Friend asking for dog food 'compensation'

To be honest, you were irresponsible to give her dog your dog's food and I'd be a bit annoyed with you too, you don't know her dog's history, and what food agrees or doesn't agree with it.

As a rule of thumb changing any dogs regular dog food usually consists of a couple of days of dodgy tum.. so why would you do that with a dog that isn't your own? especially when they were sent with the food they wanted you to feed. We've got three dogs and are the go-to dog sitters in our family, we always feed other dogs separately from our own.

I wouldn't have said anything to you as I'd appreciate you were doing me a favour in a pinch but if you clueless enough to let that happen then tell people at school what you'd done like it was no big deal then I wouldn't feel comfortable asking you to look after any animal of mine.

She got free dog sitting, so it’s very cheeky of her to ask for money for the dog food regardless of whether your dog ate the posh food. I wouldn’t offer again!

It sounds like the stirrer one might have made it sound like you deliberately swapped the food maybe? Which would have been a bit odd (although I still would not have said anything as you were obvi doing a massive favour).

I would not be paying but would also ask her exactly what was said, letting her know the dogs just swapped a bit of their own accord …

Yes! Do this.

I would speak to her directly and ask her if she's having a laugh. The dogs ate from eachothers bowls. If she didn't give you instructions it sounds like she was so eager to get on holiday she dropped the dog off and ran. Call her out for being rude, cheeky and ungrateful. In fact call her out in front of other school mums. I don't even know you and I'm absolutely raging for you that you did a good deed and it's being twisted this way!

I'd ignore her. If she brings it up again, I'd reiterate that you fed the dogs at the same time and naturally they were both curious about the new-to-them food and sampled it, but that was all. I'd remind her that you saved her a lot of money by caring for her dog, then leave it at that. If she isn't as friendly from now on, that's too bad, but it's not your fault that she's an idiot. And of course, I would never do her another favour again.

I'd tell her no, and that your assuming she doesn't need your free help again.

As pp have said, hand her a fully itemised invoice for dog-sitting services at the standard professional rate, minus the cost of her dog food that your dog ate, but plus the corresponding cost of your dog food that her dog ate. And steer clear of the schoolgate tattletale who clyped on you!

Don’t give her a penny! Tell her she’s a cf and you haven’t charged for petrol or other costs of your time. What a cow.

Tell her to fook off

This

Mary sounds awful! I wouldn’t give her anything in regards to the tins of food. She’d then think she’s justified and will probably spin the story that you were in the wrong and replaced the tins to ‘make amends’. I’d cut that friendship off and if she ever mentions the food I’d tell her exactly where to go. Ungrateful weirdo. I’ve just boarded my dog for my recent holiday and it cost me over £400. My dog eats expensive food and if the owner had told me the same story, I would have laughed.

Write out an invoice for her.

7 nights dog sitting @ £40 per night: £280
minus 4 tins posh pup dog food: -£40

Total now due £240

All fees must be paid within week of invoice by bacs or bank transfer.

Is this real?

If so, I would lie and tell her it happened once.

And never ever do her a favour ever again.

Stupid woman. Shooting herself in the foot like that.

I would just go back and say Hi Mary, been thinking, I don’t believe I owe you anything. Your dog chose to eat my dogs food, leaving my dog with yours. That’s not my fault. I have also saved you a considerable sum in boarding fees as I did not ask for anything. However if you insist I buy you food, then I will need recompense for looking after your dog. Obviously after this I will not be in a position to do this again for you

If you do decide to give her any money I echo the suggestion to hive her it in small change 😄

It sounds like she thinks you gave your dog the good stuff on purpose. I think the women at the gate, gave her the wrong idea. I would point out that you saved her money, dogs are like kids they want the others food. And point out that you will not be helping her again.

Give her the tins with a dog sitting invoice attached! Cheeky cow has now lost out on any future favours!

You could give her the difference between the prices but I'd give her the money and be done with her.

Wonder why the original dogssitter cancelled ..... 😏

What twattish behaviour from an ungrateful cow.

Of course your other "friend" is a shit stirrer, only one reason why she told her that.
I'd tell your friend as well that you'll give her the tins when she pays you boarding fees for her dog as you did her a favour.

Ooh difficult one. I do understand that the dogs wanted eachother's food as they do but if I was looking after someone's dog I would make sure my dog couldn't get at their food and vice versa.
My dog gets an upset tummy with non grain free food so wouldn't be pleased if I'd provided food then found out he'd been eating supermarket stuff all week.
Really it was your decision to let your dog have her food but she had provided them for her dog not yours so she probably sees it as that food's been wasted.

BUT you have done her a big favour so if it was me I would let this one go rather than make things unpleasant.

If she's asking for the food to be replaced I think you should, but it's a shame because your friendship probably won't be the same again

I'd be handing her 4 tins and a bill for boarding the dog!

It does sound as if she thinks it was done deliberately.

Op said that she'd look after the dog for nothing & that's on her.

We've looked after dogs here & there feed them separately to ours with the food that's given.

I would have thought that was basic care, whether you're getting paid or not!

To be fair to her she did have something else arranged but it fell through last minute. And yeah I personally would not leave my dog with a stranger. BUT just cause you’re not being payed it doesn’t mean you should compromise the health of the dog.
”If you didn’t want your dog to eat the 3kg of chocolate I left lying on the floor then you should’ve paid for a professional” - would this be statement you would make? As anyone with dogs knows, there’s plenty of things a dog will want to eat that it shouldn’t and you have to take steps to stop it from happening.
I agree with OP that the person is being unreasonable, just trying to explain why you should be careful what you feed dogs.

I also don't think the mum who told Mary was trying to make trouble.

Of course she was; otherwise how would this even come up in conversation?

To be fair, you were out of order allowing her dog to eat your dog's food - you could've made it ill, a sudden change of food is not ideal.

But on balance your friend is being an ungrateful cow so I'd be handing her an invoice for full dog sitting services, minus the cost of 4 tins of her food.