morning. i’m a bit confused. i’ve had melbourne on alert for sits first, for about three months and yet still didn’t find one for my dates. in that time i didn’t bother trolling through my daily input for obvious reasons. however, out of the blue today i did, only to find sits on my daily that haven’t been popping up on my requested location. has anyone else noticed this because obviously i’ve been missing potential sits
plus i don’t know if you can be honest on here, but i’m an honest person. if people want me to sit all day with their pet, my own mental health says no, i need to get out too if just to the gym. so i pass on some nice sits yet they are snapped up and i wonder, do ppl just ignore these stringent demands and just don’t follow them? i’m beginning to think this is my last year because the demands of HOs are starting to far outweigh to me getting someone free to watch their pets. i can’t help but wonder where they are getting this concept that the sitter should stay home. i haven’t read the HOs side, does anyone know whether it says you can utilise the sitter to be at their home and basically there’s no time for them to go out anywhere? just being honest as the longer i do this the more i see very little reciprocal sitting being offered. but again i’m only in australia
Maybe, but there are also the digital nomads that work at their computer from the sit.
Right now I am at a lovely sit, and it is difficult for me to get away except for long walks with the dog. This is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty so that is fine.
For the evenings, the HO gave me access to a cupboard full of hard liquor…
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ok thank you. i do understand this has become more common working from home. however is it in light of this, feasible to separate them as i am seeing more sits than not, wanting you there to sit with a pet all day or walk and feed them three or four times a day. i’m really finding it harder to find sits who actually consider the sitter. thank you. you’re always a quick wise responder
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As sitters who have done over 40 sits, we’ve never felt tied down to looking after the pets. I love to walk so do spend a fair amount of time walking the pets if we’re looking after dogs but that’s what I do at home. We don’t have pets but walking is my daily exercise. We’ve always managed to combine sitting with doing some sightseeing, going out for dinner and other activities. I see some listings that indicate they prefer their pets not be left alone for more than four hours at a time and I find this reasonable. We don’t usually leave the pets for any longer than that.
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Our kids do year round homeschool and both me and husband work from the road so we are with the pets most of the day. By the time everyone is done with their day, then it’s time for dinner. Except for the weekends we are with the animals most of the time. We carefully adjust our weekend excursions around the animals’ needs. The only bad thing that happens is that the pets get so much attention that when we do go out, they complain when we get home 
When we do take vacation time, we do not petsit. We stay in a hotel or Airbnb so that we can heavily sightsee.
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thank you globetrotter, i see from you and others, there are actually many ppl utilising these sits to actually be home. that’s great.
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INDEED. I’m the same way. I actually do it for the travel, pets and muses; museums, neighborhoods sightsees for photography, walking, and well I love playing with the pets. Some are so hilarious! So many different types of pets with so many personalities.
The pet is a major part of why I do sitting. I NEVER leave them more than 3-6 hours. That’s contingent upon what the HO says is doable. Even when I’m told I can leave them for 12 hours, I don’t. I feel it’s different if the HO does it. The pet is already in a new situation. I have no problem getting a dog to walk. Probably because I chose them to spend my time with, and they can tell.
Once someone asked, “What does your typical day look like?”
I responded, "Depends on whether I am on a sit, what the HO requires and the weather. Can’t walk 3 times a day in some climates. So I play, or cuddle with them when I’m not writing, painting or learning new songs. Sometimes you get some pretty lazy pets and you have to urge them. Pets tend to mirror their HO’s lifestyle. Just like people.
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I sit solo and telecommute, spending more time with pets than most sitters.
If I’m sitting dogs who are physically and temperamentally fit, I take them sightseeing. Like I’m doing a repeat sit now and have taken my sit dog all over, including on a hop on, hop off tour bus, and previously on a river cruise and ferry ride.
If I want to sightsee full on, I take extra days before and/or after sits and stay at hotels at my own expense.
That said, I avoid sits where the pets need nonstop attention and many walks. Even with my own dog, he sleeps a lot, so he doesn’t need constant attention from me or my husband. (My husband stays home with our dog when I sit, because he doesn’t like to travel as much.)
Some people forget: Dogs and cats were domesticated to serve as companions to humans and not the other way around.
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How are you setting the alerts? Saving a search on the THS app and making sure app notifications are turned on should do the trick. You might also try manually going through Melbourne sits and putting a 
on the ones you like. I’ve found that alerts for individually saved sits tend to appear a minute or so before alerts for saved searches, for whatever reason.
To answer your other question, my partner and I work online, so we’re generally at home a lot of the time—but we do like to go out and explore the city. THS working at its best should be a win-win-win for homeowners, sitters, and pets! One past sit required us to walk the dogs 4x/daily, lock the dogs in a bedroom when we went out, and not leave for more than 4 hours at a time. The area turned out to be rougher than expected, the dogs were awful at walking together on-leash, and to be honest we felt a bit trapped. You’re right, that sort of thing isn’t great for mental health.
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The making of individual sits into favourites definitely sends alerts at least a few minutes or more before the general Melbourne location alert so we’ll worth doing @bubble #workedyesterdayformontenegro 
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I think it’s fine if the two people in a couple have different strengths- for myself I’m all about the pets, but my partner he’s all about taking care of the house/grounds so it’s teamwork. Perhaps shift your profile slightly towards exhibiting what you offer the HO when you sit for them.
I had x4 references when new and quite quickly got x7 sits. My applications are mostly quite quirky… and includes my mob number suggesting a WhatsApp chat to explore if we might be a match….