Fantastic sitter who really cares for our pup. She provided daily photos and updates throughout his stay with her. Very reassuring when you’re away from your fur baby. Laissa is a gem and we are so lucky!

To start, my overall recommendation for dog owners who are considering Laissa is as follows: if your dog struggles with anxiety due to separation or being in an unfamiliar environment, Laissa may not be the best fit. That is not to say that Laissa is not capable of looking after dogs - we know she is very experienced and has the reviews to show for it - but in our case, we did not have a good match. We initially requested for Laissa to board our dog for five nights. We scheduled a meet-and-greet ahead of time, and it went well. Laissa asked thoughtful and careful questions, and we felt good about our dog staying with her. We offered to pay for a test run of daycare or boarding ahead of time so that the two could to get to know each other, to give Laissa an opportunity to point out any concerns, and to familiarize our dog with her space. At the time, she felt good about the meet-and-greet and elected not to do that. At drop-off, our dog came in with a lot of energy (and we had communicated that he was a high-energy dog), but we suspected he would calm down as he got used to the new space (which has been our experience with him in the past). However, after only a few hours, Laissa started to point out that our dog was whining a lot, and that his whining and barking were "excessive to say the least." We tried to offer some solutions, and acknowledged that he likely needed both time and an opportunity to release some energy, to calm down. However, Laissa ultimately expressed wanting us to pursue an emergency sitter for Tacio, or to consider having someone pick him up from her (which was not a possibility for us). She also told us that, in her opinion, our dog was showing a "very exacerbated level for anxiety." We were flying out of town at this point in time, but after these comments, my wife and I felt compelled to change our plans and elected to turn around between legs of our trip. Our read of the situation was that, despite the fact that our dog was in a new space for the first time, Laissa sounded unwilling to work with him and made it sound like our dog was burdening her. We ended up having to book a flight, which required us to pay hundreds of dollars in a premium to revise our itinerary (which also resulted in us missing a wedding scheduled for the weekend). I recognize that dogs with anxiety are not easy, and in some situations can be incredibly challenging - especially for people who may not be accustomed to anxious dogs. However, we had communicated that our dog might struggle in a new environment at first and that he would need some time to acclimate (a day or two in our experience), we offered notes on how to address his anxiety, and we offered the paid test run knowing this about our dog, who otherwise has had very good experiences with other sitters. We felt and expressed to Laissa that our dog would likely do better the next day because, in our experience, that is how quickly he has adapted to new spaces in the past. And while Laissa acknowledged this, she still came across reluctant. Our chief concern with Laissa is that her tone showed frustration and impatience. We understand that a whining dog is distressing, but as far as we were told, he wasn't doing much more than that (apart from coming in pretty high-energy to start his stay). He was having a bad time, and it came across to us that Laissa's concern was more about getting her work done (which she expressed several times) rather than about him, if he was okay, and if there were steps to take to help him adjust. In expressing her own anxiety about her work, she said to us directly that she found our dog to be a "distraction" while she was trying to work - even after we'd already communicated to her that we were changing our flight plans to come retrieve him. Laissa was accommodating enough to cancel and refund the rest of our reservation, and to her credit, she was communicative and willing to wait up for us late to pick up our dog after we experienced delays on our return flight. We appreciate her for that and for the time she kept our dog in her care. We don't believe that this evening is a holistic read of Laissa's ability to look after dogs, but we have to express that we saw what came across as an unwillingness to troubleshoot and exercise patience on the first day with an anxious dog, and that concerned us. As a result, we have to offer a more nuanced rating of Laissa's services. She seems like a fine person with a good space for dogs, so this is not meant to discourage anyone outright or to cast aspersions onto her. However, and again, we recommend being upfront and assertive about any concerns you have with your dog, and to shop around if you have a dog that deals with anxiety in new spaces - only because it may not be the right fit.