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.
pawshake.com (pawshake.com) has 6,520 customer reviews on Five Star Index, with an average rating of 4.7 out of 5.
Website
pawshake.com
Category
Pet Services
Location
Portola Valley, California
Listed on Five Star Index
2026
About these reviews
Replies
The company replied to 10% of reviews.
Latest
Most recent review: October 2026.
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Reviews are shown as their authors wrote them. The company can reply, but cannot edit them.
Score
This company cannot pay to remove reviews or change its score.
We had the best sitter look after our beautiful dog who is a very special member of our family.
From our pre meeting to the day we picked up our boy Sheena was excellent. We really appreciated the daily updates and knew that he was been taken care of exceptionally well.
Pawshake was recommended to us and we would recommend the service to others.
CU
Customer
I do not recommend using this website
I do not recommend using this website
I got two different sitters
No reliable at all.
Quite disturbing experience
Response from pawshake.comApr 29, 2026
Hi there,
Thank you for taking the time to leave your review, and I’m really sorry to hear about your experience.
What you’ve described — having two different sitters and not receiving a reliable service — is understandably upsetting, and it’s not the experience we want anyone to have on Pawshake. Feedback like this is taken very seriously, particularly where it impacts trust and confidence in a booking.
We’ve already requested your booking details so we can follow this up properly with the sitters involved and understand exactly what happened.
In the meantime, please do reach out to our Help Centre so our team can investigate this further and support you directly. We’d really like the opportunity to look into this properly and ensure it is addressed.
Kind regards,
Pawshake Support
CA
Cassandra
Horrible service and site.
As a sitter for Pawshake my experience have been absolutely horrible.
I accepted a sitting for a very sweet cat- in a hoarding environment (not knowing)- in a very sketchy area. When I realized this I wrote their service asking them to help me find a new sitter, to which they were rude and basically told me to figure it out myself and that I was being unprofessional. They also take 20% of the price you're supposed to make, for what? Horrible app and customer service?
Not only this, but it is VERY easy to sign up and be accepted as a sitter- as well as a pet owner, potentially creating unsafe situations.
And then they have the audacity to keep contacting a sitter when we don't respond IMMIEDATELY to a request for sitting- when 90% of the time the pet owner writes you and you respond, they never get back to you anyways. They de-activate your account for the smallest reasons.. except when you try to report an owner/sitter.
And it sure looks like they somehow get bad reviews taken down from both google and trust pilot.. cause i've read and heard about worse experiences
Response from pawshake.comApr 25, 2026
Thanks for sharing your feedback.
From a customer perspective, it’s important to clarify a few key points about how Pawshake is designed to work, as several of the concerns raised stem from not following the platform’s booking process.
Pawshake is a platform that connects pet owners with independent sitters. While sitters operate their own services, they are expected to follow clear guidelines designed to ensure safety and reliability for both parties.
One of the most important requirements is that a meet & greet should take place before accepting any booking. This step exists specifically to avoid situations like the one described — where either party later feels uncomfortable with the arrangement. Accepting a booking without first meeting the owner and pet is against recommended practice and significantly increases the risk of cancellation and dissatisfaction on both sides.
If a sitter later chooses to cancel after accepting a booking due to concerns about the environment, this indicates that the due diligence step (the meet & greet) was not completed properly beforehand. In that case, the resulting disruption to the owner’s plans is understandably frustrating and not the experience we aim to provide.
Regarding response times: Pawshake does encourage timely communication, as this is a service-based platform where owners rely on quick coordination for their pets’ care. Profiles with consistently slow responses may become less visible, as reliability is a key factor in matching. As a service provider, there are standards of communication that most owners would reasonably expect, including timely responses to enquiries within 24 hours.
On fees, Pawshake takes a service commission (currently 19%) which supports platform operations including payment processing, customer support, veterinary coverage for bookings, and maintaining the marketplace infrastructure.
We also want to be clear that sitters are expected to treat all clients respectfully and professionally, regardless of personal impressions of a home or environment. Judgements about an owner’s living situation are not appropriate grounds for cancelling a confirmed booking without prior communication and proper process.
Finally, claims regarding review removals or manipulation are incorrect — reviews are moderated only in line with Trust Pilot's guidelines around content and accuracy.
Kind regards,
Pawshake Support
MB
M B.
The websites informative and there are…
The websites informative and there are a range of sitters available depending on need
MT
Maria T.
Had the best experience with Pawshake…
Had the best experience with Pawshake from Calliope. Highly recommend
RV
Ruth van W.
It was good meeting with Jane prior to…
It was good meeting with Jane prior to our going away.
Jane provided us with constant updates and pictures of our cat (something we didn't expect to happen).
We felt our cat was in good hands and would definitely request Jane another time. Ruth van Welie
PI
Pia
Maddison
Maddison, was really great with my dog bronson ,he seemed very relaxed with her 👌 happy n well looked after, I would recommend Maddison she was so good with him 😀