Hello, I will try my best to sum up the situation as clearly and effectively as possible I am recovering from surgery I had a few days ago. My brother has been watching my dogs until this day he suddenly was unavailable to. So I decided to give my brother a break and board my dogs for a night since it would be a good treat for them and convenient for me as I had to go back to the hospital again that afternoon. I reached out to sitters and found Ronald who enthusiastically accepted to board my two dogs. I had read his reviews and he seemed trustworthy and like he has experience. He also did pickup/drop off for a reasonable price. The first red flag I suppose was when he was not the one to pick up my dogs but his "sister". I was informed he had an emergency last minute and would quickly resolve it. I understood that emergencies happen in life and the sister was kind in greeting my pups. An hour passes and I check in to see how things are going. I'm told the pups are a bit hyper and I laughed because I am aware that they are high energy and very playful due to their age and breed. This is where I realized several things were wrong. Ronald informs me that he would have to charge me extra money. I am a bit confused and ask why? He says it is because my dogs keep "breaking in and out". I am immediately very concerned. I ask him to clarify what he means. He says that he is not able to contain them in his bedroom and has had to barricade the door. I am very concerned at that point and trying to understand what on earth was going on. Ronald again asked for extra money for my dogs stay. He then says he no longer wishes to watch my dogs as they are too hyper. I'm confused as it was my understanding that he has "10 years of experience" and I thought he knew how to be a dog sitter. It turns out that he has not been sitting my dogs at all and hasn't even met them yet. He is apparently not even in the same borough as them. My dogs are in the care of a roommate. He then claims my dogs are being aggressive towards the roommate (and two dogs, one of which wasnt even informed about). which is not true at all. My dogs have never been aggressive to other dogs or humans. They love meeting new people and other dogs and playing with them. However, they weren't being introduced to new friends and cared for by someone I'm supposed to trust that has self proclaimed "10 years of experience". My dogs were being repeatedly tossed by a "roommate" in the sitters bedroom and locked inside where they apparently kept succeeding in escaping from. I am then told that either I am to give Ronald more money or have someone else or my "injured" self get my dogs immediately. The whole reason I needed boarding was because I could not care for my dogs that day and I had no one around to do so properly. I was almost on my way to a surgery revision for myself when everything started to unfold. Ronald goes on to say he needs to get rid of my dogs and they are untrained and aggressive. All of that is false and how would he know any of this as still to that point he hasn't even MET my dogs once. My dogs are not being watched by him, they are being abused by the sitters roommate and the sitter wants to charge me more money. For what I am not sure as he is not even earning what I paid so far. As I discuss my concerns with Ronald I see more and more that he is certainly not a dog caretaker and is someone who neglects people's dogs on a regular basis. As he said, I quote "I thought they would be fine" and "no dogs have reacted like this before and it's only been two hours". At this point I am just horrified for my dogs safety and tell Ronald to please bring them home immediately. I would rather walk around with an infected tube in my stomach than have my dogs be subjected to another moment of this utter negligence and disregard of their well being. I express my disappointment in Ronalds services and scold him for his actions. Ronald then continues to try to gaslight my dogs and I, blaming my dogs for the situation. Which is ridiculous. They are dogs. They are dogs that needed to be cared for in my absence, this is the service I paid for. But they were not cared for. They were neglected and blamed for a situation they had no power to control. Ronald arrives home, finally giving me the first glimpse of my dogs I've seen since I put them in this man's care. In the video I see my dogs pacing a very messy room with their leashes on, panting and trying to engage with Ronald to meet him. But they are only nudged away and ignored. Ronald then informs me that he is watching them urinate all over his apartment. That was the final nail on the coffin for me. This man who is supposed to be a dog sitter, a caretaker, is pouting to his client (me) who is paying him to care for their dogs. He is complaining to me that he is simply watching two helpless animals urinate. Ronald is not a caretaker. If he was a caretaker he would not be sitting and watching while they continue to urinate on the floor. If he was a caretaker he would be outside walking them to my house, making sure they at least had a nice walk which was the very LEAST he could do after putting me as a client, a pet parent who is unable to care for their own pet, through so much grief. But he could not even care enough to do that much. He simply brought them back thirsty, hungry, and needing walks. Three things I am physically unable to do without pain or risk of infection to my surgery site. But do you know what I did? I fed them, gave them water and walked them. All of this with a now partially infected tube sticking out of my stomach. It was excruciatingly painful, I tore stitches and started bleeding through my clothing while doing it but I made sure my pups were cared for and needed nothing before I tended to myself and my health. So my assessment of this situation is that Ronald is not a care taker at all. He is neglectful, selfish, careless and I regret so much as clicking on his "caretaker" profile. As a sitter, caretaker, pet parent and dog walker myself, I am utterly disgusted by Ronald's actions. I trusted him with my fur kids and he completely betrayed it. He did not take care of my 6 month old bulldog and 1 year old husky. I cannot imagine if I had sent my 7 year old Dorgi with special needs as well to stay with him. He claims to have "10 years of experience" with dogs under his belt but I cannot find even one second of common sense.

Happy Dog, Happy Vacation