Funny, that’s exactly what we do too, it just doesn’t look like that to you.
I can completely understand why people from places with predators and where you don’t know all your neighbours would find it hard to get their heads around it! And that’s totally fine This thread overall though is reassuring me that some people will be happy to work with what we have, and that I’m giving the right information for people to make a decision.
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Thanks ElsieDownie. I think people’s comfort levels have a lot to do with what they’re used to- what you describe is totally normal for farm dogs around here and is exactly what my husband grew up with. I grew up in suburbs where enclosed gardens and lead walks are the norm so I was a bit nervous at first too when we moved up here and got our first dog, but I’m very used to it now. It wouldn’t work with every dog either, some are just wanderers by nature, but Spot and Amber before him both are/were very happy with their own territory.
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Your sit wouldn’t put me off, even though I don’t sit in remote locations. That’s because I’ve sat for some dogs with non-wandering personalities, so I can imagine your situation working. Like I sat in a British village with large open fields and my sit dog was fine off leash. And on two other sits, the regular gardener or window washer forgot and left the gates propped open and none of my sit dogs ran away, even though they could have. (Now I check gates before letting dogs out back if a worker has been there.)
The fact that you have a GPS tracking image that shows your dog’s habits helps as well.
Of course, there’s no guarantee your dog will behave the same with a sitter, but you sound like you understand that. It just takes sitters who think the risk is reasonable and are comfortable with that. I actually think the risk is manageable, from what you described. I think some city dogs I’ve sat, I’d never trust off lead, because they have personalities that include chasing after squirrels or such.
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