Your last sitter sounds like a nightmare. It makes sense to try to correct course. You just want to do it in ways that don’t put off a bunch of good sitters unnecessarily. That’s also to your dogs’ benefit.
Worth considering: The best sitters typically have the greatest choice of sits, because they’re well reviewed and get invites, including repeat sits. That means it’s easier for them to refuse sits if tone or dynamic is off, for instance.
You mentioned that you’d take a friendlier tone in asking questions. That would be ideal. FWIW, your listing doesn’t sound particularly welcoming, so it’s worth considering whether what you find friendly or such actually sounds that way to sitters. I’m not looking to sit for you, but I’d like for you to get good sitters, because it sounds like your pets have already been through enough.
Thanks, Maggie. Are you able to point me to a good listing or two to get ideas on how to position mine so it sounds more welcoming? (As a management consultant I tend to write things in a very “fact based” manner which may not come across as welcoming in an ad)
Hi Kimberly,
I’m so sorry to hear of your horrendous experience with the sitter. It’s even worse that she had completely hoodwinked you as it makes you doubt your judgement .
As regards to your profile - it’s pretty good but you might want to have a line at the top highlighting that only sitters experienced with reactive dogs will be considered. Otherwise, they have to read all the way down before they get to that most important bit.
There are certain words/phrases that put me off (“sitter required” is one of them) and any hint of an employer/employee vibe. Your listing sounds quite friendly and I would apply if we were in Oz for Christmas.
@kbyportmelb , I’m so sorry you had such a terrible sitter. How anyone could not love and protect your gorgeous dogs is beyond me! I think your listing looks nice and I see you already have five applicants as it’s in reviewing status. Just making sure you know about the pause after five policy. THS automatically puts your listing in reviewing status when you’ve received five applications and you can’t receive any more unless you decline one or more of the applicants and manually unpause your listing.
During your phone or video call, I would let the sitter ask most of the questions. Then in a friendly, conversational tone ask if they’ve ever taken care of reactive dogs. Do either of your dogs exhibit fear aggression toward people or just toward dogs?
You can ask if any of the dogs they’ve ever cared for had been in a fight or been close to being in a fight and ask what happened?
And if they’ve ever had to communicate bad news to an owner during a sit. If you asked me (and probably most of the other sitters), the bad news had nothing to do with the pet and probably involved being horrified that we’d damaged something in the home. Then we were afraid we’d have to pay huge amounts of money to repair scratched shower glass or a scratched induction cooktop or replace a crystal wine decanter only to find out after we told the owner, that they’d already been that way! I know, off the subject, but I think this is the most common bad-news scenario.
Choose sitters with many exceptional reviews. You’ll be able to tell.
Apparently we can’t share live postings within a certain period in the forum, so sorry, can’t share examples here. I’ll DM you some listings.
FWIW, some sitters have bucket list sort of locations they want to sit in. Some sitters do only a few sits a year, while some do them heavily or full time. I mention that, because measuring sitters by number of sits alone will tend to skew toward retirees and nomads. The full-timers and frequent sitters often book way in advance, because they chain sits together. That might be useful to keep in mind in your deliberations.
Hi everyone. This is just a reminder that we only allow listings to be posted in the forum if the PP is actively seeking sitters for a sit that starts within 7 days. Thanks for your help with this.
Way too formal as others have commented. These questions all together would be an instant red flag for me as a professional sitter. It comes across as though you expect complete perfection, and if you are expecting such, you should probably PAY a professional. We all make mistakes, and getting someone who can answer questions well does not mean they will actually act that way, or even have any intention of acting that way should a situation arise. I personally wouldn’t want a HO asking me about my ‘worst experience’ house sitting, it’s quite an invasive question. If I were asked that, I’d probably not be able to answer as my worst experience is truly one that still affects me negatively to this day. Try and keep your interview more positive, and you’re more likely to get genuine answers. I’m also concerned about answering questions about dogs getting in fights. Obviously these things happen, but if your dog is prone to fighting/biting if should probably not be on this app.
Unfortunately not AFAIK, unless you read one profile after another, which would be onerous. And many sitters don’t declare even by country, much less by narrower areas, in their profiles.
It would be great to have such a declare and search function and it’s been suggested before to THS.
Very very difficult situation you find yourself in and I applaud the fact you are giving it another go.
Maybe, find someone local that you can invite round for a couple of visits before you go away and watch the interaction with your dogs. That might give you the confidence boost you need to trust someone with their care.
which may not come across as welcoming in an ad)
.