Pet sitting and dog walking in Lake Highlands since 2003

Looking for a Trusted Pet Sitter in Lake Highlands?

Lake Highlands is one of Dallas’s most sought-after neighborhoods — great schools, tree-lined streets, a strong sense of community, and White Rock Lake practically in your backyard. It’s a neighborhood where families put down roots and pets are a big part of daily life. Morning jogs around the lake with your dog, evening walks through the neighborhood — Lake Highlands is built for pet owners.

DFW Pet Sitting has been caring for Lake Highlands pets since 2003. Every pet sitter and dog walker we assign is a W-2 employee of our company, not an independent contractor or gig worker. They’re background-checked, trained, insured, and bonded. And they live in the Lake Highlands area, usually within 5 miles of your front door.

We are a company with employees, not a marketplace with listings. The sitter who meets your pets at the free consultation is the one who keeps the assignment, so a cat in a house off Audelia sees the same person on every visit rather than whoever claimed the job that morning.

Someone answers the phone from 6:00am to 11:00pm Central, and a manager is on call after hours. Every visit is logged in our software, and if a sitter cannot reach your house there are 250-plus employees across DFW to reassign from — Lake Highlands being one of the areas where we already have the most people working nearby.

Why Lake Highlands Families Choose DFW Pet Sitting

Unlike apps like Rover or Wag where you’re hiring a stranger with a profile, our Lake Highlands pet sitters are professionally managed employees. Here’s what that means for you:

Your sitter lives in Lake Highlands. Our Lake Highlands coverage includes Lake Highlands, White Rock Lake, and surrounding Dallas streets. Your sitter isn’t commuting from across the metroplex — they’re right in your area. Less drive time means more time with your pets. Nearby Dallas, Richardson, and Garland have their own pages.

One person, start to finish. The sitter from your free consultation is the only one who gets a key, and she keeps the assignment. You always know exactly who has access to the house — which matters as much in a Town Center apartment with a fob as it does on a single-family street.

The schedule is supervised. Visits here are tracked in real time, so if a check-in does not appear a manager knows the same day rather than at the end of your trip. That is the part a marketplace has no way to provide.

Real insurance and bonding. Every sitter is covered under our company’s liability insurance and bonding. This isn’t a $1 million “guarantee” from an app — it’s actual commercial coverage.

Emergency backup that works. Life happens. If your sitter has an emergency, we don’t leave you scrambling. Our manager activates our emergency replacement protocol, notifies you immediately, and sends a qualified backup sitter. Nearby coverage in Richardson, Garland, and Dallas means backup is minutes away. Because more than 250 sitters are on our payroll across the metroplex, a problem on our end does not become your problem.

Pet Sitting Services We Offer in Lake Highlands

Vacation & Travel Pet Sitting — A trip out of Lake Highlands usually means an early run to Love Field or a longer one across town to DFW, and neither is a reason to board anybody. Your sitter follows the schedule you handed over: meals, medication, walks, play, and the part of the day your dog actually waits for. Dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, fish and small caged animals all stay put.

Daily Dog Walking — Perfect for Lake Highlands families with puppies, senior dogs, or busy work schedules. Your dog walker commits to a consistent weekly schedule — same person, same times. We’re not “Uber for dog walkers.” Whether you live near White Rock Lake, along Skillman, in the neighborhoods off Walnut Hill, or near Lake Highlands Town Center, your walker is nearby — and White Rock Lake’s trail system means your dog gets a proper walk rather than a lap of the block. Visits are 25 minutes.

Cat Sitting — Your cat stays in its own territory and we come to it. Pills, insulin, fluids and inhalers are part of a normal visit here rather than an add-on. See how a 25-minute Lake Highlands cat visit works.

Extended Home Care — Many Lake Highlands clients ask their sitters to go beyond basic pet care: bringing in mail and packages, rotating lights, watering plants, adjusting blinds, and maintaining a lived-in appearance. We treat your home with the same care we give your pets.

Short-Notice & Holiday Coverage — Sitters live in the neighborhood, so a request made Tuesday for Friday is often workable. Holiday weeks book much further out — Thanksgiving and Christmas go first — and the honest advice is to call while your plans are still loose.

House Sitting & Home Checks — Mail and porch packages, lights, bins, plants, and a walk-through. Most Lake Highlands clients add this onto pet visits rather than booking it alone — especially on Skillman, Audelia, Walnut Hill, or Royal Lane, where an empty home is obvious.

What Makes Us Different From Rover and Wag

White Rock Lake walking routes, a Skillman alarm code, and a Lake Highlands Town Center weekend are not a job for a stranger with a profile. You are hiring a managed W-2 employee of a company that has sat pets in Lake Highlands since 2003. Side by side:

	Rover / Wag	DFW Pet Sitting
Who enters your home	A different contractor each time you book	One assigned sitter — the same person, every visit
Who they work for	Independent gig contractor	W-2 employee: background-checked, trained, supervised
If something goes wrong	Platform “guarantee” with exclusions	Commercial liability insurance and bonding
If your sitter cancels	You re-book and hope	Manager activates backup from 250+ DFW staff
Oversight	Nothing between you and the sitter	Every visit tracked by a manager in real time
Before your first visit	Optional chat, often skipped	Free in-person meet-and-greet, always

Cat sitting in Lake Highlands

A cat does not need to leave Lake Highlands to be cared for, and most would rather not try. The sitters working these blocks give oral medication, insulin injections, sub-q fluids, eye drops and inhalers without turning the visit into an event.

In 25 minutes a cat gets fresh water, the portion you actually use, a scooped box, some play if she is in the mood, and a real look at whether anything has changed since yesterday. The photo that follows is the proof.

Sitters handle pills, insulin, sub-q fluids, eye drops, and inhalers. If a cat hides in a Skillman spare bedroom, an Audelia study, or a house off Walnut Hill, they sit on the floor and wait. They do not leave without seeing the cat.

Once a day is the minimum for a healthy adult cat; kittens, seniors and medically managed cats need twice. Leaving a heap of dry food and one box to handle a five-day trip is not a plan, and it is the most common situation we are called in to take over partway through.

More on how we look after cats across the Metroplex is on our cat sitting page.

Your Home’s Security Is Our Priority

We keep your absence private. No branded shirts, no marked cars, no sign in the yard. On the established single-family streets around Audelia and Forest Lane, where neighbors do notice an unfamiliar routine, a sitter who simply looks like a visitor is doing you a favor.

The goal is a house that looks lived in. A sitter arriving on a regular schedule, bringing in the mail and moving a light, reads to the street as somebody who belongs there. We would rather your neighbors see a normal pattern than have our company announce that nobody is home.

This matters in Lake Highlands, where homes are in established, well-kept neighborhoods along Skillman, Audelia, Walnut Hill, and Royal Lane — streets where neighbors recognize each other and notice when something looks different. A familiar, low-key presence at your home is exactly what you want while you’re away. Discretion isn’t a perk — it’s standard. Alarm codes, smart locks, cameras, and gate codes stay with the one assigned person.

Neighborhoods We Serve in Lake Highlands

Lake Highlands is a Dallas neighborhood — not a separate city, not Lake Dallas in Denton County, and not Highland Park / the Park Cities. Our Lake Highlands sitters cover the streets, parks, and landmarks below. Nearby areas are linked at the bottom of this page. Here is what our Lake Highlands sitters actually walk:

Skillman — One of Lake Highlands’ main corridors. Sitters already know the homes, the alarm systems, and the walking loops off Skillman toward White Rock Creek and Town Center.

Audelia & Forest Lane — Established residential streets through the heart of Lake Highlands. Neighbors notice when something looks different. Discretion is standard.

Walnut Hill & Royal Lane — Everyday Lake Highlands streets where sitters already know the blocks, the gates, and the usual walk windows.

Lake Highlands Town Center — The apartments and townhomes around Skillman and Walnut Hill. Lots of small dogs, lots of lockboxes, and gate codes that change more often than anywhere else we work — which is exactly why we log them.

White Rock Lake & White Rock Creek — Lake Highlands sits by White Rock. Our dog walkers use White Rock Lake Trail almost daily — it’s literally in your backyard. Lakewood and the rest of Dallas live on the Dallas page.

Neighbors with pages of their own: Dallas, Highland Park, University Park, Turtle Creek, Richardson, and Garland. The same team handles all of them. Call (214) 574-7387 or text (214) 360-7367 and we will assign whoever is closest.

Meet Our Lake Highlands Pet Sitters

You meet your assigned Lake Highlands-area sitter in your home before the first paid visit. They are a W-2 employee, not a rotating contractor. We employ pet lovers who work in their immediate neighborhoods, usually within 5 miles of their homes. Ashley and Laura handle scheduling. A manager on duty can hand a visit to any of our 250-plus sitters — the practical difference between a company and an app. No photos on this page — you meet them in person.

Our Lake Highlands sitters work only within a 5-mile radius of where they live, covering Skillman, Audelia, Walnut Hill, Forest Lane, Royal Lane, Lake Highlands Town Center, and the streets by White Rock Lake. The person you meet is the only person entering your home.

What clients say

Lake Highlands families review us on the same Google listing as the rest of DFW — 4.9 stars from 500+ reviews. One company, one set of reviews, whether the sitter is driving to Lake Highlands or across the metroplex. Read the reviews, then meet your sitter in person.

Read our Google reviews · Call (214) 574-7387 · Text (214) 360-7367

Lake Highlands’ Best Spots for Pet Owners

Lake Highlands has one of the best pet-owner locations in all of Dallas, thanks to its proximity to White Rock Lake. Here are the spots our sitters recommend:

White Rock Creek Trail — the 9.2-mile trail that actually runs through Lake Highlands rather than around the lake. The City of Dallas has it linking Harry S. Moss Park, Fair Oaks Park, R. P. Brooks Park, Olive Shapiro Park, Flag Pole Hill and White Rock Lake Park, with a direct connection to the Cottonwood Creek Trail. For most Lake Highlands addresses this is the trail your sitter can reach on foot, and it is the reason a 25-minute walk here covers real ground instead of the same three blocks. The lake loop itself is on our Dallas page.

White Rock Lake Dog Park at Mockingbird Point — 8000 Mockingbird Lane, where Mockingbird meets W. Lawther Drive on the northwest side of the lake. Three acres split into a two-acre large-dog paddock and a one-acre small-dog paddock, with shade structures, dog washes, an information kiosk, and a gated dog launch and overlook so dogs can actually get into the water. Dallas Park and Recreation notes it was the first dog park in the city system. It is open Tuesday through Sunday, 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., and closed every Monday for maintenance as well as on rain days; the Rain Out Line is (214) 614-6711.

Flagpole Hill Park — 8015 Doran Circle in 75238, 107.1 acres established in 1929, which makes it one of the oldest metropolitan parks on this side of Dallas. The covered pavilion was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s and is still standing; there is an all-inclusive playground, a walking trail, restrooms and a lot of open green space. The park is a junction for the White Rock Creek Trail, the Flag Pole Hill Trail and the SoPac Trail, so it is a good place to start a long leashed walk and a bad place to lose track of your dog.

Lake Highlands Trail — a City of Dallas trail that runs from the White Rock Creek Trail east to Ferndale Road in 75238. It is the option for days when you want a real walk without driving to the lake, and it is the segment our walkers default to when White Rock has construction closures posted.

Harry S. Moss Park — 8000 Greenville Avenue in 75231, 284.1 acres established in 1972, buffered by Greenville Avenue, Royal Lane and Walnut Hill. Alongside the soccer complex there is a 5.46-mile natural-surface trail built with the Dallas Off-Road Bicycle Association, laid out as five connected loops along the bank of White Rock Creek with seven wooden bridges. It is a shared-use trail, so leashed dogs and mountain bikes are on it at the same time — one more reason we walk it early and keep the leash short.

Lake Highlands Town Center — the mixed-use area at Skillman and Walnut Hill has pet-friendly outdoor dining and walkable streets, and it is the part of Lake Highlands where gate codes and lockboxes change most often. Good weekend outing; also the reason we log access details after every visit.

The off-leash rules nobody reads until there is a problem — Dallas dog park regulations (Ordinance 24482, City Code 32-6 and 7.29-A) cap you at three dogs at one time, ban all food and treats for dogs and humans, require pinch, prong and spiked collars to come off before you go through the gate, and require dogs using an off-leash site to be spayed or neutered under Section 7-4.10. Children under 12 must be closely supervised and the city openly discourages bringing them in at all. Violations carry a fine of up to $2,000. We do not take client dogs off leash on the clock, so none of this ever lands on you through us — but it is worth knowing before your own Saturday trip to Mockingbird Point.

Coverage from this side of the city also reaches Dallas, Richardson, Garland, Highland Park, University Park, and Turtle Creek. We route by street address rather than by city name, so call and we will find the sitter nearest you.

Ready to meet your Lake Highlands pet sitter in person? The in-home consultation is free, there is no obligation, and you will know exactly who is caring for your pets before you ever book a visit.

Frequently Asked Questions About Pet Sitting in Lake Highlands

Is Lake Highlands its own city, or part of Dallas?

It is a neighborhood inside the City of Dallas, which means Dallas police, Dallas animal services and Dallas parks. It is not Lake Dallas up in Denton County (that is 75065), and it is not Highland Park or University Park in the Park Cities. We keep a separate page for it because the streets, the housing and the walking routes here genuinely differ from the rest of Dallas, and because residents identify with Lake Highlands rather than with a ZIP code.

Am I inside your Lake Highlands coverage area?

If your mail comes to 75231, 75238 or 75243, yes. Those three ZIP codes cover the neighborhood as it is usually drawn — Skillman, Audelia, Forest Lane, Walnut Hill, Royal Lane and the blocks around Lake Highlands Town Center. Streets on the far side of Central Expressway or south toward the lake may bill as a different part of Dallas, and if you are unsure, our Dallas page covers twenty-one ZIP codes across the city.

What does a visit cost here?

One pet, 25 minutes, $25. Each additional pet is $3, and recurring dog walking starts at $23 per walk. Being inside Dallas city limits does not add a surcharge, and there is no separate booking or trust-and-support fee tacked on at the end. The rates page lists every service, or you can just call (214) 574-7387 and ask.

Where do the visits happen?

In your house. We do not board, we do not transport pets to a facility, and we do not group your dog with strangers’ dogs. The sitter lets herself in, spends the visit with your animals in their own space, and locks up when she leaves. Cats in particular do far better this way — most of them never really settle anywhere but home.

Can I meet the sitter before I commit to anything?

Yes, and it costs nothing. We send the sitter to your home first so she can meet your pets on their own turf, see the gates and the alarm panel, and hear from you how your dog behaves on Skillman at 5 p.m. You are interviewing her as much as she is learning the house. Plenty of people book after that conversation and a few decide we are not the right fit, which is exactly what the visit is for.

Are your sitters insured, and are they employees or contractors?

W-2 employees, every one of them. Nobody works a Lake Highlands house without having cleared a background check, and all of our staff are bonded and sit under our commercial liability insurance. With a marketplace freelancer you are effectively hiring a stranger with their own arrangement; here the company that hired, trained and insured that person is the company you called.

Can my walker use the White Rock Creek Trail?

Often, and it is the single best thing about walking a dog in this neighborhood. The trail runs about 9.2 miles straight through Lake Highlands rather than looping the lake, and the City connects it to Harry S. Moss Park, Fair Oaks Park, R. P. Brooks Park, Olive Shapiro Park and Flag Pole Hill before it reaches White Rock Lake Park. That gives a walker several ways to lengthen or shorten a route without repeating the same block. One thing does not vary with the route: the dog stays leashed the entire way. We do not offer off-leash walking, including on the connector parks.

I live in an apartment or townhome near Town Center. Does that complicate things?

No — it is a large share of what our sitters do here. The buildings around Skillman and Walnut Hill run on gate codes, lockboxes, elevator fobs and controlled-access breezeways, and we record all of it at the meet-and-greet so nobody is standing outside a gate texting you while you are on a plane. Small dogs on upper floors are routine for us, including the quick trips down that a puppy needs.

My dog is on medication. Can your sitter handle the dosing?

Pills, insulin, sub-q fluids, eye drops and inhalers are all things our staff give regularly. We write the drug, the dose and the timing into your file along with your vet’s number, rather than relying on someone remembering a verbal instruction. If a dose has to land at a specific hour, tell us when you book and we will schedule the visits around the medication.

What if my sitter has a car problem or gets sick?

We send someone else and we tell you it happened. Lake Highlands sits in the middle of our most heavily staffed part of Dallas, so a backup is usually only a few streets away. Because your instructions live in our system instead of in one sitter’s notebook, the replacement knows about the sticky deadbolt and the cat who bolts for the door before she ever turns the key.

Will the sitter also make the house look occupied?

Yes, and in a neighborhood of established single-family streets where neighbors notice things, it matters. Sitters bring in mail and packages, rotate blinds, move a light, and take the trash bin to the curb and back on collection day if you ask. Nothing about the visits announces that the owners are gone, and we do not park in a way that draws attention to it.

Why not just book someone on Rover?

Because a marketplace is a directory and we are a business. When a Rover sitter cancels the night before, you go back to scrolling; when one of ours cannot make it, filling that visit is our problem to solve. We have run this company since 2003, we carry insurance on every employee, and the 4.9-star average over 500-plus Google reviews belongs to one accountable company rather than to fifty separate profiles.

We’re Hiring Pet Sitters in Lake Highlands

Love pets and live in the Lake Highlands area? DFW Pet Sitting is hiring W-2 pet sitters and dog walkers in Lake Highlands, White Rock Lake, and surrounding Dallas neighborhoods. We’re looking for reliable, discreet pet lovers with flexible schedules who can accommodate visits within 5 miles of their home. Nearby Dallas, Richardson, and Garland have their own pages. Visit our jobs page for details.