To have let friend down last minute with dog sitting

I sort of get why she is annoyed but it’s entirely her own fault. She saw you recently so she should’ve brought you fully up to speed with the dog new diet and she should have showed it to you and explained what you were required to do and asked if you were okay with it. Then you could’ve taken the opportunity to tell her you absolutely were not and she would have had more time to made other arrangements.
May I ask, was she paying you for this service or were you doing it free of charge as a friend?

If you weren’t autistic I would say YABU about the food (but not the groomers).

But if you’re genuinely too disabled to feed the dog what it needs to be healthy then you can’t help it, you have to pull out. The fact that you’ve started this thread though does make me wonder if you truly are incapable of doing it, or if you just don’t fancy it because you think it’s gross.

Your absolutely fine to say no
Your friend has moved the goal posts

Rubbish.

She is following through on what she agree do. It's the dog owner who is trying to change the parameters.

Nonsense. The OP is not forcing the friend to cancel the trip. The friend assumed that the OP would be fine with the goalposts being moved. She isn't.

It's the friend's responsibility to find suitable accommodation for the dog.

It doesn’t have to be done fresh, she’s choosing to do that. It wouldn’t be good for the dog to go back onto dried food, but it could easily have one of the complete raw food for a few days which is basically just mince meat. Though it’s also fine for you to say you can’t cope with that either. My vegetarian sister managed to feed my dog raw food, but she cooks meat for her own family so was more used to it.

I have seen stuff described as freeze dried raw food that looks like kibble, though I’ve never looked into it, that might be a possibility if you’re willing to consider still dog sitting if your friend stops being so unreasonable.

To be honest I’m quite shocked at your friends behaviour though. She is massively taking the piss. Why on earth hasn’t she just rearranged the groomer for goodness sake?!

No you cant have a vegetarian dog ffs

Nothing to do with disability/sensory issues or otherwise. If OP isn't happy to feed raw meat then it doesn't matter why she isn't happy to feed raw meat.
If you looked after a cat but the owner sprung on you that they changed from dry food and pouches to dead mice and here is a bag of frozen mice. No need to touch, just pop it out of the bag into the cat's dish and let it defrost.... You may rightfully decide that you weren't going to do that. OP has no obligation to fulfil the friend's wishes against her own. She doesn't have to get on with it.

Lovely display of abelism there, but you're not alone on the thread either.

If it were as simple as opening a packet and dropping it in, I don’t there’d be a such a problem. However, dog owners is wanting raw egg, fresh veg etc added every day. Perhaps she should have hired a chef!

Surely it’s on the friend to show some flexibility? OP has a said she’ll have the dog, just not raw meat in the house. The friend said no and is unwilling to compromise. OP shouldn’t feel bad at all

Your friend is being very inconsiderate. She should have waited until after the dog sitting to change the dog’s food. I’m a dog owner and would never expect a friend to do that. Also, the idea of raw food gives me the ick and I wouldn’t want to do that either! YANBU.

I think you’re being unfair. Don’t do the grooming but you could just feed the poor dog.

She can pre-make the meals and leave them in the fridge or freezer so you don't have to touch it.

All this "can't do that, it has to have eggs and fresh veg each time" is a load of rubbish. She can leave those things out or substitute. That won't hurt the dog. Going back to kibble could cause a stomach upset, and just leaving the meat out wouldn't be very fair to the dog. They're omnivores and not supposed to eat veggie diets.

YANBU to back out if she won't pre-portion the food and rearrange the groomer.

YABU if you back out at the last minute without even having a conversation about it, though.

For the sake of four days I would suggest she preps his food in lidded plastic tubs complete with some chopped veg and puts half in the freezer that you can defrost the night before. If you can manage to crack an egg in a different bowl and remove the lid from a tub, job done.

Can’t she mix the meat veg and oil in a freezer bag, you simply tip it out and crack the egg on top fresh? Then you aren’t touching the meat and the dog gets a fresh egg (I’m laughing as I type this with how ridiculous it sounds).

The grooming appointment is ridiculous, she shouldn’t have expected that.

One poster suggested the dog owner didn't put her dog in kennels because she loved the dog.

I always use kennels if going away. It doesn't mean I don't love my dogs! It's a cost I factor in when booking to go away. People's plans could change, and I prefer not to be beholding anyway.

Kennels would offer dog grooming, and any special food requirements. You'd have to pay a bit more, but better than losing a friend or putting friend in awkward position

op, I think yoir friend people has let you down. Picking up dog poo after raw food, eggs etc sounds grim as well. She has changed everything without discussion. It's her problem to fix.

Just do it and lob the meat in the bin and give the dog the other food. A kennels won't pander to this shit. Tell her that you won't do the groomers and she can take it or leave it.

Utter bollocks and ableist.

Hi @Rawfoodworries, your 'friend' is being totally unreasonable.

Years ago, we had a beautiful girl that we were lucky enough to get at about 11 months old through a rehoming centre. She gave us many years of unconditional love and loyalty, and I hope she would agree that we gave her the same. Very sadly, when she was just about 60 in human years, she got cancer. The vet didn't know how long she would survive for, but we already had 3 one week holidays booked through the upcoming year. We didn't cancel them straightaway, because as I said we didn't know whether our sweetest girl would still be alive, and If not, we knew that we would need the holidays to be able to spend some quite time trying to recover from her loss.

As it happens with the vet's care, and steroid tablets, and other pain killers, we were lucky enough that she did survive that first year, so we just rang the holiday resorts a day or two before each holiday to say we wouldn't be coming - they were already fully paid for, so the holiday venues didn't lose out at all. Under those circumstances (and I hope your friend would do the same if she ever had that happen to her dear dog), we couldn't leave our little girl for a week while knowing full well how much she would miss us, and us knowing how much we would miss her, especially when we had such a limited time left to be with her.

I suppose the point that I am trying to make is that sometimes as parents of children, or adopters of dogs, and any other animals, we may have to change plans, no matter much they were being looked forward to. In this instance, your friend might have to cancel her plans, but that is all down to her, and you shouldn't feel any guilt over it OP. What your friend should have done was leave changing her dog's diet for another 7 weeks, when she would have returned from wherever she was going. Failing that, she should have discussed with you whether you would be ok with the new diet for her dog before she actually changed it! The fact that she didn't do either of those things, means that again, all the fault lies with her. Please don't stress about it in the meantime OP. 💐

I came in to say that you were being unreasonable, but having actually read your post I see you most definitely aren't!

Our DDogs are raw fed, but on the odd occasions we do go away we always check whether the person looking after them is happy with raw food. If not then we stick them back on dry for a few days, exactly as we do if we take them away and don't have the ability to store frozen food.

I ago wouldn't dream of booking in a groomers appointment for someone else to deal with. The exception would be someone looking after them in an emergency when an appointment was already booked, when I would ask if it was convenient. If the person said no then I would cancel without a second thought.

Your friend sounds vaguely unhinged.

I'm not autistic and I don't have sensory issues. I would not want to handle and prep raw meat. I'm vegetarian but even several meat eaters have said the same thing on this thread.

The fact that the kibble also contains meat is irrelevant - it's the smell, look and texture of the raw meat that is revolting.

It's also a massive imposition - the OP was asked to look after the dog without being informed about all the food prep changes.

If the OP doesn't feel comfortable storing and prepping raw meat in her house then she doesn't have to do it. The dog owner is not entitled to free dog care, she can always pay for a sitter like most pet owners do.

My thought was that maybe the dog owner could pay for a sitter to go to OPs house and feed the dog twice a day, if she can't find a full time sitter at short notice.

Gosh you’ve no idea about autistic sensory issues …

Yanbu.

its good to see you have already said no and have been sure in your self to be able to do that.

I wouldn’t do it either, no way! That’s a massive change to not ask you in advance about ESPECIALLY being a vegetarian!

Unreasonable as she may struggle to find another sitter at short notice, if the dogs don’t have all the correct vaccines they can’t go to a boarder or kennels.

They are right in that changing the food back will likely upset the dogs stomach but it won’t hurt to give the dog a pre-made complete raw for a few days, missing fresh eggs etc wont hurt.