Hi,
I'm very sorry to be posting this, but thought it too important not to mention.
A few weeks ago I posted a request for a Dog Sitter/Walker - the person I chose ticked all the right boxes, I even received a glowing reference from one of his other clients. We all met up several times before I had to go abroad. Sadly on day 2 onwards of my absence, I found out that he didn't show up to my place as agreed to be with my 6 month old puppy. He even went as far as saying that he'd 'sent his brother' over on one of the following days which certainly hadn't been agreed, this never happened anyway as my husband had to take time off from work to see to the puppy so he was in when the 'brother' should have called round.
I was abroad for emergency family reasons, so to hear this was added misery for me... especially when I wasn't offered any sort of logical explanation other than his 'services were needed elsewhere'!!!
My husband had to make many different arrangements and take time off from his work when he could, after he realised things were going very wrong with the sitter dispite texts, emails, calls to him to find out why he wasn't coming.
I dread to think what it would have been like if my puppy needed medication or I had an old dog that needed regular care.
So without trashing the good that other dog sitters and walkers do, please be vigilant as to who you hire. Our pets are special and important to us - and they should be to those that we entrust to do this for us in our absence.
Very very sadly, I will be reluctant to use a dog sitter/walker again - I will have to send my puppy to the kennels in future which is not exactly the best choice for me.
Roxy.