I’m having the exact same problem on a sit. Owners home is on a large private estate, the dog is used to running around on walks with no lead, I don’t walk dogs off lead which she begrudgingly accepted. He pulls on the lead, of course. However, the last two times I’ve let him out for a wee either just before bed or first thing in the morning, he scarpers. They don’t shut the gates to their house so he just runs off and explores. My grey hairs are multiplying at an alarming rate…
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Do they expect you to go thru that again? I couldn’t deal with this.
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This is why I don’t apply for sits where pets are allowed to roam free. Could not deal with the stress and would feel awful if a pet didn’t come home or was injured by a car or other animal.
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These are irresponsible pet owners. Dogs running at large are a huge safety liability and usually unlawful in most cities.
It is absolutely not normal for dogs to take off when off leash. I am horrified that these HO find this to be acceptable. They should be reported to THS.
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We’ve experienced a couple of instances where the home is rural and with land and the dogs are allowed to roam freely (that’s why I asked @KiwiSwede what sort of area they’re sitting in). Try to walk them on the lead and they pull like trains, since they’ve never been trained to the lead. Likewise, often they’ve never been properly socialised to traffic or crowds, so walking them outside of their comfort zone is not something which can be done.
Having dogs disappear for hours is just not something sitters should be expected to put up with, or facilitate.
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Generally - dog need to run off lead to be healthy and happy. That is why training them is vitally important so that they get recall…
BUT - some dogs can be very well trained but on occasion they just decide to go…
On balance i would rather see a dog exercised properly. We have done quite a few sits for dogs who could not go off the lead because their recall was non-existent - and it was awful for the dogs. Even with us walking them ALL day - they still did not get to stretch their muscles properly…
If it is stated in the sit description then that is how it is. Don’t take a sit unless you are prepared to care for the pets in the same way the owner does…
We had a dog like this last Xmas… siad we would sit again once her recall is complete!!!
If a dog is well trained, they can go off leash. Like I’ve sat dogs in village and city settings who were good at recall. One was so responsive, she even immediately hopped up onto the side of a popular riverfront path on command to make room for passing cyclists. Her primary human had even trained her to go out the front door to do her morning pee on the Glasgow city sidewalk by herself — we were blocks from a subway station and the busy high street, so she had been trained to not stray.
For dogs who run away from their primary humans and disappear for 10 hours, including getting 18 miles away, does it matter whether they’re in the country or elsewhere? Any sitter risks serious problems letting them off leash. Even their primary humans can’t get them to return. And even in a rural setting, a dog wandering for hours can get into trouble.
Some people have outdoor dogs in rural settings — they don’t even need walking — but those dogs have presumably been trained to not run away. If they’re runners, that would still be trouble for a sitter, unless both they and the hosts don’t care if something happens to the dogs and potentially lead to harm to humans or other pets or livestock.
Most certainly! But, we always check out the recall of sit dogs in a safe environment first, rather than simply taking the pet parent’s word on it. Dogs can act differently with new people, so we don’t take unnecessary risks.
My point was that dogs who spend their lives in isolated locations are occasionally not trained to the lead, at all, not that it is okay to have them roaming and not under control:
It seems the pet parents at this sit haven’t invested in much training and don’t worry too much about where their dogs are, so I suspect it’s a rural sit where the OPs are landowners. That’s not an excuse, or to say it’s acceptable to expect sitters to facilitate this, more a reflection of our own experiences (though we’ve never encountered a runaway).
We did one sit where we were warned on arrival that one of the dogs liked to investigate hedgehogs in the (extensive) grounds during her evening ablutions. She actually used to avoid coming back in until she’d barked at them for some hours during the twilight hours, dodging every attempt to put her on the lead! We very quickly learned to take her on the lead for her final piddle of the day, saving both the hedgehogs and ourselves a lot of anguish!
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Agreed on checking for yourself and not relying on a host’s guidance about off-leashing. I’d expect anyone experienced with living creatures to realize that they don’t necessarily act the same way with strangers. That’s true even with humans. Like you and I don’t behave exactly the same way with everyone we encounter. 
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Totally agree. Owners are totally irresponsable and should never make unreasonable demands from a sitter. To allow dogs you do not know off lead in an unsecure area is asking for trouble and As a sitter, I would never agree to do that. Owners need to list all their requirements from sitters on the listing so sitters can make an informed decision. So often I find that owners sneak in their requests after a sit has been confirmed such as mowing large lawns ( maybe a cheap way of taking advantage and not wanting to pay a gardener) not listing ALL responsibilities upfront should be grounds for cancelling the sit as there should not be any suprises during a sit. Recently, a listing I confirmed showed use of internet but when I got there, there was no internet which was a major issue for me not be able to do my private work such as banking. Had I known upfront, I would not have taken the sit as this is an automatic deal breaker for me. Another major pet sitting agency will not even allow their sitters to have owners’ pets off lead in an unsecure area at all. It is up to sitters to use common sense and only agree to what to do what they are comfortable with in a responsible manner.
**[quote=“Maggie8K, post:9, topic:58111, full:true”]
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.
Tangentially, insurers tend to drop customers if they find out they’ve been doing negligent or irresponsible things that lead to legal or financial risks. So say your dog is running around and causes a fender bender and someone claims or sues against your homeowner’s policy. They might not only decline coverage, because of negligence or irresponsibility, they might drop you as a customer and then blackball you with other insurers. If your mortgage lender finds out, they might demand immediate repayment of your entire mortgage — because banks and such don’t want to hold mortgages where the asset (the home in this case) is unprotected. That’s why, when you get a mortgage in the first place, you have to get insurance before the mortgage lender / bank will close the loan.
Hello KiwiSwede,
I am relieved that the pets returned home safely. It is concerning to know that the homeowners would allow such demands from the pet sitter, as this can lead to significant inconvenience and stress, similar to the situation where they were gone for hours. Moving forward, I will be more careful to keep them on a leash since you want to avoid any liability for any damage they may cause to themselves, others, or property. Thank you for sharing as this is a learning lesson from all THS.
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I am very relieved to hear that the dogs are back. However I have to say personally I would never accept a sit In which they required us to walk dogs off leash who have already been known to stray, and much less with strangers. We had a situation in Scotland in which the dog, a senior, actually slept outside. It was obviously by choice because it was all we could do to coax the dog inside but it was still extremely stressful for us during the night. Especially as the man had never owned a dog and never took him to the vet and the dog seemed uncomfortable.
Anyhow, this is a different situation and I guess if you accepted a sit where they requirement was to have the dogs off lead then I guess that’s what you must do but I certainly wouldn’t let them off again, And I would tell the homeowners that I was not comfortable doing that again.
In Spain amongst olive and almond groves up in the hills but surrounded by other residences who all seem to have dogs which involves a massive choir by all of them (the dogs) every morning! They are not trained to go on a lead and even my strong, ex ice hockey player husband cannot control the younger dog on a lead! I am in a quandry as to what to write in my review. I want to be honest but at the same time, not offend the HO’s who are extremely nice and have trusted us with their beautiful home. Previous reviews (2 from one sitter and 1 from a second sitter) didn’t indicate any of the dogs’ activities/lack of training that we have had to contend with. Aside from that, the dogs are very affectionate and loving at home.
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We were told the day we arrived. We are here to the end of the sit and started the sit a day early as HO had been notified of a late appointment an hour away and in the same city as their departure place early the next day. We agreed to the day early before the sit commenced. I must say, that communication with the HO’s has been excellent during the sit, which makes writing the review even more delicate, but at the same time, being honest.
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sounds magically beautiful 
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I assumed it would be a situation like this.
You cannot change the dog’s behaviour or train them to the lead in the space of a short sit, so I guess you now have to decide whether you let them out as per the owners instructions or you keep them at home and endure the stress of frustrated and under-exercised dogs.
This is the HO’s way of doing things but they really should have specified this in the listing or at least during your video chat, not sprung it on you on the day of your arrival.
I totally understand that you are reluctant to leave any sort of negative review because you feel the HO’s are ‘extremely nice’, but reviews aren’t a reflection on the host’s character, only on the situation you have experienced and what you wish you’d known before confirming the sit.
I’d write something like:
X and Y (HO’s names) welcomed us warmly and communications during the sit were clear, straightforward and easy. The home is beautiful, clean and comfortable and the location amongst the olive and almond groves superb. The dogs (insert names) are very affectionate and loving but we were told on arrival that they have no recall whatsoever and regularly go walkabout for hours. We found this to be true and also experienced that they are very strong dogs who are not trained to the lead, so exercising them safely was a concern for us. That said, we enjoyed our time at (insert place name) and loved spending time with these lovely dogs at home.
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Perfect and thank you! Will copy and paste. It is really interesting though, as well as having bred and raised dogs (my husband, that is,) and looked after many during housesits, this is the first experience of this kind. When out exercising the dogs, the younger dog always comes and checks where we are and then goes off to find his “older brother”, who is usually digging in a rabbit hole somewhere. We have an idea where the older one is by checking his tracker now we understand it! They are extremely agile dogs and climb the clay rockfaces like mountain goats. The older dog is very good at conserving his energy but the younger one tires himself out and eventually comes back to us long enough to get him on a leash, mainly because he’s stuffed and thirsty. The older dog comes home sometime later, when he is ready as no amount of calling him will make him lose focus on what has captured his attention! They have not been gone for hours on end since the AWOL episode, but we have had them out for at least an hour each time and then they sleep the rest of the day away!
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