Hi THS Community!
I wrapped up a dog sit not too long— with a very adorable Jack Russell Terrier.
Unfortunately on one of the nights when I was at the house, I got caught up needing to finish some business with work, and when I went past the Master bedroom, I caught a whiff of poop.
I immediately checked upstairs— and saw that there was 4 spots where their dog had either urinated or pooped.
I frantically started applying Baking Soda to take out the odor and searched for whatever Cleaning supplies I could. My Co-Sitting partner wasn’t much help.
Least to say— I felt truly truly terrible that I wasn’t able to catch this incident in time and offered Carpet Cleaning repayments to the Owners when the Sit ended.
There was apparently a few items left at the house, which I completely forgot. But one of the Home Owners ended up telling me she’d let me know when I could come by to the house to pick them up. On the day I was supposed to hear when to stop by, there was no notice of a timeframe to stop by and she merely waited till the next day for the items to expire on her porch before informing me instead.
I honestly felt this came off Passive Aggressive and it left me feeling pretty anxious as I had shared vulnerable communication with the Owners before this unfortunate incident happen. It felt awful that we formerly were building a beautiful bond at the beginning of the Sit. Only for things to hit south near the end.
Has anyone ever had a difficult time near the end of a Housesit?
I have never experienced that. My sits have been quite consistent throughout.
I’m a bit confused by your post, though. I think I must have missed something. What I feel is that there was an awkward situation but can’t see the horror part.
I don’t know the state of the carpet, if this was consistently happening in a part of the house you were supposed to use, I don’t know what their reaction was regarding the carpet, if the item that expired was a carton of milk or an expensive blister of foie entier. You say
which, to me, seems to imply that they are not important to you or that you’re nor aware that you left them behind.
It could also be that the dog had a habit of “having accidents” in the house but there could be two completely different scenarios: this was disclosed and you didn’t supervise the dog or you didn’t know and the dog was peeing in a part of the house you didn’t use.
I am afraid I would need more information to be of any help.
I understand that you are feeling anxious right now, and how you feel is truly how you feel, and that’s a real thing. But perhaps you need to imagine things as if it happened to someone else to get a different perspective and imagine what you would say to them.
The dog pooping etc because you’re mind was on work/business - while you know that should never ever have happened, I think you’re very brave and honest for actually writing that on your post.
Leaving your personal items behind - it happens occasionally, but you could have been more proactive and took control of the timings by saying “can I come at ? time, tomorrow”, so you know you need to do that for next time. It’s a lesson learned, and that’s a fantastic thing.
Expiring items - that sounds like it’s food, if that’s the case, just ask the owner to put them in the bin next time, or use them themselves. To return for food is a waste of energy on your side, there’s better ways to be spending your day.
Passive aggressive - you’ve caused them an inconvenience at a time when they probably needed to be work-focussed or focussed on catching up with their family after being away. So they now need to fit another thing into their diary… along with washing and drying their vacation clothes too etc, so you’ve caused them a little added stress into a time they thought they had control over. It could be as simple as that, rather than passive aggressive. Figuring their lives around you is just another thing on their to-do list, at a time they thought they were in control of.
Vulnerable communication - it’s actually a beautiful thing that you were able to share information like that, remember the moment in which you shared it. You felt comfortable enough to be able to share, don’t let the later situations have any effect on that.
Unless I am missing something - this part is not the hosts fault ?
Have you done house sitting with this person before ? If it’s not working out with them as a house sitting partner maybe need to have a rethink about house sitting with them going forward .
To add to previous comments which reflect my own puzzled thoughts, I wonder if you’re seeking reassurance that you’re not a bad person …. that you did ‘your best’. The problem here is ‘your best’ in this case wasn’t up to scratch and you are possibly expecting a poor Review (which could be justified on the HO’s side). So what could you expect from the HOs Review, well best case scenario they will avoid giving you a Review. Worst case scenario they’ll dock you a star for organisation (forgetting stuff) and for pet care they should by rights dock a star.
You’ll hopefully learn a great deal from this experience. Take responsibility, apologise and up your game. Best wishes.
Oof no- I realize in hindsight I should have left that out.
Post sit— my Co-Sitter partner and I had a discussion and large troubleshoot of what went wrong and what could have been better prevented over the Carpet accident incident.
I was hoping to get cleaning supplies sooner the moment, I noticed the stains— but he was only to find and bring in an Oxi Stain pen later that evening — (which caused upset). The next day - he bought Pet Odor Spray & Natural Deodorizer and Urine destroyer - which were a lot more effective.
We did our best to keep scrubbing and allowing air time to dry out the solutions.
The Home Owners’ had a Carpet Remover product - but I think that made the stains worse.
All of the above was done- Thx.
There def. Was a learned experience from all this— timing, early prevention, better communication (what’s tricky for me as a House Sitter is trying to give the delicate balance of allowing the Home Owners be at ease to feel that everything is taken care of vs. when to step in and communicate some ugly not so great mistakes that happened on the sit) (which I waited towards the end… and wished all in all things could have been done differently).
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- Lastly, for this particular house— Closing all the doors so a dog wouldn’t get inside the Master Bedroom and would stay downstairs.
Ty for taking the time to read!
I would not offer to professionally clean the carpet unless the dog pooping was my fault. I was supposed to let him out every four hours and I didn’t or I ignored him while I was doing my own things and was not a good companion to him. If I felt I did a good job and the dog still pooped then the dog has a history of this that the host is aware of. I would have told them immediately and I bet they would have said, he sometimes does that. I would then ask, any special way you want me to clean your carpet? What was their reaction when you told them the dog pooped?
I don’t understand the horror of things.
Some dogs will poop or pee when they are stressed or excited. It’s not your fault if you were looking after the pet well.
If you cleaned up the carpet, you did what you should have done and it’s not really something you should feel bad about or chase up.
I personally think, you are overthinking the whole situation and just because the house owner left something out doesn’t mean they were passive aggressive.
This honestly just sounds like every other house sit. Sometimes you find a poop, most times you don’t, but when it does happen, just clean it up, let the home owners know and relax.
For future reference, how to properly clean up dog poop 101:
Pick up solid pieces with a paper napkin or baggie. If the poo is liquid, use a lot of towels and gently blot to let the towels absorb what they can.
Next, use an enzymatic cleaner and spray/apply generously over the stained area. Let sit for 5 minutes.
Then, use paper towels to gently blot the area - do not scrub!
Repeat as needed.
Scrubbing a bit at the end of the process can help, but if you just dump cleaner on and scrub you will end up with a bigger, more stubborn, stain.
If you don’t have enzymatic cleaner on hand, make a paste with baking soda and water and apply, but the rest of the process is the same.
I’ve never had a dog accident stain a rug to the point of needing carpet cleaners, so learning how to properly clean up accidents going forward should be helpful.
I once looked after a dog who seemed fine at first, but was obviously anxious… Because on my first night with her, she vomited, peed and pooped all over the living-room. OKOK, I’m an experienced sitter, I can cope with this sort of event. But I particularly remember this one, because - let’s call her Teeny - was a HUGE dog.
I went to get a load of poo bags to pick up the solids.. Before thinking better of it and going for a couple of large bin-liners.
I have never seen excrement on that scale, before or since.
you when you arrived in the living room
Tries to type… Can’t… Laughing too hard…!!
Sounds like you’ve already given a lot of thought to what you (and your co-sitter) might have done differently. At this point, all you can do is learn from this experience.
It also sounds like the dog was in the master bedroom doing his business multiple times, so the pee and poo were sitting for a bit, if not longer. So any damage to the rug might be harder to clean than otherwise. If you didn’t have the right cleaning supplies, in your place I would’ve ordered them delivered quickly, if that was available in that location and you or your co-sitter couldn’t otherwise get them. Or maybe ask a neighbor to borrow such.
For our dog, who doesn’t pee or poo indoors, but will throw up sometimes if not feeling well, we have a carpet-cleaning wet vac that works really well. That’s another item to look for in sit homes, or to potentially borrow. In the U.S. at least, you also can rent wet vacs in some supermarkets or such.
You said you got caught up in work. If you’re working onsite, you should set alarms, because if pets have to go, they have to go. Or your co-sitter should have been backing you up. (Otherwise, sit only with someone who’s actually useful.)
I have sat mostly while working remotely, solo, and have never let my work distract me from my pet responsibilities, because I always set alarms.
As an HO: ALWAYS communicate right away when something goes wrong. There’s a way to temper the urgency, and whether it’s a request for solution or just informing someone, which is kind of an art, but withholding until the end is irritating, because what if I could have solved it right away, saving everyone some headaches?
In addition, a fork or comb can help pull up soft bits without spreading it which can be helpful before blotting. I also find that applying any solution around the edges first and working from the outside edge to the center helps minimize spreading.
The alarms is a great idea!
Oh crikey! I’m looking after a Leonberger for 2 weeks in September and expected to take carrier bags on walks for poo, although went to meet him for a walk and not the case. I really hope though that he doesn’t become anxious and do what you experienced! 
As long as you remember not to eat with the fork or comb your hair afterwards 
