What do you think is the right thing for owners to do if their pets damage clothes or footwear or other property of the sitter?
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The “insurance backed guarantee” is only for damage to the owner’s property, it turns out. Not for the sitter’s property. But as you pointed out, if your pet damages someone’s property, the owner is responsible! Unless they are puppies and you have been forewarned.
Yes - absolutely. I did them a really massive favour! They were let down by their original sitter and I stepped in at short notice. There were four absolutely adorable pets - and some challenging difficult situations.
It was definitely not a “massive favour” that they allowed me to stay in their house! I was working! They needed someone to stay - and if they had paid for the service, it would have cost them well in excess of £1000! When you volunteer, the work often comes with accommodation! Nobody is doing you a massive favour by putting you up when you are volunteering for them!
It was a lovely, large, well-situated house. Unfortunately the garden was a dust pit as the lawn hadn’t been lain until right at the end. And there was constant construction noise from a neighbouring house. So although it was August, it was not pleasant to sit on the patio except at night, when the noise stopped and you couldn’t see the dust pit!
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I would just get the boots repaired and make sure that I did not leave any of my shoes lying around again. Hard lesson to learn, but it may save you future worse damage -as many dogs think that anything on the floor is a toy. One of my home owners cautioned me not to leave my suitcase open , since her cat peed in a previous sitters luggage. You have to anticipate things happening with animals.
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Glad to say, the owner has agreed to meet the cost of a repair. She has found a repairer.
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Just an update. I was told by the repairer they couldn’t do the repair until the New Year, that I wouldn’t get my boots back for at least a month, & that the new shoe tongue would not be the same as the tongue on the other shoe. As you can see, the tongue is a very prominent part of the shoe. Not wanting to be without my walking boots for over a month, and not being willing to wear a pair of boots that looked different from each other, and not wanting to continue feeling unpresentable each time I had to wear those boots, I finally decided to buy a new pair of boots. I invited the HO to contribute the cost of repair towards the price of my new boots, which they did, without comment. It wasn’t the easiest time for me to afford new boots when I shouldn’t even have needed to replace them. I put the damaged boots in a recycling bin, and felt so much better. This has finally been resolved more than 4 months after the damage!
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They now cost ÂŁ150 new. But I found a discounted pair online (not in my preferred choice of colour) - for ÂŁ99.99 + delivery. I did ask THS to mediate in this matter but had no response.
I think THS should have something in place for these situations. After all, they have insurance for HOs’ property. Anyway, it’s all sorted now.
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We have a dog who is liable to chew shoes and boots, which is why we shut all of our shoes away from her. I do however explain this to potential sitters and advise that shoes and boots are always shut away when not being worn. Having warned sitters about this, if they then leave shoes or boots out and they get chewed I would not expect to pay for the damage. However if I hadn’t warned and their property was damaged I would offer to repair or replace the damaged item… likewise I would not be happy if she was left with access to my footwear by the sitter and it was damaged in my absence.
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@Marilyn any updates on the owner offering to pay for your damaged shoe?
I just had this happen to me recently and would love the community’s advice.
The HO had a detailed doc but didn’t mention chewing habits. I came home first night and found my slipper chewed up (I left them at the door). I sent photos and shared with the HO about the incident in a matter of fact way, the homeowner responded that it must be dog 1 and apologised.
I’m curious what would you do in this case? I was hoping she’d offer some kind of compensation for this mishap by her dogs but doesn’t like she’s going to.
Edited to meet Community Guidelines.
@traveller I too had a situation where a dog we were sitting chewed up one of my (expensive) Crocs flip flops and chewed completely through a pair of beautiful knickers I had bought in Bali! (
)- he stole them out of a laundry basket! I sent pics to the hosts & mentioned the cost of replacements and they apologised profusely and reimbursed me immediately. I appreciated this very much and it is exactly what I would do if roles were reversed. The sitter is unpaid and I would not want them to incur any costs in sitting for me- either by way of damage caused by my pets or for any other reason.
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I had a dog decimate a travel pillow within minutes of getting to a house after a long haul flight. I had literally just put my bags down (the pillow was attached to one of the bags) and then the owner was giving me a tour and by the time we got to the kitchen the owner’s spouse came into the room with the pillow kind of telling me off for leaving things unattended. At the time I was just worried that the dog had ingested some of the filling and had made a mess and it never crossed my mind that anyone would get me a replacement (and they didn’t btw) but just writing about it now many years later it does seem like at the time I put the bags in the room they could have said oh you will need to keep this door closed because he will grab anything.
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I just lost a pair of slippers to a household with a cocker spaniel in it and tbh, I chalked it up to the cost of “doing business”. it was a cocker spaniel and I’d left the slippers out. It was also a young dog with little training. The sit before had two cockers that would take your shoes or anything left out and carry it around the house.
To a certain extent, I think there’s a point where it makes sense to not trust pets you don’t really know around your stuff. Anything that was precious, I kept in my room or behind some other closed door.
On the flip side, as an HO, our last sitter has lost 2 of our pricier carabiners and damaged a lead. He offered to pay for the latter but luckily I have a dog gear business so I told them not to worry. My dog also loves them to bits so we chalked it up again to cost of “doing business” and just ate the cost.
A few sitters ago, our dog was hospitalised due to a mistake made by the sitter and we probably should have filed a claim because the sitter could not afford to pay for the bills. This was much more painful to swallow bur the amount would not have been high enough to warrant a proper claim. Incredibly frustrating and upsetting.
All this to say that these types of losses go both ways and it’s great that the HO’s in your situation agreed to meet you at the cost of repair but it’s a tricky one and I’d suggest moving forward, don’t trust your stuff around the pets. 
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Yea. That’s pretty bad form from the HO. They should have said something immediately. It’s A bit frustrating that they put that on you as opposed to acknowledging that their dog lacks boundaries. That really would have rubbed me the wrong way.
Just posted about losing my slippers on a sit this month…I didn’t bother asking for a replacement.
If you’d like to potentially be reimbursed, it wouldn’t hurt to just express that and that you didn’t realise it would be a problem to leave shoes by the door, especially if they also left theirs there and there was no guidance in the welcome guide about a chewing habit. Then just ask if they’d be willing to reimburse the cost given the circumstances. They could just say no. Either way, definitely would be helpful to mention it on your review so future sitters are aware about not leaving stuff out. I wrote about my slippers being a casualty lightheartedly in my review. X
I tend to bring my worn, crummier stuff when I sit. That way, if anything’s mucked up or destroyed, oh well. I also operate on the idea that I don’t know these pets and what they might chew, pee on, etc., so I try to be wary, especially at the start. Like if there are cats, I don’t leave my baggage open or otherwise at risk.
Even if the pets are normally not destructive, you can’t predict how they might be when their humans leave.
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