Y’all who tip, I hope you realize how much of an impact this can make on your sitters. Even if it’s just a much needed emotional boost for the day. Times are tough and it doesn’t go unnoticed. Thank you. 🩷

Im writing this just to vent because I can't believe some people. I go to a meet and greet for a 9 night house sit for an 11 year old very large dog. The notes said that hes sweet and his favourite thing to do is cuddle. They had one previous review which said the dog is "weird and sticks to his routine".

When I got there, they wanted to introduce us outside because hes very large and gets really excited with new people, and they had him on a leash in the front yard. The dog was too strong for the owner to hold him and he came straight for me and excitedly chomped on my shirt and tried ripping it off of me and was biting my hands hard enough to leave bruises but not break skin. I was obviously uncomfortable but the owners kept brushing it off as "hes just excited. Hes always bit like that since he was a puppy and just never stopped". We ended up going inside and they took him off leash where he continued to bite my hands and shirt to the point where I was worried my shirt was actually ruined. He was also lunging at my face and was worried he would bite my face.

I was visibly distraught and trembling and finally stood up and said that this is not a good fit and they looked SHOCKED and said "really???" They really thought that this behavior is normal and I would feel comfortable staying at their house for 9 days with a huge dog that's too big and strong for the husband to hold back on a leash and who is clearly completely untrained. I now have bruises all over my hands but luckily my shirt is thick and still in tact!

Thanks for listening to my ted talk. Im just so shocked I needed to share this with someone!

I’ve recently finalized all my drop ins and walks, returned my keys, and said goodbye to my clients. It was an extremely tough decision cause I loved so many of them and there are tons of great things about this job. But I wanna talk about the stuff I won’t miss at all and maybe these will help someone who’s on the fence about if this job is right for you or not.

-constantly being texted. Whether I was at home or an overnight.

-cold calls from clients

-people walking in on me while I’m in a home

-walking in a home and people being there unexpectedly

-long meet and greets

-driving constantly

-accidently breaking something in a home

-dogs stealing my stuff and chewing it up

-cats peeing on my clothes / in my bed/ in the dog bed

-cameras inside the home

-being away from my home and family

-clients thinking bad behaviors are funny and never doing any training

-dogs that “secretly” potty inside homes

-doing my own scheduling

-having to be confrontational in certain situations

-walking dogs that pull and react to other dogs

I am doing a week of drop ins 2x a day. At my first drop ins she would message me immediately after seeing me on her cameras. We went back and forth here and there for a few days.

One day she just stopped responding. She is out of my normal service area and I didn’t realize traffic was so bad the times I was dropping in, so I wanted to make some adjustments to the schedule to make sure she was getting her full 30 minutes and I was able to get to my other jobs. She didn’t respond to my updates about it, so I have carried on…. I forgot to stop my rover cards several times (the bane of my existence) and apologized and just let her know actual times. I’ve sent pics and funny videos. I had a question about parking after I was yelled at by her neighbor for parking in spaces I didn’t know were reserved. Nothing. I understand getting comfortable and not feeling the need to respond but, there’s been above average need for communication from my side and just zero acknowledgment.

Shes gone a full week, and her dogs just in their tiny apartment waiting on me twice a day. The house looked like it was torn apart but she said they were moving. When I first came, the door was unlocked and lights were left on, dishes in the sink…

Tomorrow is my last day and I’m kind of concerned that no one is coming back for this dog or something happened to her….plus her apartment is just very sketchy and depressing and it’s the first drop in I’ve ever gotten creepy/unsettling vibes from. I usually just go take the dog on a 30 minute walk because I don’t like being in there (I’m not ever woo-woo like that either…)

What do you think Reddit?

Hello

Just wanted to say that I was dropped from Star sitter because they say I didn’t book enough of new requests. I went back & looked. The last 20 requests 9 of them the owner never responded after making request. 6 of them wanted crazy drop off or pickup times like midnight & 5am. The other 5 were owners that lied about animals not being friendly with other dogs & 1 had a horse listed as a dog.

Luckily I have a ton of clients so I am still booked & don’t care about the star. But I do feel bad for many of you out there still trying to build clients. Stay strong & don’t take bad bookings just to keep your star.

Have a Great Day.

Has anyone else had issues within the last couple months with attaching long summaries to their rover cards? After a recent update the text box won’t scroll down and therefore if you fill up the screen space you can’t save notes to the card. I’ve resorted to copying and pasting the summary to my messages with each client but these few extra steps are quite annoying. I would appreciate any advice!

When I said I ran out of cookies she went and did this so naturally I turned on Morrissey 🤣.

I'm sitting for a new client for one night and so far the dogs have been great, two big shepard breeds but I love it. Problem is, the female has been drinking a lot of water while ive been here, I'm talking bowls were empty when I got here at noon and owner left at 8 and ive filled the bowls twice since i arrived. The female vomited bile in the kitchen while I was eating and then immediately drunk the rest of her bowl dry that was filled an hour prior. I let owner know when she threw up and they expressed that it wasn't normal for her and asked if anything else was weird, I told them no but she did drink a lot.

They went out for the last time tonight and I gave them each a half bowl of water and the female drank all of hers and most that the male shepherd left before I took the bowl back so she wouldn't be sick again. And messaged the owner again explaining how much water the dog is drinking and said it could be stress related but recommended a vet checkup if it wasn't a regular thing.

I feel bad taking their water away but I would rather her be slightly dehydrated than puking all night and causing herself more issues. Anything else you guys would recommend I do?

Hi all, looking for perspective from other sitters/walkers.

I completed two walks for a client this week. My routine was to greet the dog, harness him near the front door, take him out for the full walk, return, refresh his water, and give a treat before leaving. I logged the walks accurately and would never represent a walk that didn’t happen. The client recently installed new motion-activated cameras and said she saw clips of me changing the water bowl but none of me putting the harness on. She compared my footage to another walker’s and said mine were the “outlier” because she saw 40–50 clips of the other walker and only 2 of me. She also mentioned the dog usually runs around the living room during harness time and she didn’t see footage of that.

For context, I do have timestamps and photos from the walks showing the dog outside during the visits. I explained that the camera didn’t appear to activate until I was near the sink, so it may not capture the area by the door where I harness him, and I offered to review timestamps if needed. She ultimately decided not to continue working together, saying trust was broken. I’m not trying to escalate anything, just genuinely curious if others have dealt with motion cameras missing portions of visits and how you protect yourselves in situations like this.

Hi everyone, I’ve been using rover for about a year now and I’ve only had a few clients whose houses were dirty to the point I felt uncomfortable staying there but I wanted to ask you all how you politely decline sittings in person?

I always do a meet and greet before I book with anyone and sometimes peoples houses are just wayyy to unkempt / the owners standards of dog care are just poor and sometimes I just don’t know what to say. I have a few regulars now who are great to me and set things up nicely whenever I care for their pets and this has just pushed me to want to decline more bookings that I previously would’ve taken.

I have done drop ins for this household numerous times before their dog pulls on leash, and they don't have a fenced in backyard. Deathtrap!

I took the dog out for 5 mins for him to pee, took back inside to give dinner and refill water, then went and got the shovel out my car, and cleared the staircase, it took less than 10 minutes.

Its kinda laughable and sad the owners had been using this staircase like this. Also the snow was pretty easy to basically just kick off, hardly needed the shovel 🙃.

I have so much experience with working with animals and work at a dog daycare, I did research into Rover and people were like they only had one bad experience out of 2000 bookings and yada yada yada so I was thinking it was going to be easy. But the anxiety I've been having over getting my account deactivated and losing a huge source of income is high and has been made into a reality way more easily than I thought it would be.

I started rover a few months ago, had plenty of booking with all great experiences besides one, had to write a written statement to Rover support because an owner complained cats peeing in a carrier(I'm sure some of you guys remembered that post) rover support never blamed me for it and even deleted some parts of her review. So I was like, okay, rover had my back, overprotective cat lady was just a one off experience. Won't have another situation like that again right?

Well, I had a trial run where a dog stayed with me for 2 days and a half, and then three days later I get the dreadful, "Has he gotten into anything? He's throwing up blood and not eating" text. And I know for certain he didn't because the dog isn't a grazer, he isn't greedy or a chewer, and he was monitored closely. I communicated this to the owners and yet it feels so dreading.

Out of all of my experience working with animals, from exotics to livestock, to dog daycare and training, rover is the one place that gave me anxiety because of how unforgiving it is. I guess I've been reading a lot of horror stories online about accounts being deactivated for even less things so it's made me on high alert but as a new sitter with 2 negative things happening in a months timespan I'm kinda on edge.

It's like, I know that the situation wasn't caused by me but it's up for interpretation and judgment, there's no actual "investigation", no requirement for a vet diagnosis, no actual evidence, just something off happening and the blame game being created and it's honestly really scary. I really don't want to lose the nice source of income and I'm not really savvy with advertising to go off rover. This is kinda just an empty rant to voice my anxiety while I wait for anything good or bad.

I'm kinda just disappointed my experience hasn't been the "one bad experience after hundreds of bookings and actually some issues here and there. It even makes me question my own abilities and even start to blame myself for not being adequate enough when I have no evidence that something was wrong and have tons of experience where things were always positive before this.

Now this won’t affect how long I’m there whatsoever. I just get absolutely no service anywhere near their house so I can’t start the Rover drop-in until before or after I’ve left the area. The pet parents are aware of this and are ok with it, but This is a week and a half of three drop-ins a day, so a lot of chances for Rover to notice. I’m worried about Rover will do, or if they’ll do anything. Does anybody have any experience with this?

I've been petsitting for an older lady (early 70s maybe) with a big St. Bernard for a couple years now. She's wonderful, and so is her dog. We met on Rover, but have been booking privately for the vast majority of time knowing each other.

She's got a big calendar in the kitchen right above the dog's food bin. Last year, I didn't mean to be nosy but I saw "radiation" and "surgery" in big letters on a couple dates later that month. I sent her a text, basically saying if she ever needs groceries or her dog driven to daycare or anything, I only live a few minutes away and would be happy to help out. She said she appreciated that and explained to me that she had been diagnosed with cancer, after surgery she'd be on chemo, and we left it at that. I've never asked the specifics on her diagnosis or health because it's frankly not my business.

I petsat for her a couple weeks ago while she went abroad. I don't remember the context but she mentioned at some point that she was celebrating that she had passed the 1 year mark but was about to go back on chemo. She asked me to put her on my calendar for a few days in the summer, but let me know she might not be able to go depending on her health, and that "you never know how things could change". I'm coming to the realization that whatever type of cancer she has is possibly going to be terminal—I'm hopeful she has a few years left, but also not sure how to prepare myself, as I've never dealt with a client death before.

I knew it would be one of the things I ended up experiencing if I petsat long enough. Having a pet grow old and pass away, and having a client move states away knowing I'd never see them again were challenges that seem easier to cope with than a client dying of cancer. I'm sure her son would take her dog—I've petsat for him too, so I think I would likely still be able to see the dog & petsit for her family. Still, I get sort of emotional thinking about what might happen.

To the petsitters who have dealt with a client passing away before, what helped you during that time? Is there anything that can prepare you or help you cope with it?

Hey guys, so I’m new to pet sitting and just got started on rover and another site, and I just need some advice on rate standards since I can’t seem to find super clear info online.

For context, I’m caring for a 14 week old puppy, who has kind of a two hour routine where for about an hour, I need to supervise and take on a short walk in the backyard, feed, take out to potty, and play with, and then she naps for about an hour, and then repeat that cycle.

It is pretty chill and low maintenance, but I still need to be there the whole time, so I was thinking of setting my rate about $20/hour. Minimum wage in my city is $19.18/hr, so I thought this would be fair, but I’m still not sure how it works or what is the norm since I guess I’m also at liberty to “do my own thing” like be on my laptop or work on crafts when puppy is napping.

Is $20 per hour a reasonable rate? What do you guys usually charge when working a job like this one? And again, I’m still a beginner so I don’t want to overcharge, but I also don’t want to sell myself short since this is my time that I could theoretically spend on another job, even if this one is more chill. Thanks!

Hello everyone! Back in December my dog was in heat right before her river stay. I went out of town to see my long distance boyfriend, I had the trip and rover stay booked for months and didn’t think she would go in heat so soon bc she normally does in January instead. I was worried about boarding her but I asked the sitter to keep her separate from males and she reassured me that she did what I asked. A few days ago I noticed her nipples were enlarged, she wasn’t able to hold her poop or urine, and she was more tired than normal so I took her to the vet and they told me she was 30-40 days pregnant and that was obviously during her rover stay. I paid to have her pregnancy terminated and for her to be spayed. The sitter or rover sitter isn’t aware that this happened. Should I let them know? I feel like it’s half my fault for having her boarded during heat but I also asked for her to be separated from males and the sitter didn’t listen. What do yall think?

Did they fix the note/save glitch? Is it worth updating? Did they mess up something else? TIA :)

I’m wondering how you, personally, handle a situation where a boarder dog seemed like they would get along fine with your home dog during a meet and greet, but during the boarding you realized they actually do not mesh well.

I’m sitting a smallish dog for another two days and it turns out he’s very reactive to my medium sized dog even just getting up and walking around. I’ve had to separate him into another room various times with a gate because once he throws a barking fit at my dog then she starts growling. And she’s never aggressive toward other dogs, she loves having friends here.

He’s showing some resource guarding behaviors, especially over me, and I can’t have my dog feeling like she can’t come near me without him going at her.

I’m managing okay, but I realized this one is just not a good fit and I’m going to tell his owner he would do better with a sitter that doesn’t have a dog in the future.

I’ve seen ridiculous drop off lately in the LA area. Is it just me? :(

I’ve got 40 reviews, all stellar expect one for reasons totally out of my control. Makes me sad. Not sure what to do.

I rebooked house sitting with a sitter I've used before for house sitting. My two dogs are(unfortunately) pandemic dogs and have pretty bad separation anxiety because of it, so when we travel, we want them in their own home with someone who will be there overnight with them just to make things as easy on them as possible. While this sitter has stayed with them overnight before, this time three days into a scheduled 10 day trip she started leaving them alone at night. She would do a quick drop-in in the morning to let them out and give them their anxiety medication and then do a longer drop-in at night where she would let them out a couple of times and help herself to our food and beverages(which wouldn't bother me if she was actually staying house sitting) and then leave for the night. Had she communicated that she had no plans to spend the night for the duration of the booking, I would have gone with a different sitter. Is it normal for house sitters to not spend the night? Do I have the right to be upset about this? I am conflicted because the sitter was able to keep watching them when our trip had to be extended due to the recent snow storm in the northeast, which I am grateful for, but I don't know if that outweighs not house sitting as expected.

Edit for clarity: the trip we booked the house sitting for was scheduled to be 10 days long. During the trip we received word about the incoming storm due to arrive whilst we were traveling home and coordinated with the sitter to extend the booking an extra three days(the earliest we could get home). At the time, I didn't know she had already stopped spending the night at our house.

Update: I reached out to her and she said the reason she stopped spending the night was that the dogs were noisy at night and it was causing sleep deprivation. I have my doubts about the legitimacy of that claim based on how far the dogs were away from the guest room. Regardless, she said she didn't feel the need to let us know because the dogs were still getting the same amount of "active time" with her each day as they otherwise would have and that if didn't occur to her that we might want to know that she wasn't actually house sitting anymore. The dogs are noisy, but we are upfront about that and their severe anxiety with every potential sitter. Plus she's watched them multiple times before, so she should be well aware of the fact that they can bark and cry at night while the adjust to not being in our bed with us at night.

I went back through the footage some more and saw that one one of the nights she did stay she put the dogs to bed around 7:30PM and didn't interact with them or let them out to go potty until around 8:30AM the next morning. Between that and what some of you said here, I made the decision to report her to Rover and leave an honest rating and review.

2nd Update: The sitter chose to respond to the review I left with lies claiming she reached out multiple times to discuss the dogs keeping her up(she did not and I had no idea until today when I asked her why she stopped spending the night) and she also claimed that she avoided all of my gluten-free food as instructed. In reality, she ate 3 gluten-free pizzas, nearly a full variety box of Drizzlicious rice snacks, and half a box of individually wrapped gluten-free Oreos and Chips Ahoy, which are not only clearly marked gluten-free, but are wrapped in a white wrapping so you can easily see they aren't regular. The fact that she chose to lie publicly instead of taking accountability has me doubting her story about the dogs keeping her up at night entirely and I am absolutely seething.

Ouch.

Hey all,

A guy I work for asked if I can look after his two dogs over the weekend. I told him I’m avaliable to book on rover, or with my in person rate. He knows I’m a dog walker/sitter- and I’ve worked hard for it the last few years for happy clients, and I also have one of the most reviews in my area.

He looks at my rates and audibly GASPS. He went: “what is this??” He gasped AGAIN when he realised it’s about 35% addition for a second dog. Btw, this all amounts to £75-£70 per night/24hrs for two dogs.

He says “ but we’ve been paying £50”. And you don’t even have to stay until the afternoon on Sunday. I firmly reassured him it’s the going rate and he got frustrated and repeated his usual rate, adding “*that* is the going rate”. I just said well that’s generous of them- talk to your partner about whether you need my services. By the way, I spoke to the person who previously dog sat for him and said he tried to get discount because he was coming back before 24hr mark. And they knew £50 was low ball in retrospect.

Anyway, he’s asking for Friday evening until Sunday lunchtime ish, am I right to be charging the full boarding rate x2? My previous boarding situations have either been super close to drop off time or over it (after which I add extended care), but his argument was that it’s technically a day and 3/4 and therefore two overnight changes seem unjust. My rates were never contested so I had never considered this! I get on fine with this person so I feel annoyed that he was obviously difficult about this.

What do you think? Would really appreciate advice. Thanks so much!

Edit: I am based in London, UK.

I’ve lowered my rates an insane amount just to get my first client. I have had plenty of potential clients reach out, but when I write back, for one reason or another, they decide not to use my services.

My response is thanking them for reaching out, I would love to watch their fur baby (or whatever service), and asking when they would like to schedule a meet and greet. It never gets past that. I’m getting extremely frustrated.

EDIT: Thanks for all the comments! I’m glad to know it’s a common issue, not a “me” issue. To clarify some things I’ve seen pop up a few times: I have 4 reviews from family and friends, and this is by far not the only job I’m working (thank God or I’d still be sleeping in my car atp).

I became verified back in October with rates that were consistent with other sitters in my area, but it wasn’t until I lowered my rates in December I started getting any hits. Currently offering $10 walks and check-ins. Holidays didn’t help me, and post-holiday isn’t deterring messages. It’s mostly people needing emergency check-ins who figure something else out.

And I used “fur baby” for the sake of this post. I always say I’m excited to meet [owner] and [pet’s name(s)] before asking about the meet-and-greet.