A public service of The Hunterdon Scoop · Hunterdon County, New Jersey
The best pet sitters and dog walkers in Hunterdon County.
The other hire with your house keys, and no license requirement behind it. We checked what's checkable on every pet sitter we could find serving the county. Every fact below names its source and the date we checked. Nobody paid to be on this page, and nobody can.
8 checked
- Jen's Happy Pets, LLC (Asbury) — Longest local track record of the group with an actual review count (15 on Yelp) and repeat local-award recognition — but town of record is just over the Warren County line, so confirm your specific address is in her routed service area.
- Hunterdon's Best Pet Care (Flemington) — In-county HQ, insured/bonded, and the only one on this list that explicitly does farm animal care — a real need in a county this rural, but exact Yelp review count wasn't retrievable so verify current standing yourself before booking.
- On Laura's Leash (Flemington / Raritan Township) — Truly in-county (Flemington borough/Raritan Township), certified and bonded, small enough to know your pet by name — the tradeoff is she's one person, so book ahead and confirm she still has room for a new regular client.
- Furry Godmother Petcare by Christine Sakos (Upper Black Eddy, PA) — By far the longest track record in this category (25 years) with a clean A+ BBB file — the tradeoff is she's across the river in Bucks County, PA, so she only reaches the river towns (Frenchtown, Milford, Kingwood, Alexandria), not central or eastern Hunterdon.
Why trust this page
We pull credentials from the official registries ourselves and print the date next to every status — pet sitting and dog walking are unlicensed occupations in New Jersey — there is no state license, permit, or registry through the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs or any other state body that governs this trade (unlike, say, home improvement contractors under NJ HIC or cosmetologists). The only official record that exists for most of these businesses is standard NJ business entity registration (LLC filings) through the NJ Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services Business Records Service (accessible at njportal.com/DOR/BusinessNameSearch), which confirms a company legally exists but says nothing about quality or safety. Because there's no license to check, the meaningful verification steps are: proof of bonding/liability insurance (ask to see the certificate, don't just take "bonded and insured" on faith), trade-association membership such as NAPPS (National Association of Professional Pet Sitters) or PSI (Pet Sitters International), and pet first-aid/CPR certification from a real provider (Pro Pet Hero, American Red Cross).. Picks are editorial judgment on the checkable record: years in the trade, complaint patterns, review consistency, real presence in the county. No company paid to be listed, none can pay to become a pick, and when a pick has a weak spot we print it. Here are the full rules.
Every pet sitter we checked
This category is genuinely thin on the ground in Hunterdon County — maybe half a dozen real local operators, most of them solo or two-person shops, surrounded by a much bigger layer of Rover.com and Wag app freelancers (thousands of individual sitters list themselves county-wide, e.g. 3,000+ on Rover for Lambertville alone) plus Care.com/Sittercity listings that are really just gig marketplaces, not standalone businesses. Because pet sitting and dog walking require no state license or registration in NJ, there is no registry to check anyone against — the only real filters are bonding/insurance, trade-association membership (NAPPS, Pet Sitters International, Pet Sitters Associates LLC), and actual review history, all self-reported. Coverage skews west/central (Flemington, Lambertville, the river towns); eastern Hunterdon (Tewksbury, Whitehouse Station/Readington, Califon) is thinly served by named local businesses and mostly falls back to app-based sitters.| Company & services | Based in | Credential | Registry status | BBB | Reviews (as reported) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jen's Happy Pets, LLC Dog walking · In-home pet sitting/drop-in visits · Pet waste ("doody") cleanup | Asbury | — | … Pending check | Not found on BBB | 15 reviews (Yelp) |
| Hunterdon's Best Pet Care Dog walking and playtime · Vacation care / pet sitting · Farm care (horses and livestock) | Flemington In county | — | … Pending check | Not found on BBB | |
| Three Little Birds Pet Sitting, LLC In-home pet sitting (vacation/work-hours visits) · Medication administration (no extra fee) · Mail/trash/plant care add-ons · Photo update reports per visit | Asbury (08802) | — | … Pending check | Not found | |
| On Laura's Leash Private dog walks · Drop-in visits | Flemington / Raritan Township In county | — | … Pending check | Not found | |
| Fiona's Creatures Large & Small, LLC (Fiona's Pet Sitting) Dog walking · In-home pet sitting · Pet taxi · Medication administration · Mail/newspaper/garbage/lights while away (no extra charge) | Lambertville In county | — | … Pending check | Not found | |
| Furry Godmother Petcare by Christine Sakos Dog walking · Vacation/drop-in visits · Light farm care · Overnight stays | Upper Black Eddy, PA | — | … Pending check | A+ | |
| Westgate Pet Sitting Pet sitting · Dog walking · Bathroom-break visits | Somerset County (exact town not published) | — | … Pending check | Not found | |
| Home to Homestead Pet/Farm Sitting Pet sitting · Farm sitting (implied by name) | Milford In county | — | … Pending check | Not found |
Registry status comes straight from the state's verification system on the date shown, and you can rerun any number there yourself in about two minutes. Review scores are what the named platforms report and we have not audited them. BBB grades as of July 2026. "Based in" is the registered address city, which sometimes differs from where a company says it operates. An active registration is the floor, not an endorsement; the picks we would actually call are above.
What it costs
Care.com market data (pulled July 2026) shows an average local dog walker rate of about $16.22/hour in Flemington, NJ and about $16.00/walk average in Lambertville, NJ — broadly consistent across the county's Rover/Care.com marketplace listings. No credible source was found for standard overnight pet-sitting or farm-care rates locally, so those are omitted rather than guessed.
Before you hire
- Confirm bonding AND liability insurance separately — bonded covers theft, insured covers accidents/injury to your pet or property, and some operators only carry one.
- Ask what happens in a medical emergency: does the sitter have a signed vet-authorization form from you, a relationship with your vet or an emergency clinic, and pet first-aid/CPR certification (Pro Pet Hero and Red Cross are the common ones to look for)?
- For solo operators (most of this list), ask directly about backup coverage — what happens if they get sick or have a family emergency during your trip?
- Get the visit-verification method in writing before you book: GPS-tracked walks, timestamped photo updates via an app like Time To Pet, or a plain text/call — apps are the strongest verification, a verbal promise is the weakest.
- Because there's no state license for this trade, weight reviews and years-in-business more heavily than for licensed trades — ask for at least two references from clients with pets similar to yours (same species, temperament, or medical needs).
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Questions neighbors actually ask
Do pet sitters and dog walkers need a license in New Jersey?
No. New Jersey does not license or register pet sitters or dog walkers — it's an open trade anyone can start. That means "insured and bonded" and trade-association membership (like NAPPS or Pet Sitters International) are the closest things to a credential check, and they're all self-reported by the business, not verified by the state.
Is it cheaper to use an app like Rover or Wag instead of a local company?
Usually close in price — Care.com data pegs the average dog walk around $16-20/hour in Flemington and Lambertville, which is in line with what local independents charge. The real tradeoff isn't price, it's who's accountable: with Rover/Wag you're booking an individual gig sitter through the app's insurance and background-check system; with a local company you're dealing with an owner who has a reputation and a phone number in your town.
What should I do if a farm animal (horses, chickens, livestock) needs care while I'm away?
Narrow your search — most pet sitters in this list only cover dogs, cats, and small pets. Only Hunterdon's Best Pet Care and Furry Godmother Petcare explicitly advertise farm/livestock care among the providers checked here, so confirm directly before assuming a general "pet sitter" will handle horses or chickens.
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