-YG2P2]
I am writing this review to warn both pet owners and pet sitters about severe operational misconduct, unprofessional customer service, and total disregard for user trust by Pawshake support. I booked and paid in full for confirmed dog boarding services through Pawshake for August 28 – September 5. On the exact day of my planned departure, a Pawshake Community Manager named George improperly accused me of policy non-compliance regarding a second valid, fully paid booking made directly through their platform. When I clarified that all payments were fully compliant and processed on Pawshake, Community Manager George escalated the situation unprovoked. Instead of reviewing the paid invoices, he responded with outright hostility, telling me I was "rude as all f&^k," adding condescending insults like "grow up mate," and sending a link to a YouTube video about service worker abuse. He then unilaterally took the following actions: 1. Cancelled all active, fully paid dog boarding bookings on my departure date. 2. Terminated my account entirely, cutting off all communication channels. 3. Terminated the pet sitter’s account as well—destroying a reliable sitter's profile and income stream through no fault of their own. 4. Retained my funds without delivering the contracted pet care services. I made 11 separate attempts across support channels and executive leadership (including tickets #62MWND-YG2P2 and #1PKG9V-7E6NE) to resolve this rationally, request service reinstatement, or receive a direct refund. Rather than addressing the agent's explicit misconduct, Pawshake support demanded an apology for "previous conduct" as a condition to restore the account while refusing to refund money for services they failed to provide. Due to their last-minute cancellation and hostile support agent, my travel plans were severely disrupted, and I was forced to initiate formal credit card chargebacks to recover my funds. A warning to pet sitters: Your livelihood, reviews, and income on Pawshake can be arbitrarily wiped out in an instant based purely on the mood of an individual customer service rep like George, regardless of how strictly you follow the rules. Avoid this platform at all costs. UPDATE / RESPONSE TO PAWSHAKE'S STATEMENT: Pawshake’s response is a complete rewrite of documented events designed to cover for their support agent’s misconduct. Every claim they make above is contradicted by written email records: 1. "Fully Refunded": Pawshake did NOT voluntarily refund my money. They refused refunds during support exchanges until I officially initiated a credit card chargeback through my bank. Claiming credit for a refund forced by a bank dispute is dishonest. 2. The "Extortionate" Condition for Service: Pawshake explicitly admits above that they cancelled active, fully paid bookings on my departure date and held my account hostage unless I bowed to a support agent’s personal demands. Holding paid travel arrangements hostage on departure day is coercive operational abuse, not customer service. 3. Unprovoked Agent Misconduct: Pawshake conveniently omits that Community Manager "George" initiated the hostility by using expletives ("rude as all f&^k"), condescending insults ("grow up mate"), and sending YouTube videos instead of verifying my fully paid platform invoices. They hold customers to a standard of conduct their own staff blatantly violates. 4. Collateral Damage to the Pet Sitter: Pawshake completely ignores the fact that they deleted an innocent pet sitter's profile, destroying their active income stream and hard-earned client reviews over a dispute they were not even party to. 5. The "Bypass" Lie: Both bookings in question were paid in full directly through the Pawshake platform prior to cancellation. There was zero platform bypass. Bottom Line: I did not accept their "conditional offer" because no customer should tolerate hostaged bookings, verbal abuse from staff, or extortionate demands on their travel day. The paper trail, ticket IDs, and bank chargebacks speak for themselves. Prospective owners and sitters: use this platform at your own risk.
Reply from pawshake.com2026-08-29
We’re sorry you were unhappy with your experience, but this review contains a number of claims that are contradicted by the correspondence and outcome of this case. The original issue was straightforward: you asked your sitter whether an additional night should be paid for in person, and were advised that the additional date needed to be booked through Pawshake. You were then explicitly told that arranging or paying for any part of the care outside Pawshake was not permitted, because it can affect the protections attached to the booking. The solution provided was simply to submit an additional booking request through the platform. Contrary to your claim that your account and bookings were arbitrarily terminated with no opportunity to resolve the matter, once you subsequently made the additional booking through Pawshake, our team offered to republish both accounts and allow the bookings to proceed. This was conditional on keeping the entire period of care and payment on Pawshake and acknowledging the way you had addressed our staff. That offer was not accepted. Instead, the correspondence continued to escalate, including messages containing profanity and personal abuse directed at our staff. You subsequently demanded reinstatement within 60 minutes and threatened a chargeback and publication of private support correspondence if this did not happen. There is also a particularly important factual error in this review: **Pawshake did not retain your money. Both bookings have been cancelled and fully refunded.** The team explicitly confirmed that a full refund would be issued. It is therefore incorrect to describe this as Pawshake refusing to refund you, or to suggest that you were charged for services that were not provided. We also reject the suggestion that our staff can arbitrarily remove accounts based on their “mood”. The correspondence shows that you were given a clear path to continue with the bookings, but the interaction subsequently involved repeated aggressive and abusive communications towards our team. Our staff are entitled to work without being subjected to abuse, threats or xenophobic commentary. Disagreement with a policy does not justify that behaviour or provide an exception to our Terms and Conditions. The bookings have now been cancelled and **fully refunded**, and your account has been closed. Kind Regards Pawshake Support
Great first time using Paw Shake
Great first time using Paw Shake, found a reliable sitter with a few days notice enabling us to go on a much needed Family break ! Responsive sitters. Great pup dates whilst away and the sitter cleaned the house and watered the plants and washed their linen for our return ! Highly recommended!
Natarika on Pawshake was a great help…
Natarika on Pawshake was a great help at quite short notice. She went over & above the one visit a day, to look after our furbaby & keep our house in check while we were away :)
I signed up to join Pawshake and at…
I signed up to join Pawshake and at first I was excited. However I am now reading some bad reviews and can see that this isn’t for me. I paid good money for my qualification and experience and feel that the cost for leads through Pawshake is too much. It is not worth me doing the work by the time I pay them for the service leads. I’m working for less than minimum wage and if I put my price up to compensate it means no one would book. Best to go alone and get real bookings with real interactions and not have a company ripping you off the costs are far too high avoid avoid
Reply from pawshake.com2026-08-27
Hi Samantha, We’re sorry to hear you were disappointed, although we’re having some difficulty locating your account in our database under the name provided. As a result, we’re unable to verify that this review relates to an actual Pawshake user. There also appears to be a fundamental misunderstanding about how Pawshake works. **Sitters do not pay for leads.** Pawshake charges a flat 19% contribution on services that are actually booked through the platform. There is no charge simply for receiving enquiries or having your profile listed as you imply. That 19% provides considerably more than simply an introduction to a customer. It covers advertising and promotion of your services and profile, hosting and management of your profile, access to customers looking for pet care, the booking and payment system, support when you need it and, most importantly, veterinary coverage for eligible incidents involving pets during Pawshake bookings. Without this coverage, you would need to arrange and pay for appropriate cover yourself in the event of an incident. You are also free to set your own prices on Pawshake. If you believe you are earning less than minimum wage, you can easily increase your prices to reflect the value of your time and experience. It is your profile to manage as you see fit. Ultimately, whether Pawshake is worthwhile for you depends on whether you value having us handle the legwork you would otherwise need to manage yourself, including finding customers, advertising, payment processing, administration and appropriate insurance or coverage. Kind regards, Pawshake Support
It was a simple process to select a…
It was a simple process to select a dog/house sitter and get to meet them prior to needing them.
Pawshake's great!
Pawshake made it easy for me to find dog sitters in my area and to communicate with them to check availability for the dates I needed. It was a simple process to arrange to meet prospective sitters to discuss both my and my dog's needs. I appreciated all the information and photos provided by Pawshake and was very happy with the result.
Easy and good service
Very easy to arrange; Kat was easy to communicate with and obviously loves animals, which made her a good friend to my needy cat!
Using an Apple device? Don't bother...
We have been using Pawshake for some years and are always pleased with our cat sitters and their professionalism. If only the app and website were as satisfactory. We use Apple devices, including mobile devices with the App installed. It is practically impossible to manage bookings. There is no "My Booking" section to enable end users to amend or delete past or future bookings. Being a website designer myself, what grates most is that nobody in Support will acknowledge these shortcomings, and nowhere on the Pawshake FAQs does the very limited compatibility with Apple devices get a mention. Poor Shake, more like. ––––––––––––––– Further to your reply, I will reluctantly repeat the support correspondence that we have already had with you by email. I will also enclose copies of the Google generated AI responses highlighting some of the known technical issues for Apple users, as you still seem keen to ignore that these exist. Thanks.
Reply from pawshake.com2026-08-26
Hi Kevan, “Poor Shake” — punny. Haha. We’ll give you that one. 😄 We’re sorry to hear you’ve found the booking management experience frustrating. However, we do want to clarify a few points in your review. Bookings can be managed on Apple devices, just as they can on other devices. There isn’t a separate booking-management system for different operating systems. While a booking is still awaiting payment, the “Change details” option in the message thread can be used to amend the booking. Once a booking has been paid for, any adjustments need to be handled by our accounting team. We’re always happy to receive feedback about how these processes could be made clearer or easier to use, and we’ll certainly take your comments on board. What is difficult for us to understand, however, is your statement that “nobody in Support will acknowledge these shortcomings”. We’ve looked through your correspondence with us and can’t find any previous contact where you raised these particular issues with our Support team. Had you contacted us, we would have been very happy to explain how booking changes work and assist you. We’d much rather have the opportunity to help resolve an issue than have you left frustrated by it — so please do contact us when something isn’t working as expected. Kind Regards Pawshake Support EDIT: **P.S.** Following your further correspondence with us, we can clarify exactly how to make the change you were trying to make. An enquiry is effectively a quote, so its service details and price are locked to what the sitter had set when the enquiry was created. If you want to change the service from two visits per day to one, you need to create a **new enquiry from the sitter’s profile** with the correct dates and service details. This is not an Apple-specific issue — the same process applies regardless of whether you use an iPhone, iPad, Mac or another device. This information is also already available in our 24/7 Help Centre: [How do I change dates or details of a booking?](https://support.pawshake.com/hc/en-ca/articles/23754988647956-How-do-I-change-dates-or-details-of-a-booking?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
Tess was great with my dog Monty
Tess was great with my dog Monty, Tess has her own dog Tina who was very well behaved and calm with Monty. Tess sent daily photos of Monty making me feel very happy he was in her care.
Fantastic Service
Fantastic Service. Easy to access, no trouble finding someone to care for our pet and home. Great experience
Well laid out
Well laid out, informative and super easy to use website. Found a great pet sitter along with peace of mind knowing Pawshake had me covered. Highly recommend and will use again.
Very reliable and pleasant to deal with.
Monty and Winston stayed with Vivian. Excellent, excellent care and very easy to deal with. Vivian is highly recommended.
Definitely use this site again if my…
Definitely use this site again if my first experience with Anna is a bench mark then I would definitely recomend.
Found rhe service good
Found rhe service good. I was kept up to date with the situation, and would use again.
Remember to communicate about all the door locks!
Our pet sitters were completely reliable and had great communication. They sent photos to show how the cats were doing. It was unfortunate that it didn't occur to me to say I had only left a key for the deadbolt. In an effort to secure my house correctly, they pushed in the lock button on the door handle lock when they left, too. The only keys for that were with us, 6 hours drive away. My son had to attend, take a panel of glass out, post his 5yo through the gap, and get her to unlock the door by turning the handle from the inside to unlock the door, so the pet sitters could get on the next day! Rather unfortunate, but lesson learned in terms of full communication that we should have had about the locks before we left! It wasn't the pet sitters' fault- they were just trying to help. I would use the service again. You can ask friends or family to feed your cats - but you need a pet sitting service if you want cat litter trays cleaned daily, too!
Ease of searching for the right sitters in your neighbourhood
Ease of searching for sitters in your own neighbourhood, detailed information an references about the sitters, clear communication and easy ordering by just pushing the button of the offer from the selected sitter
Easy site to navigate.
I am a new starter in the paid pet…
Update 2: So an extremely rude company to deal with too. The point is I am trying to build up a good portfolio, I have put a lot of effort into what I do, how I do it. The problem is only the photos. I have tried several times to add differing ones, hours spent writing about my services, contact by past clients for reviews as I haven’t really been one to ask for feedback, building a Facebook page, but as stated, I am just starting out formally and mostly independent cat sits. If photos are such an important part of being a carer on Pawshake then I really think it is a Pawshake problem. I’m more than willing to put in the effort but can’t get the golden photos that mean so much to Pawshake application criteria overnight… Update : There we have it, the response shows that there is more focus on having photos of you holding people’s pets that any of verification or qualifications/experience. I’ve 100+ photos of my clients pets, feeding them, stroking them, playing with them but rejected, they want ones of ME in the photo like that is important. So if you are a selfie taker, then you are fine…. I am a new starter in the paid pet sitting world and have spent many hours trying to get set up on Pawshake however keep getting told I have to add more photos of me walking/engaging with pets to be able to pass the profile requirements. I have 5 photos on of me feeding, playing with and caring for clients cats and my dog. I don’t offer dog walking services and have never been asked to walk a cat! It appears then that I have been blocked from offering my vast experience, verified, insured and reviewed service as I just haven’t got the fun photos they think potential clients would need to have to book my services….. So yes, I do think it’s an issue with Pawshake. I still think it’s crazy that there is such an isolated focus on the ‘right’photos - I have many many photos of pet sitting clients, just not the golden ones it seems Pawshake - It’s a shame that you feel my photos are not sufficient to advertise my pet sitting services. I am just starting out on this journey professionally and my clients so far have been outdoor independent cats so opportunities for more fun engaging photos have been limited. I am a pet sitter not a photographer and I’m focussed on caring for my pets rather than making a portfolio for my future clients. I am happy to build my portfolio of photos as I go along, it’s a shame that you feel this is mandatory to even get started I’ll stick with Rover for the time being as I can’t magic up photos for this purpose but would inform you that any other platform I have looked as do not have such inflexibility on this small part of your profile and let their clients decide on the services offered, reviews, qualifications - not simply how wonderfully engaging the carers photos are - I believe they are a nice to have and might get you more enquiries but should not be a show stopper! Please review your requirements - photos come with bookings but you can’t get booking without a profile Thanks Gill
Reply from pawshake.com2026-08-13
Hi Gill, Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We understand that you are disappointed that your profile was not approved immediately, particularly as you are new to offering pet sitting professionally. However, we do want to clarify that the requirements you describe are not intended to assess whether someone is a photographer, nor are they specific to dog walking. At Pawshake, a sitter's public profile is effectively their business card. It is the first thing an owner sees when deciding whether they feel comfortable entrusting their pet to someone. For that reason, we expect profiles to contain genuine, relevant photos showing the sitter caring for and interacting with pets. This helps owners get a meaningful impression of who they are potentially entrusting their animals to. We don't apologise for having standards around this. In fact, the requirement is deliberately there to distinguish between people who are genuinely committed to building a professional pet-sitting profile and those who expect to be able to sign up and start offering services with minimal effort. Entrusting someone with your pet is a significant responsibility, and we don't believe creating a trustworthy and informative profile should be treated as a quick, five-minute task. The fact that you have experience with cats, qualifications, insurance and previous reviews is certainly valuable, but those things don't make the profile requirements unnecessary. They are all different pieces of information that help an owner make an informed decision. The purpose of the photos is simply to demonstrate that you are comfortable handling and interacting with the types of pets you intend to care for. If your existing photos don't sufficiently demonstrate this, then it shouldn't be too difficult for you to solve with a cameraphone. We appreciate that you have found another platform whose lower profile requirements better suit what you are looking for. We genuinely wish you all the best with your pet-sitting business there. However, we won't be changing our application requirements as a result of this review. They are designed to produce high-quality, informative sitter profiles and to ensure that the people joining Pawshake understand that offering pet care through the platform requires a degree of commitment. Ultimately, the decision to use Pawshake is yours, just as the decision of where to entrust their pets is an owner's. Our role is to maintain the standards we believe are appropriate for the community. Kind regards, Pawshake Support Updated response: We are also disappointed that you appear to view this as a Pawshake problem rather than a profile-completion issue that is entirely within your control to resolve. Building a professional pet-sitting profile should not be a five-minute exercise, and we make no apology for expecting sitters to invest some time and effort into presenting themselves appropriately to potential clients. If obtaining a handful of suitable photos is being presented as an insurmountable obstacle, then it is reasonable for us to question whether the level of effort required to build a professional pet-sitting profile aligns with your expectations of running a pet-sitting business.
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