Need advice urgently! We were told by HO of our current petsit that we must let the dogs run off leash when walking them. Morning walk went fine and the dogs came when called. Different story with afternoon walk and the dogs went walkabout! It’s been 5 hours now since we started our walk, tracker is running low on battery and we don’t know the area/landscape. This happened to the owners two days before we arrived and the dogs were gone for 10 hours and travelled 18miles! They eventually came home late at night and we are hoping for the same thing. HO’s warned us that it had happened, told us not to worry if it happened to us as it wouldn’t be our fault and also stipulated that the dogs needed to be off-lead when taken for their walks. I have notified the owners with all info but am stressing out as dogs must need water and food and the tracker battery is getting low. Any ideas gratefully received!
As it has happened before and kind of was expected I wouldn’t worry too much. The general advice is usually putting the dogs crate/ bed or similar outside at night (or when you are out). Then the dogs will usually rest in their «place» when they come. Did that with my dog when he ran away on a bad timing as I had to go to work. Put the crate out. Hurried home from work, when I returned he was resting and waiting in his crate in front of the house.
Thanks for that reassuring post @Garfield Only trouble is there are gale force winds here at the moment and doubt the beds would stay on the front porch! Good advice though
I am so sorry this happened to you. This sounds like a crazy and irresponsible policy on the part of the owners. Other than letting them know directly and asking for their advice, I have nothing. I hope you make the conditions of the sit clear on a review whatever happens!
Happy to say they are home again - 7 hours later! The HO’s are aware as we have been in regular contact over it. They were extremely helpful and were more concerned that we were so distressed. They actually picked that the dogs were at or near home by checking the tracker. Relief all round and grateful to the HO’s for their understanding and not placing any blame on us. Thanks all for advice and support
So glad they are back @KiwiSwede !
@KiwiSwede Glad they are home. I’ve only had cats go walkabout, and the longest they were gone was 3 hours but into evening with wild critters outside. But if HOs tell you it is okay, then it is.
Glad to hear they’re back @KiwiSwede
Even if running wild is what the dogs usually do, I’d be really careful whilst they’re in your care, for your own sake as well as theirs. You don’t mention where you’re sitting, or what the area is like, but what if they get into fields with livestock and start chasing cattle/sheep? Or onto roads and cause an accident? It’s one thing for the owners to have such a laid-back approach, but another thing to expect a sitter to follow suit and take responsibility if things go wrong.
I’ve cared for a pair of dogs before and was warned that if they were both off-lead at the same time they would disappear following a scent and probably not return for hours. The likelihood of them chasing sheep during that time was really high as they lived close to open farm land and moorland grazing, so absolutely essential to keep one of them ‘hostage’ on the lead whilst the other had some off-lead time, and then swap. It seemed to work well.
These sound like irresponsible humans, to let their dogs run off leash if they run away like that, and then to ask sitters to do that. Not only could the dogs get hurt or killed, or attack other animals or people, including kids, what happens if they run into traffic and someone say swerves to avoid them and gets hurt or killed, or crashes into others?
And BTW, in the U.S., if the latter happened and someone could prove the hosts’ negligence, they could potentially be held legally liable. If they lost such a legal case, that could bankrupt them. And the sitters might be sued as well.
From a sitter perspective, I’d never agree to such a sit in the first place. And if someone surprised me with such an off-leash demand on arrival at a host’s home, I simply wouldn’t do it.
It’s normally reasonable to follow a pet owner’s guidance for care, but to do it when it carries such risks for pets, other animals and people crosses boundaries. There’s no way anyone could make me do that. And if THS or the host demanded that from me, I’d ask them to put it in writing. Once I had it documented, I’d send it back as proof and note that they’ve exposed themselves to legal liability and see what they say. I bet they’d back off.
Glad to hear they come back.
I hope these off the lead walk requests are specified in the listing so that those of us not feeling comfortable with this requirement don’t apply.
So glad to hear they are back. I’ve had a couple dogsits where the pet parents state it’s ok to let them off leash. Nope. I can’t deal with that type of stress. I talk about this during the application process. Luckily, those pet parents were okay with the fact that unless it’s a dog park, they will always be on leash. Dogs had a great time playing in the back yard with my kids and we’re not irritated at all about leashes walks
Out of interest @KiwiSwede , what sort of area are you sitting in?
Hi @KiwiSwede, thanks for coming back to update us that the dogs are home. That must have been a worrying seven hours for you.
Absolutely!
At what point did they tell you this, @KiwiSwede ? Please do mention this practice in your review, to save future sitters from the stress of this situation.
Glad to hear the dogs are back now, and all’s well. What will you do, going forwards?
You “must” let the dogs off leash?? WHY? Especially if the owners knew the dogs were likely to vamoose.
Yes, sure, a walk is probably more fun for a dog if they can run freely, at least for part of the time. But if they’re likely then to disappear for seven or eight hours… Is that a fair thing to do to the dogs, the animals and people around… Or a sitter?
So why the “must” ?
Hi KiwiSwede, I had a problem once when looking after three dogs. I had to let them loose in the extensive grounds of their home at 10pm ish for late night wee’s. A labrador, terrier and elderly, wiry looking hound. I was warned that the terrier could sometimes take 20 mins to come back. However my first night and the terrier disappeared into some very dense woods, a very long way back from the house. He was chasing rabbits. i could hear him running through the undegrowth at times. But half hour later still not back and it wasan’t very pleasant walking around in the pitch dark calling him.
They had a kind of lobby room off from the kitychen that the dogs slept in. The two younger ones in the same crate and the elderly one in a basket. At midnight I gave up and left lobby door open to the garden, with labrador in grate and the other in basket. Upstairs in bedroom I heard the terrier outside, so went back out in night attire at half midnight. But no luck getting him in. i fnally gave up and turned in at nearly 1am. The next morning about 6.30am i went downstairs to find that the terrier was snuggled up asleep with the elderly dog. After that the terrier was always taken out for late night wee’s on a lead. I could not face the stress another night. I suggest, to avoid the stress, you keep the dogs you are looking after on a lead also. As others have said, you do not know what they are doing, and could well be worrying or killing sheep.
Perhaps they have not been trained very well on a leash and are great pullers @fledermaus?
here here!!
What @Maggie8K said. You want to let your dog run off and potentially get into all kinds of trouble?, fine, but don’t set ME up for the stress of wondering where they are, let alone the trauma of being responsible for a pet that gets killed or causes some other catastrophe.
Heck, I’m not even really comfortable sitting outdoor cats that go off to wander.
You should mention this in your review, and the HO‘s should definitely have it in their listing!