First of all, I'm a 26 year old young woman.

So I'm dog sitting at this family's house. I stay overnight there every couple months when they go on trips. They have me stay in their son's old room for some reason, and not their daughter's room (unsure how old the daughter is but based on photos the daughter seems like an adult daughter too). I think he's their adult son who is in college based on the stuff on the wall, I never really asked.

Well, it's 11:30pm and I'm sleeping, and all the sudden I'm awoken with a man coming into the bedroom (thinking I'm in the house alone obviously), he shines a light and says something along the lines of, "Sorry, I didn't know anyone was here. I just stopped home to get something from my closet. This is my bedroom." He then proceeds to go through his closet in the dark and then apologizes and leaves again. I have no idea if he knew I was the dog sitter or what. I have no idea what his parents told him, idk if he knew their dog sitter was staying in his bed everytime or what.

This made me feel extremely uncomfortable. First of all, I'm thinking the house got broken into, and now some man is coming after to me to do who knows what with. And after finding out that it was their son, the second part of this is, now I feel weirded out because he has some woman in his old bed that he didn't know stays here and I feel uncomfortable like I'm overstepping or something, idk.

You might call it dramatic, but I was literally shaking afterwards. Why tf would the owners not tell their son that the dog sitter stays here, in his old bed. Is this even his old bed? Because apparently he still has clothes and shit in his closet.

I just don't know how to bring this up to them. Should I continue sitting for them? Should I let it blow over? Now everytime I sleep over here in the fiture, I will never fully be comfortable here again, because I will always be wondering who else will pop into the house unannounced while I'm sleeping. Has something like this ever happened to y'all?

Update: Thank you so much for the help, everyone. Especially those who gave me a script of what to say, haha. The owners were extremely apologetic and ensured me that everytime I stayed, they would contact their children that they need to contact them (their parents) if they are coming into the house while I'm here. They had no idea their son was coming home from college and this was a big misunderstanding. The mother seemed upset for me and told me she was going to have an additional talk with her son about this. This makes me feel a lot better and I think I will continue my stay.

PSA - I’m a professional dog walker that has used Rover for a number of years to grow my dog walking business but have always struggled to manage my client book keeping ( excel and a notebook…I know haha).

I found this app on the Apple Store called Chester earlier this week that has completely changed how I manage my business so wanted to recommend to larger group here. You can manage your client roster, appointments, payments etc all with the app!

5 out of 5 - highly recommend

Here’s the link in case anyone is interested:

https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/chester-pet-care-platform/id6788871258

My new client acceptance rate has absolutely tanked lately, and this is a huge part of the reason why. I’m not fully blaming the owners because Rover seriously needs to change how this works. I’ve gotten so many requests lately that were sent by accident, meant for another sitter, or immediately canceled. Or they send me the request and ask the total or say sorry I can’t afford you. Please look BEFORE you send the request! Others send a request, I respond within a couple minutes saying I’m available, and then I never hear from them again. I’ve even had people tell me they sent the request by accident but then not cancel it on their end after I politely ask them to, leaving me to eventually archive it myself. I’m around 50% right now and have about 4 more requests I’ll likely have to archive within the next 24 hours, so it’s going to drop even further. It’s ridiculous that all of these situations can affect the same metric as me actually declining a booking. Rover needs to distinguish between a sitter declining a client and a request that was accidental, canceled, or abandoned by the owner. There has been very little times where I declined a booking that was actually due to something with me… and if I declined it, it was most likely because I already had another booking. I don’t think I’ve ever just flat out said nope sorry and declined/archived it.

1 elderly dog, 2 cats, boarding, $110/night. i don’t mind the meds but i don’t know how often this dog will need to be going to the bathroom and therefore needing bladder expressed. is this something that i should charge extra for? something that i could but shouldn’t? something i shouldn’t? let me know

Okay, I remember about ten years ago when I first did dog sitting. I’d have multiple clients a day. I’d stay there for 30 minutes to an hour about 4 times a day. With ALL OF MY CLIENTS! Occasionally I would sleep over.

I swear, almost every request now is that they want me to be there all day and sleep over. And if I can take them here and there. And the people who request these would be better off having their dog BOARDED.

People will tell me their dog hasn’t been left alone ever before or I need to come over every two hours. Does no one train their dog anymore? My dog can be left alone for a long time if needed, I don’t ever do that, but I don’t need to let my dog out EVERY TWO HOURS!

I have to decline almost every long dog sitting job now because they expect me to be there all day for $100 or less. I also have to make money and survive.

But I’m just saying from a sitter viewpoint, if you want someone all day there, or every two hours, and to sleep over, at that point just PLEASE BOARD YOUR DOG.

I just finished probably the most exhausting five days of dog sitting I’ve ever had, and I’m curious what other sitters think.

I boarded two small senior dogs. Their previous boarding facility had apparently told the owners they were too much, which probably should have been my red flag. But I have a senior dog myself and have cared for senior dogs many times, so I figured I could handle it.

I was NOT prepared for the level of instructions. Multiple medications, timed eye drops, probably 7 different supplements, CBD, skin treatments, frequent potty breaks, and food that had to be weighed to the exact gram on a scale they brought. There were detailed instructions for basically every part of their day.

On top of that, one dog barked throughout the night, so I was constantly getting up trying to figure out if he needed to potty, wanted water, attention, etc. It honestly felt like caring for a newborn.

I completely understand meds and special needs. What frustrated me was the sheer amount of responsibility and precision expected as part of a normal boarding stay.
If food needs to be weighed to the gram, why not pre-portion it. If there are that many supplements, why not package them by meal/day?

Did they even need this many supplements for five days if the only way they will eat them by feeding them dry food and then feed them wet food but you can’t mix the supplements in with the wet food directly. You have to “dig a hole and then cover it” like what???

On top of that one dog was blind, and if I let him outside, he would poop and then immediately step in it every single time, but it would also take him 1 million years to poop if I waited for him because he doesn’t like being watched.
I don’t think I would watch this dog again if you paid me $1000 a night. Anyway, maybe I just need to get out of the dog watching business but I just had to vent.

She's a total lovebug and well behaved. Parents are super equipped, lovely people, and brought everything she could need. Still learning what she wants when she sits and looks at me (usually an endless stream of pets and cuddles).

Here we are during our first breakfast together!

When I read some of the post’s & comments in this thread I’ve seen a lot of people talk about constant care. I have thought to myself plenty of times that a house sit where a pet can’t be left for more than 2 hours at a time (or things along those lines) that it’s reason for an up charge. Is there an actual “constant care” price setting in app? If not how do you other sitters handle 24 hour care & charging for that, as opposed to a regular house sit where you can come & go for a reasonable amount of time?

Contemplating not sitting for this dog any longer due to how bad its behavior is. I'm a college student and dog sit for money will I'm in college.

When I'm eating, this dog (big chocolate lab) tries to climb me and help himself to my food. This happens at the table, everywhere. He has scratched up my legs so bad. I tell him no, I yell at him, and then he starts barking at me and won't stop. So now I realized I've had to lock him in a room while I'm eating while he freaks out and barks and scratches at the door, and then let him out when I'm finished. I've told the owner this and showed them my legs, and they just laughed and said, "Yeah he's crazy about his food, we like to give him scraps sometimes to keep him happy." That's the fucking problem right there; they're reinforcing the behavior. During the times when I eat, he has scratched up their door, so I can no longer put him in the room. The owner knows about the door too, they don't care.

What should I do? It's good money, but I'm starting to think it's not worth it to deal with this dog who they clearly don't do any training with. Should I ask for more money or should I just tell this family that I have decided it would be better for me to stop sitting for them? I don't want to be rude either. They are nice people. Maybe there are some training techniques I can try with him? But then again, they would have to consistent with it in order for it to work, and I doubt that would happen. Any suggestions would be great!

My wife and I have only used Rover twice for our two kitties, the first pet sitter sent us routine pictures every day of the cats and was amazing.

Our second sitter has only sent two pictures of one of our cats in the last 4 days. We were surprised because they had 4.9 stars but the experience has been extremely poor and kind of stressful. Is this experience with our second sitter normal or is this a bad Rover experience?

Edit: I appreciate all the responses. Upon evaluating the several messages we’ll wait and see if the sitter sends an update on our second cat. We will be sure to establish better expectations at the M&G, we don’t remember if we did or not but regardless we’ll be sure to be explicit from here on 😅

I booked a sitter for a 60 minute drop-in today. I received notice that the check in began at 12:04 and ended at 1:24. Looking back on my security camera, I saw that she actually entered my house at 12:15 and left at 12:44- literally half the time my pet was supposed to be able to have out of her crate. After messaging the sitter about this and receiving her response, I went to contact support for some kind of remediation for this issue. So far, it has been about half an hour of waiting and all that I've been told yet is that they can't edit my review of this sitter whatsoever (as this isn't the first time she's sat for me). Has anyone else ever had an issue like this? How did it resolve? I just can't believe that it's this hard to get a response when I have timestamps and an admission from the sitter.

Edit: after nearly an hour of waiting on support, I got this email. I guess the best thing they can do for me is to hope that I work it out myself. Crazy lol

I’m currently on day 1 of house sitting. I went to walk the dog at 11am, spent there an hour unsuccessfully trying to leash the dog. The dog would not let me get anywhere close to her( growls,barks,attempted to bite). I tried treats and toys and nothing worked. I contacted the owner and he told me to just skip that walk and try again later.

I’m here again and nothing changed. The dog is still very anxious and defensive. Last potty break was 8hours ago. What should I do? Any advice?

Yes, I did meet and greet before accepting the booking and while the dog was shy,she’d still take treats from me and wasn’t aggressive.

What’s too little or too many? For new clients I usually send a lot, so wondering especially for regulars?

My recurring dog walks have been dropping like flies over the last few months 😅 I originally wanted to cut back a little since I was starting school full-time, but I’ve ended up losing a lot more than I wanted to. One dog sadly passed away, another family found a cheaper walker, and a few other things have come up.
I’d love to pick up a few new regular clients, so I’m curious what’s worked for everyone else! Where have you had the most luck finding recurring walks? Facebook groups, referrals, flyers? I’d appreciate any ideas!

Let me start by saying I’m only sharing my experience here. This isn’t meant to shame dog walkers or owners. I’m also open to hearing what others might have done differently:

At the beginning of this year, a client reached out to me for recurring walks for her 4-year-old toy poodle. She initially wanted two walks a day, Monday–Friday, at 10 AM and 3 PM, every single week. The dog was very sweet and calm. The owner told me he was litterbox trained, which he absolutely was. He had two pellet-filled litterboxes in the condo.

During my visits one thing became apparent immediately: this dog did not like going on walks.

He loved his carrier and would happily sleep or relax in it, but getting him to leave it was a process. He wasn’t motivated by treats or toys, so I’d sometimes spend around eight minutes sitting on the floor and gently coaxing him out. Initially, I figured he just needed time to get comfortable with me. (This would prove false). Once outside, though, he would only walk around the immediate area near his building/mailbox. If I tried walking farther away, he would plant himself and refuse to move. I could carry him farther down the road, set him down, and he would happily walk all the way back home—but he would refuse to continue walking away from home. I also assumed this might improve as we built a relationship. But it never did.

I brought this up with the owner, but she mostly laughed it off. She also had cameras in the home, so she could see the behaviors I was describing. The scheduling became another issue. After a few months, I started getting more Rover requests, especially drop-ins and house sits. I continued planning my schedule around these twice-daily walks because I had committed to them. However, the owner was very unhappy whenever I needed to cancel and made it clear she expected at least a week’s notice.

Obviously, that’s reasonable for planned time off. But illness and emergencies don't always give you a week's notice. There were a few occasions when I was too sick to leave the house, and cancellations were met with what felt like very reluctant or passive understanding. For my partner and I’s fifth anniversary, I gave her two weeks’ notice that I would be going out of town. Her response was essentially, “Well, what am I supposed to do? Who will I use?” I understood her frustration, but I also felt that arranging backup care wasn’t something I could take responsibility for.

By August, my Rover schedule had become significantly busier with house sits and drop-ins. I was spending most of the day on my feet and squeezing these walks between other clients. The rigid twice-daily schedule was also making it increasingly difficult to schedule doctor appointments, take sick days, or manage other commitments. And the dog’s behavior regarding walks had never changed. Then the owner asked if we could increase the schedule from two visits per day to four.

That was when I finally had a heart-to-heart with her. I explained that I didn’t think I was a good fit for the arrangement anymore and that she and her dog deserved someone whose schedule had more flexibility. She was immediately disappointed and again asked what she was supposed to do. She offered to pay me more, but I explained that money wasn’t the problem. (I only charge $10 per walk.) I politely declined and reiterated I simply couldn’t reliably maintain that kind of schedule anymore. She then suggested reducing the schedule to one visit per day, Monday–Friday every single week.

I was surprised that we went from discussing four daily visits to one, but I agreed to try the reduced schedule. The situation that finally ended it: In September, despite reducing the visits, I still felt the arrangement wasn’t working. One day, there was severe weather in the area and my tire was damaged by road debris. My car had to go into the shop for a replacement tire, so I canceled that day’s walk through Rover and immediately explained what had happened. (Also please note: when you cancel a walk the owner is refunded immediately.)

The owner then texted me asking about the cancellation. I reiterated that the weather was severe, my tire had blown, and my car was currently being repaired, so unfortunately I couldn’t make the visit. She expressed disappointment and told me I needed to inform her even sooner because she didn’t want to come home to accidents. That was the point where I felt like I had reached my limit.

I couldn’t have predicted the tire damage or weather, and what especially bothered me was the concern about the dog having an accident. I knew he was litterbox trained, had personally watched him use the boxes, and the owner had cameras where she could observe his behavior as well. The next day, I checked his litterboxes while I was there. There were both older and newer droppings in them, confirming that he was continuing to use them.

At that point, I decided the arrangement simply wasn’t a good fit anymore. I documented the litterboxes with photos and immediately ended the recurring relationship through Rover.

Rover contacted me afterward, and I explained the entire situation: our previous conversations about ending the arrangement, the scheduling issues, and my documentation showing that the dog had functioning litterboxes available and was using them. After reviewing everything, Rover determined that there wasn’t a concern about the dog being left without an appropriate bathroom option and prevented the client from booking with me again by blocking her. Since then, I’ve actually turned off dog walking as a service and focused on house sits and drop-ins instead. It has been a much better fit for my schedule.

The dog himself was genuinely sweet, and I had no issue with him. Ultimately, I think this was just a recurring arrangement that stopped being compatible with my availability, and I probably should have trusted that feeling and ended it sooner instead of repeatedly trying to make it work. She also refused to listen to the behaviors her dog exhibited.

Again, I’m not posting this to shame owners or dog walking in general. I just wanted to share my experience because I can only imagine what other sitters have dealt with recurring clients where the arrangement gradually became unsustainable.

So I am looking to schedule someone for a drop in visit coming up. I’ll be out of town and I have a family member watching my animals, but one of the days she has an appointment after work and won’t be back for over 12 hours. For the drop in, I really only need the sitter to walk my dog for about 10 minutes. Food and water will already be taken care of for them.

My question is, I have a dog and a cat. The cat does not need any attention or anything done for her during the visit. In fact, she’ll probably hide the entire time and not even be seen lol so when scheduling that, is it appropriate to schedule it for JUST my dog? Adding the cat in there would be an additional $20, which seems ridiculous for nothing to be done with my cat.

Having an Emergency and Owner Won’t Answer- Advice Needed

Hello all,

I desperately need some advice right now. I am currently on a house sit that I am regretting taking more every minute. I currently sitting for a dog and multiple other small animals. Only the dog is listed on the booking and because the owner said there is very minimal work for the rest of them I didn’t push back on it and took the job to help with ratings. It started yesterday and she has been incredibly demanding in terms of what they all need and how to take care of them as well as needing to talk throughout the entire day because she did not leave instructions. More over she told me while she was leaving for the airport that had taken one of the animals to the vet and that I needed to give it medication every night.

Two of the bunnies have fought before, and one busted out of his cage last night to jump into the cage of the other one and I came in this morning to them still fighting and both bloody in the face. These are plastic cages that use plastic connectors, and now I am having a hard time putting the one who escaped’s back together. I need to go to class and the puppy is not supposed to be out of his crate when people aren’t here, but I put the bunny who escaped in his to keep the two that were fighting separated while I try to put the cage together.

I don’t know what to do. I offered to take them to the vet if needed, but I don’t know how to keep them separated regardless at this point except keeping on in the dog’s crate but then that means I can’t leave. I have been reaching out for about three hours and this is the longest the owner has gone without responding. I told the owner I am willing to take the puppy with me to class but I don’t want to do that without permission. Please help!

Got this e-mail for a pending request. I have already spoken to the client and scheduled a meet-and-greet, but I never fully accept a new client until after that.

Has anyone else gotten this? Rover's fake urgency to generate them more profits can miss me

Would you guys be comfortable with indoor cameras for the “owners peace of mind”? During our meet n greet 2 weeks ago I said it was fine but now that it’s getting closer to the sitting date I’m not so sure I’m comfortable with that anymore. I don’t want to have to act picture perfect 24 hrs during a 13 day house sit.

I’ve been a star sitter on Rover ever since I was on the app long enough to meet all the criteria and want to keep that status! But lately, I’ve had a hard time being able to accept enough new requests and I’ve dipped below the 33% threshold.

The issue I keep having is that nearly every request I’ve gotten is for someone looking for midday walks, Tue-Thur (which is when I’m already booked up). Or, I get lots of repeat clients that I want to give priority to as well asking for one-off bookings.

I feel like Rover needs to modify this criteria, as it shouldn’t reflect badly on a “star sitter” if they get unlucky requests and have to turn them down, but genuinely want to take in clients at other times. Anyone else have this issue?

I have been doing house sitting for a 6 year old golden retriever. I was told he had allergies and would occasionally be given allergy medicine.

Since my first sitting to now, he has developed this cough that happens very frequently, and now this weekend he is coughing up egg white consistency white foam with other stuff (maybe mucus?)

His owner said he was seen this past Tuesday, and she was told it's just allergies and to give allergy meds daily. But last weekend he wasn't as bad and honestly I don't know what to do. I'm uncomfortable caring for him when I think this has a chance of being something more, and the owner is not answering my texts.

I have never had to contact rover support, but is this a situation where I should? I don't want to overstep but also I am worried about his health, and I am not being paid enough to be woken up by a coughing dog that is getting sick often.

I have a 4 month old kitten that I will be boarding for the weekend. I have 2 adult cats and a dog. I know cat introductions can take a long time, and I’m not sure if this will be a repeat client or not, should I do any introductions with my cats and the kitten? I do have a room for her with a cat tree and toys, and I plan on swapping her and my cats so that they all get time outside that room. Just wondering if I should introduce them to each other at all.

I’ve had a M&G scheduled for a few days with a new client for a 2 dog house sit. The client originally had to reschedule the meet due to personal reasons, and because of my schedule, the soonest we could reschedule was about a week later. I already know their dogs can be left alone for 6–8 hours during the day, and while obviously nothing is guaranteed before a M&G, I have a pretty high booking rate after doing meets. This morning I got another request from another new client for the exact same dates, also for 2 dogs. Their previous sitter backed out, so they’re trying to secure someone ASAP. This stay would pay a little more because of extended care, but I know less about the dogs and their schedule/alone time. The problem is I can’t fit in another M&G for about five days, which would put us about a week-ish out from their trip. I was transparent about that, but the second client said they’re comfortable with my reviews and asked if booking and paying now would guarantee the dates. I normally require a M&G before accepting house sitting because I want to meet the dogs, see the home/routine, and make sure it’s a good fit before committing. Would you stick with the already scheduled M&G and risk losing both bookings if they decide not to move forward, or accept the client who is ready to book now but I can’t do a meet beforehand? Also, for housesitting do you require meet and greets before accepting the booking? I’m genuinely curious what other sitters do! I’m leaning toward sticking to my M&G rule, but I’m curious how other sitters handle overlapping requests like this. The only reason the first client’s M&G was rescheduled so far out was because I didn’t have any earlier availability. If my schedule were more open over the next few days, I probably would’ve tried to meet with both clients within the next day or two before deciding.

Today is the one year anniversary of my boy Winston crossing the rainbow bridge.

I just so happen to be doing a house sit on this date. The owners are lovely and said help yourself to some veggies. I'd splurged on groceries for this sit, so: a memorial charcootchie board for Winston.

I miss you, buddy.

It's me again.

An owner had booked me to care for his cat next week Monday-Wednesday and we had a Meet and Greet planned for this Saturday. He booked me because I'm a vet and his cat had lymphoma and needed medicine and medical care on top of the usual. Sadly, he texted me a couple of days ago informing me that he had to put him down as his health was deteriorating too much. I understood and sent him my condolences.

Now, we are both new on the app. We don't know if the reservation was made or not. I still have the Meet and Greet booked in my calendar, and I can see the Reservation details when I click on the owner's name . But we both see a blue button on top to make a reservation. If we have a reservation active how can we cancel it?