@Huronbase, nope. While kindness is hardly a sin then omission of clearly troubling facts on a challenging housesit certainly does not help the housesitter community.
You seem to have raised two threads that highlight issues with a recent housesit. But, as @MaggieUU noted, you appear to have left a simple review “sweet dog, good communication”. Why such brevity when you clearly are upset?
Like most, if not all, housesitters then we have faced some surprises and challenges on a range of topics. Great experiences overall but not all plain sailing. Sometimes challenges may potentially be inadvertent, say a result of incomplete disclosures or self-centric awareness by Pet Parent.
Such reviews take time, effort and tact. We try to find language that is concise, specific and evidenced. We do not criticize the Pet Parent (we accepted the sit after all) but rather try to think what info would credibly aid future prospective housesitters.
What part do you not get? I did tell her i handled it, but she was angry i did not run in the opposite direction and told me not to walk the dog again unless i drove it somewhere specific. Change of responsibilities halfway through sit. Do you understand?
I was not upset until i read her review of me. Then my review was posted. Hence my steam is blowing up here. She insulted me for doing what i have done on other sits with reactive dogs–that want to run and attack other dogs, --and where the other owners have given me a great review for handling their dog well on walks. Hence, i kerp blowing up here. But i have had it out. The reason i posted this thread is because i assume most wouldn’t have taken a sit like this. I just wanted to see if my assumption was right. I posted a while back about ratings for the homes we stay in. Mo one like that, but there should be a rating on the difficulty of the pet care. I think that is fair.
I do understand – and I also understand that this conversation is going in circles. It’s clearly not about understanding, but about agreeing with you. And that’s not a requirement.
No it was about me venting on a difficult situation in what i thought was a safe place. Except for people calling me smarty pants. Thank you to everyone who listened. It is really hard when you have a frustrating situation and you want to vent, throw something and this forum provides an outlet for those frustrating sits. Thank you my fellow sitters.
I do feel for you @Huronbase. However I can’t help noticing you post regularly where you encounter challenging or frustrating issues on your sits, often where it is the location you need to be in for a particular reason rather than the appeal of the pets and home that attracts you. We all choose our sits for different reasons but it would be great to read your next few sits are enjoyable to boost you up.
I had some great sits. I hada fabulous sit in florida with 2 sweet small dogs. Salt water pool. Fabulous weather. Some great sits in TX. A very easy sit in gulfport, which i posted about with a former feral cat that did all its business outside. Atlanta had free drinks on the lounge floor and unlimited free flavored seltzer. I really enjoyed most of my sits in CA. A couple had orange tees and had fresh oranges in the morning. Albuquerque had great weather and after my 4 mule hike with the dogs, i went in the hot tub. Is that enough? AR had a membership to a community club, gym, sauna, hot tub, pool. Great walk to the lake. TX sits had beautiful homes.
Also i had a great Toronto sit across the street from a park in a beautiful home that looked like it was renovated on hgtv. Jet tub. And i had a very nice sit in mid MI. They left me a very nice cash gift. Easy dogs. Nice walk.
After my 9 month process of getting my bridge, i won’t need to be near u of detroit dental school at certain times. I would love to go more places i would like to be. That is part of the process when you try nomadic and are older and have medical and dental stuff. I think it is also the contrast. You go from a beautiful, spacious, clean home with easy dogs- the biggest challenge was sitting down on the floor between them so one didn’t eat the other food, to trying to adhere to a copied schedule of meds, food, playtime, playbox-- a box she prepared with treats and toys for each day, that the dog could rip up, then i could clean up, then food, meds, and playtime. Then frozen peanut butter in treat time. And dog would totally hog the bed and lie like a lump when i tried to move her 90 lbs. All in a skanky house. But my story is one where nomadic choices for someone older reflect the medical and dental needs of being somewhere, at a certain time. Most of my sits reflect being somewhere at a certain time due to a need. I am going to CA for 2.5 months, fully booked. I was careful with my choices this time, more options. And 3 just cat sits. And mostly small dogs. Easy peasy.
“Reactivity” is an incredibly broad term and one which can be applied in many different circumstances.
To keep it very simplistic, on one end of the “reactivity spectrum” I would place dogs who simply pull on their leashes a bit harder that the HO would like and on the other are dogs who cannot be around any other dogs and/or are potentially dangerous to themselves/other beings (human or animal). And then there’s every other possible undesireable and/or dangerous behiaviour in between.
So, yes, I’m fine watching SOME reactive dogs. And I will be sure to ask the owner every possible q and present every possible scenario when learning about the pup/sit.
There is a spectrum, but even the stronger pulling ones, like I sat 2 last Aug, and I reripped my meniscus. They would pull towards rabbits or skunks or other dogs. My daughter actually came and sat with me for most of it – approved, and walking only one was easier. So even those can be challenging for a senior like myself. And it was a challenge to control both for my daughter who goes to pilates every day. And before people start complaining about my complaining, the sit was perfectly fine otherwise. But it showed me my limits on handling the pulling of such big, strong dogs. One was 5 months, not really trained and would try and wrestle the other while walking. I think I have to back away from any sits with reactive dogs. I am too old.
I avoid sitting large dogs, because I want to be able to control dogs and pick them up, in case they’re triggered or there’s say an off-leash dog I need to protect them from or they become sick or injured and are unable to walk. That’s to protect bystanders, me and others as well.
I’m especially careful about dog size when a sit has stairs, because I wouldn’t want to be a solo sitter and there’s an unexpectedly incapacitated dog to carry.
On one sit, the senior, sickly dog had back to back seizures and was incapacitated. I had to rush her to 24/7 urgent care. That required me to carry her down two flights of stairs, across streets and a parking lot late at night to get her into my rental car and into the vet hospital. I was so relieved that I could take all of her weight on my own — there wasn’t anyone around to even ask for help at that time of night.
Years ago, my own rescue dog was stung by a bee and went unconscious — it turned out he’s allergic. I had to carry his dead weight from house to car to vet office. So relieved I could do that quickly on my own, because it turned out he urgently needed to get a shot against the allergic reaction.
I totally get this. I decided after our dog passed in March 2023, that I wouldn’t get another dog that was more than 20 lbs. Now I am sitting dogs twice the weight of our Minnie. Bad choices.
I’ve adopted reactive dogs in the past, a Doberman and a Rottweiler, (not at the same time) so I’m comfortable with how to handle them and would take the sit.
We sat for a very lovable reactive rescued cockapoo that barked at every passing person / animal / vehicle that he could see ( real or imagined ) from a particular window in the house . It was non stop, very piercing and quite disruptive.
We simply shut the door to that room so that he could no longer see out of the window and the barking stopped . Then he relaxed and happily slept at our feet or on our laps while we worked on our laptops. There were three other rooms where we could sit and work .
I’m not sure why the hosts didn’t do this before but it was much more peaceful all round to keep him out of that one room .
We could walk him on country footpaths directly from the house where we didn’t see other dogs so we were able to enjoy lovely walks with him twice a day . He was not well trained on walks but also he was not big or strong enough to pull us over .
We wouldn’t take on a sit with a large reactive dog.
I’m with you — I’d rather underestimate my sitting ability than overestimate it.
The only time I’ve sat two dogs was with two seniors who didn’t get walks. They’d both had spine surgery and their humans said it was fine to just let them roam their backyard, which was lovely and spacious for small, low-energy dogs. They slept a lot and could come and go in or out as they pleased during the day.
The most dangerous thing I did was split their raw baby carrots with a big knife, because one had few teeth left and was blind. I felt bad that the other dog would steal his carrots before could work his way through all of them.
I can sit two dogs easily, but not 2 big dogs. Though in Austin, I sat 2 goldendoodles, and they were not really a problem. One would bark at certain houses that had dogs she didn’t like, but that was it.
It’s clearly not about understanding, but about agreeing with you. And that’s not a requirement.