to expect her to pay the full amount?

[ameliarose78]

About a year ago I met Z through a dog club, we have the same type of dog and we met up a few times.

Z has a mental illness and as such doesn't work and relies on a pension, her DP works full time - no DC.

She put a post on FB asking if anyone could mind her dog for 2 weeks while her and dp went on holiday - I said I could, she offered to pay me but I said there was no need.

During said dog's stay at my house, she jumped onto my bedside draws from my bed and ate a piece of dark chocolate. As she is a very small dog this was a toxic level and I had to bring her to the vet for emergency treatment - total bill was 300 quid.

I asked her owner to pay me back for this. This was roughly 6 weeks ago and as yet I haven't seen any money - just saying how hard it is for them, how they can't afford it and promising to have paid it numerous times and have had it 'bounce back'.

So AIBU to ask her to pay the full sum and should I go round to her house and ask her for it?

Right ok so just because my child knows not to go through the cupboards I will leave the rat pellets in there when I'm looking after your child. But its just an honest mistake, I couldn't possibly have forseen it. Yes it was an accident but it was an easily preventable one and if I were the owner I wouldn't be paying the bill.

Excellent analogy Alexa. The amount of people agreeing that the poor owner should pay for the OPs negligence is astounding!

The number of people expecting the "poor dog owner" to pay nothing is astounding!! She's had had two weeks FREE care for her dog, the OP has done this out of the goodness of her heart. Whatever the rights and wrongs are, the dog owner is morally obliged to offer to pay the vets bill.

Whatever happens I hope the op lets everyone else know how badly the dog owner has behaved. She will then have no offers of free dog sitting and she will have to pay for it. Two weeks in our local kennels is nearly £200 for a small dog!

They should pay 50/50 because the dog owner had no kennel fees for two weeks and as a result was inpocket. The chocolate was just an unexpected accident.

I can't believe that people think that someone who is doing a friend a favour by looking after their pet, for free, should foot the bill for this. The owner should be glad that the OP bothered to go to the vet and do the right thing. Obviously the owner should pay OP. You're being punished for trying to help out. Bloody world's gone mad.

If you were a childminder that had left poison in reach of a child you'd be in trouble. I'd suck it up tbh.

All those who are saying the dog owner should pay please read this!

She put a post on FB asking if anyone could mind her dog for 2 weeks while her and dp went on holiday - I said I could, she offered to pay me but I said there was no need.

She offered to pay for the care. The OP said no!

The OP should pay. She refused money in the first place AND she poisoned the dog

OP is not being punished for trying to help out, grump. She simply is not being compensated for the serious consequences of her own carelessness.

OP, if the dog had suddenly become ill whilst in your care then the owner should absolutely pay. However, the dog only became ill due to your negligence, so it's completely your fault.

Pay up, and learn a lesson - no free dog sitting in future

As I said, it's doesn't matter who did what and who said what- the dog owner offer to pay. If she doesn't, she will find it very difficult, in the future, to find anyone else to look after her dog.

My dog jumped onto a windowsill ( how I still don't know) and ate half an Easter egg. Took her to the vets and they gave her a jab to make her sick. Total cost including lots of talc from them was£50. How did it get to £300?

TLC-not talc!

It was your fault, but your friend saved a small fortune when you refused to take payment for board.

50/50 might not strike the right balance, but she should offer £100.

It's ridiculous to compare chocolate which lots of us don't keep under lock and key with rat poison which should be. The op didn't leave an open box of chocolates on the floor and discover a while later that the dog had eaten the lot. She turned her back on a piece of chocolate for a moment. Cut her some slack - we all make mistakes and errors of judgement. Unfortunately it happened on her watch so should accept responsibility and cover the cost (provided the friend doesn't have insurance).

I sometimes dog sit for my brother. If this happened I would feel I had to pay. I also know my brother would refuse payment as I was doing him a favour.

The real lesson is: Never look after anybody's Pet for free

"The number of people expecting the "poor dog owner" to pay nothing is astounding!! She's had had two weeks FREE care for her dog"
Yes, and that was done out of the goodness of her heart as you said. But I think the free dog sitting and the chocolate incident should be seperated. OP was happy to dog sit for free so we should put that part aside IMO.

"It's ridiculous to compare chocolate which lots of us don't keep under lock and key with rat poison which should be"
I don't think it's so ridiculous. Dog owners should know what's harmful to dogs, eg grapes, chocolate, cooked bones, etc. If you own or look after an animal I'd expect you to be interested enough to research the animal's needs and know the pitfalls. Therefore leaving food around, that should be well known amongst dog owners as being poisonous to dogs, is as bad as babysitting yet leaving hazards around that could harm children. It may not be "common sense" but information like this is all over the internet and my vet even has posters on the wall with this sort of stuff.

Aye I think otherwise because if a friend was doing me a favour and looking after my dc and they broke something, I would pay for it.

if a friend was doing me a favour and looking after my dc and they broke something, I would pay for it

That's not the equivalent of this scenario though. In your analogy, the OP would have lost something valuable of hers thanks to the dog breaking it, whereas the reality is that the friend nearly lost her dog thanks to OP's carelessness and the dog had to go through a presumably fairly unpleasant veterinary procedure (£300 suggests more than a quick check over and a pat on the head). So the equivalent would be your friend taking their eye off the ball and your DC eating/drinking something known to be poisonous to them that your friend had left within their reach, then you having to pay £300 for the privilege of your DC having been poisoned to reimburse your friend for costs that she only racked up because she was negligent in the first place.

She should at least give you cash to cover boarding the dog at yours instead of the kennel.

stonecircle okay then how about the OP offers to babysit for you. You offer to pay, she declines. During that time, she leaves laundry capsules on the work surface in the kitchen - reachable by the child standing on a chair that is currently stood next to the capsules. The child consumes the capsules and requires £300 of medical care to ensure they are okay.
Then the OP asks you to pay for the costs of her own negligence - her reason being that HER child doesn't climb on chairs. Is that reasonable?

Kitten - I have said repeatedly that the op should cover the cost of treatment!

My issue is that I think a) it's not black and white and b) the op is getting a ridiculously hard time from some posters for a simple mistake

I have done dog boarding - looking after other people's dogs for c. £20 a day. Sounds easy money - it was SOOOOOOO not. It's just like looking after other people's children. You have to be on full alert the whole time. Byron the Beagle counter surfed constantly, and selected the sofa for himself and growled if anyone went near it, actually snapping at dh. We were all grouped over the other side of the room whilst the beagle was stretched out snoring with plenty of room. I also looked after a spaniel whose owner assured me wasn't in season. Yeah, right. I had to pick the dog up and run whilst being pursued on a walk by about 50 slathering dogs with hormonal glints in their eyes.

I always pay for top quality dog boarding for my dog. It gives peace of mind that he is with an experienced, professional person. Accidents happen, but dog is insured and the dog boarder is insured.

In OP's case, definitely 50/50. Accident was OP's fault, but dog owner took risk to get free dog care so should suck up some of the cost.

stonecircle apologies!