I'm being ruined by suspect Yelping.

mrsconn23 · February 2017

Dear Prudence,
I’ve been dog sitting as a second job to pay my bills for years. Usually I stay at the client’s house for a few weeks and care for not only the animal but the home. I recently looked after the dog of a repeat client who has just moved, is newly pregnant, and was leaving town to attend her mother’s funeral. I did, and thought things went fine, but now she says she had cameras on the front door and that I didn’t take her dog out enough. I couldn’t always get her elderly dog out the front door, no matter what song and dance I performed, or what treats I offered—she just refused to get up. There were no accidents, and when she wanted to go out, we did. This client has now trashed me on my professional website, saying her front-door videos proves I was negligent to her dog. This isn’t true! I love her dog, and took her to the backyard when necessary if she wasn’t walking well. I have explained this and she won’t respond. How do I get through to someone like this?

—Dog Dilemma

charlotte989875 · February 2017

If it's on the personal site why not just delete it? Or if that's not possible write a response. Most review sites have an opportunity for the business owner to respond to negative reviews.

ei34 · February 2017

As a consumer, when I'm reading reviews, if they're all 4- or 5-star, positive, glowing whatever, and then there's one 1-star bomb, I assume the review writer is the problem, not the service/business/product. Does LW have lots of mediocre 2- and 3-star reviews, or all 5-star? If it's the latter, I wouldn't worry too much. Ditto charlotte though I would respond with exactly what he/she wrote here. I wouldn't delete it but I'd respond.

short+sassy · February 2017

Agreed. I'm not necessarily that swayed by a negative review if the owner took the time to respond to it and explain what happened. If I think their explanation sounds reasonable. If there are a lot of reviews, I'm also not concerned about a few negative ones. Even the best businesses can have a bad day or maybe the reviewer is just a whiner who is never happy with anything.

Crazy story, just for fun, I looked up my veterinarian one day...who I've always been VERY happy with...and he had a horrifying, long review where he had put someone's dog down without their permission. He replied back on Yelp and, long story short, there were very unusual and extenuating circumstances. I was satisfied with his explanation to stay a customer.

thefanciestbeckler · February 2017

LW's customer is annoying me. It sounds like she's just trying to create trouble. DH and I have a 13 year old pit mix. She has bad arthritis and usually prefers to just be left alone. Sometimes she will only go out twice in a day. If she needs to go, she will get up. If she doesn't, she won't. It's not neglect for LW to follow the dog's cues. LW needs to respond to the review and explain things exactly how she explained them to Prudie.

short+sassy · February 2017

thefanciestbeckler said:

LW's customer is annoying me. It sounds like she's just trying to create trouble. DH and I have a 13 year old pit mix. She has bad arthritis and usually prefers to just be left alone. Sometimes she will only go out twice in a day. If she needs to go, she will get up. If she doesn't, she won't. It's not neglect for LW to follow the dog's cues. LW needs to respond to the review and explain things exactly how she explained them to Prudie.

Yes! I suspect the LW's customer would have been even more angry if the LW had walked out the front door, dragging a prone dog by its leash/collar. Not to mention, you'd think someone would already be aware of their dog's reluctance to walk. Though, perhaps, in their absence the dog was less motivated.

I had a previous tenant with a bulldog. Just like the stereotype, if that puppers didn't want to do something, he wasn't moving. My tenant told me there were times when they'd go on walks, that he'd had to pick his 50 lb. bulldog up to carry it back home. Because sometimes it would just stop and refused to walk any more, lol.

OliveOilsMom · February 2017

Olive will sometimes only go out twice in one day and may only stay out for 2 minutes. There are times we have to make her go out for the 2nd time that day.

Often, she won't even go out until I get home, even though H gets home an hour before me. She just lounges around until she is ready. And yesterday, I had yoga, so I didn't get home until almost 7 and she was approaching hour 12 since I had put her out in the morning.

She also doesn't get daily walks since we have a big fenced in back yard. We will walk her in the spring/summer/fall when its nicer out. She will go for walks with me and baby while I will be on my leave. But for the longest time (and I'm talking years) she never peed or pooped while on a leash, when we would go for walks. The first time she pooped on a walk, I couldn't believe it! She was 6 years old! LOL!

ILoveBeachMusic · February 2017

short+sassy said:

thefanciestbeckler said:

LW's customer is annoying me. It sounds like she's just trying to create trouble. DH and I have a 13 year old pit mix. She has bad arthritis and usually prefers to just be left alone. Sometimes she will only go out twice in a day. If she needs to go, she will get up. If she doesn't, she won't. It's not neglect for LW to follow the dog's cues. LW needs to respond to the review and explain things exactly how she explained them to Prudie.

Yes! I suspect the LW's customer would have been even more angry if the LW had walked out the front door, dragging a prone dog by its leash/collar. Not to mention, you'd think someone would already be aware of their dog's reluctance to walk. Though, perhaps, in their absence the dog was less motivated.
I had a previous tenant with a bulldog. Just like the stereotype, if that puppers didn't want to do something, he wasn't moving. My tenant told me there were times when they'd go on walks, that he'd had to pick his 50 lb. bulldog up to carry it back home. Because sometimes it would just stop and refused to walk any more, lol.

We have miniature dachshunds. Our girl (around 9 pounds) will plop her butt down when she doesn't want to move. Short of dragging her you can't make her move. Stubborn little doxie! Oops that's redundant.

banana468 · February 2017

I have a major problem with anyone who opts to trash on Yelp before trying to figure out what's wrong first.

kerbohl · February 2017

When my first dog got old, she'd want to go out in the winter, but then get about two minutes out and not want to move anymore. I think maybe she just decided that she liked being carried every once in a while ... but every day, it was the same thing - she wanted out, she'd walk for a bit, then want to be carried home.
My rabbit does the same thing when she's tired or doesn't want to get her feet wet ... it's pretty adorable.
I'd be upset if someone insulted my ability to care for an animal like this, especially if it was my job. I'd definitely be writing a response to this review to tell my side of the story.

Heffalump · February 2017

mrsconn23 said:

Dear Prudence,
I’ve been dog sitting as a second job to pay my bills for years. Usually I stay at the client’s house for a few weeks and care for not only the animal but the home. I recently looked after the dog of a repeat client who has just moved, is newly pregnant, and was leaving town to attend her mother’s funeral. I did, and thought things went fine, but now she says she had cameras on the front door and that I didn’t take her dog out enough. I couldn’t always get her elderly dog out the front door, no matter what song and dance I performed, or what treats I offered—she just refused to get up. There were no accidents, and when she wanted to go out, we did. This client has now trashed me on my professional website, saying her front-door videos proves I was negligent to her dog. This isn’t true! I love her dog, and took her to the backyard when necessary if she wasn’t walking well. I have explained this and she won’t respond. How do I get through to someone like this?
—Dog Dilemma

I wish her question would have been about how to respond to the review. Since she says "professional website" as opposed to Yelp or something, then I would either delete it, or post an objective, factual response (took the dog out whenever she wanted to go, no accidents). I think people are pretty well-equipped to discount the people who seem to have an axe to grind.

As to her actual question, you really can't. She's told her side of the story. Let it go. You can't please all of the people all of the time.

I'm being ruined by suspect Yelping.

Re: I'm being ruined by suspect Yelping.

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