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How do I make it clear I only accept cat friendly dogs?

Hello all, I am a new Rover sitter. So far things are going quite well except one thing.

Despite having a tag line reading "Cat friendly dogs only please", I keep receiving requests from dog owners where the pet has no experience with cats.

At first I accepted a couple of meet and greets to give the owner and dog a chance, but both did not go well and my cats are pretty stressed out now, so I would rather not accept any dogs without a proven history with cats moving forward.

If I decline caring for a requestor's pet for any reason, will my score go down?

How do I make it more clear on my profile that I can only accept cat friendly dogs at my house?

3 Answers

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I'd go with the VERY direct, polite. "Dogs must have a proven track record successfully living with cats."

You could not take dogs into your home, and only do overnight stays AT someone's home, thus no worries for Your cats. This of course depends on how comfortable you are with leaving your cats at your residence without you there.

You could also Do the multiple Visits over a day leaving the dog staying in their home. Obviously you would need to explain you wouldn't be there overnight.

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It may help to use that as your tag line although it will affect the amount of customers who choose to book with you or go to your profile. The other option is to politely mention it from the get go after you receive the initial request.

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Yes, your search ranking will go down if you continue to decline bookings, and the reason you may be getting so many requests is because your rate is so low in comparison to others in your area.

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do. Customers can't be counted on to read your profile for important information, even though you have highlighted it at the very start. Also, they're generally unaware how their dog might react to a cat if he/she has never been in contact with one. Cat-friendliness isn't a filtering category, like the dog's weight.

Try some stronger, more descriptive language since people may assume their dogs would be okay with cats. For example: Does your dog really like cats? If so, then this is the place! If you don't know, then it probably isn't."

Good luck!

Comments

Before you schedule a meet and greet ask the question. Then you can archive the request under the appropriate tag.

I have 5 cats that have been raised since kittens to be dog friendly as much as possible. I have found that dogs under 40lbs & dogs that do not have a prey or hunting instinct will react better and more accepting to my cats. I have therefore stopped taking large dogs and that has worked out better

I have cats too, and though that's the FIRST line in my profile, people still send booking requests though their dogs aren't cat-friendly. (This didn't happen nearly as often on Dogvacay.) I've found that big dogs are much more chill with cats than smaller ones, but will only take cat-friendly dogs