My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.

The doghouse

How clean do your dog walkers leave your house?

34 replies

icansingaskittlesrainbow · 20/02/2019 13:35

Just interested to hear how clean other peoples dog walkers leave their house?
So we have a puppy who is crated for 1.5 hours, taken for a 30 minute walk and then crated for another 1.5 hours. Only once or twice a week, the rest of the time someone is home.
On the days we are both out we pay a dog sitter/walker to come and walk her.
I don’t know if I’m being unreasonable, but I’m getting really miffed with the state my house is left it, but this may be totally the norm!
So our puppy excited wees, just a dribble before you can get her in the garden to do a proper wee.
I come home after the dog walker has been and there are a few spots of dribbly wee just left on the floor, there’s a mop and antibacterial wipes handy, so not sure whether she should be expected to wipe these up or not.
I think the excited wees are worse as she brings 2 other dogs into the house to collect our puppy and she cannot contain her excitement and dribbles (she doesn’t tend to wee with just people visiting these days)
The other 2 dogs leave massive dirty footprints all over the wooden floors (definitely not puppy sized), which I have to clean up when I get home and the dog walker usually has muddy feet and leaves lots of footprints too.
To top it off the dog walker has had a new puppy on her walks this week.
I’ve come home to a big pile of wee on the sofa and another in my hallway. I’m 99% sure this isn’t my dog, as excluding the excited dribbles she’s not weed inside for over 6 weeks. I think it’s the new puppy weeing. So I had to take the covers off the sofa to wash them and mop the hallway.
Also there’s muddy marks all along the paint in the hallway and on some doors where bigger dogs are brushing past them.
I haven’t mentioned anything yet, as we’ve not had a dog walker before and don’t know if this is usual.
I just begrudge washing sofas, wiping down paintwork and hoovering and mopping every floor after she’s been in.

OP posts:
Report
katykins85 · 20/02/2019 13:36

You expect the dog walker to mop your floor?! Confused

Report
icansingaskittlesrainbow · 20/02/2019 13:39

Not mop the floor, but if you noticed dribbly wee would you not expect them to quickly wipe it with an antibac wipe? As now there are 3 or 4 dogs walking it through the house and it ends up everywhere.
It’s not loads, just a wipe would quickly whip it up.

OP posts:
Report
OnTheFrow · 20/02/2019 13:51

I would look for another one to be honest. 100% I would not tolerate that. No cleaning up wee. I would actually expect her to keep them in the garden or something whilst she's gets your dogs lead on.

Report
icansingaskittlesrainbow · 20/02/2019 13:53

I’m just thinking how I could make it easier. I might give her a back door key so the other 2 or 3 dogs can wait in the garden. But then I suppose it’s rounding all the dogs up again ready for a walk.
I don’t want to complain as she’s lovely, but not husband got home before me today and asked why the house was in such a state.

OP posts:
Report
Doublethesarcasm · 20/02/2019 13:56

I'd be looking for a new dog walker!

Report
OnTheFrow · 20/02/2019 14:02

I would politely ask can you not bring the other dogs into my house. But then it's easy for me to say that because I don't know the layout of your house/garden etc.

Report
icansingaskittlesrainbow · 20/02/2019 14:03

I don’t want to offend her, but honestly my house is a tip when she’s only spent probably 5 minutes in it.
Mud smeared over the walls, wee that has been stepped in and walked across the house, muddy dog prints, muddy human prints! Wee on my sofa etc. It’s all hard floor so easy enough to clean, but it takes about 30 minutes each day to get it back to how it looked before she visited.

OP posts:
Report
Nesssie · 20/02/2019 14:06

I wouldn't be happy about bringing other dog to my house. Never really heard of that before.
And I would expect her to just quickly wipe up a bit of wee tbh

Report
icansingaskittlesrainbow · 20/02/2019 14:06

The house is on a busy main road so dogs can’t be left out the front, and the dog is in a room in the middle of the house. So my hallway and middle room get filthy, and then she often lets all 4 dogs run off lead in our garden as our garden is pretty big and enclosed. She asked if this was ok, and I did say yes.
But that means they’re walking through the entire house, middle room, kitchen and boot room and then back through the house to go home. I just didn’t think it would cause that much mess having 4 dogs having a play in my garden.

OP posts:
Report
Namechangeforthiscancershit · 20/02/2019 14:09

I wouldn’t expect her to clean the floor (though I’m sure some do as dog walkers tend to be lovely helpful people)

The arrangement of bringing 3 other dogs into your house is the problem I think. I wouldn’t be happy with that at all

Report
EvaHarknessRose · 20/02/2019 14:10

Can you leave pup crate near the door.

Report
icansingaskittlesrainbow · 20/02/2019 14:10

And also she said can the dogs have a run off lead in our garden occasionally, as they are all kept on leads for their walk.
Occasionally has turned into once or twice a week when I imagined perhaps once a month.
I always end up getting myself into these situations.
So the other dog owners have lovely clean houses, my house is the last pick up so gets trashed and 4 dogs churning up my garden 😩

OP posts:
Report
icansingaskittlesrainbow · 20/02/2019 14:11

I would leave it by the door, but she tends to get unsettled hearing noises outside as the road is quite busy, so gets put in the middle room with a cd playing.

OP posts:
Report
Namechangeforthiscancershit · 20/02/2019 14:11

Ok you definitely need to put your foot down about that!

Report
StrongTea · 20/02/2019 14:12

Surprised she doesn’t kick her wellies/boots off. She would be better leaving the other dogs in the back garden while getting your pup. I know the mess my lot make when coming back from a walk.

Report
TheGreatestShoeman · 20/02/2019 14:14

Every dog walker I've ever used has had a Van for collections so they wouldn't bring other dogs into the house. The set up you're describing would be completely unacceptable to me. It sounds very disrespectful. My dog walker used to park up, walk in, boots off on the step, come in and get the dog, quick lead clipped on, back out, boots on and away they went. He was awesome, quite often my boy got extra time and extra walks as he would use him for company for excited dogs and puppies as he was so calm and well behaved. The only sign he had been was how tired the dog was and the quick note detailing where they'd walked and who with :-)

Report
justasking111 · 20/02/2019 14:15

Our dogs come in muddy after a walk, they have to stay in the kitchen until they are clean and dry. Your walker is very unprofessional letting dogs run amok inside your house.

Report
icansingaskittlesrainbow · 20/02/2019 14:15

I think the answer may be a back door key. Leave the other 3 dogs in the garden, come and grab mine whilst maybe kicking boots off at the back door, hopefully dog won’t excited wee as she won’t see the dogs until she’s outside and then off they pop for a walk?
Don’t know if that’s a reasonable ask or not though?!

OP posts:
Report
OrchidInTheSun · 20/02/2019 14:16

So she's basically using your house and garden as a dog park? No, that's not okay. My dog walker walks just my dog. The other one I sometimes use collects/drops him back in a van.

Report
MistakenHoliday · 20/02/2019 14:17

I wouldn't expect our dog walker to clean up my dog's mess but wouldn't want them to add to it with other dogs' either!

Ours picks up in a van so the then other dogs wait there while the dog walker comes to the door. Our dog shoots out and jumps in the back of the van as soon as he hears the gate. Job done Smile

Report
Heyha · 20/02/2019 14:18

The only way I knew our dog walker had been was because the lead had moved! They did pick up all dogs in their transport and take them somewhere for a good run though (doggy daycare and grooming as well as walking). Sounds like you need something more like that setup as I'm assuming what you're using at present is one of the many 'people who like walking and dogs and want to work from home' outfits. Not staying they are all bad but yours doesn't sound like they're acting as a business with customer service in mind. I'd take what you're getting from a pal doing me a favour but if you're paying well for the serrvice I'd expect better.

Report
Nesssie · 20/02/2019 14:19

The answer is to not let her bring the other dogs in, that's such a cheeky and bizarre thing to do. Just say that whilst you appreciate you agreed to it originally, you've realised that it is destroying your garden and creating a lot of mud, so you are asking her to stop.

Report

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

llangennith · 20/02/2019 14:19

I've never heard of such an arrangement! Find a better dog walker. This is definitely unacceptable.

Report
icansingaskittlesrainbow · 20/02/2019 14:19

It’s a bit different where we live, in that we are on an estate where all the houses are very close together and there is only really this one dog walker. Our houses back on to a huge area of fields, valleys, streams and a 5 mile circular paved area/cycle path. So she just collects the dogs one by one and then drops them back. Dogs can’t be off lead on the walk due to the wildlife, hence having a play in my garden before she drops them home.

OP posts:
Report
willywillywillywilly · 20/02/2019 14:24

I think the answer may be a back door key. Leave the other 3 dogs in the garden, come and grab mine whilst maybe kicking boots off at the back door, hopefully dog won’t excited wee as she won’t see the dogs until she’s outside and then off they pop for a walk?
Don’t know if that’s a reasonable ask or not though?!

Definitely not unreasonable! We have had a dog walker and I know that her other clients all have various reasonable requests like this for what she should do when picking up/dropping off and they are very easily accommodated.

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.