I did a meet and greet with a beautiful male German Shepherd this week. I spent about an hour with him and his owner. He was very protective of the owner but not aggressive and he was very responsive to the owners commands. He did bark at me quite a bit but he eventually seemed to come around as we were playing fetch in the living room and he would bring the ball to me. I will not say his bark was not intimidating but he is after all a guard dog. I am also taking into consideration that German shepherds in particular have a really bad rep; kind of the same rep that pit bulls have (I have watched a couple of pits bulls by the way but I was very sure that they were socialized and not aggressive).

So down to the point. This dog does not know me that well yet. I have no experience with this breed especially one that is not socialized (he is two years old btw). The owners just really want someone that he can become familiar with and bond and basically be a reliable sitter for him. They have a vacation set for spring break in March so there is lots of time to try things out. I really do still want to work with him so I am going by and see him a few more times (maybe a couple times a week) with the owners present and give this some time as he is not socialized. I really do not want to go by without the owners present as I am unsure of how he will react, I really want to give him the benefit of the doubt but do not want anything to happen! I know some dogs can get weird when their owners are not around. I told my sister about this and she was very worried and said that I shouldn’t be alone with him for a while. I talked to the owner and he is cool with us working on it. I am not an experienced dog trainer by any means( I have tons of experience and am good with animals), I am just a dog lover that loves taking care of animals! I really think everyone deserves a chance but maybe that optimistic thinking is flawed.
I guess my question is at what point do I know if I can do this or not, how much time do I give it? Do any of you have similar experiences?

Oh no I know about that but I just like to have good customer service for my clients. It would be really nice if Rover would fix this. I will continue to make Rover make the changes like I did this time. I have had this happen many times and it is very frustrating.

I have a little planner and an index card with my new client questions with me at all times ( i basically took the rover checklist and catered it to my experiences):

Also are you using the ROVER cards and the app on your phone? You should be able to do everything through there. Is the pet parent using it as well?

Hi fellow sitters! So I am pretty new to Rover but there is a huge demand for pet care where I live. I get a lot of requests that are just a few miles away from work and my home. These are no issue for me and I think my pricing is pretty good and competitive with other Rover sitters in town and even other pet care providers.

However at least half of my requests come from another town that is about 25 miles round trip. I looked on mileage and the approved rate for mileage for 2018 for business per IRS website is 54.5 cents per mile. If I calculate that that would be $27 each trip to this town.

So to break it down these are my rates:

• Housitting- $30.00 (plus $27 for mileage to White Rock) - they would be paying $57

• Dog Walking-$15.00 (plus $27 for mileage to White Rock) they would be paying $42- this is crazy to me as this is more than the service!

• Drop-in Visits- $15.00 (plus $27 for mileage to White Rock) they would be paying $42- this is crazy to me as this is more than the service!

My second client ever who lives in this town has hired me since March for 1 walk a day @ 10 bucks per walk for M-F walks in monthly increments (200 bucks a month and 160 to me after Rover fees). Her dog really likes me! However I do not know if this is worth it, I do not break even unless I happen to have other clients in this town. See what I mean?

It is a hard decision as some of my first and most loyal clients are from this town. I really do not want to charge them more but I just did not think things through in the beginning (i started doing this as a hobby really because I love animals so much). I really underestimated the demand for pet care in these two communities. I just need to make sure that the trip is worth it after Rover fees and gas/wear and tear on my vehicle, etc.. I know that I could exclude this town from my service area too, but I do not know if I want to do that as I have met some really great dogs and owners! Please give me your thoughts? Anyone been in this situation?

Yes but could we add the taxes to our bookings or figure it in our rates? Does anyone do that?

So question if that is the case should we be charging taxes on our services when we book? I have already started adding additional fees for mileage. Does anyone do this?

Hi Everyone, I am new to Rover as of Feb. 2018 but have already picked up almost 20 steady clients. Normally when I do meet and greets its with a couple or families and it looks like they have a profile established.

I did get a request from a client that is new to Rover. I guess what I am trying to ask do you ever worry about meeting people in their homes for meet and greets? Should I approach this differently?

I do not like to think like this but so not want to put myself in a bad situation, as their are some very bad people in the world. The client has not said or done anything to make me not trust them, I am just a very cautious person. What are your opinions?

I do text and then tell them I would like to do a meet and greet before anything. I just like the face to face and to make sure I am comfortable with accepting the booking (meet and greet gives me a chance to meet the dog (s) and owner and get a feel for things, if it does not feel right I will not do it).

I only tell them in the stay conversation if there is an incident or if they destroyed something. Example was housitting and had to leave to the store and when I got back they messed up carpet by digging with their paws by the sliding door (there was something in the back yard they were trying to get at an no doggy door). If anything happens concerning that I let the owner know and sent a picture, I always try and be as transparent as possible.

Other things I tend to bring up in a face to face conversation when I bring their key back. Like this weekend I was watching 2 older dogs and 1 puppy and one of the older two likes to to try to eat the puppy's poop (probably because of the puppy food) :( I let the owner know in case they are not aware that they try to do this as I caught her a few times.

I also let the dog owner know about the heat and make sure they still want us to walk or be outside and check the weather to make sure. Just because I may be alright out there does not mean the dog can handle it. I do that no matter what breed.

She did do the breathing thing a bit but no like you described and it got better. She went and drank water laid in the house on the cool tile floor and it really helped. I am sure she was fine but i still worried. I just am extra cautious about heat even when dog walking.

I was watching a Boxer puppy over the weekend (they also have breathing issues). It was very hot this weekend high 90s. I was housitting but was very strict on how long we stayed outside. This was over a period of 6 hours and we would only stay out for maybe 10 min intervals per hour.