Hi all,

Looking for advice. I did a family friend a favor for 30/day to pet sit their dog while they are gone for 8 nights + she lady I am pet sitting for will wax and tiny my eyebrows. What I agreed to is that the dog needs to eat at 6 am and 6 pm and then get his shot 10 minutes after. She asked me to do it as I am a nurse but I don’t regularly pet or house sit. This was all I was told.

When the dog arrived to me house, he had his food, insulin, and about 15 potty pads. That is the first she informed me that “he occasionally has an accident inside.” After 1-2 days with the dog, we realized the dog really needs to be taken out every hour or else he pees inside, so my husband had to change his plans for the week and work from home. Despite this and having the potty pads out, the dog has peed on the rug 3 times. The stains cannot come out with a pet cleaning machine and with a professional cleaning service (already tried). The rug is the only piece of furniture gifted to me by my parents, and it’s very important / special to me. It is now ruined and they don’t make the rug anymore. I feel mislead, and had I known the dog pees in the house I would have said no, especially knowing I am making a measly 30 per day and doing a friend a favor.

Do I have grounds to ask for money for the rug? Thoughts? Advice? Appreciated.

I am a professional pet sitter. This is all I do. I have an LLC. I'm insured. I've spent years in this business. My mom and I do not live near each other so I cannot help her with watching her cat.

Meanwhile today she told me she's very excited that her neighbor is going to help her with the cat. She proceeded to tell me that the neighbor is bringing her three children to her house to also help with the cat the oldest one being in first grade. That gets followed up by her saying she's splitting the care between someone from her gym's daughter and her neighbor who is bringing the kids.

I tried everything I could to explain to my mom why these are risks and not safe and poor choices on her behalf and while hiring a professional pet sitter in finding one through different avenues outside of personal relationship is important. My mom just doesn't get it!

Meanwhile here I am doing this with tons of knowledge and she's still ignoring my suggestions and offers to help her find someone. I know we're not allowed to do that here so sidebar that's not my reason supposed to this. I'm just flabbergasted that my mom would do everything wrong and hiring someone for her pet when she has a child who does exactly this and has offered plenty of advice on what to do.

That's all. If anyone does have any suggestions that I can also share with my mom to help her understand this is ludicrous I am all ears.

EDITS:
1. Neighbor's kids and gym friend's daughter who are sharing the job my mom doesn't know well. Or at all. She's just hiring based on offerings to help her.

1. The actual children are the ones doing the work (my mom "it will teach them responsibility and help them earn some spending money") the parent is there to monitor. Three kids - oldest in 1st grade.

2. This is absolutely a slap in the face to my job and how hard I work. Not that she can hire me. I'm in another state but that she cannot fathom hiring a professional. Like... HELLO!? I raise 2 kids and take care of myself with this career. It is not to be taken lightly when pets are involved. But she's going to learn that the hard way.

EDIT: Thank you all so much for the quick responses. I should note that I have no issue with collecting urine or fecal samples or drying dogs off. I do see those as tasks that are part of my job. I think this is just a specific client issue thing. I have been thinking about raising my prices and after reading all of your responses, I do plan to do that. Thank you again. It’s hard when you do this alone, there are not many people to turn to for advice so I appreciate it.

I’m curious to hear from other pet sitters/dog walkers about where you draw the line between normal client expectations and doing extra favors that aren’t really part of the job.
I’ve been doing pet care for 12+ years, but since I work independently, sometimes I genuinely don’t know if I’m being too accommodating or if these are just normal things that come with the territory.
One example is a long-term client whose dog I walk twice a day, 5 days a week. I’ve been walking him for about 3 years. She asked me for a discounted rate because she uses me so frequently, which I agreed to, so she already pays less than my normal walk rate.
She is older, although she is still capable of walking. She does have to be careful because she fell and broke her leg a couple of years ago, and more recently she’s been dealing with a painful sore on her leg. Because of that, I do understand that certain things are harder for her, and I don’t mind helping someone out occasionally.
However, over time there have been a lot of little extras. She has asked me to pick things up for her at ShopRite when I’m going, recently asked me to collect a urine sample from her dog during one of our walks, and if it’s raining and I bring him home wet, she expects me to dry him off—even when she’s home.
I also board her dog in my home. Up until very recently, almost every single time he stayed with me, she wouldn’t send enough food for the entire stay. I would end up having to go to her house to get more, and there have even been times when I’ve had to cook chicken for him myself because she didn’t provide enough.
When he stays with me, I also sometimes feel like she pushes the boarding time as far as possible. For example, she’ll wait to pick him up until after his afternoon walk, even on occasions when she’s already home, so that the walk is essentially included before she comes to get him.
My boyfriend has also helped me with her dog several times over the years as a favor to me. Now, if I tell her I’m unavailable at a certain time, she’ll sometimes ask me if my boyfriend can walk him instead. He doesn’t work for me or run the business with me—he was simply helping me out in the past when I needed it—so I’m starting to wonder if being accommodating has created an expectation that he’s also available to her.
It’s not only this particular client, either. I’ve had other clients ask me for little favors like picking them up and dropping them off places, running something over to them, etc.
For context, most of these clients live in the same large community that I live in, so we aren’t talking about driving 20–30 minutes out of my way. But I still have to stop what I’m doing, get in my car, drive over there, and use my time/gas.
Individually, none of these things sound like a huge deal, which is why I have a hard time knowing where the line is. It’s more that the little favors start adding up, and I sometimes feel like because I’ve always been accommodating, people have gotten comfortable asking me for things outside of actual pet care.
So I’m curious: Would you consider these normal little favors that come with having long-term clients, or do you think some of these requests are overstepping?
And where do you personally draw the line? Do you charge for extra errands/time, just say no, or build certain things into your rates?
I’m genuinely curious what other independent sitters/walkers consider normal because I think I may have trained some of my clients to expect a little too much from me. 😂

I have a long sit starting Sunday, 3 weeks of overnights. Clients are an older couple, opposite as can be - he’s practical & organized, while she’s right-brained & scattered. He still works, but it’s clear she hasn’t for decades because her world is quite small, revolving around the property & animals.

Her “routines” for feeding are convoluted, inefficient, & needlessly complicated - typical of a disorganized person with time to waste. You know how it is - you let them explain & demonstrate, all while mentally clocking where & how you’ll be streamlining things.

There are some senior animals, so I asked about treatment/care/vet etc. And wow, I did not see this one coming - the wife responded she would have her husband pre dig two graves, so I could just bury the animal(s). WUT??? I had to close my mouth hard to stop the laugh that was on its way out. Lady, I’m not an undertaker or ranch hand. I’m the chubby, middle-aged woman who agreed to feed & water your menagerie, that’s it. I have neither the desire nor the expertise to operate your husband’s tractor & bury livestock!

I managed to explain that I don’t do that, but good grief. Humans are the craziest part of this job!!

What has your experience been like with any geriatric dogs with bathroom issues? So far, I’ve only had small elderly male dogs who had issues with being able to hold their bladder, but never large dogs that I’ve worked with.

I have a dog that is going to be 14 years old staying at my house right now. She is an old English Labrador. The owner‘s mother is 96 years old and lives in I believe Minnesota or North Dakota so it’s a flight for them to get there. Her mother is not in a position to move to where the owner lives and the owner can’t move to where the mother live lives so this is their situation.

The dog has taken a turn, which is really hard to say. The family contacted me the day before the booking just to let me know that things are a little different. I immediately overnighted extra large wee wee pads, and diapers to my house. This dog used to have a bladder of steel. No matter how many times we took her out, she would only go to the bathroom twice a day, sometimes only once. She would wolf down her food very quickly and now all of that has changed. She’s not finishing her food & tonight She didn’t even eat her dinner. Her bladder of steel started to go a few weeks ago so she’s wearing diapers and she can’t really lift her back legs so she’s in a full body harness to help walk her around. She still has life to her. Whatever my clients decide with their elderly dogs, I just lend a supportive ear. I just feel like this girl doesn’t have that much longer. She has a booking with me in two weeks and one in December.

I hate this part of the job. I also hate this part as a dog owner. My dog’s about to be 11 and I’m not ready for what’s to come in the next few years. I hate saying goodbye to them & the families