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A dog I am watching damaged my Neato. What do I do?

The dog I am watching is almost 9 years old and apparently potty trained. However, she pooped in the house twice on Saturday night. I cleaned it up, took her outside and moved on. During the work week, I let her out every 4-5 hours to go potty and she goes at least #1 every single time. I got home from work yesterday and she had pooped/peed in my bedroom (remind you, I had only been gone barely 4 hours). The HUGE issue is that during this time my Neato vaccum ran and went through the whole mess. The Neato is now malfunctioning and isn't working anymore. This is a $700.00 purchase! The Neato is ruined and I don't know what to do. The owners are out of town and I don't want to ruin their trip, but i'm now out $700 because I am going to need to replace the machine because someone else supposedly "potty trained" dog decided to poop in the house.

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Hi, Alyssa. Unfortunately, I believe that this is just something we have to deal with as sitters. You nor the owner can predict how their dog is going to behave in a new environment. She may well be potty trained, but I'm sure she is nervous and since she is older she may have a hard time holding her bladder/bowels. While you could mention the incident to the owner, they have no obligation to reimburse you for the Neato and are not responsible for the damage. I'm sure you can understand that it isn't really their fault that the vacuum went over the dog's accident. If you end up purchasing a new Neato or having it repaired, I believe that you can claim the purchase/repair on your taxes, since it is directly related to the dog you are sitting.

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I've learned the hard way that "house-trained" does not mean in every house. It means in the owner's house and if you are lucky, in your house too.

There are so many things I've learned throughout my first year of doing Rover. One thing I constantly have to remind myself of is this: The Owners are PAYING me to care for their dog. From their POV they have now transferred the responsibility for the dog's behavior to the person they are paying. We get a chance at the Meet & Greet to decide if that is a responsibility we are not willing to take on.

So while it would probably have been pretty impossible to think about the fact that you should not have been running the Neato while a known pooper was in your house, the fact remains that the Owners had nothing to do with what happened. It sucks, I know.

You just have to look for the silver lining every time. For instance in this case: I'm stunned the Neato didn't drag the poop around and make trails all over the house. Thank goodness for that!!

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"house-trained" does not mean in every house - 100% agree with this. Sorry for our loss of equipment

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Sometimes, even dogs that are house trained at their residence tend to mark elsewhere, especially if another dog (usually male) is present. My dog, as well trained as he normally is, can be a jerk elsewhere. I plan in advance and send him with 'belly bands'. He loses a little dignity--but he does it to himself. With these, just marking is generally contained. If they just pee all the time (versus a quick mark) you may need to tuck a maxi pad or something to soak up extra. Just a belly band generally is fine for small dogs. which seem to have more of an issue with it.

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What a great idea! I'm adding that to list of things to have on hand.