Allison and Derek formed the duo known as Pets in Sacramento, CA, in the summer of 2003. Since their inception, they've amassed a sizeable loyal following due to their energetic live shows, and shared the stage with such notable, national acts as The Gossip, Matt & Kim, Dead Meadow, and Spindrift.

Thrasher Magazine featured a number of early Pets songs on two of their skateboarding DVDs; Rocket Science and King of the Road.
The danceable Pets single, Pretty Pretty, reached #10 on KDVS' (UC Davis CMJ-reporting station) top 30 song rotation playlist. Pets' debut release the 7-inch record, STEP, also charted, reaching #62 on KDVS’ Top 90 releases of 2004.

The duo used a crunchy, distorted bass, fuzzed-out reverb and effect-drenched guitars, along with arpeggiated keyboards, and a ready-to-rock drum machine to create the sound on their full length album the 2006 Americans Are Coming Recordings release Pick Up Your Feet. On this album Derek and Allison traded off vocal duties as their songs necessitated. When Derek sings, Pets has been compared to The Jesus and Mary Chain, B.R.M.C., and Sonic Youth. Allison's singing has drawn comparisons to The Kills, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Le Tigre. Since the release of Pick Up Your Feet they, with drum machine in tow, have enjoyed playing nearly all of the venues in Sacramento and have successfully toured the Pacific Northwest as a duo a couple of times.

In 2010 Pets won the Sacramento Area Music Award (The Sammie) for "Outstanding Pop", and in 2011 they received the Sammie award in the Post Punk category.

In the Summer of 2010 Pets' headed out on their first U.S. tour with the Kepi Ghoulie Band. The three week tour was a great success. Pets, with Kepi on drums, found new fans at all the stops along the way.

They spent most of 2010 working on their next full length recording, titled Ready the Rifles, with Sacramento recording engineer, Ira Skinner, at his Alley Avenue Studios. The drum machine and synthesizer were set aside in favor of a leaner, louder, distorted rock sound on these 10 tracks. The album features the same distorted bass and effects laden guitar that have defined Pets' sound, along with drums played by Ira. Vocally, the duo trade verses within the songs and often harmonize together throughout the album. Ready the Rifles is a collection of fuzzed-out rock songs that uses distortion and feedback as the weapons to kill your boredom. Ready the Rifles was released on CD independently by the band in January 2011. A subsequent cassette release was put out by Sacramento tape label Pleasant Screams.

Over the summers of 2011 and 2012 Pets piled into a van with Kepi Ghoulie and Dog Party to tour the west coast and the southwest. 2013 was spent writing songs for the next album, titled Get Turned On.

The 10 tracks that comprise Get Turned On were record at Moon Studio with Sacramento mainstay David Houston. Derek and Allison were joined in the studio by their good pals and touring partners, Kepi Ghoulie and Lucy Giles (of Dog Party) who both play drums on all the songs. The recording sessions were full of the energy that Pets loves to pack into their songs. These songs feature the same back and forth boy girl vocals that have helped define Pets' sound with even more harmonizing this time around.These fuzzy punked up songs are faster and shorter with the total time for the 10 track album clocking in at 27 minutes. They enjoyed producing and mixing the album with David Houston and as always the reverb, distortion and noise are turned all the way up.

The band hit the road again in the summer of 2014 with Kepi Ghoulie and Dog Party to play shows across the US in support of the album which was released on CD by the band and on cassette tape by Pleasant Screams on June 16, 2014.