I’m a project manager who works from home and I’ve started doing THS sits with my gorgeous, gentle, funny dog Murphy. So far the response has been great. I’ve got five sits booked for the next few months. However, these are all local to me and I’ve had the opportunity to meet up with pet owners to check their dogs get on with Murphy.
My plan is to build up a good reputation and five star reviews on THS, so when my daughter leaves home next year I’ll have freedom to grab my work laptop, take Murphy and do some housesits in Europe. Obviously, I won’t have the opportunity to meet owners and their pets first.
I’m interested in the experience of other people applying for sits when they have their own dog with them. Are pet owners happy to receive applications? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experience, whether you’re a sitter or pet owner.
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Hi Helen, we recently did a house remodel and needed a place to stay with our 2 dogs for 2 weeks so I took a leap of faith and posted my desire to house sit for someone locally and bring my 2 dogs along. A THS member just 2 miles away from my house replied to my post and was happy to have me, my husband and our 2 dogs come to house sit for her 3 dogs. It was a busy but fun 2 weeks and it saved us a lot of money on AirBnBs! Now we have new friends and our dogs do too!
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Ah, that’s great. Thanks for sharing. That’s really encouraging.
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Bringing your own pet along will limit your opportunities, but there are sitters who successfully do it. As an HO I’d be leery of a dog, but that’s because my own two cats have never lived with a dog and would probably never come out from under the bed. Maybe if it were a 14-yo lab that just wanted to sleep all day?
I don’t know if it would work for you, but maybe also consider posting listings for people to come sit Murphy while you’re on another sit?
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My husband, 2 boys and easy going Labrador have carried out several house sits.
If it’s just myself sitting and I’m looking to sit in a city I apply for sits with cats only as there’s more freedom for me to go out and explore.
If the whole family are going on a sit I only apply for sits with dogs (and chickens, cats etc) as it I think it’s more likely we’ll get chosen - I don’t ever apply for cats only as make the assumption owners wouldn’t want our whole family and dog on cat only sits.
We’ve (understandably) had applications turned down as the HO’s animals wouldn’t get on with another dog or because they may not want a family staying in their property but we’ve usually found a sit eventually.
The last sit we all went on involved another lab and a border terrier and we arrived to find both girls on heat - the Labrador seemed to think our spayed girl was a boy and kept pecking her pretty roughly to get her attention which perturbed her quite a bit but it was an enjoyable sit 
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Hi, thanks for sharing. That’s really encouraging. I’m definitely finding that some people are ok with me bringing my dog. 4 sits booked now 
. Likewise I’m not applying for site with cats. I have my own cat and after 3 years Murphy still doesn’t enjoy his company 
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