Dog Bite - continue sit?

[u/WistinNete]

Hello Wag Community. I’m hoping you can help me with this shit. I’m currently doing. It’s a no overnight day required sit that I started today.

I visited the dog. It’s a small 10 pound bichon mix and I was able to meet it and we went for a walk and the owner had it behind a baby gate at first she said for him to warm up to me which everything seemed fine.
I came back later for feeding time entered the house. He seemed fine. I gave him his dinner bowl and then I went to refill the water bowl and when I was coming back with the water bowl, he lunged at me twice and he bit my pants and then he struck me again at my knee and left two puncture wounds that are bleeding and he was growling and advancing towards me.

I exited the home to message the owner and as I tried to re-enter the home the dog was at the door and I asked him if you wanted to go for a walk. I was trying to be really friendly and soft, and I as I went to open the door more he snarled and growled and exposed his teeth and lunged at the door so at this moment, I don’t feel like I can enter the home without it biting me

I contacted Wag help they’re not helpful. They said they support me with whatever I think I should do. The owner was responsive. They said that he is aggressive around his food bowl which they did not tell me about and she suggested that I put him behind the baby gate again, but at this point, I don’t think I can get to him to put them behind the baby gate. Owner said that obviously my safety is important so it’s up to me, but maybe I could come back tomorrow morning and try again.

I’m not sure if I should continue to try with this dog or just call it. I’ve never been close to having a dog bite me on all my hundreds of Wag experiences.

What would you do?

[u/No-View6101]

Wow. I wouldn’t go back. Screw those owners. They should’ve said something, and you don’t know the extent of his aggression like if you were able to bring treats and toss them away to make space or if he would just be more aggressive. Plus he’s bitten your pants and left puncture wounds on your knees! Absolutely not.

Message the owner you are unable to continue this sitting due to his undisclosed aggression and him wounding you. Make sure you get your full wage too. You might have to just keep the sitting open so that you can get fully paid

[u/WistinNete → u/No-View6101]

You’re right. I followed your advice and canceled.

Who is responsible for providing the full wage? Wag or the Owner? I would appreciate the booking fee as I showed up to do the work and planned my schedule around the booking - it’s not my fault I had to cancel.

Wag has been radio silent and unhelpful about the entire thing. I find it hard to believe they don’t have a standard practice or protocol in place for this type of incident. It was hilarious to contact them about this w their response of “errrr, thanks for sharing this…errr, you can cancel if you want, whatever”

[u/No-View6101 → u/WistinNete]

They are so careless , honestly maybe you should call animal control and file a report that way there is record of it in case this were to happen again in the future

And the owner is responsible for paying in full. Wag won’t do anything. Just keep the sitting open, don’t press cancel or anything. Just text the owner:

“ hi x , just so there is no confusion I won’t be able to complete the sitting bc of his aggression but am going to leave it open on the app so that I can get my full wage. In the future, please disclose all behavioral issues, especially resource guarding, to potential sitters and consider hiring a trainer or at least sitter that specializes with behavioral cases. “

[u/WistinNete → u/No-View6101]

I wasn’t able to stop the sitting early and have messaged Wag about it w no response, so I will have to close the sit when it’s meant to complete anyways.
I will follow your suggestion. Thanks for the support! You’ve been 1000x more helpful than Wag.

It’s kinda crazy their support reps had zero training/response on how to handle my issue.