As do sitters. Your pup is an outlier in terms of care and supervision needs. She sounds smart and stubbornly willful. She’s clearly taught you some past lessons. Maybe recall a time before you’d learned those lessons and then consider that sitters are new to the situation and will make mistakes no matter how much detail you put into your Welcome Guide. Some of their mistakes are old hat to you, others new.
I disagree with many comments you’ve received here that place the major burden of responsibility on the sitters. It sounds like they coped quite well with your pup’s curveballs. They responded quickly and appropriately as needed and kept you informed and in the loop. And you say your dog adores them. What more should they have done? With a critical eye toward your Welcome Guide, your video chat and handover, who dropped what ball when? Them? You? Both? Your account is not clear.
Consider that a critical review of the sitters will likely reflect negatively on your sit. If the sitters respond well to a critical review with details about the issues encountered and how they handled them, I suspect future sitters will react by avoiding your sit. It all depends on the details and how they’re presented by both parties. Were I in your situation, I’d couch my review of the sitters in terms of lessons you learned rather than mistakes made by the sitters. Done well, you’ll convey an honest assessment of the sitters without being critical at the same time you’re emphasizing the unique but manageable challenges future sitters need know upfront.
In the meantime, you can take away a few new lessons. I’d include the value of liquid- impermeable mattress protectors and not leaving important concerns to the Welcome Guide. (My personal observation is that only 25% of sitters actually read the Welcome Guide and fewer still actually assimilate what they read).
I agree it’s a little hard to determine how much accountability the sitters have for the incontinence issue as it’s a known issue being managed but medication isn’t always perfect, and I don’t know what ‘pottied enough’ means because it’s not like the dog has a meter on it telling you when the bladder is empty. It may be a nuanced condition that can fluctuate a bit and new sitters just meeting the dog may not handle it perfectly each time. We also don’t know what the bedtime routine was and how much these sitters deviated from it. If the dog is used to a pre-bedtime walk and they just took her out for a potty break, then that is significant and needs to be called out. If they took the dog for a walk and the dog refused to potty, well that’s trickier and may just be one of things where no one is at fault.
I think closing the bedroom door was reasonable of the sitters if the dog was having accidents there and there was no mattress protector. I’m sure they didn’t want more damage/soiling of the mattress, even if it meant the dog was affected/stressed for a few days because she lost access to key portion of her territory.
The chocolate is tricky because really it’s best to clear counters off, especially with a dog you don’t personally know. And it could have been much more serious if the quantity ingested were greater - probably not a big deal if they left a loaf of bread that got eaten but chocolate can cause significant toxicity to organs. I do think that should be called out and hopefully the sitters themselves learn from it, especially since they had a shelf to put the chocolate away. So that was careless on their part, IMO.
The ruining of pots was careless but they did step up and offer to replace them, so I think that’s all squared away and no need to mention it.
One of the key elements is, how did other sitters do with these pets and this home? If others sat trouble free or close to it vs. these sitters, that’s telling.
I don’t think that’s a perfect barometer. I have friends with a dog with similar incontinence (leaks during deep sleep) and the medication helps a lot but dosages need adjusting from time to time. Also, other sitters may have had issues but opted to just clean up the accident and not mention it. OP said it only happened twice so maybe some sitters just let it go.
I do think OP rating 4 stars is appropriate though as these sitters did seem a bit careless overall (the chocolate, pots, letting the dog in the sofa).
@Maggie8K Some sitters may not want owners to know of any mishaps that may have occurred for fear of it affecting their review. This may be the case with this HO’s past sitters or the dog may not have been as prone to having accidents.
Last year I did a dog sit a week after other sitters had. It had been booked a number of months ago. They gave a glowing review but did not mention much about the 2 dogs. Everything was wonderful! On arrival, I discovered the elderly dog’s back legs were giving way, she was having toilet accidents despite doors being open and being taken outside and there were signs of dementia with her pacing and not being able to settle. She was unable to be taken on walks. These issues did not suddenly arise after these previous sitters had left. Nor had the HO informed me of the changes in the dog’s health which I explained was important to do. I’m a very caring person and have looked after numerous senior pets so, of course, I looked after this beautiful dog. I did dock a star for accuracy of listing. However, I was not that impressed with the previous sitters for not being upfront about the dog’s health issues.
Assuming all sitters are as upfront as the sitters in question, that’d be telling. As a host, I’d never presume to know everything that happened in my absence. That’d be fundamentally unwise imo
If dogs are peeing indoors on furniture, items are broken, dogs eat chocolate, pet behavior changes following a sit, those aren’t things that are easily hidden, whether a sitter wants to reveal them or not.
OP said it was 2 accidents only, the dog never counter surfed before, and the items were just some pots. And some of the behavior (chewing, counter surfing, jumping on furniture) may have been triggered by the sitters closing the bedroom door to prevent further spilling of an unprotected mattress (even OP stated the dog does better and thought that’s why the dog acted out) when she has access to that room, so removing that likely caused some stress but it wasn’t an unreasonable action on the sitters part).
Definitely not 5 stars but I think 4 is appropriate. OP said they are newer sitters so hopefully they will just learn to pay more attention to the details. Or maybe they should sit ‘easy’ pets if they can’t/don’t want to follow specific routines.
Also OP has only had 5 sitters prior, so very possible these issues happened before but just not disclosed to the owners.
On the contrary, everything could have been easily hidden and definitely not have been mentioned. The behavior changes might be the exception but did the dog act up during the sit or is it acting up now? If I docked stars for pet behavior changes following a sit, no sitter would have ever received 5 stars from us.
Agree, they could have not disclosed the accidents, not disclosed the chocolate since the dog didn’t need a vet visit. The damaged pots, not really as the owner would see that when they get home, but they offered to replace them so that’s ok.
And yes let behavior is always slightly changed after a sit, but mine recover quickly (except my male cat - he likes to hold a grudge )
)