My Experience as a Dog Sitter on Rover
I signed up to be a dog sitter on Rover right before the holidays and got my first dog sitting request shortly after. I got contacted by a couple that wanted to do a road trip to California to visit family for Christmas that couldn’t take their four legged friend Lance along. After viewing the pictures that the owner uploaded on their Rover profile, and the description they left for their dog, I felt very enthusiastic to dog sit Lance and have him as a houseguest. My family was thrilled about the opportunity of having a dog for the holidays, especially my 5 year old, who loves dogs and really wants to have one. We’ve been contemplating expanding our family with a canine friend and Rover gave us the opportunity to see how a dog would fit our lifestyle dynamics.
After we exchanged a few conversations on Rover, we decided to meet and greet at my house. Lance is a three year old black lab that is very friendly and mellow indoors, but extremely playful and energetic outdoors. We instantly connected with Lance and realized that this is a great way to bring excitement into our home while making some extra cash. Lance’s family recently moved to Seattle and had explored different options for dog sitting: from expensive kennels to friends that weren’t available. After we met, we went for a walk and let the dog explore the house and play in the backyard. I got familiar with Lance’s routine, schedule and eating habits.
The following day, I received a booking request from Lance’s owners and the countdown to the day of drop-off began. I couldn’t think of anything more exciting for my son’s Christmas break. On the day we picked up Lance, we met at an off-leash park to see how the dog would act around us. The dog owners gave us a list entitled “All about Lance” that explained everything about his feeding schedule, walks, in house routines and medical history.
Some highlights from Lance’s stay:
· My son was so excited that he was awake at 5:30am every morning to feed the dog and let him out in the backyard.
· I beat my record time running around Green Lake by a whole 3 minutes thanks to Lance.
· Lance is very determined swimmer and will get his swim time in no matter what – I even got pulled into the lake waist-deep!! (Don’t worry – it was quite a humorous sight!)
I had a lot of funny and exciting stories to tell my family and friends about my 10-day experience offering Seattle dog boarding. Lance’s parents were extremely pleased with Lance’s vacation in my home. I updated them with all the fun activities we did and sent pictures to them almost daily.
I loved being a dog sitter and can’t wait to do it again!
Post by Mariana