I usually don’t watch dogs, my balance is off and I have a hard time cleaning up large messes without falling in myself but I had an owner request me for two weeks and assured me it would be an easy sit. I’m halfway through and there have been excessive amounts of vomit and poop daily and it’s too much for me to keep up. I contacted her about it and she said it’s normal and she didn’t feel the need to disclose it. I asked if she was okay with me paying someone to come help clean up when I physically can’t anymore and she approved but I don’t know who to hire. Does anyone have any recommendations? I tried rover and taskrabbit and neither worked.
Uhm, I’m having a hard time believing that a dog owner would think that it’s normal that their pet vomits every day… and that they say you can hire someone to help you clean up.
Something sounds odd in this story.
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If the dog has excessive poo and vomit maybe it is ill and needs a vet? Dogs poo a few times a day, hiring someone else seems a bit over the top.
Are there any neighbours who can recommend local cleaners?
Hi @Looney
I saw that you’d tried to contact Membership Services yesterday but couldn’t get through to someone, and the team have now replied asking for some more detail. I have added information from your post but it’d be great if you could reply to the email with more context.
Hopefully they can give you some support with this.
It’d be great if you could pop back and let us know the outcome, as it’d be good to know you and the dog are both ok.
Thanks!
Jenny
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I really do feel for you in this situation. For any animal to be vomiting etc to that extent, to my mind, indicates that all is not well with their health.
I found myself in a similar situation last year where the HO casually mentioned to me about ten minutes before she left to catch her flight, that her dog would ‘occasionally’ get diarrhoea. She said she’d taken the dog to the vet to have him examined but they had found nothing abnormal. It turns out the diarrhoea happened every time we went out for a walk! It was an absolute nightmare trying to clean it all up plus must’ve been so horrible for the poor dog.
I recently bumped into the owner with the dog as this was a local sit. I asked how the dog was doing and she told me he had been diagnosed with colitis and he’s had his diet completely overhauled and is now on medication.
I really hope Member Services can intervene on this as it sounds like the animal may have an undiagnosed health condition.
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That’s not normal for any animal. Any owner who thinks a dog vomiting regularly is no cause for alarm and perfectly normal let alone doesn’t think a sitter should be told should probably not be allowed to have a dog.
Is the dog poo is outside the house in the garden? In that case I would leave it for the owner to deal with when they get back and let them know that you are unable to manage as you had already discussed with them. If it is inside the house then their dog is either seriously ill or completely not house-trained. Both these options should be a no-go for being on THS. If so I would suggest to the owner they need to get someone in at their cost to clean as you are unable to manage this.
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They’re aware of their physical limitations as already mentioned in the first sentence of the post. Getting someone to assist is not “over the top” nor a result of “just not experienced with dogs”. More a result of another owner not being truthful about their pets to secure a sitter.
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@Looney what did member services say ? If dog is vomiting then you should contact the vet to find out the cause .
After you get through this difficult sit, PLEASE circle back to member services and insist that they talk to the homeowner so they can direct the HO to disclose this health-related information before future sitters accept the sit.
And please, for the benefit of all us sitters out here, please leave a factual review about this pet and the HO’s lack of transparency. Nothing emotional; just the facts.
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I wouldn’t stay at a sit where the host lied about the pet’s health or withheld key info like this. Such hosts don’t deserve sitters. I’d definitely let THS know and write the review specifically so other sitters would know to avoid the host.
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Thanks for the replies everyone! I was starting to worry that it was my fault. My bio asked for disclosure on excessive messes and/or medication. I never accept huge jobs during a certain week of the month. I’m terrified of getting a bad review over this, I can’t feel her attitude at all. She says the puke is normal but the pee and poo inside is not. The puke disclosure was definitely needed but I swear these dogs aren’t potty trained. We go out hourly and while I’m stopping one from eating poo in the yard, another will pretend like they’re done outside and as soon as we’re inside they’ll poo. The puke has NO warning either. I just have to hope for the best and the amount of each is more than I’ve ever seen. Someone asked about inside or outside and I’m talking inside. The HO said before the sit to leave the outside poo in the grass and let the rain take it.
I’ll finish the sit and disclose the messes in my review, the HO even told me she’d understand if I left a bad review after the first day of chasing vomit. Other than that the sit would have actually been really nice. It’s unfortunate I wasn’t warned and took it at the worst possible time for me.
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The owner gave me their dog walker contact who is also a neighbor and I was able to pay her to come help out on one of the really bad days.
The listing and her invite ensured me it was an “easy” sit. I JUST had food poisoning and my period is taking place during the sit so I would not have accepted the sit at this specific time had I been warned it would be this bad. I never take anything that I can’t handle. It’s been ten days with 23 inside messes so far. Most of them on the same days. I was chasing the messes for days no matter how much we went out. At first I contacted the owner thinking at least one of them was sick and that’s when she told me that he has stomach problems and it’s normal for him.
The question of my post though is who to hire when things get excessively bad. On the off chance that I encounter struggles again I just don’t know who to hire and I got lucky in finding someone here. Dog care says they aren’t cleaners and cleaners say they aren’t dog care so who do I hire?
@Looney That sounds really, really bad. Gosh. I don’t know what to say. Perhaps try a local facebook group, maybe there is a teenager desperate for some cash, that’s willing to help out.
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OH @Looney , I feel for you! I hope you’re feeling better. How much longer is it? Make sure you detail all of this in your review. Did you have to pay the dog walker yourself or did the owner pay? Can the dog walker continue to come for the remainder of the sit? And be paid by the pet owner?
Yikes that’s a lot. The dog is clearly not well. I also find it hard to believe that the owner doesn’t realise this is an issue. I’m sure someone will be along shortly to tell me not to make negative assumptions of the owner but seriously the only way I can see an owner not thinking this needs bringing up is because they knew it would be an issue and are relying on taking advantage of your commitment to see it through.
I also can’t believe the owner isn’t paying for the dogsitter to come help you and you’re paying out for it.
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Oh the teen help is a really good idea! I’ll keep that in mind for next time. Luckily the sit is over tomorrow. Unfortunately I paid the dog walker to help that one day AND I bought some potty pads to try to help but they just move where they mess. So that’s a bummer. It’s almost over though! The dog walker said I could call anytime if I needed more help but I’m not trying to pay a bunch of money for this sit so I’ve toughed it out the most part.
I also agree that they had to have known. I’ve been a petsitter regularly since about 2015/2016 and I’d say I’m pretty good at it. I know how often to take them out and everything so I’d be really surprised if this really is only happening during my stay.