What to say to lying dog walker?

[oobeedoiwannabelikeyou]

Sent home sick from work yesterday, still off sick today. DH messaged walker at 9am to say dog was fine (she had been ill last week)
Dog walker messaged back saying Perfect I'll be to take her out.
Comes to 12pm no walker, DH messaged again to say where are you?
She messaged back saying she'd been and gone from 8:45-9:45 and would be back at 2pm.
DH said that's not true and that I was at home.
Walker messaged back assuring him she'd been.
DH said he would be coming home to walk her as I was too sick to and not to bother coming back in the afternoon.
She maintains she had walked her.
SHE DIDN'T I WAS AT HOME WITH HER!
Anyway the trust is gone, Therefor she is going. How do I word this?
I know she's lied and doesn't obviously give a shit but I would like to hold my head up high walking past her knowing I was right and handled it correctly without flying off the handle.
Please wise women if mumsnet help me with wording a message.

[biscuitmillionaire]

OK no regulation as such, but my LA has a dog walkers scheme with a code of conduct and lists those that sign up to the scheme with application form, insurance documents, etc.

[Willow2017]

Thing is op doesnt actually know things have been fine up until now. She could have been conning her on a regular basis popping in for 10 minutes to let dogs out into garden and feed them then chsrge for an hour. If she is prepared to make up such a stupid lie which contradicted herself completely and continued to lie when told op was at home all the time what else could she do?
I would definately be telling her why she is no longer required and that she wouldnt be getting paid for that hour. I would also be putting it on her fb page to warn other clients she cant be trusted. Who else is she ripping off?

[Pumkinfailure]

Had almost exactly the same situation, was at home unexpectedly and messaged dog walker to ask where they were to be told they’d already been. They bloomin hadn’t! Had been going on for months!

[oobeedoiwannabelikeyou]

It's all totally bizarre, I honestly can't get my head round it at all. I've spoken to my neighbour who's day off is a Wednesday and she's said yes most weds she sees her out with my girl (not all but mainly because she hasn't been looking out for it)
I will message her her tomorrow to ask why all the discrepancies (lies) and I will be telling her that we no longer have the trust so will be ending our agreement.
It's the blatant lie after DH told her I was home "I assure you I was there and took her out 8:45-9:45"

[RockingLobstering]

@Mummaloves
You paid someone to do that?
I'd pay someone for the chance to do that! What a C.F.

[10thingsIhateAboutTheDailyMail]

My dogwalker forgot to walk my dog once (confusion due to cancellation by other dog owner whose dog has same name)

I could tell straight away as my dog was hyper and pestered me for a walk immediately.

Most dogs communicate this, don't they? When my dog has not had a proper walk she will come and drop the lead at my feet and nudge me with her nose, until I oblige.

I imagine most people can tell whether their dog has been walked as they'd be hyper if not?!

This story is disconcerting, as the lie is so barefaced and brazen. I would cancel, and I would leave a negative review (just stating that your dog had not actually got walked, no need for slanging)

[Ninabean17]

I think I would still leave a review. No need to bash her completely, just an honest review.

[DontOpenDeadInside]

Did she answer after your DH said you were home all day?

[Willow2017]

dontopen
Its in ops first post! When dh phoned at 12 she not only did she say she was there at 8.45 (when ops dh phoned at 9 the first time and she clearly wasnt there then!) but insisted she had been despite being told op was there all morning.

[Iprefercoffeetotea]

Definitely ask for an explanation. If she's usually reliable, and the neighbour sees her a lot of the time, there must be a sensible explanation. I know you've said she can't have got you mixed up with someone else but something must have gone on. So strange OP.

Looking forward to an update.

[Steamcloud]

Something similar happened to us.

I employed a dog-walker for a while when I had a bad back and couldn't walk the dog (couldn't walk for longer than 5 mins on the flat at that time).

Anyway, dog-walker turned up (originally he turned up punctually, but then started turning up later and later which in hindsight should have been a red flag). I was at home with back injury and because I work at home I never had to give him a key thank heavens because I could hand over the dog personally.

He usually took the dog away for approx 45 mins or so and when he came back the dog smelled of cigarette smoke (which when I queried it, he said he couldn't smell). Second red flag!

The dog also still seemed quite frisky and needed to go out fairly soon after his walk (third flag!).

Anyway, my dh's office is not far away (which dog walker didn't know) and it turns out that a colleague who knows us and the dog, spotted the dog walker (several times!) in his car, with our dog, smoking and playing games on his phone!

The dog-walker had taken advantage of the fact that I was incapacitated with my back problem and knew I wouldn't be going outside, so thought he wouldn't get caught!

Later on, even worse, it turned out that a friend and neighbour of ours, who used the same dog-walker, having been told about these events by my dh, as a result checked his security camera, on which he saw the dog-walker treating his Yorkie roughly and yanking it up (dog-walker is tall) by the harness in order to pick it up

One of the worst aspects of it is that I had many conversations with this man on my doorstep, when he constantly mentioned his love of dogs, and the special relationship he had with his own .

[Steamcloud]

Actually scrub that last bit. That wasn't the worst bit but it was rather sickening. The worst bit was the way he treated the Yorkie.

Sorry I also forgot the fourth red flag. After a while, the dog seemed very reluctant to go out with the dog-walker and kept heading back to his basket when the door -bell rang - which was the opposite of how he behaves normally. This is what first prompted my suspicions in fact.

So yes, dogs do communicate and we should all take note!

[Steamcloud]

Finally (sorry didn't explain very well). When I meant he yanked the Yorkie up by the harness, he didn't bend down and pick him up that way by the harness strap (which would be bad enough). Our neighbour said he pulled on the lead and the harness to yank him up [anger].

[whatalifethisis]

The first time I was ever at home I thought my dog walker had got lost with my dogs! I pay for a 1 hour group walk with about 10 other dogs (she doesn't take them all on her own!) and she was gone for nearly 2 hours. This has happened more than once. Pics go up every week on facebook and she comes to stay if we go on holiday. My dogs adore her and after reading some of these stories I realise how lucky we are (knew that anyway)
Hope you find someone that you can trust OP.

[Collidascope]

Not read the whole thread, OP, but in future, you can buy a Fitbark. It's a doggy Fitbit and you can see on the app whether your dog has been resting, active or playing in five minute segments for every hour. Easy enough to see if the dog walker is actually doing their job and turning up when they say and dropping the dog off at the right time.

[oobeedoiwannabelikeyou]

Ladies I sent this just over an hour ago to her fb business page and private fb page in a private message not publicly.
It's not been opened on either.


Morning.
I’ve slept on it, well not actually slept very well at all worrying.
I was at home all day yesterday with dog and I can assure you she didn’t go anywhere she was with me.
DH showed me your message saying you came for her.
I can only assume that was some sort of mistake as we both know you didn’t?




Some of these stories are horrible but also the positive dog Walker stories are fabulous to hear.

[BarbarianMum]

Ive heard that doggy fitbits can be quite inaccurate, certainly in terms of actual distances covered, so if you go down this route Id recommend trialling it yourself for a few days to see whaf sort of readings it is giving.

[PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks]

Your poor dog. 😭

[SparklyMagpie]

The absolute cheek!!!

Will be interesting to see if she replies

[oobeedoiwannabelikeyou]

She's read it.
No reply at all as yet.

[JosieSand]

How odd.

[MrsJoshDun]

My old dog walker used to leave a piece of appear every week and would fill it in daily. Where they’d walked, how many poos, what other dogs they’d met, etc.

So I knew she was being walked....or at least visiting.

But then dd was home sick one day and dog walker came and had to chase dog round the house to catch her, was hiding under the dining room table. Dog walker laughed to dd and said dog was like this every day....so not just because dd was there.

I sent an email saying I didn’t need her anymore. Gut instinct was something wasn’t right. She’d been walking the dog for three years so not a stranger. Got a new walker now who the dog adores and flings herself at!

[AlpacaLypse]

Another pro walker here. Stories like this make me so angry! At the same time it is incredibly bizarre as usually if a dog walker is dodgy you'd notice pretty quickly - as someone said upthread there is a very noticeable difference between a dog who's had a good hour off lead dashing around with her mates and a dog who's been given five minutes to do a wee then shoved back in a van while dodgy dogwalker plays on phone.

[oobeedoiwannabelikeyou]

It really is bizarre.
I've never felt that she's not been out, they are both usually bursting for a pee at 6pm when I come home but then she had been at 2 so not really unusual.
She's came to pick up my girl and said my boy has wanted to go so she's checked with DH and he's ok'd it as long as she gives him loxicom on his return, which she has.
She's never charged us extra the few times he's gone but has said she only gave a 30/40 min walk to both due to his elbows.
I genuinely like/liked her.
The pictures she has put on fb my girls tail is up she's running around happy as anything.
The towel I leave over the stair gate at the bottom of the stairs is usually filthy and wet and my girl who is mostly white has grubby marks on her.
I just can't understand what's happened/happening. The blatant lie to hubby.
I'm thinking I'm genuinely just lucky and have found out on the only time it's happened.