To expect pet friendly to mean a dog can go everywhere

[Fluffyelephant]

We arrived yesterday in a holiday house for a family trip that was booked because the place described itself as pet friendly. On arrival though we were presented with very intense written rules regarding dogs - they were in bold and used terms like ‘under absolutely no circumstances with no exception can your dog…’

If we had been told these rules in advance we would never have paid to stay here as they absolutely won’t work for our dog and we know that. The main rule causing issue is that he’s only actually allowed in the living room and part of the hall so 75% of the house is off limits including the stairs. He’s well behaved and good natured and is a breed that doesn’t shed hair. But he’s a clingy breed and follows us around and always sleeps on the floor by our bed otherwise he gets very distressed.

The owners know a dog was coming because we told them and we paid an extra £50. But none of these rules were mentioned. If he caused damage then of course I would pay (as I would if it was caused by a child or adult) but this seems to be rules to preemptively prevent any damage from occurring in the first place.

Last night in an attempt to follow the rules I tried sleeping on the two seat sofa in the living room next to dog but this was horrendous so we just came upstairs. My partner says it’s impossible to relax so we’ll just have to drive gone today!

I feel like places say ‘pet friendly’ to get your money when they actually aren’t at all! AIBU?

It’s not gross for future guests as this is supposed to be a pet friendly place.

my little dog is not able to sleep/ settle alone at night. She always sleeps on my bed where ever we go as this is non negotiable. I keep her very clean and her paws are always washed when she comes inside the property. She doesn’t shed hairs and there are no paw prints on the bed. She is no trouble at all.

I would just ignore the rules as long as you can make sure there are no mud prints around upstairs. They should not have advertised the place as pet friendly as it clearly isn’t

@JurassicClark
Afraid it never occurred to me to train him to stay downstairs as we were happy for him to have free reign of the house once we passed the puppy training phase.

My dogs aren't shut out of anywhere in my home. They're part of my family - I don't want them shut away.

The frustrating thing is when dog owners don’t follow the rules. We ask no dogs on furnishings and we’ve had guest use crystal white throws to protect the sofa, didn’t declare that they were bringing a pet and didn’t pay the pet fee. They left dog poo in the garden as well and this is why more and more Property owners are getting to the point of banning dogs or charging way over the odds for having dogs.

my little dog is not able to sleep/ settle alone at night
Which is lack of training -yes it’s more effort to train your dog - lazy owners have created this epidemic of untrained dogs.

I choose not to have children but I still have to:

1. Pay for them
2. Put up with them treating starbucks like a playground

etc etc

I bet you're re thinking keeping them pet friendly when you read lots of these posts knowing the lack of respect for your rules from the majority of the people on here! Who allow there dogs to do whatever it likes!!

This is a pretty bad take. My dog had puppy, advance obedience, and agility training, she has also been therapy trained. She loves to be as close to us as possible, will follow me around even if I’m just going to the toilet, and always sleeps in the same room as me, she also often sleeps on the bed with us even though she does prefer her own bed at night most the time. She does not have a lack of training nor was I too lazy to train her, she is just a dog with a mind of her own.

Absolutely there are some lazy owners and some who never trained their dogs but they’re the ones with dogs doing worse than just wanting to sleep in the same room as their owner 🙄

This is exactly the attitude that makes dog owners a nuisance!

Reading this post & the total lack of regard for the rules I imagine lots of others will do the same & make there holiday lets no pets! Then they'll have no where to take the precious dogs & only themselves to blame!

You cannot have it both ways. If it's pet friendly, it's not "allergy safe".

I don't know anyone with a pet allergy who will ever book a pet friendly accommodation. Even if pets genuinely never set paws in bedrooms, or on soft furnishing, there's still likely to be pet hair elsewhere.

There are enough accommodation banning pets to find a suitable booking.

Don't worry yourself, there's a big enough market for pet owners who take their pet on holiday, especially when staying at a driving distance within the uk, that it's still worth for many properties to stay pet friendly, especially when they charge a lot more.

Most people do have common sense and realistic expectations.

I'm not the least bit worried.

I am giggling at the disgust towards dogs, clearly none of you have ever worked in any sort of cleaning role in a hotel or similar. You’d never stay overnight anywhere again!

I don’t take my dog on holiday but if I did, I would purposefully not pick a pet friendly one. Anyone who dislikes dogs and picks a pet friendly one, well they need their bumps feeling. There are loads of non pet friendly places to stay. Pet friendly actually is more expensive.

Could have fooled me 😂

Just goes to show what you know (nothing) seeing as I'm an extremely responsible dog owner and qualified trainer/behaviourist.

In your own opinion you're a responsible dog owner, I beg to differ, I'd question your ability to train dogs if your own have no boundaries.

No, I Am a responsible dog owner. Opinion doesn't come into it.

Where did I say my dogs had no boundaries? I said I don't shut them out of rooms in my home. Just because they can access every room in my (incredibly small) bungalow, doesn't mean they aren't trained 😂

Get a grip of yourself.

Opinion does come into it, yours is you are a good owner & my opinion is you're not. I think you need to calm down a little 😬

We've had this problem - only finding out restrictions once we've driven hours to get somewhere. We always bring our own bedding, throws (for floor and furniture), and only ever feed/water dogs where there's a washable floor.
It's so variable - despite asking before booking - that my friend's elderly dog has been in situations where she has gotten quite distressed. So, we ensure that everything is covered up, and that she can sleep in her bed, on a blanket, on the bedroom floor; and we even take our own Dyson Pet to hoover everything up properly.

I'm perfectly calm.

You think I'm a bad dog owner because my dogs can go in every room of my house? What an odd person you are. One of my dogs is a disability assistance dog, so needs to have access to me at all times in order to do his job. If I shut him away, he could miss a trigger which would stop him saving my life.

So, I'll continue to be a "bad" dog owner, if you believe that my dogs walking round my home is bad ownership 😂

if you arrived at a holiday home that said children welcome but then on arrival they said actually your children aren’t allowed in any room unsupervised, they can’t go in the living room or the master bedroom at all, would that be acceptable

Children are included on the booking form, full names and details like other human guests, they're not add ons like bringing a dog.

Children welcome usually means the place is set up for children, with additional bedroom(s) or sofa beds and no hazards like unfenced flat roof or balcony with low railings. Most holiday homes welcome children or they wouldn't make much income!

Saying children can only use certain rooms is discrimination, as they're paying guests and you can't say some guests can use the lounge and some can't. Entering the master bedroom might be necessary eg if they have a bad dream or like sleeping in parents' bed for security. Beds are designed for humans. Sheets and covers will be washed between guests to get rid of the sweat, dead skin cells, hair, any bacteria. Sure kids (and adults) might wet the bed or spill coffee, but most beds have waterproof mattress covers. Now imagine that bed being covered in dog hair, that's hard to get off in a washing machine and hairs get stuck in the cotton weave. Dog hair sticking to the outer bedcover too (that doesn't normally get washed between guests) hair on the headboard, floors, rugs.

And penetrating dog smell! That really seeps into fabrics, floors, pillows too. Dogs don't have a daily shower and fresh pyjamas like humans, is it any surprise they're not welcome in bedrooms, beds, on furniture or in more than one room?

It's a bit like saying a hotel is 'family friendly' and then under 12s aren't allowed in any of the shared rooms.

'friendly' means welcomed and accommodated, not tolerated within the smallest bounds possible.

If they aren't welcomed and accommodated best to be upfront about it and say 'no children under 12' rather than taking the money.

Dogs aren't add ons if you have to book them in advance, as the OP has done (and pay extra). They are part of the booking.

I think I’d expect not on beds or furniture and not to be left in the place at all alone. But not upstairs ? How can any dog who’s unfamiliar with the house realise upstairs is out of bounds. It sounds like they are aware that a growing number of people want to holiday with their dogs and want to cash in on that but don’t actually want them there . I agree that people should be clear …… dogs welcome without trying to enforce any impractical rules or no dogs at all. You booked it on the basis it was pet friendly …… being confined to one room is not pet friendly.