WARNING: Do not book Derek if you care about your fur babies, your home, or your peace of mind while traveling. TL;DR: Derek did not take our dogs on their walk or potty break for nearly 9 hours during the day, even though we had agreed to an absolute maximum of 6 hours except overnight. He walked my dogs together when it was made extremely clear that was never to happen based on my vet, behaviorist, trainer, and our own observations. He disconnected the door security camera that he was fully aware of and had explicitly consented to. He used an intimate personal device from a private drawer in our bedroom without permission and left it out in the living room. After repeatedly being asked to return our parking pass and building access key, he left with our pass, locking us out of our building garage and car. He then began making false allegations about things that had been clearly agreed to months before the booking, to the point where my partner and I no longer felt comfortable with him being near our pets or in our home — ultimately causing my partner to leave at 3am from a small town in upstate New York and fly home early, missing the very reason for our trip: my best friend’s wedding, along with a lot of additional costs but most importantly our peace of mind. This is not only the worst experience I have ever had with a sitter but the way it robbed us of what should have been a joyful trip is something I hope no one else has to go through. Long version: GOING AGAINST OUR VET, TRAINER, AND OUR CLEAR PRIMARY AGREEMENTS FOR OUR DOGS Separate walks were never a new ask during this sit. It was the whole reason I hired and vetted Derek for this house sit back in January 2026. Every booking I made was structured as individual separate walk bookings for Carter and Ares. I never used the discounted additional dog rate, specifically to make this expectation clear from the start, even though we had also confirmed it verbally and in writing. Our veterinary behaviorist and certified trainer had both specifically advised against shared walks for Ares, who has fear-based anxiety. Derek confirmed he understood and felt comfortable with this. During every booking, he has been told and shown that each dog gets their own handler. My partner and I have both been home for every walk and made this clear every time. I never hired him for walks because I was away — I work from home and wanted to make sure I could trust him before our trip. I also wanted to walk Ares myself at times while he walked Carter so they would each have a handler going in different directions at different speeds and distances. While I was gone, Derek asked Nick if he ever walks the dogs together. Nick confirmed on April 29, the last walk before the house sit began, that he never does and that no one else should either. As repetitive as it sounds, the care schedule I shared on departure day explicitly showed Ares going first for a solo potty break, then Carter for her longer solo walk. I also shared the routes and landmarks showing where Carter likes to go and where Ares likes to go — not the same place. Tractive GPS data alerted me that Derek walked them together on multiple days. He admitted it and justified going against our very specific, non-negotiable ask. When I gently raised my concerns — because he was still in our home with our pets and I had to be careful — rather than owning what happened, he justified his decisions and claimed that two days of his own observations made him feel it was the right thing for them, and that it saddened him to stop. He valued his non-clinical opinion over our veterinary behaviorist’s clinical guidance, our certified positive behavior trainer’s recommendations, and our clear binary instruction: no shared walks, ever. Even if we had not had professional reasons for this, care instructions should be honored. If Derek felt strongly about something he observed, the right thing to do was ask us first rather than do the direct opposite of one of our primary asks. CARTER NEVER GOT HER LONG WALK UNTIL I REMINDED DEREK I COULD SEE THEIR WALKS He also knew months ahead of our trip that my high-energy dog Carter needs a long morning walk. She never received her required 40-minute solo walk on any confirmed day of the sit. I only realized what was happening when I checked Tractive and gently asked him to please walk them separately and make sure Carter gets her long walk — at which point no walk had lasted more than 20 minutes until I reminded him. He also was invited, accepted, and had access to both Carter & Ares Tractive so this was not a surprise. NEARLY NINE HOURS WITHOUT A POTTY BREAK DURING THE DAY On one day the gap between outings was 8 hours and 47 minutes, nearly double 4 hour ideal and 6 hour absolute maximum we had agreed to verbally, in writing, and in my dogs’ profiles. When I raised this, Derek claimed Rover’s standard is one to two shared walks per day. As far as I can tell, that standard does not exist anywhere in Rover’s published policies. I understand that Rover defines house sitting as up to 24 hours of care that includes the pet’s normal routine including feeding, walking, and play. Whether walks are included or charged separately is something a sitter must disclose upfront on their profile or before booking — it is not something a sitter is entitled to add retroactively in the middle of a sit. He knew all of this since January when I vetted him and he started walking our dogs. I booked him for this house sit in March, almost two months ahead of our trip, with a very clear understanding of our routines and expectations. We also met numerous times before the house sit and he never raised a single concern. ARES’S SAFETY CLIP ATTACHED INCORRECTLY DESPITE MULTIPLE DEMONSTRATIONS Ares has a safety clip that connects his leash to his martingale collar via the d-ring on his harness as a backup in case the harness fails. Because Ares has previously gotten out of two harnesses, I made sure Derek understood the correct attachment well before the sit. I sent clear photos and videos days in advance, asked multiple times whether he had questions given how important this was, and both Nick and I demonstrated it in person on different days. I also demonstrated it again minutes before we left on May 1 to make sure there were no remaining questions. I honestly felt a little embarrassed asking so many times, but his safety is not something I was willing to leave to chance. Derek confirmed he understood every time and said he had no questions. When Nick returned, Derek had not only attached it incorrectly but had done so in a way that was more dangerous than not using the clip at all. Rather than connecting it through the d-ring as demonstrated, he clipped both the safety clip and the harness to the same main clasp. Two attachments pulling in opposite directions on the same clasp will cause it to open under pressure, which is exactly the scenario the clip is designed to prevent. Despite photos, instructional videos, multiple in-person demonstrations, and his own verbal and written confirmation that he understood, Derek made Ares measurably less safe on every single walk by the way he used the safety clip. HARNESS LEFT ON BETWEEN WALKS DESPITE CLEAR SAFETY REASONING I communicated multiple times that harnesses need to come off between walks and be hung on the hooks by the front door. Ares chews his harness when it is left on and a damaged harness on a busy street is a real risk with any dog, but even more so for one in flight mode. Photos Derek sent during the sit showed Ares still wearing his harness indoors, so I followed up in writing asking him to please remove it. He did not respond for approximately 9.5 hours during the day. When Nick got home, he found the harness on our dog’s bed, which makes it even easier for Ares to chew than when it is on his body. CAT AND DOGS LEFT TOGETHER UNSUPERVISED Our departure day checklist explicitly states “Maya — no access to dogs.” Keeping Maya separated from Carter and Ares at all times without direct supervision was a documented care requirement that we had discussed multiple times during visits and in our messages about Maya’s relationship with the dogs. When Nick arrived home, Maya was found sleeping in her igloo in the living room in the same shared space as Carter and Ares. Derek was observed coming out of the bedroom — he was not present in the living room with the animals, and the living room is not visible from the bedroom. Whether Derek had left the property as he earlier claimed or had remained in the unit, the animals were in a shared unsupervised space against explicit instructions. Either scenario is a direct violation of what we agreed to. FALSE ALLEGATIONS ABOUT THINGS AGREED TO AND CONFIRMED MONTHS BEFORE BOOKING After I raised the walk and harness issues, Derek submitted a booking modification requesting extra fees for things that had been clearly disclosed since January, agreed to, documented, and confirmed by him in writing, in person, and on the Rover platform. My very first screener message to every sitter I contacted in January 2026 asked explicitly about fearful dogs needing daily medication, boundary advocacy, and comfort with a low-maintenance cat whose automated systems required no active care — just keeping her separate from the dogs. Derek confirmed yes to all of it. He claimed the medication was never disclosed. During the sit he wrote in his own words that Ares was taking his medicine “perfectly, no trouble or fuss at all.” Reconcile is listed by name on the departure day checklist we reviewed together and is documented on Ares’s Rover pet profile. Derek also asked me to demo how to administer it right before we left, which I did. I found it difficult to reconcile a request to demo a standard daily pill from someone who confirmed experience with medication and lists it as a skill on his profile, but at the time I brushed it off. It is not an injection. It is a small basic pill. He also requested a daily fee for “behavioral risk management.” Since January 2026 I had been transparent about exactly how our dogs behave when scared. Ares does not bark, growl, or show any aggression. When he is frightened, he startles and either tries to move away or pancakes for a moment — that is the full extent of it. Derek knew this from the beginning. He also told me during the sit that Ares was walking beautifully and giving him zero issues. What exactly was the behavioral risk he was managing, and why did these charges only appear after I asked him to please follow the walk agreement we had in place since January? He requested a separate nightly fee for our cat Maya off the platform, after we had already boarded our flight. The house sit was always for Carter and Ares. Maya has an automatic litter box that was cleaned the day we left, a measured food dispenser, and a water filter. All we asked was that the dogs never be left unsupervised with her. I raised this in January, booked in March for a May trip, and it was clear throughout that the booking was for Carter and Ares. The moment we boarded our flight, he texted to say he did not realize Maya was not listed and that he would not continue without adding her, and that if we did not agree we would need to find another arrangement. We were already gone. Given that I had spent months vetting him and had no alternative, I felt I had no choice but to agree. He later made additional claims about our cat’s care that are contradicted by the documented setup we had in place. There is no ambiguity here. Every single one of these points — the medication, the behavior, the walk expectations, our cat — is documented in writing on the Rover platform, confirmed verbally, and in most cases demonstrated several times in person across numerous visits leading up to our trip. He confirmed understanding all of this, as I asked multiple times if he had any questions. His allegations contradict his own words and I felt deeply misled when he claimed none of this had been disclosed. I declined the modification he submitted for walks, medication, and behavior. He did not send the cat fee through Rover. Submitting financial demands when care was disclosed and demonstrated multiple times, while alone in someone’s home with their animals and knowing the owners are traveling and cannot get back quickly, felt like extortion to me. DEREK INITIATED TEXTS THEN ASKED TO MOVE PLATFORMS Derek was texting both Nick and me directly as we left — sometimes as a group and sometimes directly to me. He only asked to move communication to the Rover platform after I asked him to please follow our agreement going forward. I wanted to make sure nothing was misrepresented given the false allegations being made, so I screenshotted all messages between Derek and me and between Derek, Nick, and me to ensure all communication was visible and available for review. REUSED PHOTOS PASSED OFF AS CURRENT CARE UPDATES On Sunday May 3, Derek sent a photo of Maya presented as a same-day care update. That photo was identical to one he had sent on Friday May 1. The metadata on the downloaded image confirmed the original date it was taken. He had reused a two-day-old photo and passed it off as current care documentation. It is also worth noting that it was only after I raised the walk issues that he asked to move everything to the Rover platform. I believe users cannot see photo metadata on Rover the way they can on a downloaded iMessage photo. OUR HOME AND PRIVACY Nick found our door security camera unplugged when he got home. Derek had consented to this camera on departure day — it is listed on the checklist we reviewed together, and he had seen it in the same position during every one of his visits. It captures only entries and exits at foot level. It literally shows only the floor in front of our door, nothing above knee height. There are zero recordings from the moment we left, which means it was unplugged shortly after our departure. Derek later wrote on the Rover platform: “I did not consent to monitoring” — which felt accusatory and extremely misleading given that he had explicitly consented and the camera had been in the same position throughout our entire relationship. He did not have the right to unplug equipment in a home he does not own. We had also asked him not to bring guests into our home but told him he was welcome to use the many common areas in our building. Unplugging that camera also eliminated the only footage that could have documented what actually happened during the sit. Were our dogs being taken out? Was he actually home during the nearly 9-hour gap when our pets had no potty break or walk? PARKING PASS KEPT AFTER REPEATED REQUESTS TO RETURN IT After repeatedly being asked to return our parking pass and building access key — in writing, in person, and through building staff — Derek left the building with our pass. The pass provides access to our building’s garage and common areas. We had to disable it for the safety of all residents and pay $100 to replace it. By keeping it, he retained access to our building while we lost access to our own garage and car. Parking was never part of the booking agreement. It costs us $400 a month for one spot and there is a long waiting list for residents. Derek had visited our home many times to walk our dogs and knew we do not have guest parking. He raised the parking request the morning of our departure while already running late, with less than an hour before we needed to leave for our flight. Nick scrambled to find a solution under extreme time pressure because we could not miss our flight. We provided our only parking pass as a one-time courtesy — the same pass our car depends on. He was aware of this and still left with it despite multiple requests to return it. A PERSONAL ITEM TAKEN FROM A PRIVATE DRAWER IN OUR BEDROOM I found it deeply disturbing that a very personal, non-shareable intimate device was found on our living room sofa when Nick got home. It is kept in a private drawer in our bedroom — storage Derek had zero reason or authorization to go through. He never asked permission to access our drawers or use a personal item. We would not have agreed. Finding that item out of its private location and left on our couch was a troubling violation of our privacy, and it raises serious concern about what else may have been accessed, used, or taken that was not left in plain sight. FOUND INSIDE OUR HOME AFTER CLAIMING HE WASN’T THERE Derek was formally told in writing that his access to our home and building was revoked, that he needed to leave immediately, and that he was no longer welcome. He responded saying he was not at the property and that he needed to return to collect his things. We made it clear in writing that he was not to return — Nick would pack his belongings and he could collect them from the lobby and leave our key and parking pass with front desk staff. When Nick arrived, Derek was inside our apartment despite having stated he was not there. Derek was allegedly on the phone with Rover and began claiming that Nick was physically and verbally threatening him, which did not happen. He also referred to Nick as “the boyfriend” to whoever he was speaking with, which made Nick feel belittled and implied he was a stranger who had entered uninvited. Nick is the co-owner of our home who has met Derek on multiple occasions and who, throughout this entire situation, was the one urging me to stay measured and careful rather than direct, because our number one priority was our pets’ safety. Derek also claimed we threatened to lock him out. Asking for our own keys back and revoking access from someone who is no longer welcome in our home is not a threat — it is our right as homeowners. The greater irony is that by keeping our parking pass he retained access to our building while we lost access to our own garage, some common areas, and our car. Nick walked into his own home and told someone who was not supposed to be there to leave. During the same window in which Derek was making this claim, Nick was sitting on the floor playing with our dogs who were overjoyed to see him since we have never left both of them for this long. Derek took many minutes to leave, which I find difficult to reconcile with someone who claims to have felt afraid and physically threatened. Once the dogs settled, Nick calmly photographed the property and documented care violations. Derek himself continued sending calm written messages shortly after the alleged threat. Those actions are not consistent with someone who had just been physically threatened and was afraid. This claim is false and we are addressing it through the appropriate channels. When Nick and I posted observations, photos, and screenshots documenting care and home violations on the Rover platform in direct response to Derek’s allegations — most of them self-explanatory — Derek asked us to stop harassing him. He had made serious false allegations against us and we were sharing documented evidence. That is not harassment. His allegations felt retaliatory and deeply unjust given the evidence. CARTER AND ARES AFTER DEREK LEFT I want to be clear that the following are observations, not accusations. When Nick got home, Ares — a dog who since March 2026 had been happily racing and playing tag with us and Carter in our building hallway — was shaking so badly when Nick tried to take him out for his first potty break that he could not get past our apartment door and had to be carried. This had not happened since his very first week after arriving from a Korean shelter. We have always been able to gently call him out or encourage him with animated voices — none of that worked. As of May 7, he showed only slight improvement after Nick resumed giving him his medication consistently. A lot of the dedicated work from our entire care team, including our vet, behaviorist, and trainer, to help Ares move through daily life with more confidence has been significantly set back. He had been doing so well that we had been gradually reducing his Reconcile dosage over the past three months. We may now need to increase it again due to a regression in an area where he had been genuinely thriving. It saddens me deeply to see Ares this way. Our dogs have never been destructive. Carter had one instance since we adopted her in February 2025 where she chewed a cable — it was under a different sitter who did not take her out for over half a day and forgot to give her the last round of antibiotics. That experience was actually the reason I started vetting as early as January for a May trip. Nick came home to find a chewed-up cable in multiple pieces on our bed — dry, as were the sheets. Given how much Carter drools when she chews, that cable had been destroyed well before Nick arrived. Why was it not cleaned up? Why were we not told? The pieces still on the bed posed a serious choking hazard for all three animals. On Carter’s first walk with Nick after Derek left, she had three bowel movements in a matter of minutes — abnormal for her and consistent with a dog who was not getting adequate potty breaks or exercise throughout the sit. We had asked Derek to keep their diets identical, down to the grams, to when we are home. Carter is extremely regular in both timing and location. She could not even wait to reach her usual spots. That broke my heart. She did not have diarrhea, so it was not that type of urgency. THE FINANCIAL AND EMOTIONAL COST Derek’s false allegations about things that had been clearly agreed to months before the booking, the breach of trust, and above all our concern for our pets and home brought us to the heartbreaking decision that Nick and I no longer felt comfortable with Derek being near our animals or in our home. Nick had to leave at 3am from a small remote town in upstate New York, book an emergency flight, and take a rideshare to the airport two hours away to come home and make sure our animals and home were safe. None of these costs were planned — we had not anticipated Nick leaving in the middle of the night, and after the wedding we had planned to return to New York City with our friends. We contacted Rover immediately and cooperated fully because the situation felt unpredictable and our number one priority was keeping our pets safe. Nick missed our best friend’s wedding entirely — the only reason for our trip. Our friend had paid per person for an intimate dinner and housing for fewer than 20 guests, expecting Nick to be there. No dollar amount captures the emotional toll this took on all of us. Nick left so I could try to remain present for our friend on her wedding day. Even after Nick got home, my stress only grew because Derek had accused Nick of a serious crime while being inside our home after we had explicitly told him he was not welcome and he had claimed he was not even there. I am leaving this review so that no other pet owner goes through what we did. I started vetting Derek in January 2026 — months before I even needed a sitter — and spent hundreds of dollars on walks specifically to build trust before putting our pets and home in someone’s hands. I had previously left him a positive review after our first walk. I feel violated and am suffering a significant emotional, mental, and financial toll as a result of trusting Derek with our pets and our home. The way this experience robbed my peace of mind during what should have been a joyful and celebratory trip is something I find deeply disturbing. I hope we are the very last people to experience this.

Derek was amazing with our older dog and took fabulous care of our house -- superb communication and experience all around. I recommend him very highly!