I'm passionate about dogs and their well-being. I entrusted my dog's care to these people and they neglected them and put them at risk.
First, they just didn't show up yesterday. They didn't contact me, email me, text me, call They just didn't show up. Based on what they knew my plans to be, my dogs would have been abandoned with no potty break or human interaction for 11 hours. (Fortunately I stayed home to discuss what I had seen on Saturday).
They also blatantly disregarded specific directions to walk them separately, creating a safety risk for my dogs, a training problem for me, and a legal liability for me. One of my dogs can be reactive, which is why I specifically asked them to be walked separately, for their safety, and the potential safety of other people walking. My neighborhood has a lot of off-leash dogs, and something really bad could have happened.
What their response was when I caught them: "Pets act different depending on who walks them so I thought I'd see how they did with me." In complete disregard for my instruction to walk them separately, without discussing with me and without informing me.
The claim that my dogs walked well with them. I watched them leave my house, my reactive dog barking, and my younger dog inciting his excitement by jumping, spinning and biting my reactive dogs' face. Both dogs were pulling. When they returned, their excitement level was lower, but they were still pulling. That is not my definition of "doing well."
Regardless of whether they did well or not, my instructions were specifically to walk them separately, and it was not their call to change those instructions without asking first, and certainly not without notifying me that they were no longer following my instructions.
What other instructions do they decide to not follow? Your pet's medication schedule? Feeding schedule? Are they actually walking the dogs at all?
On Saturday, Arnie was here for 20 minutes only. Yet the billed me for 30 minutes. Based on that and what I read on this site, I wonder if he has done anything but run in, leave a piece of paper on the counter, and run back out again.
Even more disturbing is how he mishandled one of my dogs. She showed signs of extreme distress and was completely oblivious to her fear. And that's in front of me!
He also put the wrong harnesses on the wrong dogs, even though they are color coded and they were given clear directions which harness belonged to who. The dogs are 25 pounds difference and the harnesses are different sizes. This is another safety risk as dogs can escape a harness if it isn't clipped on the front and especially if it isn't fitted correctly.
When you hire a dog walker/pet sitter, you are entrusting your precious pet. You believe they will show up and they will not be left abandoned. You believe that they would follow your instructions for their care and not decide to ignore those instructions. You would think that when this is pointed out, they would do whatever it took to make things right.
When confronted, the admitted it all, yet defended their actions, was rude to me and then started to place the blame on me. The most bizarre: I caused them to be sick, and that's why they didn't show up.
A couple of things I learned from this:
— Nanny cams for your dog sitters. Monitor if they are coming and going when they say they are (these people weren't) and you can tell a lot by how they prep for the walk. (Recommended to me by a legitimate dog walker).
— Surprise them. Be home one day. Walk in on them. Note their reaction. If they are not happy to see you, ask yourself why. Note your dog's response to them — is it typical? One of my dogs did not greet the dog walker (the one who was fearful when he put the harness on her. She is a wiggle-butt who is super excited to say hi to any person. That was odd (until I saw how he handled her). My other dog barked and didn't want the dog walker to enter my living room, where I was. Neither was interested in him when he picked up the harnesses. All this is very unusual behavior. (Recommended to me by a legitimate dog walker).
— If you have neighbors who are home during the day, ask them to track the dog walker's comings and goings.
— If you are out of town, have friends, relatives and neighbors drop by unannounced to make sure everything is okay. (Recommended by a legitimate pet sitter).
I am a progressive positive dog trainer and so sick that I caused my dogs' distress by choosing the wrong dog walker. I take my job as adovocate and care-taker for them very seriously.
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