Has a dog ever been injured in your care?

Having worked in the veterinary Field and now doing Rover, I would want to know a little more. How long did the dog stay with you? Have you watched this dog before? How was the dog with his eating and drinking? you mentioned he didn't eat much... did you let the owners know during his stay? Did you do anything to help or encourage him to want to eat (besides just put the food down)? How was his stool? Any change in behavior while he was with you?

Dogs will be dogs and the scratch could of happened anywhere but my question would be if the dog was showing signs of being injured while in your care? Was he squinting? eye watery?

Without knowing more information, it is really hard to say if you should offer refund. I personally would ask for a copy of the medical records for her dog before just paying. See what the Dr, notes say on the physical findings. (by the way- eye drops are typically not that expensive. so rather then just refunding the stay depending on how long the dog was with you,Paying for eye drops and exam might be a little cheaper and a tax write off, if you choose.) I would get more information before taking full responsibility. Who knows, if the dog only stayed with you a night or two the scabs and scratch may not have been from your dog?

Good Luck!

My dog loves to be rambunctious with other dogs too. I always make sure to keep her nails filed down with a Dremel to reduce the risk for scratches and makes it so she won't accidentally break the skin on another dog. There have been some surface scratches before but usually on my dog and not others. Nothing that ever required attention or received complaints - I only let her romp with permission from the other owner. I also had to teach her to not have her mouth open near the other dog's face because I worry about eyes getting poked. That took some persistence, but she learned. And I still have to put a temporary stop to play time occasionally because the excitement gets too high. I don't allow playing when I'm not in the room, someone has to come pee with me lol just because both dogs are having fun and owner is okay with roughhousing doesn't mean they can have free reign. Things do happen despite constant attention, and you're not wrong that those scratches could happen at a dog park. And food schedules get off and stress/anxiety abosultely cause stomach upset. The dehydration thing seems off though. Typically, dogs always drink when they are thirsty. When I first started keeping dogs, my dog would drink all the water as a form of resource guarding. I put water bowls in separate areas, and she was only allowed to drink from her bowl and I kept her from overdrinking. Now she is used to hosting and shares her water like a champ though I typically keep two bowls out anyway. They all tend to end up drinking from the one bowl because they follow her lead. I did have a dog get hurt on a walk, but that's a different situation. It was a freak thing, and Rover was going to do the Rover Guarantee but I have my own insurance that covered it completely. Rover leaves $250 to be paid by you or the owner. The dog was a regular and the owners weren't upset in my case so there was no conflict and no refunds needed, especially since the vet was totally covered. You may want to offer some sort of accommodation just for the sake of the review they may leave.

Your profile indicates that you're home all day and have three young kids (aged 6-12) who love guest dogs, in addition to your own dog. It also states the guest dog can hang out all day, but will be kenneled at night. Based on that, a prospective client may think their dog would get more supervision to ensure preventable injury and illness didn't occur. Since you are already taking kennel trained dogs and using kennels, one way to help prevent injuries is use the kennel when the guest dog can't be observed (or if appropriate for the situation, an indoor playpen or gated area which also allows for separate water bowls, for 1 dog in each space-not yours and guest dogs, since your profile states you'll book up to three guest dogs/night) If you believe that your Husky or another guest dog may be resource guarding the water, then you have to either correct that behavior, or monitor more to ensure each guest dog stays hydrated. Daily updates are a great way to mention&document the dog's eating pattern and output. (i.e. Today, Rover didn't each much breakfast, but drank throughout the day, ate all of his dinner, and produced stools in AM and PM)

You may want to reconsider that your boarding rate is very low, the same as your day care rate. The Rover guarantee may cover some of the owner's veterinary expenses if submitted by the owner to Rover. If you wanted to offer them credit back, you could contact Rover and authorize an amount that they'd refund or you could offer a credit on their next stay.

I've never had a dog seriously injured, however I've had minor injuries which I think is to be expected - it's like a room full of toddlers is bound to end up with at least 1 scraped knee. To tag onto what Erica said (because I wondered those questions myself), it would be important to know how long the dog stayed with you and how dehydrated he was and/or if that is something that has occurred in the past. I definitely have dogs that don't eat or drink very much but I am very upfront, especially when the dog is with me more than 2 days - I let them know what I've tried and ask if they have any suggestions (one liked to drink from the hose). It's also a good bet, if you know you didn't neglect the dog, that the dehydration would have been an issue regardless. As for the scabs and the eye, that very well could be a result of normal dog play. But, again, how long was their dog with you? Was there time for scabs to form from scratches? I've never offered a refund for minor injuries (lick sores, ate part of a stick, etc.), however I was very upfront about what happened. I also let owners know if I see any scratches or possible illness when I'm petting them the first couple of days that were likely there before the dog arrived (very nicely, like - hey I noticed Rover had a scratch on his belly, is there anything special you need me to do to care for them? or something similar). I did tell one owner who's dog stepped on a stick and it scraped his paw to let me know if it doesn't heal and they have to take him to the vet, but the cleaning I did ended up being enough. I'm not sure if I would have offered to pay part of the bill or given a refund, but it would have depended on the extent of the injury and if I could have done something to prevent it from healing. I hope this helps. Good Luck!

I have not had this occur while using Rover, but it did occur when I privately sat for former foster dogs as a rescue coordinator. I had a repeat guest who developed an abscess on his leg while staying here. It likely had already been brewing before he even got here. I communicated with the owner the second I noticed it and as a former veterinary technician asked if she was okay with me administering first aid (shave, wash, etc) which is essentially what a vet would do minus place the dog on oral antibiotics, which I had at the time because with my own dogs, I always have meds on hand. She was happy for me to treat him and by the time he got home, he was fully healed. I just made sure to give her lots of updates on his progress.

My own dogs wrestle and tussle with each other and sometimes get hurt, but I almost always notice it.