While I generally applaud the updates, I am left with some questions. Is the description of how long pets can be left alone per pet, per pet type or overall? Let’s assume a situation with a dog in the house and a couple of sheep in the field. I can easily ignore the sheep all day, while the dog may have a maximum of 4 hours.
I also question this when I see that the cat sits I apply for now have either up to 6 hours or more than 6 hours as the time they can be left alone. A normal work day for a pet owner away for work is easily 8-9 hours. For a cat that is not a problem. But due to the default times shown, the owner now will “force”’ petsitters to spend more time at home than before. I think again you should differentiate by animal type. For a dog 4 hours is probably the maximum, for a cat (i had cats myself) i would have something like 6 hours, 8 hours, more than 8 hours. Anything less than 6 is simply ridiculous in almost all cases.
This is a really good point.
I have just checked a listing that has a dog, cat. tortoise and chickens. At the top of the responsibilities section it says “Pets can be left alone for up to 4 hours”. You are correct that this implies that all pets can only be left for up to 4 hours.
It then has a section for each named pet where it individually lists the amount of walking required for the fog, and whether medication is required for each named pet. There is no section for the chickens for some reason, perhaps because they are not listed individually.
If poultry or other pets listed as a group rather than individually needed medication, would this show on the listing @Mark_B ?
Indeed. We have 3 dogs that run around free all day, so no need to walk them. Please add that option.
Is there an option of ‘Can’t be left alone at all’?
Hi all,
Following your feedback in the forum, some tweaks will be arriving on Monday (26th January).
EDIT: These will be available on both app & web.
Owners will be able to state if a pet does not need to be walked. The screenshot I’ve shared below also lists all of the different text options that you may see in the listing (only one of these will be visible at a time).
Note: image used is an example, the final text on Monday will say “No walks needed”.
We’re also adding some more detail about how long pets can be left alone.
Note: The example that I’ve used is assuming a home with multiple pets - only one of the text examples will be shown at a time.
We’ve made the ‘More than 6 hours’ option a little clearer (previously +6 hours) and clarified that the timing be shared for the pet who needs the most company, additional details can then be discussed on an individual pet basis.
Finally, I just wanted to reiterate this point. We’re monitoring feedback and tracking data to understand how we can deliver changes just like these that positively impact the highest number of members in the most positive way. However, in so many cases, there is no substitute for a great conversation about the specific needs of each person, home and pet(s).
Thanks again for the feedback, and helping us to deliver an even better experience.
@Mark_B Are these “tweaks” the same on both the app and website?
Yes - Sorry, I did mean to include that.
We like the new boxes. If a pet parent has chosen ‘never alone’ or ‘up to 2 hours’ then we will not even consider submitting an application. ‘up to 4 hours’ for an attractive listing is a question during video call. For us, we only progress sits where pets can be left for 4 hours. We enjoy pets and would not intent to leave them for extended periods on a regular basis. But we’d like to go out for dinner or other everyday activity without pet(s). This is a personal preference and many housesitters probably have differing preferences.
Curiously, we also sometimes discover an expectation disconnect of absence duration (and exercise duration) between what pet parents action themselves, and what they expect of housesitters. Strange, as impacts net calories & pet care. But happens.
This new ‘improvement’ is beyond ridiculous.
If a listing has multiple pets it states - one or more of the pets can be left up to 4 hours! How is that helpful?
Well, I don’t agree with you that it’s ridiculous, but the way it’s written looks a bit silly. It brings up the question “what about the other ones”. Of course they mean that all other pets can be left longer, but it will be more clear if they skip the “one or more”.
Do you mean issues like let’s say the listing has a dog and a cat. The dog is the one that can be left alone up to 4 hours, the cat would manage even 12 hours. The dog is easy to take with, but the cat cant really be comfortably taken with to anywhere. So the sitter is not really given proper information, because they might think that the cat also can manage only 4 hours, so that is the maximum the sitter can be out at all. Or do you have other concrete examples of issues, or is it more about the wording or something?
I stay away from only can be left alone for two hours. I would feel like free labor with that one. I have also seen confusing messages from PP who I also stay away from. On more than one listing I have seen two walks a day am and pm. It also is marked can be left alone up to 6 hours. Then when you read the listing it says, must be let out for quick potty breaks several times a day. How does that work with being gone for 6 hours.
It doesn’t concern me if you agree with me or not. We all have our own opinions.
What does concern me is all these ‘improvements’ covering areas around how long pets can be left for, arrival and departure times, visiting guests etc etc.
These are all areas I and many other experienced sitters discuss in detail before confirmation.
We’re finding that surprises now occur between listing and video call.
After several video calls, we’ve alas now come to regard the introduced pet exercise statements (e.g. “Total of 60 minutes walking per day” in OP example) as illustrative rather than reality. Commonly actual exercise (video call) has repeatedly been much lower than stated in listing (e.g. listing ’ total of 2 hours walking per day’ → video call 2 x 20mins). Given that data source is the same - Pet Parent - then we can only but guess that guidance provided to Pet Parents when completing listing is unhelpful, lacks granularity or encourages over-estimation.
For us, the primary purpose of this new exercise information is to eliminate listings (blacklist function please 
) that have exercise requirements that exceed our personal preferences.
Thanks for medication symbol - useful function 
.