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| commented question | Should I take an empty-profile out-of-state sit? Someone flagged this as offensive -- is that because it's about a different site? Please someone tell me if this is not cool, I'll take it down. |
| answered a question | Have you ever had a dog that wouldn't settle down during a stay and what did you do? Frame it from the dog's and the owner's point of view: "I know this was a trial to see how he'd do in a dogsitter's home, and my strong feeling is that he was very anxious the entire time he was here and showed no sign of settling in. I suspect he has a similar reaction in a kennel. Have you noticed that he seems exhausted when he gets home? I think he might be telling us he needs a housesitter so he can stay in his own home where his anxiety might not be so high." |
| answered a question | Can I charge extra for constant accidents? Taylor, ugh, sounds like an awful experience! One issue is whether you're willing to risk getting a 1-star review and how much it's worth to you to avoid that. If you ask for cleaning costs, the owner can say "No" or "Yes" but either way, you're probably not getting a five-star review, and you might get no money AND a 1-star angry review that will sit at the top of your profile like a (forgive me) turd until you get more reviews. If it were me I would chalk this up to experience: a house with no uncarpeted area a dog can be blocked off in probably isn't a great place to be offering boarding. It may be that for now, you're better off offering walks, drop-in visits, and housesitting instead of boarding, and when you have a place that is more conducive to sitting unpredictable dogs, you can start offering that service too. |
| asked a question | Should I take an empty-profile out-of-state sit? Hope this is okay to ask here, as it's a question about another site that allows me to search for housesits. I really need some advice as to whether my spidey-sense is too finely tuned. I'm in discussion with a homeowner who has an empty profile but has been a member of the site for a year. The owner describes the dog as 'not keen on new people' and says there will likely be a lot of barking the first day, but then the dog will settle down. It's an 8-hour drive, so I can't do a meet-and-greet now, but I'll be in that area in three weeks and have offered to do one then. Sit is seven weeks away, so that would give her only a month to get another sitter. Owners are leaving early in the morning, and the original posts mentions that the sitter coming in the night before would be possible, which I took to mean the sitter could stay in the house that night. I offered to do that so the dog could see I was a "good friend," and the owner said, "I think she'll be fine if you arrive when we are not here, but will be a mess if you arrive when we are here." (It's possible I misunderstood what the owner was offering; I know most owners would not want the sitter staying in their home while they were there.) Also, "We've never had any problems with other pet sitters who have taken care of her, but she does seem to be worse around new people lately than she has been in the past." The yard is not fenced, and the dog gets a walk two or three times a day. My concerns are whether I'll even be able to get in the door on arrival, once I'm in will I be able to get a leash on the dog during that first day to give her walks, and for heaven's sake is she going to bite me? Otherwise the sit as described sounds fabulous. Large luxurious-sounding standalone home in the city center in a great city, walk to metro and most sites of interest, only other pet is a reptile, parking pass for street parking which is described as 'never more than two blocks.' By my calculations this has to be a multi-million dollar property. BUT that empty year-old profile concerns me, and the fact they aren't INUNDATED with potential sitters including I would think past sitters as almost anyone would love to visit this great city a second time if it weren't the sit from hell. She's very responsive to me, answering within hours, so she's clearly not inundated with offers. I don't have any references on that site, but they do have a very comprehensive set of verifications and checks and I have them all. I contacted her rather than the other ... |
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| commented question | My sitter insist on pick up and I am not comforatble with this and would like to schedule with someone else? I'm with you, Kelly. I would never want to allow a sitter to pick up my dog before I'd seen their house. |
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| commented answer | Are Tuesday and Wednesday the least-booked days of the week? Yeah, I know, it's not ideal. I think for now I'm okay with just doing no more than long weekends, but I'll see if I end up not getting as many bookings as I'd like. My ideal is probably once or twice a month, so I'm not looking to be booked up constantly. I'll see how it goes. |
| answered a question | Do the standard rates seem low to anyone? I think the reason the local pet care companies don't charge higher for puppies than for dogs is that they know they could end up with a long-term customer, and puppies grow up fast. It might be worth it. But you can also open a negotiation with them -- puppies are a lot of work, you will be doing training as well as dogsitting, and their puppy will be learning how to behave in a home rather than a daycare environment. It might be worth more to them for a few months until the puppy is reliably housetrained. |
| asked a question | Are Tuesday and Wednesday the least-booked days of the week? I need to schedule one day per week that I don't have a dog overnight, and ideally it needs to be the same night every week. Would Wednesday be the best day to block off? I figure people going on a Friday-Saturday-Sunday long weekend might want to drop off Thursday night, and people going on a Saturday-Sunday-Monday long weekend might want to pick up Tuesday morning, so I was thinking Tuesday or Wednesday would be the best dates to block out -- any advice? |
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| answered a question | Staying in the home with owner for a night? I would consider staying if I could see an AirBnB or Couchsurfing profile and saw that there were excellent reviews. I have a housesitter coming in who actually ASKED ME if she could stay with us the night before, as she's coming in on an evening flight and is trying to avoid hotel bills. We're happy to do that since our experience with Couchsurfing has made us very comfortable with hosting strangers who have uniformly excellent reviews. We have hosted and been hosted by dozens and have yet to have a bad experience, knock on wood. That said, if you are not used to hosting/being hosted by strangers, then I would recommend you not do anything that is going to make you feel uncomfortable. You can just tell them that: "The more I think about it, the more uncomfortable I am getting with staying in someone's house while they are still in the house." |
| commented question | Pet owner changed booking dates to 3 nights when it was acutally 4 nights to pay me less? The owner can change dates AFTER the sit? How is that possible? I assumed that once a sit was agreed on, the dates couldn't be changed unless both people confirmed? (Oh, and for future reference -- it doesn't matter when you rate the dog, the owner never sees that. It only goes to Rover.) |
| commented answer | Are crate-trained dogs more likely to be otherwise well-trained? ...so their dog is the only dog here, which some dogs really need, and I'm also home all day with an extremely flexible schedule and am able if necessary to never leave a dog alone ) are likely to be reading multiple profiles very carefully. I'd love input on that profile, though! |
| commented answer | Are crate-trained dogs more likely to be otherwise well-trained? Hi, Walt! Yeah, we turned off our listing for a couple of years while we were selling a house, buying a new one, and renovating the new one. But I don't care that much where I am in the rankings -- the people who need my particular service (we don't have a dog and take only one client at a time... |
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| commented answer | Are crate-trained dogs more likely to be otherwise well-trained? Oh, very interesting...I may just go change that right now! |
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| answered a question | I have a client who wants to book me for 8 nights of boarding over a holiday. Her dog is dog-aggressive so I won't be able to book any others. Am I better off to decline ? There are dogsitters on Rover who have no dogs of their own and who only accept one dog at a time. I would recommend this client to search for them. |
| asked a question | Are crate-trained dogs more likely to be otherwise well-trained? I recently opened my calendar up again after having it closed for several years while we moved houses, and my first (current) sit is kind of a disaster due to a "very well-trained" dog that is anything but. I'm considering requiring crate training to see if it might be a proxy for likely at-least-reasonable training in other areas. Do you think more people crate train because the dog is destructive if left alone, or do you think most crate trained dogs are just probably well-trained in other ways too? |
| commented question | Can I hide from an owner? I, too, wish there were a way to block a client from booking again without affecting my numbers. |
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| answered a question | Bad owner experience? I'm in a similar situation. Dog is very sweet, seemed okay during a half-hour meet-and-greet, owner said dog is 'very well trained.' Which apparently includes barking all night if he can't sleep on our bed, giving zero warning when he needs to potty and instead just going off into a corner, door dashing, jumping on people when excited to see them, pulling like crazy on the way out the door (like, nearly pulled me down the front steps when I turned to lock the door) and apparently knowing neither his own name or the word 'No.' The only word I've discovered he recognizes is 'bad dog' which puts him immediately into a down position, eyes closed, head on floor, which kind of breaks my heart. I'm stuck with him for another three nights. Live and learn. I will NEVER again accept a sit of more than two nights without an overnight first to "check whether our home is a good fit for your dog" lol. |