Just seen a House sit advertised in the UK for October 7th to October 7th ( yes, just the one day) and the dam will have had pups 12 days prior. This is a sit for only very experienced and confident sitters. As someone involved with the showing and breeding world, 12 day old puppies need feeding every four hours and my breeder friends often sleep on a camp bed in the spare room for the duration of the period that pups are vulnerable. Also, the sitter should be washing everything and disinfecting absolutely everything they come into contact with before handling those pups. Contact with a dog or another animal outside the household is strongly ill advised. Surely this sit is deeply wrong? UPDATE the HO has changed the dates to September 27th to Oct 7thā¦ this is even worse!!! @Angela_L Didnāt I see a few weeks ago that the minimum age THS recommends puppies to be for houses sitting is four months ā¦ surely not 3 or 4 days?
Oh I beg to disagree! Few b*** s are able to whelp alone without problems! In the wrong hands an entire litter of puppies will die very quickly! Iām involved with breeding Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and the serious problems which crop up with breathing, feeding, etc etch etc are legion. It is UTTERLY irresponsible to leave a houses sitter ( who probably wants to be shopping in nearby Cheltenham every day!) to have this level of responsibility. A sitter might think: āAawwww, how lovely, puppies!ā but Iād need a cast iron insurance policy that I would not be held responsible for the dogsā health and well being.
@LTD Can you please direct message me the details of this sit as I canāt see anything online for these dates. It could be that itās already been addressed by membership services. Many thanks, Vanessa
@LTD i am sure sitters reading this will appreciate the heads up on this and its not something i have come across; thanks for letting us know