Does the dog have any kind of Kong or similar toyor bone that you can add peanut butter to and give to him each time you leave? I've had lots of dogs that put up a fight when I try to leave, and PB seems to do the trick (provided that you're allowed to feed him that).

I've been getting what seem like fake requests quite frequently too. I asked Rover about it and they didn't seem to have an answer. I always treat them as a real potential customer, but I never hear back. I've gotten a few where the person asked for care two hours from when their message came thru.

Took me something like three months to get mine. Might just be slow!

I've been a Rover sitter for two years, and I have done quite a bit of overnight house sitting with relatively few issues. Over the summer I seemed to notice an uptick in house sitting requests where I feel like I end up being asked to be at the home way more than I feel is fair for the rate. I've gotten some requests recently where the owner basically expects me to be at their home all weekend (like Friday morning thru late Sunday), only leaving for very short stretches.

I get a lot of weekend requests that are Friday through Sunday and it's booked as "two nights," Friday night and Saturday night, and you get paid whatever your rate is per night for two nights. But some owners seem to think this entitles them to expect you to come as early as Friday morning and stay until late in the day on Sunday. By contrast, I have other clients who pay me the same amount just to come in the evenings and leave in the mornings.

Anyone experienced this? Do you charge differently if people request that amount of care? My rates are fairly low (for an experienced sitter) so maybe I simply just need to charge more, but I want to differentiate from the repeat client who just asks me to crash at their place and let their dogs out a few times in the process.

It took me about two weeks to get my first booking. But nearly two years in, and I usually am getting more requests than I can handle!! Good luck to you.

I would consider myself a fairly experienced Rover sitter--active for nearly two years and have handled everything from tiny pups to large, elderly, sick dogs, etc. So I think I've nearly seen it all. I recently took on a request over the holiday weekend for two large dogs. It was for only two drop-ins per day (morning and late afternoon "dinner") over the course of four days. The dogs are kept all day in the kitchen except when someone is home, which is pretty small. I was told to just let dogs out to play/pee/poop in fenced in backyard because they don't do well on walks--jumping at other dogs, trying to run/pull, etc. Doesn't take an experienced sitter to know that big dogs need a LOT more exercise than that, and that letting a dog of any size go between 6 pm to morning the next day without bathroom break is too much. And it shows. Every time I go to see the dogs, they are jumping, scratching, anxious, and have successfully knocked out the baby gates from the door frame multiple times. On unbeknownst to the owner I've been making nighttime visits to her home without charging her purely out of my own concern. I assume this can sometimes come down to not having or wanting to spend the money on more visits.

To me, this trend is becoming more common. Many dog owners have this mentality that this is enough attention for their dogs, then wonder why their dogs are very hyperactive, jumping on people, etc. I know from experience that long, daily walks and/or trips to the dog park, and enough room to roam can curb that kind of behavior in most dogs.

Does anyone have advice on how to approach this subject without offending or stepping out of line with owners? I know they know their dog(s) better than I do (much like it's a touchy subject to offer parenting advice to a parent), but I see this being borderline cruel and unfair to the dogs. I realize I am also at liberty to reject requests, but I think it's the kind of thing where if no one tells you, you might not ever realize there's a problem.