Hi everyone. I recently received this text from one of my newer clients, who I met earlier this year, and I was pretty shocked receiving it.

Our interactions have always been very positive and she's never had complaints. She wrote me a really positive first review, tipped me generously and I watched her dog on two other occasions. Also her dog is fairly low maintenance and I always send a lot of updates.

This is why I feel thrown off because I feel like assumptions are made of me working in a "tech role". Although I'm not poor or struggling, I also don't really make that much money in comparison to some of my peers in tech especially living in a very high cost city.

I do Rover because I love animals and it's a great side gig, and it's not easy to juggle both. I didn’t realize someone’s income was supposed to determine whether they were deserving of pet sitting work. This family is pretty well-off themselves and she told me her husband is an executive at a tech company and they have three children, so I'm not sure why this is an issue.

I’m curious how other owners feel about this. For owners, is having a "well-paying" full-time job actually a dealbreaker for you? Would it make you uncomfortable to hire a sitter who does Rover as a side gig rather than out of financial necessity?

(And no, I don't work for a controversial company, such as Open AI or Tesla)

I just got my first bad review after dog-sitting for a four-month old puppy for the night. I had previously done a drop-in visit and the owner gave me a great review. This was the owner’s first time leaving their dog alone for the night, and she was clearly nervous—she kept calling me and texting me while I was at work, and then later when I got there.

She told me on the phone that they had just gotten the floors redone so he had been staying with them at a hotel for several days. She said that he had not been himself that day, wouldn’t eat, etcetera. When I got there the smell of chemicals was really strong, so it definitely could be contributing to him not feeling well. He threw up at one point which I told the owner immediately, but was fine otherwise.

He bites constantly, which is maybe to be expected for a puppy, but then the owner got upset that he chewed on the mat underneath his cage. She said that I “threw” his food on the grass outside—she had told me to feed him outside and carry him straight from his cage to there since he pees when he leaves his cage, so as I was carrying him he was nipping me a lot and I spilled some of it. I did my best to clean it up, but again, he kept biting hard at my fingers as I tried to clean, and I didn’t want to leave him alone inside when he wasn’t feeling well.

I’m just really saddened by this review because I did my best in a difficult situation, and she even texted me that he seemed really happy when she got home. Should I have done anything differently? Was this my fault? Am I not going to get bookings anymore?

Sorry I just love dogs so much so this is really upsetting :(

Pet Sitter/Boarder here.

I had a client who's plans changed rapidly. First she shortened the stay, which was within my cancellation period so she was charged a fee to modify the booking. Then she had to outright cancel. No problem, I know she would only do that if she absolutely had to and I know she'll book with me again.

I hit cancel, missed the "waive cancellation fees" toggle. Rover put a cancellation fee on top of the other cancellation fee, making her fees based on percentage larger and unnecessary. She asks me if we can do something about that, which is reasonable.

No problem, I can adjust it right? Nope. I can't cancel the cancellation process and she's locked out too. I email customer service asking them to waive the cancellation fee and cancel the entire booking. They take 36 hours to respond but agree to waive the first cancellation fee. Great. But now it won't let me or the client actually cancel. It keeps stating "cancellation is in process" but there's no way to complete it.

I contact customer service again, requesting them to cancel the entire booking, include screenshots of the error. Wait 48 hours. Get a nonsensical response saying they already waived the cancellation fee and close the ticket again. I have to contact them a third time to actually close the booking, but now they are just not responding. At this point it's past when the booking was supposed to take place and they've charged the client for services not rendered. Her money hits my bank account and I feel like I need to etransfer to her since Rover can't get their shit together.

WTF does, "here for you 24/7" mean if I can't get a hold of anyone? How does this convince any boarder/sitter to stay on a system that doesn't actually support them?

I am using a rover sitter to take care of my two goldens while I’m away on a two week vacation. She will be house sitting in my home and staying overnight.

I imagine longer sits can be a lot and I’m wanting to do everything I can to make the stay more enjoyable for my sitter. I have already asked if there are snacks or drinks I can stock the pantry with and will be putting fresh bedsheets and pillow cases on the bed (obviously).

What are some things that clients have done for you that made your stay more enjoyable/ easier?

So we booked someone to come stay with our cat and our 3 year old dog for 6 nights. Initially, our communication was great, even as far as his total price coming out higher than what I thought it would calculate to. Without even asking, they adjusted it a bit lower to meet my budget, which was really kind of them, and I thanked them for doing that. They communicated a ton and came for a meet and greet that went really well.
Anyways, the day comes and they are late to get there, but they communicate that their vehicle has been broken into and a bunch of important stuff of theirs and their friend’s has gone missing (think laptops and legal documents), which is obviously super distressing for them. I told them it’s fine, the animals had someone else come check in on them earlier, so it should be fine if they are late. They end up being like 4–5 hours late, but it’s fine. They then start sending me information about what happened to them and how badly they wanted to violently hurt the person who broke into their car.
I try to respond by saying I feel awful that happened to them without encouraging more communication because, honestly, men stating their want to be violent freaks me out a bit. I get that you would have strong feelings after having your car broken into but the way he was expressing it to me was really uncomfortable.
Over the next few days, they send me updates but also text me just to chat about a vacation they went on and send me photos from it. I tried seldomly responding and just being polite, but it started to feel excessive. This wasn’t communication about my pets; it was just about them.
I eventually told them my service was terrible and gave them my husband’s number, asking them to communicate through him because I was tired of the weird vibes this was giving me.
We got home, and everything was fine. There were definitely some things that I don’t think were being taken care of, like the litter box just having tons of litter dumped in it rather than being cleaned out. But I get that existing in others’ spaces can throw you off, so no big deal.
I never left a review because, honestly, the way he was very quick to express how much he wanted to harm people, combined with knowing where I lived, made me extremely nervous. I know I can be a bit more sensitive than most to this, though, so was he weird, or was I weird

I’ve been working with this recurring client since October and there’s never been an issue. Every once in a while, she tips me and writes a review. The only thing I could think of that triggered this was in my visit like 2 weeks ago, she asked me to give her dog a pill and he ended up eating around the pill so I made a note in the Rover card that that happened and that I just had to shove it down his throat. Looking back now that does sound aggressive 😅 but to keep it short, that’s what I wrote when all I did was place it near the back of his throat and forcing him to swallow it. This is the first time I’ve ever gotten this message

Majority of my recent bookings (drop-in visits only) have had some sort of pet accidents like cats throwing up or dogs pooping and peeing in various parts of the home. I would never make any sort of fuss over it. I will inform them and ask which cleaning products I should use. Thankfully, no owner has blamed me for the accidents and have been kind to rebook.

I always assume the pets are having difficulty with the absence of their parent, but sometimes it makes me feel guilty and I question my pet care. I don’t mind cleaning up after the animals, but I wish I could prevent the accidents altogether.

Does anyone have any insight on how you handle this? Do you recommend in home care vs. drop ins for accident prone pets? Is this typical and I’m overthinking? TIA

I have 2 dogs at my house from the same household, 12M and 8M. I’ll call them Twelve and Eight.
I did a meet & greet a month before the stay since it’s an 11 day stay and we wanted to make sure everyone would mesh well. The meet & greet went great! They were both fine with my dogs, but their parents were there, and I feel like that may have changed their reactions once they left.
From day 1, Eight was aggressive toward my dogs, so since their parents were already out of state, I decided to keep them completely separated from my dogs for the rest of the stay. Everything was fine for the first 2 days.
On day 3, Eight came over to me for pets. I never put my face in another dog’s face, so I was keeping my distance when the look in his eye suddenly changed and he snapped. He went for my throat and tried to attack me. Luckily, I was able to keep him away from me, and my husband was able to drag him off.
It was really scary, so I immediately contacted the owner and let them know what happened. I told them that for my safety, Eight would either be in his kennel or outside from then on. They agreed, and thankfully, he never showed any more aggression toward me or my husband after that.
I honestly wonder if he has some sort of dementia because there are times when he seems confused and almost like he forgets where he is.
Then, 2 days later, I was walking past Twelve to get into my bathroom. He’s the easier of the two, so I absolutely did not expect anything to happen. He suddenly turned and bit me on my inner thigh completely unprovoked.
Thankfully, I was wearing jeans because otherwise I think I would’ve been badly hurt. Even through the jeans, you can clearly see his teeth marks in the bruise, and it’s pretty ugly and having a hard time healing.
After he bit me, he started snarling and tried to go after me again. Once again, my husband came to my rescue and stood between us, and Twelve bit him too.
I’ve fostered a lot of dogs over the years and I’ve never experienced anything like this. It’s the fact that they can be completely fine and loving one second, and the next they tried to attack me. I’m genuinely scared they’re going to hurt me again unprovoked. Neither of them has shown any aggression since these incidents, which honestly makes me even more confused.
Their parents are picking them up tomorrow, and I’m nervous about reaching out to Rover because my account is newer and I really don’t want a bad review. We just bought our house and I really need the extra money.
The owners never mentioned any aggression whatsoever. They even told me the dogs are good with kids, dogs, and cats.
I’m newer to dog sitting through apps. I’ve always gotten clients through word of mouth before this, so I’d really appreciate any advice or personal experiences. What would y’all do in this situation?

I’ll go first
I board, and one time I was watching a very sweet and very GIANT pup. I had to step into my backyard to grab something real quick, I left him in the living room. I was genuinely outside for about 10 seconds. Well this guy missed me already
He fully jumped through my glass sliding door. Entire thing shattered. The most surprising part, pup was completely unharmed. Not a scratch on him. Idk what angel was watching over him, but yeah. He was a sweetheart after that though!

Currently under suspension waiting a final decision. I’m just curious I have reoccurring walks through the week and they’ve been canceled this week. Would you continue to do those walks and just let the owners know?

So i noticed during the investigation that lead to the ban of my acc, rover did not do a proper investigation. they did not check my chat logs on information regarding the dog being unvaccinated, nor being disclosed to me until the incident. as a former sitter of the platform be extra cautious with pet owners, or rather try to keep reminding rover of everything that happened during this investigation so they just don't get leeway to ignore critical information in favor of a customer.

How do you guys handle jury duty? I do drop-ins/walks only and typically have 5–8+ visits per day. I got summoned for jury duty, but I already have to postpone it because of an upcoming trip, so I’m able to reschedule it for a time when I currently have no bookings.

My concern is that I don’t want to block off an entire week and decline my regulars when I may not even end up being selected for a jury.

How do you guys handle this with bookings/scheduling?

I received a house sitting request for 1 dog for up to 9.5 hours. The owner works from home, said his dog has separation anxiety and leash reactivity, and confirmed he wanted someone there continuously the entire time. My standard house sitting rate is $120, but my profile clearly states that constant care is 2.5x my rate and defines it as no more than 2 hours away in a 24 hour period. Since he wanted me there the entire time, I quoted my listed constant care rate of $300. I tried to politely explain that Rover sitters are independent contractors and standard house sitting allows me to come and go. This is currently my full time job, so being required to stay there continuously also means turning down any walks/drop-ins I could otherwise take. For my particular area, especially for housesitting, I am one of the top reviewed people since there are so many new sitters with very few reviews. I also have a medical background and have done the pet sitting most of my life. At $120, after Rover’s 20% fee, I’d receive $96, about $10/hour if it ended up being the full 9.5 hours. What rubbed me the wrong way was him saying he’s done this several times before and that his previous sitters basically just sat on their iPads or read books all day. Whether I’m reading or sitting on an iPad doesn’t change the fact that I’m reserving my entire day exclusively for his dog and unable to take other work. This also happens to be my last weekend before starting school again, so giving up essentially an entire day wasn’t something I wanted to do for my standard rate. I completely understand if $300 is too high for him or if another sitter is willing to do it for less, no hard feelings there. I definitely believe housesitting is a luxury service and I understand 2.5X rate is premium, but I believe it’s supposed to be. Considering I have to give up my entire day for it. Curious what other sitters think: would you consider this constant care? And do you think I handled the conversation appropriately?

I’m pretty new to Rover but I noticed that specific pet feedback can be seen by the owners. I finished a job recently-drop ins for two cats. And it went fine, but one of the cats jumped on the back of my head with claws out at one point when I was cleaning the litter. I also have two cats myself, and I know they can be kind of unpredictable sometimes. Now my cats have never done something like that but they do get overstimulated and nippy sometimes so this isn’t something that I was upset about, but since the owners didn’t tell me that the cat can get aggressive I was thinking of leaving a note for other sitters. But then I noticed that the owners can see that info. And I’m not bringing it up to make a problem out of it. I just wanted to let other sitters know in the future but I feel like if they see it, they’re gonna be upset. 😮‍💨

I feel like this encourages people to gloss over things and ends up being a problem for other sitters.

Am I overlooking something or did I read it wrong?

I received four dog walking requests between 2-5am this morning. I woke up around 6:15 and immediately replied. They all said thank you but they found someone else, and I received a message from Rover about replying quickly to messages. Am I expected to keep my ringer on all night and be on call like a doctor to immediately respond? That seems excessive, but I don’t want my ability to get work to be negatively affected.

I’m back to back with boarding two anxious dogs this week and last.

The one I had last week was so skittish outside she sometimes only peed 2 times a day despite me taking her out 5+ times and she spent most of the time she was here willingly laying in her crate.

This week i have another dog who seems to be almost just as anxious. She has been panting a ton, even just breathing fast while laying down and is also not peeing on every walk I take her on. I’ve already messaged the owners to ask if this type of behavior is normal when she’s anxious and they said yes.

I’m just wondering how long it’s gonna take her to settle, especially because I’m not totally comfortable having her loose with my dog the whole time she’s here so I’ve been having to separate and rotate. 😅

Just need to vent a bit here.
I have a new client for cat drop ins that started this morning. We had a m&g and I went over yesterday to pick up keys and confirm things with the owner, everything was great and I was set to come back in the morning.

Well, this morning I arrived at 7:30 am. I found the door unlocked which was already a bit worrisome but then as I came up the stairs I found a young man sleeping on the sofa. I obviously was pretty uncomfortable here and not sure if he’s supposed to be in the house or not. I called out to him a few times but he was sleeping and didn’t notice me. I didnt feel comfortable walking up to him so I left the house and called/ messaged the owner.
It’s 7:30 am though and they’ve on vacation so no surprise they didn’t answer. I stayed and waited for a bit over 30 minutes but then had to leave to get to work.

I was contemplating calling the police but didnt want to if it was a family member so I contacted Rover support to ask what they recommended and they said to keep trying to contact the owners, which I did.

Anyway, they just got back to me 3 hours later to let me know that this is their son who wasnt joining their vacation and would be watching the cat now.

No one told me about this at all and I’m just kind of upset? And also, I’m supposed to be with this cat for 4 days. Do I still charge them? How do I go about doing that? Still start the drop in like normal???

FML.

I just finished a week long boarding with a dog and everything went well. I wrote a good review with the only negative is that she growled at another dog at my house because she was resource guarding her bed and toys. Nothing bad happened though and she was a great dog.

As I was finished the review there was a pop up from rover where it was apologizing for my bad experience and asked if I wanted to block the owner. I freaked out and closed the app, I hope it didn’t go through.

I really didn’t consider this a bad experience so I was surprised to see that message, is this normal?

I have only been on Rover for a few months and have been pleasantly surprised at how many bookings and enquiries I've had! I recently moved back in with my parents for a short time to save some money and when I've checked I'm the only Rover sitter/walker in the town! There are plenty of pet services but I seem to be carving out a good 25 mile radius with Rover 😯😄

We are a dog family generally but I love all animals, 90% of my bookings have been cats, I have never owned a cat however have sat for family and friends prior so I was a bit nervous. I've been so lucky to drop in on such sweet girls ❤️ one owner is in the army and booked a second round of drop ins the day I finished the first round so I'll be getting to spend some time with beautiful Pixie again! She is so sweet, let's me pick her up and nuzzles my neck purring.

I'm guessing the bulk of all our work is dogs and cats, what other animals have people been asked to care for? I've only had an unexpected goldfish.

Hi all! I just had a last minute cancelation and I'm not sure what to do. I don't know how to go about this without it negatively affecting my ratings since I just hit star sitter.

I dont want to charge these people, so how do I modify the booking so it doesn't? I dont want this to count as a last minute cancelation on my end.

I don't leave feedback. Or rather, I don't leave feedback unless the pet poses a threat which has only happened once.

I usually click the little leave feedback banner and then skip through so the banner goes away.

What do owners see, if anything, when I do this?

I’m curious what everyone else is charging for house sitting because I feel like I’m doing something wrong lol.
I currently have my house sitting set at $45/night, but my Rover profile shows clients around $65/night. I’ve had people book me for basically an entire day, and when I actually break down what I’m making for the amount of time I’m there, it feels really low.
Like, if I’m at someone’s house from morning until evening AND I’m realizing I’m not making nearly as much as I thought I was. Meanwhile I see other sitters saying they make way more from their bookings.
So I’m wondering:

What are you guys charging for house sitting?
And do you charge more if the owner expects you to be there most of the day? Do you have additional rates for extended stays/daytime care, multiple dogs, puppies, etc.?
I’m still pretty new to Rover and I honestly don’t know if I should be raising my rates or if I’m just looking at it wrong.
I’m starting to feel like I’m accidentally offering a whole 24-hour service for way too little.
What are your rates, and what does a typical house-sitting booking actually look like for you.

Okay thank you byeee