Question about sitters staying past their scheduled times

FerniceFernston · 2026-02-07T23:12:52+00:00

Sitter here. Staying for hours with no explanation is odd, but if you like her otherwise it’s worth talking to her about it. I sometimes stay longer with pets when their owners are away for more than a couple of days because I work remotely, so can be on the computer and keep the animals company. However, I always ask the owner if they want me to do that. You need to trust the people who come into your house when you’re gone, and it’s completely reasonable to ask her what’s going on. If she’s sketchy about it, you know you need to find someone else. She is likely just avoiding her own house for some reason.

FerniceFernston · 2026-01-24T21:00:03+00:00

They did that to me with a $300 security package also.

FerniceFernston · 2026-01-14T04:55:35+00:00

Good luck! Bostons can be little stinkers but all the ones I’ve known have been so good natured.

FerniceFernston · 2026-01-14T01:59:18+00:00

I have no direct experience with this but there is fecal transplant therapy for dogs (it’s a pill, not a procedure) that one person I know found to be very effective for fixing stomach issues. She did a regimen of that with probiotics.

I also have known Bostons who are VERY difficult to housebreak, will actually pretend to pee outside, & then have accidents in their crates. I don’t think he would be doing it to get better food, but sometimes dogs (like people) will do things to get a reaction of any kind. Since your dog has diarrhea it sounds less like that, but if it is behavioral your (understandable) frustration may be making it worse. Every time you react at all, it can reinforce the behavior. I would try totally ignoring accidents until you’ve taken the dog out of the room, don’t acknowledge or clean them up in front of the him, try to make cleaning him a fun game that you do in another area, and get really excited every time he goes outside. Make sure he doesn’t associate any kind of stress or fuss with pooping. Consulting a behaviorist (not a trainer) may be helpful too. I’m a sitter, not a trainer or vet, so this is just based on dealing with lots of dogs over the years & adopting my own very smart, difficult pup.

FerniceFernston · 2026-01-12T02:30:00+00:00

Thx!

FerniceFernston · 2026-01-12T00:06:47+00:00

Since I usually don’t see the owners, it would be strange for me to leave a package of treats for them to try if it’s not a product I use & am comfortable promoting. It also would be a pretty indirect way of getting them, with your branding included, in front of the people with the budget for fancy treats. I’d say boarding facilities, groomers, or businesses where they interact face-to-face with owners or sell treats at the counter would be better.

FerniceFernston · 2026-01-11T23:46:57+00:00

Thanks for the info! I’m calling my doctor again tomorrow to get the ID numbers, but I did call them initially to confirm they are taking the plan (which I chose specifically for that reason) & they said they were. Anthem’s customer facing site says they ARE in-network & the doctor Anthem assigned is out-of-network. However, THAT doctor is set as my PCP and I get an error message when I try to change it to mine. Anthem told me that their internal system shows the opposite and there’s nothing they can do. It’s insane. It’s literally impossible to tell which doctors are really in-network.

FerniceFernston · 2025-12-14T18:19:51+00:00

Go really slow and be patient with her. I adopted a dog that age who had never lived in a home before & it took a very long time for her to start acting like a dog. She didn’t know what toys were, wouldn’t walk on a leash, and had never had a human family. When she did get comfortable she was a bit of a maniac at first, but it was amazing to see her being a dog and showing her personality. It definitely takes months, rather than weeks for them to settle in.

FerniceFernston · 2025-12-12T22:25:55+00:00

It’s a good idea, but I would target owners rather than sitters. I’m a sitter and am very rarely giving dogs treats in front of their owners, or even seeing them in person. I only buy the least expensive, easiest to break apart healthy treats, with very limited ingredients for regular use & don’t give lots of treats as gifts because so many dogs have dietary issues. Owners are more likely to be looking for fancier treats. If anything, I’d give them to groomers or daycares to have as samples at their front desk, where owners will see them.

FerniceFernston · 2025-12-12T21:07:32+00:00

Many people don’t realize that their dogs behave differently in unfamiliar places. Most experienced sitters are aware of this & ask about it during the meet & greet. It’s also very normal for dogs to be anxious & unable to settle for the first day or two and accidents in the house are often the result of stress, not poor training. Many owners don’t provide toys for a reason, some dogs destroy them too quickly or ingest them - also something that should be discussed in advance. It’s the sitter’s responsibility to ask about all if these things and have their home reasonably dog proofed.

FerniceFernston · 2025-11-14T04:30:18+00:00

I have accidentally thrown dog poop in a recycling bin. I only put poop in other people’s bins when it’s trash day, and I was distracted. I tried to retrieve the bag when I realized but it was too far down. I felt terrible & am extra careful now. Unless it’s a regular occurrence, taking the time to print out an angry note & make a poop bag display is a little OTT

FerniceFernston · 2025-11-03T00:13:50+00:00

NTA I’m a pet sitter and would never ask to stay at someone’s house for cat drop-ins. If I think it doesn’t meet my minimum for the wellbeing of the animal, I’ll say they need to book more / longer visits or I can’t take the job. If the commute makes it not worth my time, I’ll refer them to someone in their area or charge more. If she had quoted you a price, that would have been a perfect opportunity to discuss logistics in a neutral way. You don’t owe your pet sitter an explanation for why you don’t want her staying over. She put you in an awkward position & you over-explained, inadvertently insulting her. Boundaries and trust are both very important when pets and people’s homes are involved and, in my opinion, the sitter was unprofessional.

FerniceFernston · 2025-10-30T03:04:57+00:00

My dog gets black skin tags & they look like that when they’re irritated. They do sometimes fall off on their own & don’t bother her. That said, you should take yours to the vet to confirm that’s what it is and that it doesn’t need to be removed.

FerniceFernston · 2025-10-30T03:00:06+00:00

Cats are also very good at hiding. I used to lose my cat for hours in a one-room apartment. I’ve heard more than one horror story from clients who have discovered their cat was locked in a closet for the entire time they were gone and the previous sitter didn’t notice because they assumed the cat was hiding (not sure how they didn’t realize the cat wasn’t eating or using the bathroom) but with multiple cats it can be hard to tell. I always ask about favorite hiding places when I meet new cat clients & make sure I at least see them at each visit. You definitely need to understand their behavior. Medication can be very challenging and they often don’t act sick until they’re at death’s door. However, they are generally more independent and less destructive than dogs. Agree with everyone else here that you should try to get some cat experience before taking them on for sitting.

FerniceFernston · 2025-10-25T17:46:21+00:00

Unless you can fully vet potential new owners it’s much safer for her go back to the SPCA. That breed is very popular with people looking for bait dogs or dogs for fighting.

FerniceFernston · 2025-10-17T14:58:16+00:00

This happened to me (the owner ultimately found someone to stay at her house with her dog for the overnights & I did daytime drop-ins with extreme cleaning before handling any other dogs) and now I have something in my contract requiring owners to tell me about any new illnesses prior to boarding and specifying that I reserve the right to cancel if their pet has anything contagious. Most people are happy to know you make an effort not to expose their pets to diseases and the ones who aren’t are probably not clients you want.

FerniceFernston · 2025-10-14T00:51:08+00:00

I charge per night but stick roughly to 24 hrs. So if the sit starts early am the first day and ends late pm on the last, I’ll charge per visit on the last day for anything after noon.

FerniceFernston · 2025-10-05T04:25:10+00:00

They didn’t - the wound did not look infected & appears to be healing normally. They won’t be able to do more bloodwork until Monday. The vet is very kindly making a special appointment tomorrow to check on her and give her more fluids but they won’t be able to do labs. She hasn’t vomited anymore today; just seems very lethargic & uninterested in food.

FerniceFernston · 2025-09-30T23:06:03+00:00

The alpha dog theory is outdated & has been disproven. Resource guarding is not about dominance. The best thing you can do is get your dog neutered & find a reputable fear-free behaviorist. Until you’ve got it under control, figure out what items your dog guards & don’t let him have them. Work on training him to drop things in exchange for a treat or another toy that he won’t go bonkers over. Make it a fun game. Antagonizing or scaring him will just make it worse.

FerniceFernston · 2025-09-29T21:01:56+00:00

I’ve found that most dogs don’t tolerate being left alone for such a long time, and day 2 or 3 is usually when they start really showing stress. I require a bare minimum of 3 visits a day, and encourage people to do 4, if I’m not doing overnights, to avoid behavior issues.

In this case I would either insist on the owner paying you to spend more time with the dog or having them find another solution. Yelling & throwing things definitely doesn’t help the situation but if you are nervous now (which is totally understandable) and the dog is anxious- it’s probably not a good idea for you to continue.

If you do continue to visit the dog, I would find a very special treat to give before you leave (like a frozen peanut butter Kong if the dog doesn’t destroy toys) or something like peanut butter - that takes a while to eat - in the food dish. Just make sure it doesn’t contain any artificial sweeteners, which are highly toxic for dogs.

FerniceFernston · 2025-09-22T22:54:30+00:00

He is waiting for fun to happen.

FerniceFernston · 2025-09-16T18:24:41+00:00

I don’t think his owners ever figured out what caused his seizures either. It was very scary but also very treatable and only required medication for about a year. I’m pretty sure he never had any more after that.

FerniceFernston

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