Dog Sitting Frustration - WWYD
So a few weeks ago H and I took a mini trip over the weekend where we'd be gone for one night. We have someone that has watched our dog on our past few trips (which were longer week trips) and asked if she 'Sara' could watch 'Rex' again. Sara is a recent friend of H's family and pet sits for other members of the family so I (did) trust her in our home. The arrangement we had was pet/house sitting and they'd stay at the house. This was mostly because Sara works all day so the only time Rex would have someone there would be over the night. We pay Sara per day as well as leave gift cards for the grocery down the street or for pizza, etc.
Anyways we go on our weekend trip leave Sat morning. We knew she wouldn't be their until evening so MIL checked on Rex mid day. She texts us late night and says all is well. We are ahead of schedule Sunday and get home early afternoon versus early evening. I notice that not a thing looks touched in the guest bedroom or bathroom, no sheets or towels were used. We didn't text Sara that we were returning earlier than planned. About 2 hours after we return Sara texts and says she's at the house and Rex is doing well. Yeah.... so now I wonder how much she was really there... I know this trip was a day, but what about when we were gone for a week?? Plus, if I wanted someone to just check in I wouldn't pay so much, but I wanted someone to stay there, that was the arrangement. Needless to say H and I were not happy at all but we didn't say anything about it. Now Sara is asking when the next time we need her to watch Rex is because she enjoys doing it. Personally, I think she just enjoys the money.... How would you guys approach this? She's since brought it up about watching him again multiple times. Do we let her know we no longer trust her or bean dip or get over it?
Note: I realize in the scheme of things this is very trivial and I spoil my dog way to much.
Re: Dog Sitting Frustration - WWYD
OMG I would be so upset! I do the same dog sitting arrangement when I leave town, and I would be SO annoyed if the person was not actually doing what they said they would do.
I don't know if I would necessarily tell her you no longer trust her unless she continues to confront you or asks why you got a different sitter next time. Instead I would just say "oh yeah, we'll let you know if we need your help again. thanks!" and then hire someone else
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My dogs are also very spoiled.
To what I just posted at the same time as this. Being a family friend we were unsure if we wanted to "rock the boat" or not. Wanted to think it over I suppose.
If she brings it up again, I think it's fair to call her on lying and how you know she wasn't at the house, and tell her you will not be using her services anymore. Just be matter-of-fact about it and keep your tone neutral. If she tries to argue, don't engage and calmly tell her you've made up your mind. I also think you're within your rights to tell your family members of what happened.
Maybe if she realizes she has been caught, she won't try this stunt with any of your other friends. You don't need to make it a screaming match, but you SHOULD tell her you were home early and you also should warn family that she also sits for.
I don't think she would have wanted to see the rath of mama bear on that one!
I feel like if we did choose to tell his one Aunt it wouldn't matter. Sara is like a second daughter to them, but I guess then at least we'd say we tried!
I think one thing that also really bothers me is that she works in child care. So the scarier thought is now what about the kids she watches?? Yes, there is a leap from dog to child but still. Obviously there's a character flaw of honesty at play.
I totally would have confronted her immediately when she said she was at the house. My response would have been some smartass comment, like "Where are you hiding at then, because we got home early and I'm sitting on the couch with Rex right now" or "OMG! You can get so rich with that invisibility trick!". I would have been too pissed to not call her out on it immediate, friend or not. I would definitely say something to her about it though. She needs to know that she's been caught and hopefully that will keep her from doing the same thing to others.
The last couple times we have gone out of town have been longer 7-10 day trips. We can't stand being away from our dogs that long, so we set up a camera in the living room that we can check on our phones. Our house/pet sitter was aware of it and didn't mind, since it was focused on the door and we only checked it once or twice a day. Plus, she understood that we would miss our "kids" and wanted to be able to see them while away. She also was nice enough to send us photos of them a couple times, just to keep us updated.
She sent us a pic that night from the walk she took him on. My theory is that she spent time there Saturday evening and then didn't stay and didn't check on him at all Sunday....
The camera is actually clever. I'm the same way... I'm excited coming back from vacations just because I miss my fur child that much!
Yeah, the cameras aren't that expensive and fairly easy to set up. The one we have now (Tenvis TR3818) even allows us to move the camera angle, has night vision, and can listen and speak... and it only cost about $50. Then we can just control it and check in from our phone. Before that, we just set up my laptop with free software (ispyconnect.com) to connect into the built-in webcam remotely. The first time we did it, we set up my computer in one room and DH's computer in another room, but we learned that our dogs tend to hang out by the front door mostly when we aren't home, even taking their toys and bones over to that area, so we are able to just set up one camera in that area now. 95% of the time they are within that area when we check in.
Some of the cameras or software do motion activated recordings, so when you get online, you can see all the recordings anytime there was movement. The ispy software did this. It was nice because we had someone just check on them once or twice a day the first time we use that one and were we able to get online and could see that there were recordings for each time he was there. Plus, a lot of times when we checked in on the dogs, they were just laying by the door sleeping, so it was nice being able to see that they did actually get up from time to time and do stuff, even if we couldn't see it happening live.
But, I suspect that the cameras, which our pet sitters were fully aware of, created a sense of accountability to encourage them to do a good job. They knew that we could get on and check in at any time and they have usually gone above what we expected or requested of them. Plus, it does help relieve our stress a bit knowing that we can actually get on and see for ourselves that they are still alive and moving.