House Sitters

MTR

MTR

Hi All

Just found out today that the person who looks after my dogs (2) when we are on hols can not do it this year, I am stuck as I do not want to put them in dog kennels.

Next option House Sitter, never tried this before, what are the pros and cons??? Anyone used this service??

I have a couple of concerns, more about how they will manage the dogs, what if they leave a gate open and dog escapes?? This sort of thing worries me.

I don't know anyone who would house sit as most will be on holidays or not good with dogs.

MTR:)
 
Do you need a house sitter though? I'm pretty sure pet sitting services will happily do daily visits to your house to feed/walk/play with your dogs. That of course means they'll be alone the rest of the time which might not be what you want.

also try this website www.happyhousesitters.com.au
 
Of The Vultures said:
Do you need a house sitter though? I'm pretty sure pet sitting services will happily do daily visits to your house to feed/walk/play with your dogs. That of course means they'll be alone the rest of the time which might not be what you want.

also try this website www.happyhousesitters.com.au
Click to expand...

Yes, I have a real problem with this.
One of our neighbours did this, however the dog barked all day it was cruel I thought.
My dogs are my babies, so not something I would do. What if they got dognapped????
 
I've used a house sitting service once and it was successful. The good ones are actually pretty fussy about the 'jobs' they will take, preferring longer stays & nicer houses. We did have a couple of issues with the dog getting out as the guy was working from home & people came to collect stuff from him. On the upside my dog was one happy beast as he had someone home much more often that usual.
- be very clear about duties
- be very clear about what is & is not OK
- people pretty much expect wifi access
- check references

It can be really hard to find short term sitters over Christmas as the number of people who want sitters goes through the roof.

I've also used young sensible singles (who still live at home) from work a couple of times. They're keen to get away from Mum & Dad and have the energy levels required to keep up with my crazy pooch.

This is the site I used.
http://www.happyhousesitters.com.au/?gclid=CMOH07fo08ECFVYHvAodubwAZg
 
MTR said:
But I cant leave the dogs at home alone, they still need someone to babysit
Click to expand...

I mean the type where you leave the dogs with dog minder at their home, this type http://perth.topdogminders.com/ (I just googled them)

MTR said:
My dogs are my babies, so not something I would do. What if they got dognapped????
Click to expand...

Wholeheartedly understand this. My dog is my baby too, not leaving him unless I'm confident he'll be very well cared for
 
serendip said:
I've used a house sitting service once and it was successful. The good ones are actually pretty fussy about the 'jobs' they will take, preferring longer stays & nicer houses. We did have a couple of issues with the dog getting out as the guy was working from home & people came to collect stuff from him. On the upside my dog was one happy beast as he had someone home much more often that usual.
- be very clear about duties
- be very clear about what is & is not OK
- people pretty much expect wifi access
- check references

It can be really hard to find short term sitters over Christmas as the number of people who want sitters goes through the roof.

I've also used young sensible singles (who still live at home) from work a couple of times. They're keen to get away from Mum & Dad and have the energy levels required to keep up with my crazy pooch.

This is the site I used.
http://www.happyhousesitters.com.au/?gclid=CMOH07fo08ECFVYHvAodubwAZg
Click to expand...

Good info, will be onto this tomorrow:) thanks
 
My friend use to house sit - he saved so much money in comparison to renting... and it was always nice houses (he is jewish and he jokes about what a tightwad he is. lol).

People accepted him based on previous house sitting references and the fact he had high paying job at an institutional bank based in Australia.

His view was that people trusted him because he had just as much to lose (ie work credibility, if he screwed up those houses, he felt it would affect his employment prospects - most industries are quite small and people do tend to know each other.
 
By the way I used a dog kennel some time ago, we arrived to pick the dogs up one day earlier, well did they get a surprise. The dogs were in bad shape, filthy, locked up in small cage, depressed, it was sad. I knew I would never do this again.

Many dog kennel operators will guarantee play time in open space, walking etc. but the dogs can't tell you whether this actually happened? Imagine being confined in a small area for perhaps 10 days??

Most of these kennels are fully booked during peak/holiday seasons and I think it would probably be hard to manage the number of dogs during this period unless adequately staffed.
These operators also charge extra fees for walks in the morning/afternoon and its not cheap, but how do I know they actually did this?? Clearly I have a major trust issue
 
I used a house sitter last time we went on holidays. While I think the dogs were happy, the house wasn't left very clean. If you are house proud, beware.
 
I've used lots of different services for our pets - kennels, professional feeders, house sitters etc I think you've left it too late for the first two.

We have used house sitters twice as we were going away for a longer period.
Both times it worked really well - pets were loved and spoiled rotten. House was left better than we left it.

We used a website (cant remember the name, but there are a few) where we registered our property and interested people emailed us. We then interviewed the potential people. We had a primary school teacher (on break over xmas) and also a recently retired man who was visiting family for xmas.

I worried that no one would want to stay in our property because its not in a touristy region and is just a suburban house, but we had lots of interest. Main issue was finding someone whose dates matched ours.
 
Yeah we have used Happy House Sitters twice both times with success, however you may struggle to find someone for a short stay.

The other option is a house sitter through an agency, for 2 dogs it will work out cheaper than a kennel. Easier to arrange for short trips and provides more assurances eg backup if an issue arises with the house sitter, they have already done the checks on the house sitter.
 
My best mate and his missus
Do this for a living they just got back from a 5month sit in Costa Rica
Prior to that a good year all around aus

They like it cause its cheap.. But all they really save is rent
 
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