Questions that separate real comfort from a polite yes
Ask what pets she has cared for in past households, and for each one, what her actual responsibilities were: feeding on a schedule, walking, grooming, cleaning up after the animal, or simply coexisting with it in the same home. A candidate with real experience describes specifics: the dog's routine, a habit the cat had, a moment she found difficult. A candidate without that experience tends to answer only at the level of "I like animals" or "I'm okay with pets," which tells you almost nothing about how she'll actually behave once your dog is jumping up at the door.
Ask about her comfort level with the specific animal you keep, not pets in general. Someone who has lived comfortably with a small, calm cat may still be uneasy around a large, high-energy dog, and the reverse is just as common. Describe your animal's size, temperament, and daily routine, and ask her to respond to that, rather than to a general question about liking animals.
- Ask what pets she has cared for before and what her actual tasks were.
- Describe your specific dog or cat's size and temperament, then ask how she'd feel about that animal.
- Ask about any fear, allergy, or past bad experience with an animal, directly and without judgment.
Why this should never be inferred from background
It's easy to fall into assuming that a candidate's comfort with dogs or cats follows from her nationality or religion. It doesn't, and treating it as though it does risks both a wrong hiring decision and an unfair one. Comfort with a specific animal comes from a person's own upbringing, past jobs, and individual temperament, none of which a passport or a stated religion can tell you. Ask the question plainly, to every candidate, regardless of where she is from.
If a candidate says she has no experience with animals at all, that isn't automatically disqualifying, and it isn't automatically fine either. Ask how she feels about learning, and be honest with yourself about how much hands-on animal care your household actually needs day to day before deciding how much that inexperience matters.
What a short supervised introduction can add
If your hiring process allows a meeting before the final decision, a brief, supervised introduction between the candidate and your dog or cat tells you things an interview answer cannot: whether she approaches the animal calmly or hesitates, how the animal responds to her, and whether she asks sensible questions about its habits unprompted. This isn't always possible on a tight timeline, but where it is, it's the single most reliable check available.
Keep the introduction short and low-pressure for both the candidate and the animal, and treat it as one data point alongside her answers, not a pass-or-fail test on its own. A nervous first meeting with an unfamiliar dog is normal and doesn't by itself mean poor fit.