House Sitters

We've used one, but it was a local lady, found her on Google I think.

As a 'lender' of a dog I've tried BorrowMyDoggy and largely failed to find anyone useful to borrow my dog through it. My wife has had some bookings for walks and stays through Rover in the past, so that may be better. Other options are local recommendations as IHN says, but if you had some of those you'd probably not be asking on here! 

The other option is local dog boarding - so your dog stays in someone's house rather than going to kennels.

I don't really know why they call them house sitters as the only people who need it have pets. It is pet sitting, albeit in my house.  

I tried one of the sites and all the prospective sitters seemed a bit flakey, the dates never suited (even when they advertised their availability). I never had any confidence that I could depend on them.

There are some cracking kennels out there now but they get booked up quickly. This one near us even has a swimming pool!...

https://reservoirdoggyresortspa.co.uk/

I wouldn't let anyone I didn't know very well look after my dog or my home.

We use one periodically, but it's via the same company which we use for our dogs weekly walk, and it's usually the same dog walker who I now know really well.

Last summer MrsVlad and I were away without our dog for nearly 3 weeks. The dog sitter took him home with him a couple of days and even took him away camping. Our dog loved it!

It cost mind...

We have a rolling deal with some (near-ish) neighbours now, they look after our idiot when we are away and we get their daft Spaniel when they are away, house sitting is a chore though, in their 5-bed detached house with cinema room, the worst part is going home .... 

I've been doing the sitting for years and still do 2-3 a year. It kept my partner and I going on holiday regularly when we were getting established and that's still basically how we view it. There's a couple of major sites, they have reviews, we have lots of good reviews now and that's sort of your trust currency.

If you live in a nice place that someone would conceivably want to rent as an Airbnb, you'll probably have a good time. If not, you're going to get people who are using it as free rent. No judgement on them but I've heard a few horror stories from people we've sat for.

Some of the people we've sat for have been a bit naive and we've given them some tips after. Ask for a video call beforehand and offer to show them the house a bit, this lets you sus them out. Check reviews of sitters. Make a handbook- where your stopcock is, how to feed your animals, who is the vet, what neighbour has a key, etc. Meet up with the sitters and have a meal with them at the changeover.

coming from the other side, my partner does house/dog sitting via the rover app

there's always a meeting beforehand to check that she and the dog get on okay, and more importantly the owner gets a good vibe off her. and with rover you can look at a profile and reviews to get an idea of what the sitter might be like, and a level of insurance too

she had her own dog for 15 years which she trained to national ability standard so she's quite the dog whisperer, and she takes them out for proper walks which the owners always appreciate

if you live somewhere with good mountainbiking/walking she can probably travel 🙂

(stealth ad)

where are you located OP?

If they're operating on your area we use Holiday Dogs (which appears to be a franchise thing). Our dog goes to a lovely artistic woman who has a dog sofa in the kitchen for him and we get artwork of him too. We're currently sitting my cousin's dog while she's in Turkey, I'm not a fan of spaniels is the result of this, possibly he's not being stretched enough mentally as he's quite poorly behaved and has no concept of boundaries.

a friend of mine does housesitting for a company called housesittersuk.co.uk and some of them don't charge , just like the free accommodation

Morning, 
Thanks for the responses 

That reservoir dog spar is insane but sadly our dog is too big for it. 

We are based on the North Wales Coast so close to all the good riding and walking spots.

I did look at housesittersuk.co.uk and there seem to be quite a few people on there that look decent but its so hard to tell. 

My sister uses the dog walker when they are away !

My other sister doesn't leave their dog on it's own for long - doesn't go away without it. FFS

 

I don't really know why they call them house sitters as the only people who need it have pets. 

Not really. We used a house sitter with no pets involved - insurance specified the house can't be empty for over a month and we wanted someone keeping an eye on.

My sis has been a house/holiday pet sitter for at least a couple of years, frequently travelling to stay in places in Scotland; Wales; England. There might have been other pets, but I know she's looked after dogs and cats while their owners are away. No idea which businesses she is registered with, lives in North Wales.

We started asking locally and used a couple of different people to look after our working cocker. They were a bit meh to be honest. House wasn't too tidy and checking cctv, the wee man only got about 45min of walking a day.

A friend at work recommended trustedhouseitters. We've had 3 different housesiters from them and it has been amazing to be fair.

We always have video chats with them prior to agreeing, to make sure we're happy and they are. 

2 sits have been couples who have recently retired

1 (she's sat for us twice now) was a lady from Brighton who works from home.

It's a massive worry to start with. It's your pet and home you're entrusting to them, but it's worked well for us.