A message came up on my phone that I am being tracked by house owner.just realises it’s the key ring.anyone else that has happened to.bit upset it was never mentioned.
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I have just had one of these messages this morning as well. I have done 130+ sits and never had this.
I did a little investigating. The tracker is not on the house keys, it’s on the dog collar which makes complete sense to me. I can find the dog if he runs lose. I think it’s a win win and I wish other pet people did this.
Edit.
My husband is a gliding pilot and will be flying on Monday. The tracker is going on a 500km+ flight around the south of England. The pet owners do have a sense of humour and will find it very funny.
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Its the dogs collar. I knew about it beforehand, and had the app on my phone, so if the dog ran off, I would be able to follow it. Brilliant idea. Also had an app for a cat that roamed far and wide .
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This post just reminded me that the car I offer to sitters has an airtag in it. Oops.
Your HOs probably forgot about theirs too because they would not get any notifications about being tracked. They likely wouldn’t be bothered if you removed the tracker for the duration of the sit.
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People do place air tags on their keys sometimes, if they have had issues with misplacing their keys.
We have never encountered the key tracker on a sit, but we have had air tags on the dog collars.
I definitely felt like I was being monitored, and I did not like it one bit. Also, the dogs slept in the bedroom (separate dog beds), and the trackers made a noise randomly which really disrupted my sleep.
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There is one on the cat I’m fine with that but not on me .
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Yes, we had it recently too. The home host told us the dog had an airtag on its collar which I knew they could track, but until then, I didn’t realise my phone was tracking it too automatically
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Not had a HO-attached tracker yet, but I’ve thought about putting my own tracker on when on a sit. But need to remember to remove it when I leave.
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I don’t think removing the tag is a good idea. If dog runs off you wont know where it is. It’s the dog the owners are tracking not you, if you are giving dog sufficient walks as agreed, you have nothing to fear.
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For OP the tracker is on the keys, not on the dog’s collar. I agree that if it were on the dog that would be a conversation with the HO instead of just telling them you’re removing it.
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@Genevere, only once have we encountered tracking. I’m pretty technie so investigated. Like @ElsieDownie & others, it turned out to be an AirTag on dog collar. We used to have an AirTag on our own, alas late, dog so I empathize with Pet Parent concern. That said, as housesitters then we have nothing to hide but also respect our privacy.
Perhaps situation requires context. Pets vary considerably in terms of intensity of time per day in presence of housesitter - e.g. velco-dog vs normal-pet. And risk of flight varies considerably by pet.
THS related policy does not prohibit such devices but clearly states “all devices must be disclosed to a sitter before a sit starts, and a pet parent must display this information on their listing as well as their Welcome Guide.”
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