We had a very unfortunate experience with Emily on December 27th. She came to meet our 1 year old, 60lb, energy packed golden doodle before accepting the position. We have had issues with dog sitters in the past so we have 2 cameras for our lower level so we can see the doors and living room. We also have cameras outside our home at the entrances. I disclosed all this, showed her where the cameras were, and confirmed for her that there were no cameras upstairs at all where she would be changing, sleeping, etc. Magnus jumped and was hyper during our visit and she seemed capable of handling him. He is being ecollar trained and we have 2 ecollars so we always have one charged and ready to go. I taught her how to use all that and I also leave detailed notes with all key information on the bar in case the sitter forgets all the information we discuss in the meet and greet. He jumps and is very hyper, especially on arrival. We told her she would need to walk him as soon as she got there since he would have been alone for a bit and not walked in several hours. Taking him for a walk or outside to run with the ball every 4-6 hours or so is a vital part of taking care of our dog, as he is a bundle of energy. She arrived at our home 2 hours after we left and brought a friend with her (she texted after we left to ask if she could bring a friend over since the their car broke down) and we agreed. She was at our home for only 8 hours that day and instead of staying overnight as we agreed, she left around 8 o'clock. 16 hours later, she texted me to let me know that she left, citing a family emergency, and told me she couldn't continue watching him. I don't watch the cameras, and only have alerts on the ring doorbell set up, but after she left I went back and looked at the exterior alerts and she never walked or played with him. When I discovered she had been gone for that long I asked her if she had left the night before and she said yes. Emily had left our house unlocked and abandoned our pet without much concern for either. Thankfully my mother could come to the house quickly to check on Magnus and secure our home. He had no food or water. I asked Emily about leaving the house unlocked and she said she couldn't find the key (we later found it in the driveway) so she left it unlocked. My Mom couldn't find the extra ecollar and remote, or the remote to the ecollar we put on him so I asked Emily about that and she said she didn't know where they were. Later she said she had the remotes in her car (she did return them the next night) but in the meantime, we had to purchase a new one for the new sitter. We also found that she had put the 2nd ecollar on our dog, so he had on 3 collars (he's very fluffy so my Mom didn't see the extra collar on him). She said that she had notified Rover that she left, but by midafternoon I hadn't heard anything and reached out myself to see what I could do and make sure we were refunded for the bulk of her stay since she was only there for 8 hours and never played with him or walked him and I now had to scramble in a panic while on vacation because I was needed to hire someone else very last minute. They hadn't heard anything from her so we started the process. All texts with Emily went through Rover, so they could see everything. Once I had a new sitter in place I did let Emily know that I was very frustrated with how she handled this and she replied that she had been overwhelmed and didn't think she could safely walk our dog, so that's why she didn't. She also said that he nipped her elbow (which I went back and watched the ring footage and he did about 3 hours after she got there). I apologized for that, but also asked her why she didn't burn out his energy, even throwing the ball in the backyard. He has to get his energy out or he will jump, I'm sure he caught his mouth on her elbow when he jumped on her. She also said she was uncomfortable with the cameras and that she didn't know about the 2nd camera. I absolutely disclosed them and even pointed them out. If she was uncomfortable with the cameras, I wish that she would have just declined the job at that point. The only reason we have them is for the dog sitters because this is the 3rd time we have hired someone who didn't do the basics of care for him. Also at one point he got out the front door (again he had had zero energy run/walk out at this point for at least 6 hours) and she just stood there. My neighbor saw him outside his front door on his ring camera and went to check on him (he is never out front). He said it was very odd that she wasn't trying to get him back inside just calling his name, and he was glad he could help. Magnus isn't a dog that generally tries to escape, so this was surprising to me, but again thankful that our neighbor was able to get him back inside. Emily has alot of great reviews and repeat clients. She was lovely when we met and I felt comfortable having her in my home taking care of my dog. I'm honestly not sure if there was a family emergency or if she just didn't want to do the job or both. My guess is she has only worked with smaller dogs and he was overwhelming to her? I'm honestly not sure, but how this was handled was very inappropriate, and I would caution people, particularly those with larger breeds or hyper dogs, before using her. Thankfully, we were able to get someone else to come watch him very last minute over New Years, but we were very upset at this. She left a living being alone, without replenishing his food and water, and our home unlocked overnight and without notifying us for 16 hours. She completely absolved herself of all her responsibilities and commitments, and the responsibility was on us to figure out how to fix all this from hundreds of miles away. Unacceptable.

Emily was great with our 10 month old puppy. She let me know when she got there and when she was leaving. She also let me know how our pup was doing and sent pictures while she was there. We will be using Emily again soon!