Can you recommend a dogwalker in Santa Maria, California?

January 28, 2009 9:28 AM

Can you recommend a dogwalker / spy-on-grandma service in Santa Maria, California?

I have an elderly relative in Santa Maria. A few weeks ago she fell and was trapped on the floor overnight until she managed to crawl to a phone. She doesn't have any nearby family. We're looking into various "Help, I've fallen" devices, but we also want someone to check in on her every day. She's not the kind to accept help, so we're using her dog as an excuse.

We need someone to come in daily to take the dog for a walk, but also to check on grandma. No personal care is expected. We would give the dog walker phone numbers to call if there was a problem.

Since we need a daily visit, I'm guessing a company would work better than an individual. Reliability, trustworthiness, and good customer service are essential.

posted by The corpse in the library to Pets & Animals (5 answers total)

I can't make any specific recommendations, and you might have already thought of this, but make sure and tell the company up front that you expect them to call round if your grandma is sick or whatever. Otherwise, if a different person does it every day, the messages might not be passed on.
posted by Solomon at 9:36 AM on January 28, 2009

I worked at an answering service in San Luis Obispo which offered a service you might be interested in. Basically, the elderly person was expected to call in at a certain hour, and if we didn't receive the call within the specified range, we had a list of instructions to follow. These ranged from calling her back to see if she just happened to forget, all the way to sending out calls to specific family members. When she did call, the calls were very friendly and chatty, not just mechanical "Oh you're ok? Good. Bye." In fact, taking her calls was really enjoyable and one of the high points of the shift.

I was just a part time operator, so I don't know how much the service costs, but the answering service allowed a very high degree of customization per account. It's not face to face contact, but the service worked very well and it might be a viable option. You can MeMail for more details if you'd like.
posted by Zaximus at 10:15 AM on January 28, 2009

There is a national pet sitter's registry that might help. If I'm not mistaken the people linked here are bonded and certified through a national agency.

And if you ever need to be more direct with this you can look into talking with a Geriatric Case Manager. That can be a good place to start with finding help for elderly friends and relatives.

This is subjective opinion - but I think you generally get what you pay for with pet and people care. I wouldn't bargain hunt too much. Good luck!
posted by dog food sugar at 11:13 AM on January 28, 2009

oops! Correct link for Geriatric Case Manager. sorry about that.
posted by dog food sugar at 11:17 AM on January 28, 2009

A lot of pet sitters might be willing to do this. The above mentioned NAPPS (petsitters.org) is a professional organization for petsitters. Another good one is PSI (www.petsit.com).
posted by majikstreet at 11:37 AM on January 28, 2009