That’s a very useful way to start, you can then prompt more specific information like sleeping habits, behavior in walks…
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Ditto.
Don’t bother yourself with mind reading. Approach things as you believe are good and correct in this process and a good match will happen.
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I had a call about a prospective sit and felt like talking to the PP was like pulling teeth. Something felt off. PP is a young person whose pet apparently lives with her parents, but the house itself looks uninhabited. Neat and clean, but sterile (no art on the walls, clothes hanging in a corner of what appears to be the kitchen). She doesn’t want to meet or even come across one another to hand off keys or do an intro w/pet. I came away with a transactional feel from the conversation.
Possibly a non neuro-typical person. For my daughter even do a VC would have caused levels of anxiety for her to deal with never mind meeting irl 
.
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Thanks everyone for your feedback.& comments.
I don’t know if I would have been offered the sit because I withdrew my application shortly after the phone call.
It’s a shame because I got the impression that the dog & I were ideally suited
I felt exactly the same, as expressed by KC1102 -
I would not have felt confident or comfortable accepting the sit, as I did not think that the host was fully confident in selecting me.
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That is a good decision on your part. You have to trust your gut, in the end.
None of us can read minds! Every situation is unique; people are unique.
You probably dodged a bullet. Best wishes going forward.
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I’m an owner and I love questions from sitters, but…if the questions are about why my pet has the routine that they do I take that as a red flag sometimes. For example my dog sleeps in a crate at night. If the sitter asked something along the lines of can she not sleep in a crate because crates are cruel - I would take that as second guessing my choices for my pet. I always open the call going through the pets daily routine so questions that indicate a sitter thinks the routine can be materially altered or that they ‘know better’ than me about my pets well-being would not make me confident about that sitter.
But questions about the dog’s behavior, training, medical care (including emergency care), how they get on with the cats, if they have a bite history or reactivity to other dogs/people, etc - I love those types of questions! Confirming if the pet can be left alone and how long (it’s in my listing but I always want to confirm), what kind of toys/treats/chews they have access to - I always welcome those questions and that gives me confidence that a sitter knows what they are doing.
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Yes I know. I didn’t mean to suggest that the Sitter shouldn’t ask about those - more that if their questions seemed to suggest to me they were uncomfortable with the routines outlined.
I was referring to routines that were in the listing and were being questioned. It would suggest to me that if the Sitter might not observe those.
Yes that’s exactly what I meant @Newpetlover. It’s all about trust so if the Sitter asked questions that seemed to be pushing/questioning some of the requests outlined in the listing, for eg, that the dog should not be left more than 4 hours, that it should be allowed to sleep in the bedroom, that it is fed 3 times a day etc then it would raise a doubt that these things would actually be adhered to by that Sitter.
In an ideal world of course they would, but some HOs have had previously bad experiences, as this forum details. I know some Sitters find requests like those above unacceptable for unpaid sitters but they are what some HO require as per their listing, and I respect that.
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Yes and that’s totally fair for you to do that. I’m just saying that you raising those things may be a red flag for the HO.
It might just mean you’re not a good fit for each other, which is what housesitting is frankly all about.
Same here. For safety reasons (street dogs, and depending the season, weather) our dog’s walks are rather short during sits. We explain that in the listing.
Once a sitter, who’d never been in Thailand, was clearly questioning that on the video chat.
They talked how much they loved long walks, and maybe our dog would also like longer walks. They also explained me that the street dogs normally are so afraid of leashed dogs and people with them, that they just run away. Well, that’s not the case here.
That sitter actually had a whole long list of questions, most of which were already answered on our listing.
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Exactly! The owner knows the pet best and second guessing is a red flag that the sitter won’t respect the pets routine.
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Well… I think the two labrador brothers on my sit in Gloucester had more fun when I was there than with their ordinary routine. That was to walk them separately. (Main reason for that was the owner’s poor back and the strength of the dogs. She told me that her daughter had used to walk them together.)
The owner had given me free reins: “This week, they are your dogs.” And with the help of the sons of @Debbie they remembered again how to walk together.
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Great to hear! When that is the guidance from the owner, go for it!
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Thank you for the update!!!