AI receptionist for pet sitters and dog walkers

Answers while you’re out on a walk.

  • Free
  • Your phone won’t ring
  • Takes about a minute
  • From $49 a month
  • Keep your number
  • Spam calls never billed
  • You set the spend limit

Hear it answer a call

Line drawing of a toolbox with a hammer and a wrench in it, beside a phone that is ringing
Text message · Tue 6:12 PM
New job: pet sittingAlex · (312) 555-0110
12 Elm St
“We need someone to watch the dog next weekend”
Not urgent
Hear it answer

One call, start to finish, in under a minute

A leaking water heater at night, taken the way it’s taken on a Wakeman line: what’s wrong, a safety check for water near electrics, the address read back, and — with booking on — a time in the on-call window. The example is a plumbing shop. On your line it answers as your business and asks about pet sitting work — it is set up for your trade and your own list of services.

Rather try it yourself? Call (503) 765-9727 and play the customer with an everyday job.

Wakeman, for Ridgeline PlumbingThanks for calling Ridgeline Plumbing. You're speaking with an AI assistant, and this call is recorded. What's going on?
CallerYeah, hi — there's water coming out from under my water heater. It's all over the garage floor.

Example call · synthesized voices, not a recorded caller

Four calls after hours

How Wakeman sorts pet sitting calls

None of them needs to wake you. A generic answering service takes four messages and sends four texts. Wakeman works out which call is which — and it goes by what is actually wrong, not by how upset the caller sounds.

Routine

“We need someone to watch the dog next weekend”

Written down with the dates, the pet and a callback number.

Routine

“Can we set up a meet and greet first?”

Taken as a meet-and-greet request. With booking on, it offers a time from the list you set.

Routine

“The sitter never showed up this morning”

A no-show is a complaint, so it takes a message, then tries to put the caller through to your on-call phone. If there is no number it can put them through to, the message is marked urgent instead.

Admin

“I have a question about my last invoice”

A message for you.

  • Rings your on-call phone: gas, carbon monoxide, a downed power line, fire or smoke, a medical emergency, a child or pet locked in a car, water near electrics, a structural collapse, major flooding and sewage inside.
  • How it knows: it listens for those words. A caller who describes it differently may be marked urgent instead.
  • Urgent calls (no heat, or a leak that can’t wait) get a text, not a ring. So does an on-call phone that is the same line you forward to Wakeman.
  • No on-call number set? It won’t tell the caller help is on the way.
  • It’s a safety net. It doesn’t replace 911.
AI receptionist

An AI receptionist for pet sitters

Call it an answering service or a virtual receptionist — the job is the same. Wakeman is set up for pet sitting work and your own list of services. It asks what a good dispatcher would: what’s wrong, how bad it is, the address and a number to call back. It checks the address, then texts you the job, or books it into Jobber on Pro and Max once you switch booking on. It says it’s an AI at the start of every call. There’s no call center behind it: a caller who needs a person is put through to your own on-call phone.

The pet sitting jobs it starts with

  • Pet sitting
  • Dog walking
  • Overnight stay
  • Meet and greet

Setup fills these in for pet sitters, and you can change them. It also suggests drop-in visit, cat sitting and pet taxi. It treats work close to your list as work you do, and turns down anything on your “Jobs you don’t do” list plainly, taking a message.

Side by side

AI receptionists for pet sitters, compared

Wakeman wrote this, and Wakeman is on the list. Each row comes from the company’s own pages, checked October 20, 2026.

PriceHow it billsWhen a caller needs a personBooks into
Goodcall$79 / $129 / $299 a monthUnique callers: 100 / 500 / 2,000, then 79¢ / 26¢ / 15¢ eachTransfers to the people you chooseCRM through Zapier
Jobber AI Receptionist
Price and fit reviewed 2026-11-06. Sources
Included with unlimited usage on Plus; $29/month for 30 conversations on eligible other plans, then $0.79 eachConversations: 30 or 100 included (its help pages differ); one says $0.79 each afterWhen it hears a trigger word you set, it transfers to your one escalation contact or texts youJobber, through Online Booking
Rosie
Price and fit reviewed 2026-11-06. Sources
Professional $49 (250 minutes); Scale $149 (1,000); Growth $299 (2,000)Minutes; moves you up a plan when you go overWarm and live transfers from the $149 plan; the $299 plan tries several numbersYour calendar, on Scale and up. Logs callers and calls in Jobber and Housecall Pro, without booking the job there; Zapier
Ruby (people, not AI)$250/mo (50 min) to $1,725 (500 min)Minutes; each call rounded up to 60 seconds, hold time countsA person answers every callNot named on its pricing page
Smith.ai
Price and fit reviewed 2026-11-06. Sources
Free: 25 calls/month; Pro from $150 for 75 calls; Enterprise from $500 for 300Per call; $2.10–$3.00 an extra callCan hand the call to a live receptionist, any hourLists Jobber (via Zapier), ServiceTitan and Housecall Pro
Wakeman (our entry)$49/mo (100 min); $149 (500); $399 (1,500), day and nightMinutes included; then $0.29–$0.45/min by plan, with a monthly limit you set. Spam is never billedPuts the caller through to your own people: your on-call phone, then the owner’s if nobody picks up. It does this on a dangerous call, a complaint or an angry caller, or when someone asks for a person twice. The AI answers every call; there’s no call centerJobber on Pro and Max, once you switch booking on
Where these facts come from · checked October 20, 2026

Checked October 20, 2026. Prices and policies change; the links are the authority, not this page.

All 16 AI receptionists for contractors · What every answering service charges

Why pet sitting specifically

Pet care bookings come in the evening, when owners plan their week, and around holidays all at once. A sitter out on walks can’t take them, and owners book whoever answers.

Pet sitters miss calls with a leash in each hand. Wakeman answers them and writes down the pet, the dates and how to reach the owner.

Field notes for pet sitters

All field notes
Free tools for pet sitters

Questions about an AI receptionist for pet sitters and dog walkers

Does Wakeman have pet sitting-specific emergency rules?

It uses one set of safety rules in every trade, so nothing dangerous slips through a trade-specific gap: gas, carbon monoxide, a downed power line, fire or smoke, a medical emergency, a child or pet locked in a car, water near electrics, a structural collapse, major flooding and sewage inside. When a caller describes one, Wakeman gives safety steps written in advance and tries your on-call phone during the call. A caller with no heat, cooling or hot water, an empty oil or propane tank, a leak that can’t wait, a blocked drain, no power, a stuck garage door, a break-in or a door that won’t lock, or a lockout is marked urgent and texted to your on-call phone at once. So is a driver who needs a tow now, and any caller who mentions a baby, an older person or someone on oxygen at home. A slow drip, or a leak the caller says can wait, is written down as a routine job unless the water is spreading, doing damage or won’t stop. Everything else pet sitters get asked about is written down as a job, using the list of jobs you give it in setup. It is an AI speaking, so it may not say those words exactly, and we cannot promise the call to your phone gets through. It is a safety net, not an emergency service.

How much does a pet sitting answering service cost?

Wakeman is $49, $149 or $399 a month with 100, 500 or 1,500 minutes included, then 45¢, 35¢ or 29¢ a minute by plan. There is no setup fee and no minimum term, spam calls are never billed, and you set a monthly spend limit. Human answering services work out at roughly $2.76–$5.00 per included minute on their published plans.

Is Wakeman an AI receptionist for pet sitters or an answering service?

Both names describe the same job, and so does "AI CSR". Wakeman is an AI receptionist: it answers the calls your team misses in your company’s name, and says it is an AI at the start of every call. Like a pet sitting answering service or a virtual receptionist, it writes each job down; unlike a message-taking service, it tells an emergency from a routine call and alerts your on-call phone for the dangerous ones.

Somebody’s always awake.

Try it on your own phone tonight. About ten minutes, and $0 today.

We look it up on Google. Then you’ll hear how Wakeman would answer your calls.

  • Free
  • Your phone won’t ring
  • Takes about a minute
Hear it answer