Thanks so much for sharing this! Just requested to join all three groups. Especially love the idea of the referral group since I've recently had to turn down a handful of requests due to booking up (not a ton of sitters in my area) and would love to be able to refer someone!

As an owner, this would be a red flag for me, no matter how good the sitter seems to be. As a sitter, I always invite the owners (and even the dogs) into my house. I want to see how the dogs do in my house and if they do end up booking a stay with me, I want them to be familiar with my house when they come back. I also think it's important for the owners to see where the dog will be staying and that they feel more comfortable getting to see their dog(s) run around and play with mine.

If I schedule a M&G while I have guest dogs, I don't have any issue confining guest dogs to my bedroom during the M&G. I do let the potential clients know that I have guest dogs confined in my bedroom and they may bark, but for the safety of all dogs (in case anything went wrong), I keep the guest dogs separate from M&G dogs.

It depends on the dog. During meet & greets, I always ask the owners about separation anxiety (and sometimes have the owners walk outside so that I can see what the dog does). I have one regular guest dog where the owners have to sedate her before they bring her over; she calms down after awhile but the initial separation anxiety is really bad. Just for her, I keep Rescue Remedy around and that helps. I think it helps that my dogs likes to play so much that he helps to distract some of the dogs we've had with anxiety and then they get so tired that they just want to sleep instead of being anxious haha. I also always suggest that the owners bring something from home (a blanket, t-shirt, favorite toys) so that the scent will help them with the transition.

All that said, like I mentioned, I always talk to the owners about it first to see if there is anything that do that I can mimic.

We always meet at my house. I only do in-home hosting and so I want the owners a chance to see my house and where the dogs will be staying, and I want to see how the dogs do in my house. I'll always meet them outside on the driveway with my own dog on leash. After we get the sniffing out of the way, we'll go into the backyard and once everyone is comfortable, we let the dogs off leash to play. I also show the owners (and dogs) around inside and with owner permission, offer both the guest dog and my dog a treat together.

I've never thought about this. Definitely something for me to to think about! I only ever take one two dogs at one time (or three if two dogs are from the same family and I get one extra request; I have a stay like this starting in a couple days). I always let owners know that I take up to two at a time, except for that rare special exception and that I don't book the second overlapping stay unless I know all the dogs are friendly. I definitely think it's fair to charge a custom rate if they ask for a solo-only stay and you usually take on multiple dogs, though!

My house is pretty open, so I show them the guest room/my office (which is open anyways and the dogs spend a lot of time in there while I work, even though they don't have to. They just all love the guest bed and to watch out the front window haha) and the general area. I let them know that during the day, we keep the other bedrooms closed so that I can keep a line of sight to the dogs and I also show them the backyard. No one has ever asked to see my bedroom, but they usually end up seeing it via photos that I send since the dogs are allowed in my bed when we're hanging out in there. I've never had anyone ask to see my other bedrooms during a M&G though.

I would let them know that they are welcome to do a one night stay to test it out for a future longer stay, but that it still needs to be booked and paid for through Rover. I'm not a traveling sitter, but this is what I've done in the past for clients wanting to do a one night test with their dog at my house and no one has ever been upset about my suggesting that.

I completely agree with packing a favorite toy or old t-shirt or blanket. I always suggest that owners pack that no matter how much or how little separation anxiety the dog has. It just helps to make the transition easier.