Dog sitter charges

[Picoloangel]

We have a 7 year old v well trained dog, have just been away for a long weekend and asked our regular dog walker to sit. I asked her twice before I left to let me know how much but she’s quite scatty and didn’t really end up saying. In the past she did the odd night and I paid about 35-40.

She’s charged us almost £280 (5 nights) and said that walks are extra. We have never experienced this before and it’s all really awkward. We will pay her of course and our dog loves her so I don’t want to fall out with her but this seems really unreasonable. In 7 years of using dog sitters we have never been charged extra for walks. She didn’t walk our dog alone or anything she did walks with other dogs which is what she’d normally do.

She had asked before we went if her partner could come and stay and we had said no - we have never met him and felt we didn’t beat someone in the house alone who we had never met so I wonder if that offended her somehow.

In your experience do dog sitters get extra for walks? This has never happened in 7 years and I don’t know if we have been lucky or if this is normal.

Pretty standard to pay night boarding and daycare costs here I'm afraid.

That seems excessive to me. My dog walker charges £35 per night for boarding including walks (she is licensed).

Yes that’s what we have paid before £35-40 including walks. Lesson learned I guess. I certainly won’t be using her again - for a fortnight holiday it’d be over £800!!

We live just outside London so expect it to be higher than other places but no one has ever suggested that house/dog sitting wouldn’t include walking the dog particularly if walking the dog with others. I’ll need to clarify in future as obviously it must vary.

We pay £35 a night to board our dog at the sitters home using Rover. No problems, really nice lady with her own dog so ours has a playmate.

Same here - our lovely dog sitter charges £35 for overnight, £25 for full day which includes all walks. Not at our house though so think that would be more I suppose

Does the £280 include the walks - is that the total payment ?

if so, for her to live in your home to care for the dog on its own 24/7 it’s £56 a day which isn’t that bad as most other dog sitters would board 2 or 3 a night in their own home which she couldn’t do at yours?

She's both dog and house sitting though really, £55ish a night seems reasonable.

She doesn’t board other dogs and carried on her grooming and walking business as usual. She lives 5 mins away so really only popping in for walks and then staying overnight. £280 for two walks and sleeping overnight is much more than we have ever paid. She doesn’t do any other stuff like putting the hoover around (as others have done) just walking the dog and sleeping overnight.

I can see from the comments on here that sitters really vary in price but equally this isn’t someone travelling a distance and being away from their usual business etc. I think we will stick to our usual £35 a day in future 😬

I know this is my fault for not nailing this down before we went though in retrospect I think she was a bit evasive and this is something (charging extra for walks) she hasn’t done before. Lesson learned!

Thanks all 🐕

The lady who house sits for us has different levels of charges and associated coverage.

I pay £50 for overnights (my dogs are used to being left in the day). So she leaves the house between (but not all of) 9-4 and is around in the mornings and evenings. I have several dogs and a cat. They stay in their routine in their home, my house is occupied and I don’t have the additional time of trapsing back and fore to kennels (or having to wash them when they get home smelly). So not cheap but there are many advantages, just have to remember to book early!

Over five days alone, the dog was walked twice and had someone with them overnight?

That is either pretty rough on the dog or the interaction with the sitter is being underplayed a bit. You'll know which and don't need to answer to me - but that's where I would be looking when trying to understand value for money.

No not alone all day but equally sitter is carrying on her usual business. Some sitters travel to your home and do nothing but look after your dog - this is not what our situation was. Of course we wouldn’t leave our dog alone for 5 days.

Walked twice a day

I'm in Surrey and pay £40 a night for house sitting which includes feeding the cat and dog and 2 walks a day. £280 for 5 nights seems quite a lot but I'd pay it if you like her as I find it very difficult to find reliable and trustworthy people!

Then, making some assumptions, if the sitter is gone 9am-5pm but back for a couple of walks within that period then the £56 per day seems to be covering:

• 2 walks plus
• 16 hours of their time, including evenings that they are giving up to sit at your home

That doesn't actually work out as very much per hour/walk, so I think it's reasonable. Even if it's just covering 16 hours of their time away from their life/home and walks were extra on top of that, then it's £3.5 per hour, which is very low.

I paid my live in sitter (for two Chihuahuas) $100 per night, and I am usually away 25 nights per year.

Also left the kitchen stocked with soft drinks, wine, cheese, chocolate and other treats for her.

And put DIY spa treatment stuff in the guest room and bathroom for her, sent gift vouchers for her birthday and Christmas, and otherwise tried to treat her well.

My dogs loved her and were not upset at all by my absence. I knew as they grew older and fragile that she would be competent in an emergency. It was money well spent.

Exactly. There's the mental load/bandwidth too, for five days she has to juggle and to bear this dog in mind at all times. And be responsible if an emergency arises. And pick up shit.

Complaining about this reasonable fee is really disrespectful and dismissive of the sitter's time and life.

So £280 is the total? For 10 walks (2 per day) and 5 day & nights dog/house sitting?

I don't think that seems bad.

Presumably you pay her for dog walking anyway - she continued to provide the service, so you should continue to pay.

And then she's providing a dog/housing sitting service at an additional cost - I'd expect £40-50 per night minimum.

I'd be very, very surprised if you could actually find someone to offer you dog/house sitting in your own home plus 2 walks a day for £35 per day. I don't think you can compare dog sitting in your own home prices to boarding in the sitters home. Coming to your home is much more disruptive and inconvenient for them.

I’m not complaining as such but in fact we do usually pay £35 for the same service and have used several sitters. They all charged the same including ones who travelled to stay in our house.

I think this has turned into a ‘how much is too much thread’ — and it’s interesting to see how much the rates vary - but I was making the point that we have never been charged separately for walks and asking if that’s been the experience of others.

The real issue here is that she didn’t tell me this was extra - in the past we have paid her one fee and it was nowhere near what she charged on this occasion. Admittedly though that’s been an odd night here and there.

She does two walks a week for us usually - someone is always here and we cover all of the walks apart from two per week.

To be honest, it's not usual for dog sitters to charge extra for walks if they're part of regular care. It sounds a bit off but maybe that’s just her pricing style. I’d suggest just chatting with her to clear it up. It could be a misunderstanding.