Leaving my dogs with a sitter..... for the first time
We are going on a short trip and I am leaving my dogs in the care of a sitting service. I am super nervous! I have never left these pups with anyone. They have always traveled with us.
I do have to admit that the people are amazing and my dogs really liked them. The meet and greet lasted almost 2 hours and went extremely well. They loved the fact that I am OCD and had everything printed out, explained in detail and all bowls, etc. are labeled lol
I am hoping that those of you that have used sitters before can tell me everything will be fine and I'm a wreck for no reason!
What do I expect? What are common problems with sitting services? What do I need to do to make sure everything goes smoothly?
Thank you in advance!
I do have to admit that the people are amazing and my dogs really liked them. The meet and greet lasted almost 2 hours and went extremely well. They loved the fact that I am OCD and had everything printed out, explained in detail and all bowls, etc. are labeled lol
I am hoping that those of you that have used sitters before can tell me everything will be fine and I'm a wreck for no reason!
What do I expect? What are common problems with sitting services? What do I need to do to make sure everything goes smoothly?
Thank you in advance!
Comments
So, if someone has experience with dogs and dogs like that person, really no need to worry.........If they stay in their house and are walked in familiar places, get food at the normal time and things stay the same, just enjoy your trip......
LOL, forgot to mention.......the sitter was really small, even my female Tosa has more weight....still, she could walk the dogs unleashed at some places. The fact that I trusted her with the dogs is also because of the questions she asked. Are the dogs in shape, do they have problems, do they need special treatment........stuff like that.
dogs don't care about labels, Kuma........:)
Thank you for the positives!
It all comes down to the people's rapport with the dogs and the ability to handle them and their needs. We have a difficult situation with separated dogs, and raw fed dogs, and dogs that need meds, etc, so it's hard to find someone who can handle them all (plus there are the bears/snakes/coyotes out here too), which is why I was willing to pay to have them come out!
(usually we just don't travel at the same time).
So your dogs will do fine!
I'm sure yours will be fine and well cared for. Just try to not worry so much that it ruins your trip and check on them often. You'll be fine
The actual trip was great and the sitting service was awesome while we were gone.... but the weeks since has been a nightmare
The company is licensed, bonded, insured, has a great reputation and were overall awesome until we got home and the weeks that have followed.
I am only posting this to share my experience in the event that it might help someone know of things to ask or look out for.
While we were gone we received regular picture updates via texts (except one morning but upon contacting the owner to insure everything was ok we were informed the sitter was having problems getting the morning texts to go through and that is understandable). They took great care of our pets!
Trying to get our house and gate keys back was a bit of a nightmare and ended with them being left in an open mailbox with no arrangements and no forewarning that they were delivering them. We received a text after the keys were delivered and unfortunately we were not home and our keys were just hanging out for anyone to grab. Not such a big deal, I guess, but we feel they had a professional obligation to be a little more careful with the keys to our home.
Also, a day and a half after we returned home animal control came to our house because of our goats. Because of the timing and the fact that we have had the goats for months with no issues, we called the owner of the sitting service and asked if they knew of any reason AC would have come i.e. the sitter that was here receive any complaints from the neighbors or if AC had come while she was here or if she might have called for any reason that we weren't made aware of. Once they assured us they had no knowledge of anything we apologized immensely and moved on. We thought it logical to ask the owner (not the sitter so that we would not make her uncomfortable) if he was aware of anything that happened with the goats while we were gone. Was that wrong? We were very careful not to make accusations and we were not upset when we called. My husband had a nice long chat with him and we thought everything was fine. Until the email today.
And lastly, we were informed via email today that they did not charge us for extra time that the sitter spent here. On the day before we came home the sitter had informed us that she had spent extra time with the dogs that afternoon because she had no other plans and they 'gave her the look' lol We thanked her immensely but we were not informed there might be a fee if she just chose to stay longer without our knowledge. We would never expect something for nothing or take advantage of anyone but this was just brought to our attention today.... weeks later and we were not given the option to say 'yes' or 'no' to 'extras'. Don't get me wrong if it is something my dogs needed that is fine- we will do whatever we need to but isn't it odd that this was never mentioned before?
There is more to the story but this sums up what is most troublesome to me.
So now we are back to square one because we are not comfortable using this company again. We are interviewing someone tomorrow afternoon and will see how that goes.
I had the same type if thing happen yesterday at the vet. We moved and Mya got sick...bad. I just had to look up vets in my area and base my decision off of google. Well, about half an hour after a tedious check in (I have all of her medical records in a binder, with the newest page opened for them and they asked me if she was current while reading her vaccination history! D'oh!), I was mad and crying because the employees were so rude, but they talked to me like they had done me a huge favor by letting me even stay in a room with Mya. I left before she even got her temperature taken and found another vet.
I just can't stand when people act like they are doing you some huge favor by doing their job. It really burns my butt! Sorry, I am still a little touchy from yesterday and had to rant. (Mya is better by the way).
Try to find a doggie daycare service near you, they will often do pet sitting at your home. You may also want to try a private person who has all the necessary insurance and licenses. Ask for references too! They are technically employed by you to do a job. I hope the next sitter does better by you than this one.
@Myabee09, I am so sorry Mya got sick and that the vets' employees gave you a hard time. I am glad that Mya is better. What was going on with her?
I called multiple daycares and a few other sitters and a lot of them won't care for
Akitas
The person we interviewed today was nice enough and the dogs seemed to like him. I'm going to think on it a bit and call around some more tomorrow.
Thank you for the feedback
That is stupid that they won't care for Akitas. I have dealt with nice and not so nice of every breed. They should have at least come out for a look-see. I wish I could help you more, but I only know people in Baton Rouge
Good luck on interviews and I really hope you find someone you can trust.
It is stupid but if they are breed specific then they are really people I don't want around my dogs because my dogs are pretty people specific
Thank you! We just have so much animal related stuff going on at one time and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed... this too shall pass and we will find someone great for our pups!
Give Mya a hug from me!