I’ve been wondering about the “pets who cannot be left alone” option on the platform, and I’d love to understand how other sitters approach these sits.
I completely understand that some pets experience separation anxiety and genuinely struggle when left alone. That’s not what I’m questioning. I’m more curious about how these sits work in practice and why would people apply for it, especially when the owners are away for an extended period.
For example, I recently came across a listing for a 3-month-old puppy whose owners would be travelling for 20 days, with the requirement that the puppy could never be left alone.
How do you manage basic everyday things in that situation? For example, going grocery shopping, running an errand, or attending an appointment? Would you essentially need to stay home with the pet for the entire 20 days? And again… why to apply?
I’m genuinely curious about how sitters make this work, and whether there are practical arrangements that owners and sitters usually agree on beforehand.
Sometimes I struggle to understand how these expectations are meant to work in reality, particularly when the owners are away for several weeks and for me, it doesn’t seem to be a sitting for this plataform, but maybe someone that works petsitting. I’d love to hear other sitters’ experiences and perspectives!
Well, one way to address it is to sit as a couple. In fact, I’d imagine such sits would only accept couples. Well, there’s always door-dash and the like.
I just skip such sits. But I do sit dogs that I’ve never left alone at all, like on my most recent sit. That dog was able to go everywhere with me, since he was good on car rides and wasn’t reactive around people or other pets. He did apparently get anxious in crowds (host told me that), so I just didn’t put him in such situations.
Groceries wise, I ordered delivery. Likewise with some meals, but others, he was able to accompany me to dog-friendly restaurants, because the weather was reasonable. That can be tougher during winter, because some countries (like the U.S.) allow only service animals into restaurants.
Of course, depends on what you’re trying to do or see while sitting. Like obviously you can’t bring a sit dog into a museum, theater or such. For such sits, if you want to do them, you could take the sit and tack on hotel days before and/or after, so you can do things that aren’t dog friendly. Of course, you could just skip such sits.
Some people telecommute or sit full time, so they might not care if they can go sightseeing on every sit or or trip. Or some people sit as couples or families, so they could take turns watching the dog at home.
You might also consider asking the host(s) whether they’ll hire someone to spell you for a few hours or a day or two, depending on how long the sit. Or maybe a friend or loved one of theirs might be willing. Depends on the host and maybe on how badly they want you to sit.
This is what happens when people forget that our exchange for this is to travel and experience new things. This is treating us like true pet sitters… we look for house sits as sitters, yet owners look for “pet sitters”. We can’t be it all. I feel so passionately about this due to so many experiences lately…
The wonderful thing about being a sitter is that you can choose which sits you want to pursue. Obviously, the problem is when contradictory requirements are disclosed when you get there.
Also, listings will say how long a pet can be left alone. Problem is, a HO can say 6+ hours for one pet, but that may not be the case for all the pets. Deliberate deception or reading the question wrong?
Speaking of this issue in the most general sense, I think that hosts can request whatever they like in their listing and sitters can decide for themselves if they want to apply or not. As long as they are being transparent about what they want and need, no one is getting taken advantage of.
Given this is not a paid exchange, I imagine most sitters would not be interested in such a sit though.
But you never know..some may not mind. If it is a touristic-type place they have been to before ,or they are more local, they may not be as interested in being out and about, at least to places they would not be able to bring the dog.
Or if the sit is in an area where there is not much going on in that regard, they may have planned on being home a lot anyway and they really wouldn’t care .
But your question is a good one as there are going to be instances where bringing the dog is not practical or allowed at all. From all the listings I have looked at, I have not come across this scenario very often, so I have never paid much attention to whether such listings are more likely to come from households with multiple people vs a single person.
I would not apply to a sit like this regardless of the fact that I sit with another person, or that I actually spend a lot of time at home anyway regardless of my location.
Also, that we would likely be able to bring the dog with us most places does not change my feelings on it either–just because I can do that does not mean that I want to do that.
The only instance where I would possibly consider doing this is if I had a short gap in my schedule and other elements of the sit worked well for me.
My initial reaction to such a listing is that these pet(s) are extremely spoiled and needy. I don’t quite understand why homeowner(s) would want pets that they can’t leave on their own unless the homeowners want to feel totally needed by their pets which I find really unhealthy. It’s almost akin to insecure parents who won’t let their children out of their sight. I definitely would never apply on such listings.
I would be ok to do such a sit if the owners were up front about it. I applied to one such but the owner only disclosed that I could be away for two hours max once the sit was agreed. I decided to cancel at that point as I thought I could be in an emergency situation where I had to leave urgently. The sit was local to my house in UK and I could have taken the dog to my own home if I’d had to go there but I just felt this was unreasonable as an exchange. Apparently the dog barked a lot when left and the neighbours were already up the wall over the issue.
I did feel sorry for the dog but I am not Superman!
I do take on challenging dog behaviour sits ( They seem to be my speciality !) maybe that’s why the Home Owners don’t put them in kennels but rely on kind and generous hearted sitters!
I would never apply for such a sit. An owner that expects the sitter to be 24/7 company for the dog does not understand the fair exchange nature of a THS sit.
We spend a lot of time with the pets we sit, but we wouldn’t apply. The shortest time we’ve left pets alone is 2hours, but we usually we stick to a minimum of 4 hours because it suits our lifestyle better.
By the time we pop to a cafe and do a very light food shop, that’s 3 hours gone and that’s without the travelling time to and from their home.
So it’s rare we consider less than 4 hours, but it do it on occasion for one reason or another.
We wouldn’t apply to a sit where the pet could not be left alone.
We have done sits where we haven’t left the pet alone at all, but that was our choice, not a necessity, and they were able to accompany us to cafes and on days out. There are also 3 of us.
Like @HappyDeb we look for sits where the pets can be left for 4 hours as a minimum.
It’s a really good question as I’ve often wondered how the hosts manage?
We’ve done dog sits where we’ve hardly left the dogs at all, they went with us to visit my elderly uncle which was our main purpose in sitting in that location. The Listing said 4 hours but tbh the elderly dogs were so good they pretty much went everywhere with us in the Host’s car: my uncle’s place, beach walks, pub, cafes etc however as a couple it was far easier to manage as just one of us usually did the shopping.
ALWAYS get the Welcome Guide in advance of agreeing to a sit.
Review it and decide if the parameters work for you. Address any issues in advance with the HO.
No advance directive…That’s a Deal Breaker Ladies.
What’s fair depends on the individual and how they value a sit. It’s bartering, so both sides decide whether there’s a deal worth making.
Many sits I find completely unappealing (and some that even make me scoff) get applications, so to each their own.
Some folks for example need to be in X place and/or they can’t afford shelter, so maybe just staying in a home with a pet(s) sounds great to them. Or some folks sit full time and might just want a place to decompress, not go out. Or maybe some folks are on their way to elsewhere.
If a sit goes unclaimed, especially over and over, that might send a message to the hosts (or send them searching for suggestions to better their odds).
Some sitters say they’d only do some sits for money, but personally, if a sit isn’t appealing to me, I wouldn’t do it even at generous market rate.
If it were my favourite type of puppy and I was looking for some quiet time maybe I would consider it. But as a couple so one can still shop etc. Every sit and sitter is individual.
