how do you politely tell a owner their dog is competely un-trained, leash, door, house broken etc, when they insist the dog is perfect in all aspects?

Excellent advice from Cari and Jean. You can't do anything except not sit for the dogs again. Your situation illustrates two procedural issues. First, you need to have a M&G prior to any sitting job to see how the dogs behave in your home environment and whether they'll obey you. Second--and this has nothing to do with you personally--if Rover gave sitters access to past reviews/feedback, at least a sitter would go into the job with his/her eyes wide open concerning potential behavioral issues.

Based on her reaction, I would not try to pursue 'educating' her any further about her dogs. In the future, just decline the booking and tell her you feel that someone else might be more appropriate. Be polite but don't accept any more requests from her.

In situations like that, I tend to let it go or if I really want to emphasize that I disagree or that our experiences were totally different, I'll say something like "Wow they must behave so differently at home" or "You must have some very good ways of managing these big boys." Many times, dogs behave differently with us than with their owners. I myself have a dog who is very calm and lazy at home but whenever he sees another dog, he gets extremely excited and there is no command that he will follow (at least most of the time). Once he's met the dog for a minute, he goes back to his chill self.

Agreed with all of the above. It sounds like you did the best you could. Some owners can't be honest with themselves about the shortcomings of their pets or training. All you can do is accurately report what you experienced and hope that she takes some of it to heart once she's had a chance to process it. Whenever I'm passing along any negative information to owners, I always try to phrase it from a place of concern for their dogs, even if the problem was with their behavior or training ("I worry that he just wasn't comfortable staying with other dogs. He seemed to get overwhelmed and defensive when the other dogs were near him."). Wording it like that helps minimize the chance of a defensive reaction, since I'm coming from a place of concern for their little angels, and they're more likely to take the issues seriously.

If, in your judgement, these dogs were a danger to you and the other animals in your house, I would also advise you to fill out the dog review Rover provides, AND call customer service to report what you saw so that hopefully they can prevent a similar situation with another sitter in the future.

I try to be as honest as possible. But I choose wording that comes from a place of best interest for the dog, not an attack against the owner. Most often the dog owners take it well.

If the pet parent doesn't want to accept the truth of your experience, then that's not an ideal client. Still remain polite and let them know that it's in their, and the dog's best interest, to go with another sitter that can best accommodate their needs.

I'm jumping into this game late but I came here because I am experiencing some interesting negative behaviors from a dog I was assured is perfectly well-behaved in every way. I was hoping others had experienced this. I think I am going to simply let the owners know that their dog exhibited X,Y and Z behaviors, most likely due to anxiety/new circumstances, and that future sitters would love to know about it so they can be prepared. Trying to phrase it more as a positive thing ("Daisy was a real peach! She did, however, show some behaviors I thought you should be aware of. She was aggressively possessive of the toys she brought with her, snapping at me and growling when I touched her belly or neck, pulling hard on the leash and lunging at other dogs/people. She's a real sweetheart and I'm sure these are just behaviors that stem from being in a new situation, but I thought yu'd like to know how her adjustment manifests so you can prepare future sitters!"

Hopefully this way it sounds like I am not blaming anyone for her behavior, and just providing another service. Hope this helps out the next person in this position!