Hi everyone:
What have you done after a sit where the animal is extremely poorly behaved and could become harmful to yourself and others? I’ve just sat at the home of a lovely family. This pup is one year old, not trained nor neutered. He was sweet at times but rather aggressive at others. I’ve got scratches and got to the point where his barks seemed to go from play to threat. Finally, I placed him in his kennel and notified the owner that I would be leaving about 2 hours early. Frankly, I was scared. I’ve been around dogs all my life and have never experienced anything like this. I wrote the owner a note outlining the bog’s behavior.
Questions: What should I do about the review?
How do you avoided or identify situations like this?
What would you have done?
Welcome @Orawro
Sorry you had this experience.
The T&Cs state that pet owners on THS should not have any animal with a history of attacks on pets or people on a sit :
5.2.11. not have any inherently dangerous pets (such as venomous snakes or constrictors, primates, wolves or wolf hybrids, non-domesticated cats, alligators), banned dog breeds, or **any animal with a history of attacks on pets or people.
So you can report this to member services ( along with photos of the scratches ) hopefully based on this information they will take the listing down to protect future sitters .
You can contact them via live chat 
or e-mail :
Support@trustedhousesitters.com
Had there been any previous reviews from sitters for this pet ?
Fair and factual with little emotion is best. At the very least, it gives future TSsitters a chance to have a conversation about the pup, if it is a location and home that interests them.
So something like, “as this pup grows in age and receives more training…”
There are plenty of sitters with many skills for all types of dogs."
But I say if the pup was aggressive and scratched…a report to MS for them to follow up is good.
“what do you do after a horrible pet sit?”
Reflect on what I could have done better. Realise there was nothing I could have done. Come to the conclusion some people should not have pets unless they are willing and committed to their training and welfare. Reach for the chilled bottle of rose wine and start looking through the THS listings.
Seriously, you coped well in a very bad situation you found yourself in. Don’t beat yourself up about the dog and it’s lack of training or aggressive behaviour. We are only looking after the pets for a very short time and it is not up to us to try and correct their behaviour.
As for a review, you have to be completely honest. A less experienced pet sitter could be in danger with the dog you described. Factual and emotionless. Try to put this experience behind you and carry on doing what you love. All the best.
Back when I first started sitting, experiences like this made me say that I don’t do puppies under 2 years old. They are too much of a wild card.
Now I’m like 95% cats only🤣, but puppies are a LOT of work and supervision, let alone if they aren’t trained or neutered.
I looked after a non-neutered Akita male that was about a year old and a much more chilled older female at the same time. I learnt my lesson (although worth noting the HO’s didn’t initially include that the dog wasn’t neutered). Not doing that again. That’s all you can really do. There is no point having a convo with the owners. More likely than not people will just get defensive in that situation. You just need to learn to set perimeters that work for you.
As cute as they are, puppies are a lot of work (and depending on the breed can be crazy strong and play very rough). Personally I appreciate dog owners who have some effective ways of dealing with bad behaviour (especially snapping in the general direction of faces- that’s my worst nightmare). Maybe the initial chat can give you a bit of insight on that in the future… does the dog just get a ‘tsk tsk’ if it really miss behaves … if so what will be your recourse when you are looking after it and it becomes uncontrollable on a walk or something?
My family’s very first petsit included an elderly dog, medium ages dog, and a puppy that wasn’t in the original listing. No fenced yard, actually no back yard where they could do their business because they had a pool and hot tub, an electric front fence that the medium dog ran past because she was a squirrel chaser, and the puppy was round the clock work and the other two dogs did not like him. Oh boy. After this sit, I learned to ask better questions during the application process
No. There were no previous reviews. They were new to this site and it was only my second official sit. I wanted to give them a chance because they offered the same to me.
Going forward, I will only accept pets with reviews that actually have comments from the sitter. Not just “I cared for this house…”
The refusal to write about what happened is probably a hint.
Thank you all for your insights. I will set stronger parameters for accepting a sit. I will embrace that it’s not my job to fix things that exist when I walk into the door. I will not allow this hobby to cause me stress.
Elsie, thank you very much for your note. I needed to read that. You’re correct. I’ve been beating myself up and it’s not my responsibility to change the pet’s behavior. I’ve put too much attention on not being able to control the situation and not enough on all the elements that were in play when I walked into the situation. Going forward, I will do a better job at screening potential sits.
Thank you again.
I would have done what you did, left early and left the note.
I often don’t review when a sit’s not to my liking, but in this situation, where the dog is threatening, I would write a review, so no one else walks into a dangerous situation.
Just want to separate the two things, as they’re being conflated in the comments…
Desexing a dog before it is fully matured is questionable at best. I know a lot of people do it and have done it this way for a long time…that doesn’t make it right or accurate. Even with very small dogs, it still takes around 12-16 months before they’re fully developed sexually, mentally, emotionally and physically.
Desexing is also a wild card and can not consistently predict behaviour or health (you’ve essentially cut off your dog’s supply to growth hormones required to allow them to fully mature)…properly training and socialising your dog is a much better predictor of behaviour. I’m not saying don’t do it, I’m saying the way it’s often flaunted as a panacea for fixing or preventing behavioural issues and creating a more “manageable dog” and doing it before a dog is matured?…hmm
Ultimately though, your dog your choice.
That aside, the fact that this dog is untrained and by the sound of it, an accident waiting to happen is a completely different thing and very dangerous.
- I would write a very honest review. To a certain extent, yes, puppies bite and depending especially on the breed type, it’s to be expected, but this sounds like it’s far beyond what would be considered reasonable (unless you say a mali or similar in which case, par for the course tbh as they explore the world.)
- I would report this sit to TH with images of you have them. They need to train their dog. @ElsieDownie hit the nail on the head…some people genuinely don’t deserve dogs and it’s disgraceful to allow a dog or anything to be brought up without adequate foundations that will allow them to be successful in their environment.
- I would expressly have asked questions like what are you currently working on with your training and how can I reinforce the structures you have in place? Especially given it’s a puppy.
- asking if the dog is in-tact or desexed is also still a good question and then asking if they exhibit any related behaviours, such as is there any concern of the female going in heat while on the sit? Excessive marking, etc. If someone hasn’t talent taken the time To teach their dog how to “adult”, it’s a problem.
It’s so important to vet sits well and ask all the questions…you should be getting to know if the HO is a fit for you as much as they’ll be checking if you’re the fit for them.
So sorry you went through that!
@bakindoki . Thank you for the information about neutering as related to age. Can you please provide the source for the info. I have to say that the photographs of the 2 dogs would have been more impactful if it showed the dogs side by side together. It is perhaps misleading as currently shown.
Hey Maggie,
Happy to share a few links found doing a quick search from the back seat of the car 
but in truth, would suggest that everyone do their own research and NOT just take my word for it as this is already a divisive topic:
-
AKC Canine Health Foundation | Health Implications in Early Spay and Neuter in Dogs
-
https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/avma-policies/pediatric-spayneuter-dogs-and-cats
-
https://humanepro.org/magazine/articles/deconstructing-spayneuter-debate
This last one, I think provides a very balanced perspective, which is that it’s really tough overall to draw correlations in either direction based on the research out there, which ultimately is the point I’m making…there isn’t enough info out there for people to be drawing these conclusions but one thing that does make sense is maybe we should wait till the animal is full grown before permanently changing their system unless there is some other greater motivation…in the case of dogs and cats, that motivation is actually usually population control over everything else.
And that is something else you’ll notice about some Of these links…the motivation for des3xing early and often will change depending on who you’re asking.
A breeder will include it In the contract to ensure that unwanted litters don’t dilute their programme
A shelter and oftentimes vets will encourage for sooner rather than later because of population control
And while removing s3x organs ensures that s3x-related issues won’t occur, des3xing too early has also been shown to correlate to joint issues and other health concerns such as obesity and other forms of cancer because, again, the dog does not have the opportunity to benefit from reaching maturity and have hormones to help their body regulate. (Again, more research is still needed)
There are also tons of legitimate images online that show the difference between a dog that was des3xing before maturity vs after. The one I shared? Two brothers, different homes. Do I know the dogs personally? No
Again, purpose of my original comment was to share an insight because I see des3xing thrown around a lot as a solution to behavioural problems, when in many cases (not all), removing hormones that help with moderating emotions can create more problems, especially if a dog was never given the concerted opportunity to work through those emotions first.
And ultimately, behaviour modification should not be your justification for des3xing your dog (in my opinion as a dog trainer that works with predominantly behaviour cases).
Happy researching! X
@bakindoki . Cheers for that. I will take the heat for going off topic. Now back to regular programming
“What to do after a horrible pet sit”
For similar reasons I won’t look after a dog younger than 2 either.
I hope you write a review that prepares other Sitters/Guests for what to expect, so they can make an informed decision. I’m in a similar situation: dog is extremely anxiety ridden, destructive, unsocialized and poorly trained while also large/strong. I’m pretty experienced with dogs and this is testing me. And I’m on edge that I or someone else might get hurt or my property damaged. There are previous Sitters/Guests that did not leave reviews and I think this is why. If I had been able to read authentic honest reviews, not just the pet owners input, I would have declined. I agree with @ElsieDownie comments; someone could get hurt - and most of us are not dog trainers. Plus there could be consequences for a dog if it harms a person or another animal.
Yes. I agree. I’m definitely in the learning phase. I’m also noticing when a sitter doesn’t leave a review. Unfortunately, pet owners don’t always tell the entire story.
Correction…she sent texts, not emails.