Is bringing your own pet on a sit allowed?

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
143

Hi Rosa,
We have been pet sitting full time with our 10 years old chihuahua, Truffy for 2 months now. It’s not hard, you just have to be intuitive when it comes to the pets and respecting their space. We like to separate our dog from the other pets so the other pets feel safer in their environment and don’t feel like a big change. We also like for them to share space under our supervision or meeting on walks. Our dog is really calm and loves longing. She loves her space and it’s been working fine. I guess it depends on the sitter’s pet behavior, they need to be willing to share space and used to be around other animals. Our last pet experience was a bit more complicated since the Boston terrier we looked after was really territorial and tried to attack our dog. We managed the situation with ease as they were both on leash but some dogs are more reactive especially if they are not trained. We chose to separate them for the entire stay because the other dog didn’t accept our dog in her space so we would put them in different rooms always or one inside and the other outside. This was the only time tho the other times our dog was able to take a nap next to the other doggies.

About how hard it can be to get an opportunity to pet sit… For us it’s been easy even if some owners would rather choose someone with no pet. If you build a great profile and are able to find good words to reassure the owners, they will trust you. This was our experience with dog owners, with cat owners it’s been more complicated. Cat owners don’t seem to trust us with their cats when our chihuahua is the most gentle and calmest chihuahua on earth. I am a big cat person as I grew up with cats and it’s too bad that some cat owners are not so open about having a dog around.

My honest experience and opinion,

Hope this helps

Best,
Galia

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144

Thanks Galia,
I’ve just applied for two sits close (1-1/2 to 2 hours) to home and offered to bring Chance to meet them and their dogs, so I’m hoping this will get me a good sit and a reference. I’ve stayed with Couchsurfing hosts that had cats and never had a problem. Hmm. I wonder if there’s another reference coming up!

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145

Best of luck!

146

I now have two sits scheduled. :smiley:

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147

I am a new member, bringing my small 4.5 pound Bichon Bolognese with me on sits. I’ve done one sit so far and it went really well. I have one coming up in a week. I have applied and been denied SO MANY sits though because of my dog. After this experience and reading this thread, it is making me come to the conclusion that a lot of people have non-socialized and aggressive dogs. Which is surprising to me because dogs are such social animals, the ones I’ve known usually love meeting and spending time making friends with other dogs. The amount of people here that instantly decline applications because their dog doesn’t get along with other dogs just baffles me.

149

@danigirl , there may be other reasons. Maybe people are afraid their own dog(s) won’t get enough attention if yours is there. Because they don’t know your dog, they may wonder if s/he will have accidents in the house. There are a lot of unknowns besides not knowing how the dogs will get along together. It would probably help if you are ever able to meet them ahead of time with your dog. Even if this is not possible, in your application you can anticipate these concerns and cover them.

150

I don’t think it’s just behavioural issues (they’re easy to cite) @danigirl - as @mars says, HOs want you to come and love, spoil, treat, cuddle and care for their pets. They may feel that wouldn’t happen quite so much if you bring your own dog along. Also, some people just don’t like others’ pets in their house, it alters the smell and scent and takes it off balance.

151

These are good points I will add to my profile and applications. But I will say that I’ve had more than one homeowner tell me that their dog wouldn’t like having another dog around. One even said they wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to my dog. These are not trained animals if they’re afraid their dogs will hurt another dog.

152

Many dogs are fine with playing with other dogs at say a dog park. But to invite another dog to their territory, where they live and feed, is a big unknown and can easily be a bigger risk.

There was a recent thread for example where a sitter with a dog of their own had taken them ahead of a sit to meet the sit dog. Things seemed fine. But during the sit, at feeding time, the sit dog attacked the visiting dog when it sniffed its food.

So yes, many dogs aren’t necessarily trained to live together suddenly with a strange dog. It seems reasonable because of that for many HOs to refuse sitters with their own dogs. It poses unnecessary risk and possible stress, not only for the humans, but the pets.

The pets have no choice and it’s their humans’ job to look out for them. And there’s no need to accept a stranger’s dog in the home in most cases when so many sitters are available without them.

153

@danigirl, I was interested to see this thread being raised again 2 years after the original post and thought I may be able to have some input from my own perspective.

As anyone that has been on my THS profile can see, I have 2 miniature poodles. A spayed girl, Luna (nearly 7) and an intact male, Solly(aged 3)
Both my dogs have been well socialised and trained to very good standards. The difficulty is both of them, by no fault of their own, have been involved in incidents with other bigger dogs.

Luna was chased by out of control dogs when she was under a year.

Solly has been attacked twice, the first time, he was just a year old and was bitten by a dog, described by its owner as “over reactive” the dog managed to escape from its harness and locked onto Solly’s neck. Suffice to say the Police were involved and that dog, now has to be muzzled when in public.
The second incident 6 weeks later, is hard to believe, our neighbour had a German Shepherd dog on his property that belonged to a workman, they felt it appropriate to allow the Shepherd on scaffolding 9feet/2.75m up, giving it a birds eye view of our garden, the Shepherd, having seen Solly, launched itself off the scaffolding into our garden, proceeded to chase him around the garden into our house and pinned him to the floor, Solly was so scared he urinated while the shepherd was on top of him.

Having now given you a little background, both my dogs are still in the main ok, but, understandably, they both get anxious around other dogs, particularly German Shepherds.
Solly loves to meet some breeds of dogs, usually the same size or smaller than him, but sometimes he doesn’t want to go anywhere near another dog and takes measures to avoid it. So I’m very aware there could be issues.

Having said that, we have had sitters, who, with our knowledge, brought their own dog, a delightful 12 year old female Bijon/Maltese cross.

The reason we accepted the application from them, was the confidence and knowledge they have of dogs. Their dog was incredibly calm and had been trained as a companion dog, so did not react negatively to other dogs or humans.

The sitters, rightly so, exuded confidence in their ability to deal with dogs and the knowledge and trust of their own dog. They were aware of dog protocol, how to introduce dogs correctly, how to feed them when together to avoid issues initially and then if problems did arise how to positively and safely handle the situation. This was all discussed in the original contact with us.

The sit went off without a hitch. Yes, there was an initial settling in, mainly to do with Solly acting like Casanova! (He’s a a novice and is definitely going to stay that way)

I do wonder however, that if it was a male dog, he may, understandably, have had territorial difficulties.

As @Maggie8K has stated in her reply, there has been another post put on in the last few days, regarding a sit where the sitters dog is being bullied by the HO’s dog. It reads as though it could get incredibly difficult for the sitters dog, separating them etc.

I don’t think all HO’s will turn you down, perhaps keep trying and don’t be disheartened.

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154

As a homeowner I can tell you that the reasons that we would decline to invite someone wanting to bring their own dog are:

  1. They wouldn’t have read our listing very well.
  2. It’s really less a question of knowing whether our dog would be ok, but rather the risk that either the sitter’s dog wouldn’t or that the interaction between them would be poor… the risk is that it wouldn’t work out well leaving a big issue to resolve on very short notice … it’s just not worth the bother when most sitters do not include their own animal in the mix.
    It would be nice if THS had filtering on important fit issues like this, smoking, need of a car, etc to prevent sitters and owners from even seeing each other’s listings if there is some showstopper issue.
155

@Sally1959 I’m so sorry to hear about your dogs being attacked, that’s just awful. I had a similar experience with a previous dog that I owned. I learned a lot from that and how dogs can be. I’m always pretty cautious now.
I appreciate you sharing your experience with a sitter bringing their dog! I also am very aware of dog protocol and how to introduce them. I have been trained previously and also took my dog to training as a puppy. He is very well trained and well mannered and I feel like I could handle any kind of situation around dogs. I would never rush things, I want to keep the dogs safe and comfortable.
That exact sentiment of “why would we even bother when there are other sitters without dogs” is why I’m having such a hard time even getting people to consider me. Just because someone doesn’t have a dog doesn’t necessarily mean they would be a better sitter. I know dogs very well, the fact I have trained a companion dog that I can take ANYWHERE with me, such as airports, my corporate office, and restaurants, should be a good indicator of my abilities. I just wish people would see it as me being more capable instead of thinking of it as a problem.