We just declined a sit from a couple who wanted to busk around town whilst sitting for us using our dogs as a side attraction. We were astonished! I contacted TH to complain. Apparently there are no rules or guidelines set by TH to stop sitters doing this activity using your pets. Astounded TH would not have guidelines protecting our dogs against this activity if the sitter is using our pets to receive voluntary donations from the public?!
That is appalling. They could be out all day in hot sun etc. with lots of strangers coming up and petting them, or offering treats. There needs to be a rule, that pets cannot be used by sitters for financial gain.
Sorry to hear about this.
I think this is the first time I’ve seen this topic come up on the Forum, so I’ve passed your comments over to the team, and asked them to take a look.
I can see that Membership Services advised that you could raise a member dispute, so it may be worth doing that too.
Jenny
Oh dear. Surely THS is not okay with this pimping out of pets.
Isn’t that just taking your dog to work?
Buskers are not beggars. People give money to buskers for their talents.
Wouldn’t that be using THS for business purposes, which is not allowed re. the terms?
Both
Terms of service
" 5.1.12. only use the Services for domestic and private use, and will not use the Services in connection with any business or other organisation or for any commercial purpose whatsoever;"
and
The Acceptable use policy
" Only for personal (non-commercial) purpose and primarily for accessing our Platform which allows users to arrange house sits as a Sitter or Owner. Use of the Platform in any other way, is not permitted."
At least they were honest with you because you may not of known their intentions if they didn’t tell you. I feel sorry for the dog having to sit for hours on cement. Any if they are lousy singers, I really feel sorry for the dog. I hope THS implements a policy ruling against this. Even if they didn’t take the dog I would wonder how long would they leave the dog alone while they do this.
Apparently TH does not recognize receiving “donations” whilst busking a business or employment
Thankfully they were honest and told us of their objectives. Totally agree the dogs care is paramount and sitting for hours on end on a pavement is not in my view care
That may put a spanner in the works for all the WFH sitters!
We really need more choice of emojis to respond to posts.
Ones like 
This is ridiculous. 
Forced to be nice! 
Yes, I find it very frustrating at times.
They need banning, THS should be stepping in on this one, it’s about your dogs welfare and care, and they have a total disregard for that.
I love buskers with dogs, as long as the dogs are happy, content, and loved… but not when you are using someone else’s dogs, and you don’t even know the dogs!
It’s every kind of wrong, THS needs to act on this.
Depending on where you are, they probably need a permit anyway, if they are naive to that, they lack common sense too.
@robandwendydean, wow. While we’ve only been housesitting for a couple of years - not much by veteran standards - then we’ve never heard of anything like this. Monetization of pets - wow! Mention to provide comfort that it seems extremely rare.
OK, OK, OK. I realize that my story isn’t exactly a parallel scenario BUT … I was once in Las Vegas and encountered an unhoused person who was begging and he had an approximately 6 month old kitten with him. Let’s face it, I was more likely to notice him because of the cat. I was sickened when I overheard him telling another person that he was going to get rid of the cat because it wasn’t drawing donors like a young kitten. So this story of the HOs dog being used as an added attraction hit a chord. I don’t want any animal used this way.
The problem is, now that they’ve had a negative reaction, they may not be honest in their subsequent applications. I think at the very least THS should contact them and tell them that taking hosts’ pets busking is absolutely not on and they will be banned if there are any other reports of them planning to do so or having done that.
Im speechless!!! THS attracting some special people these days… 
I really hope they would but unfortunately I don’t think they will.
Seems odd and rare. Good that they asked you.