Dog Behaviour Concerns

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
1

Newbie sitter here grateful for your advice please! I was invited to a sit starting next week and agreed to go and meet the pets before anything was offered or confirmed. On arrival the dog (a young border collie) growled as I entered the home so the owner took him by the collar. While I wasn’t particularly bothered by this as I’ve got previous dog/collie experience off the site, I was told that I would be handing over the property to another family who will be staying in the house before the owners returned. The owners took me on a full tour and dog walk and were assuming I had accepted. They want me to explain all this to the family. To be fair we are both new to the site so they probably don’t know the process. I realise now I need to be very clear before visits that it is not an acceptance.

So my concerns are that they’ve assumed I’ve accepted and have not sent an invitation that I can decline so I would have to whatsapp privately to say no. If I did the sit I worry the dog would growl at me if I arrive to an empty house and may have difficult behaviour for me to deal with alone. Also would the dog growl at the new family and how will they feel about that which isn’t my responsibility. Plus I don’t think it’s my responsibility to settle in this new family who apparently don’t have much/any dog experience.

Please tell me if I’m being unreasonable? What would your advice be please? As I’m starting as a new sitter I’m worried that I will get a bad review on this site if I say no to this if that’s possible when a sit hasn’t been accepted? Thanks so much in advance.

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If they have not even sent you an invitation, you are not even close to the sit being confirmed. Are you sure they have not invited someone else?

If you think they are presuming you will do the sit just send them a message to be clear - saying you are sorry, but you don’t want to go ahead with it.

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Thanks Colin, my apologies I see that I have accepted it which was my mistake so I will have to do it.

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Hi All - the platform won’t let me edit this post unfortunately. Turns out I did make a rookie mistake and did accept before the visit so will have to do it and hope for the best.

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Hi @Jinny1964 :slightly_smiling_face:

I’ve marked your post confirming you made a mistake and accepted the invite, so that it shows underneath your original post.

Jenny

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Hey @Jinny1964 - No, definitely don’t do anything you’re not comfortable with! Even though you accepted the invite, it would be far better for both parties if you cancelled than to follow through with something that makes you uncomfortable, leading to a poor experience on both sides and possibly for the pet too. You are not locked into to any sort of contract, and cancellations happen all the time. You are new, still learning the ropes, and didn’t realise you had already accepted - it’s okay!

Remember that trusted house sitters is designed to be a mutually beneficial exchange - a rewarding and enjoyable experience where owners receive free, trusted pet and home care, and sitters get the enjoyment of caring for pets while also gaining a free stay in somebody’s home and the opportunity for a new travel experience. If something feels off, forced, pressured, uncomfortable or not right, then it’s definitely not mutually beneficial and not the right fit.

Invites in the first place rarely work out, and are often sent by slightly desperate owners who don’t have a strong listing and are struggling to gain applicants. There’s usually a reason for this. Seeing as the dates are so close, they probably desperately sent invites to hundreds of nearby sitters, hoping somebody will be keen.

Rather, the best way the program works is to search for sits yourself and apply for ones that really interest you. Some sitters seek invites, and they do work out for some people, but many sitters just ignore or decline unsolicited invites, as they rarely suit their interests or availability.

Most owners will have a video call with you if they’re interested in your application. If you reach mutual agreement during or after the call, they can go ahead and confirm you as their sitter on the site. It’s best to never accept an invite until after you’ve had a call with an owner. After this, an owner should share their welcome guide, or at least a document with all the house & pet info.

It’s also not usual that you should have to arrive to an empty house or hand over the house to someone who’s not the owner, especially as both you and the owners are new and haven’t done this before. THS strongly advises that owners should do handover & debrief with their sitter on arrival & departure. It’s quite risky to do split sits where somebody else takes over after you’ve left - if issues arise with the other family, the owners won’t know who caused what and things can potentially get messy.

Definitely go with your gut, say nope, and apply to sits that feel right for you!

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As you are new and after what you have described I would advice to reach out now to pet owner and say you are not able to do the sit and that they need to unconfirm, if they need help doing so they can contact member service or you will contact MS.

I wouldn’t offer loads of explanations as it opens doors to discussing all kinds of stuff. Being new and made a mistake should be enough re. the hosts.

My thoughts:

Being new you didn’t know the process which is understandable. The pet behavior of growling at you is something you would have needed to look more into, as it is a risk for breach of THS-terms it needs more vetting before accepting. Split sits are also risky and many would avoid those, as responsibility is unclear if something happens (and how would a host be able to review the sitters in a fair and factual way).

For a new sitter and a new host this could go well or be a disaster. For the wellbeing of pets, hosts and sitters, if you have regrets pull out. You are not a good match.

Personally, I would rather risk a warning than having a bad sit (and a bad first review). This goes for both you and the host. So I think you are also doing them a favor, actually, pulling out.

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Welcome @Jinny1964

No, you don’t have to go ahead with the sit - THS is about mutual exchange . Now that more information has come to light - information that you didn’t have when you clicked “accept” - you need to make an informed decision based on this additional information.

Let the hosts know, in a friendly way, that you wouldn’t have accepted the sit if you had known about those details beforehand and request that they unconfirm the sit as you won’t be doing it .

Please report back to the forum on how you get on .

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I agree with others that you should cancel this sit.

If the owners don’t cancel, you can phone THS support. The undisclosed issues (dog behavior and third party) are enough for cancellation.

Good luck and, please, update us.

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Great advice thank you; it sounds as if I will risk a bad review from them if I cancel then but as you say it does not bode well and is not worth the potential for issues.

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@Jinny1964 if the sit is cancelled as we all recommend you do, no reviews are given by either party so you will not receive a bad review.

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As temba says, no one will be able to review a cancelled sit.

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13

Just confirming what @temba and @garfield have said. No reviews if the sit is canceled. And it will be canceled if you decide to do so because of a number of reasons:

  • No one can force you to go, the only logical thing HO can do is cancel.
  • They will need to cancel you in order to free the listing and get other sitters.
  • If they don’t, THS will with no consequences for you because HOs must disclose all relevant information before you agree to a sit and they also have to get your approval for a third party entering the premises while you are there. Most importantly, they won’t risk forcing you into a house with a growling dog who has not had previous positive interaction with you.

Keep up the spirit! This sit is not going to happen.

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14

Exactly. Once you’ve told them you’d like to cancel, they will have no choice but to cancel the sit, move on & look for another sitter. Cancelled sits cannot be reviewed, nor do cancellations show up on your profile, so nobody but you will know :blush:

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15

i agree with @Garfield . You could say that , following the visit, you don’t feel it’s a good fit with the dog growling at you (and with this behaviour - of taking some time to settle with new people - not being listed in the listing).

We never agree to do split-sits, since there are too many things which can go wrong (lots of other threads on this (you can do a search using the spyglass at the top of the page).

Your concerns are valid, and advice always given to both sitters and hosts is ‘trust your gut feeling’.

Don’t be afraid to be a bit more discerning, going forwards. We have only ever done pre-sit visits when already in the area, so that’s not the norm. Don’t confirm a sit unless you feel entirely happy about doing so, and if anything subsequently shows up which wasn’t mentioned in the listing, then you should withdraw your application.

Good luck.

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16

Great advice, thank you!

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That’s a great relief! Thank you :blush:

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18

Thanks for this very useful info!

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19

I’m confused if you haven’t been offered the sit you don’t have the sit. If you are no longer interestedin the sit as it sounds way too complicated and not a great situation, then all you need do is write them a brief note explaining it was lovely to meet them, but this sit isn’t for you and decline yourself.

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As requested just to update you I exchanged a couple of messages with the owner requesting cancellation and I see that this has been done this morning. Sincere thanks again to everyone who gave advice and reassurance. x

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