I am not sure if pet sitters are being targeted, but a week ago someone came where I was pet sitting and tried to trick me into opening the door and going outside to "help" them with something - very flimsy story and their faux demeanor dropped when I did not fall for it. Last night a pet sitter I know was scared in a whole other state by a late night harassment of someone pounding on the door and laying into the bell. The coincidence is weird. I just want to remind everyone to be alert, be cautious, lock all doors and windows.

Stay safe out there.

I walked a new dog today. He’s a one year old cavapoo. With all my other dogs I come over while their people are gone. But with this guys, I picked him up from his moms work. She walked out with me and she went back in after I clipped his leash to my carabiner. He freaked out when she left. He was definitely trying to get away from me.
I sat by him for a while and gave him plenty of treats before he stared to warm up to me.
After a few minutes we were able to start walking. By the end of our time together he was putting his little paws upon my leg to ask for more treats.
Hopefully I’ll see the little guy again soon.

I’ve been sitting for this client for 4 years. she’s great, we’ve never had issues. I love her animals. She has a toddler so I understand not being able to keep your house sparkly clean, but this time has been difficult. The sink and dishwasher are completely full, I couldn’t even fit a dish under the tap to wash it. I couldn’t find a clean dish even in the cabinets. I stay overnight and hangout during the day for a while so I thought it was implied that I eat here. it just feels a little inconsiderate at this point? Should I say something or just deal? also her pets nails are always way overgrown but idk if it’s my place to say something about it.

edit it is a married couple and a toddler, I only ever talk to the wife so that’s why I only said ”she”. Theres mess other than the sink and she had texted me prior “the house is messy as always😅” so she is aware of the mess. I love cleaning and have always done basic cleaning while sitting but its A bit out of my scope this time and idk if she’s just expecting to clean now?

also there were dishes in the cabinets but they were also dirty, is what I meant. the dishes in the washer are all baby dishes

I work with a small sitter group (4-5 women) and another sitter and I were going to split a series of drop ins for a new client. We will call the other sitter Sarah. Sarah and I did a meet and greet in August, for a sit that was supposed to be next week (October) I usually don’t like doing m&g this far in advance because I feel like you don’t remember anything when the sit comes. This client has 2 dogs, one of which is ancient and looks like it could pass at any moment, some feral cats, and 3 baby goats. So it’s a lot. But the client insists we do a m&g in August, she’s never left the baby goats before, she’s new to goats, is nervous. Whatever. Fine. We even acknowledge during the m&g that we may need to do a follow up m&g closer to the sit as her care with the baby goats will likely evolve and change. Annoying because it’s only supposed to be one free m&g but oh well. She even expects us during the sit to use power tools to cut tree branches off to give to the baby goats in her enclosure. Like that’s not a liability or anything. Cool.

She messages another sitter who we will call Alice (who is like the leader of our group) who does all official bookings and stuff about a week or two ago, requesting a new meet and greet. That was on a Wednesday, Thursday Alice hadn’t followed back up with her yet so client sends another message. Alice responded Thursday saying yes that’s fine Sarah and myself will reach out to her. NOW AT THIS POINT, the sit is still like over two weeks away so no rush right, and she’s already met us once, did an hour m&g, signed our contract and reviewed our policies, etc. Sarah didn’t reach out by Saturday or Sunday so I reach out. Client responds back LIVID that it took us this long and says she now found a family member to cover all but the midday lunchtime drop ins. Goes on and on about how she can’t believe it took this long. I just don’t understand wtf is the sense of urgency for a SECOND m&g and how grossly offended you can be that we took less than a week to get back to you. and the sit is still over two weeks away. Alice responds back reiterating policies, and emphasizes that this cancellation is literally like a day over our 14 day cancellation rate policy, but that if she would cancel any more dates it would be within our cancellation timeframe. THEN the client proceeds to ghost us. Um, how hypocritical is that? You blew tf up over it taking from Wednesday to Sunday for a m&g to get scheduled but then just ghost us? This was like a $300 sit for me, that I have declined other requests for these dates going back to August when first booked so this is super annoying. I hate clients like this. Btw in our rural area, we are one of the most professional groups and it’s mostly people doing it on their own, without insurance, contracts, etc.

I’m dogs sitting for a co workers. Two dogs one is a great drain pit mix and the other is also a mix. I was asked to stay with them for a few hours since one of them recently had surgery. I was able to take the Great Dane out but the other one seems terrified. I tried everything and she just isn’t having it. I’m not usually anxious around dogs but because she is extremely afraid she barks and growls as if she wants to attack and kinda lunged at my feet at one point. Never actually bit me. It’s also caused her brother the great Dane to react as well and even though I don’t think he would bite his size and his growls scared me a bit but I know he’s just being protective. Anyways they both calmed down a bit and have been sleeping for a while but every time I get up and move around or try to get close the little one goes off again. I’m kinda just stressing because I havnt been able to really get close to the little one and take her out and she hasn’t gone in hours. But I also don’t want to make them anxious again by waking them up. I mentioned it to the owner as well and she just said she hopes they start to calm down soon. I’m not here for much longer and really wanna make sure they can go out and pee before I leave. Cause there owners won’t be home till end of day. Idk how tho. I’ve tried treats and food and everything.

UPDATE:
I let them sleep for a few hours they were a lot calmer. This time the little one let me put a leash on her as well but she didn’t make it out the driveway before she started reacting again so i brought her back in and I let the owner know. I found it best to just leave them be and watch from the other room cause the little one was just so anxious but the great dane was alot calmer and I was able to take him out one last time before i left. The owners did come back earlier as well. So all is good now. Thanks for the advice

Hello. I went away for three weeks recently and because I wanted to be sure my dog had a good sitter (the trip was international and for an immediate family member’s wedding, so it would have been dramatic if I missed it) I started looking in December and found a petsitter who seemed great — professional, experienced, had worked across a range of different settings in the animal world (groomers, daycares, training, boarding facilities) and started dogsitting independently in response to problems she’d identified in boarding facilities where she’d previously worked. I messaged her in February, when my dog was one, and she said she was happy to lock in dates but that she would prefer to wait until after my dog was spayed (vet recommended waiting til after her first heat) to do a meet & greet because one of her own dogs wasn’t neutered (for medical reasons).

After my dog was spayed, though, the petsitter just didn’t reply to my messages (I sent one asking when would be best and then another about a week later saying I was following up in case maybe she’d missed the first one) about setting up the meet & greet, though we follow one another on Instagram and I could see her account was active.

I found another great sitter and everything was fine with my dog, but I am struggling to get past my irritation at this. It looks like she ended up having some of her regulars stay during the period I was away so I’m guessing she just decided she’d prefer dogs she knew over a dog she hadn’t met, but to me it seems quite unprofessional to say the dates were locked in and then ghost me when I followed up to organise the meet and greet rather than communicate that her circumstances had changed and I would have to find somebody else (as it left me less time than if she’d just replied saying this). She’s very active in the dog world on Instagram and often posts about poor behavior from dog businesses and things like this and any time I go to a dog event in my city I wonder if we’ll run into her (though we never have — we’ve just communicated online), which is making me want to skip dog events now because I am so confused as to why she just ghosted me and my dog. Is it reasonable for me to feel it’s unprofessional/rude or am I being too sensitive? I basically just want to know so I can stop thinking about it so much!

Hello! I am a seasoned pet sitter but surprisingly haven’t run into this issue before.

I’m sitting at the dogs home and it’s a dog I’ve known for years. This is our first (and definitely last) overnight. Usually I do drop ins when they’re away.

I don’t think she’s anxious. She just stands in front of me and barks and barks and barks and barks.

I figured out sometimes it’s because she wants to play, potty, get a treat, go outside, or go to bed. But I can only do so many of those things in a day, especially the treats. Also I don’t like when dogs demand treats like that and try my best not to encourage it.

She is recently deaf (as of the last 2 years) and owners said she’s become more barky since that, but didn’t say it was constant.

Currently I’m ignoring her and she’s laid down, but I know the neighbors can here and I’m worried they’ll report back to homeowner.

I’m going to ask her what things she specifically barks for, but she’ll do it for like 20 mins at a time before giving up.

I’m going to ask permission to do lickmats as she’s having more trouble with the puzzles than my other dogs and loses interest quickly. I may also start doing her Meal time in a snuffle mat.

She can’t play or walk for long due to arthritis.

Any advice is appreciated. I have 10 days left.