How clean do your dog walkers leave your house?

[icansingaskittlesrainbow]

Just interested to hear how clean other peoples dog walkers leave their house?
So we have a puppy who is crated for 1.5 hours, taken for a 30 minute walk and then crated for another 1.5 hours. Only once or twice a week, the rest of the time someone is home.
On the days we are both out we pay a dog sitter/walker to come and walk her.
I don’t know if I’m being unreasonable, but I’m getting really miffed with the state my house is left it, but this may be totally the norm!
So our puppy excited wees, just a dribble before you can get her in the garden to do a proper wee.
I come home after the dog walker has been and there are a few spots of dribbly wee just left on the floor, there’s a mop and antibacterial wipes handy, so not sure whether she should be expected to wipe these up or not.
I think the excited wees are worse as she brings 2 other dogs into the house to collect our puppy and she cannot contain her excitement and dribbles (she doesn’t tend to wee with just people visiting these days)
The other 2 dogs leave massive dirty footprints all over the wooden floors (definitely not puppy sized), which I have to clean up when I get home and the dog walker usually has muddy feet and leaves lots of footprints too.
To top it off the dog walker has had a new puppy on her walks this week.
I’ve come home to a big pile of wee on the sofa and another in my hallway. I’m 99% sure this isn’t my dog, as excluding the excited dribbles she’s not weed inside for over 6 weeks. I think it’s the new puppy weeing. So I had to take the covers off the sofa to wash them and mop the hallway.
Also there’s muddy marks all along the paint in the hallway and on some doors where bigger dogs are brushing past them.
I haven’t mentioned anything yet, as we’ve not had a dog walker before and don’t know if this is usual.
I just begrudge washing sofas, wiping down paintwork and hoovering and mopping every floor after she’s been in.

[SlothMama]

I'd tell her to stop with letting them in the garden, and just ask about wiping up any wee. The muddy paw prints is fair enough imo, my dog leaves them when I walk her

[Namechangeforthiscancershit]

Would you be happy with your dog being off lead? My little monster needs a fair bit of off lead time so I’d want a dog walker to take him somewhere where he can run around, even if that’s further afield.

[longearedbat]

I almost hesitate to suggest it, but is she actually taking your dog out, or is she using your garden as a play park for all her charges while at your house? If she is letting them run in and out this would account for all the mud/pee on sofa.
Is your garden trashed? I hope you're not a keen gardener!

[SPARKLYSTARSHINESBRIGHT]

I'm a dog walker, I leave my boots at the door, roll up my trousers if they are muddy. I have a mobile shower and lots of towels in my vehicle, dogs are delivered back washed and maybe damp but clean. You need to nip this in the bud, give her a back door key, is there somewhere she can tie the other dogs up by the back door (otherwise you could put a horse tie up ring on the wall for approx £2). The other dogs are not allowed in your house, a dog walker should be making your life easier not making work for you.

[EnidPrunehat]

This sound more chaotic and unprofessional than I'd be happy with. I don't know ANY dog walkers round here who traipse the rest of their charges through their client's houses. Let alone expect their gardens to be used as off-lead play parks. To be honest, I'd be wondering just how safe my dog was with someone who seems so disorganised. I'm also fairly sure that there will be other dog walking services available locally even if not on your doorstep.

[MotorcycleMayhem]

WTF? No this is not acceptable. Please call her and ask what on earth happens at your home!

And to a PP, yes I would expect a dog walker to clean up dog-related mess, whether mud, poo or pee if it happens on their watch. Just as I expect them to clean up my muddy dog if they get muddy during the walk, but then we discussed all that as part of the T&Cs when we set up the arrangements with our lovely walker. We don't use her often, but she's ace.

I don't understand why your walker doesn't have a better arrangement for handling the dogs. I'd expect them to have a van.

I assume you will no longer be permitting the walker to bring them into the house or use your garden as the local off lead area?

[icansingaskittlesrainbow]

Yes I think they must have been let off lead for a dog to wee on the sofa. I think she probably left the back door open and the dogs were running in and out of the house, as there were dirty footprints in the lounge too, which they don’t need to walk through to get to the dog crate or the garden.
I was annoyed with the sofa wee and more annoyed that she obviously wasn’t supervising them in my house or they would have noticed and either told me or cleaned it up.
Even if it was my dog that weed on the sofa, which I find unlikely, surely the dog walker would have noticed a dog jumping onto furniture and weeing on the sofa.

[Onthebrink87]

I appreciate it would be a cost to you but would it be worth screwing one of those rings to the wall outside so she can tie up the other dogs whilst she nips in for yours? I would also say please dont walk through the hoise with your shoes on and im afraid I won't be able to have all the dogs running around on the lawn anymore because of the mess it's making etc. They are perfectly reasonable requests and surely any reasonable person would not take issue with them? Failing that is get a new dog walker!

[Heyha]

Well then she keeps all the other dogs on the lead with her while she hooks herself up with your dog and drops it off then no mud other than round by the door, which I could live with I guess. No more using your garden.

But I bet there is an alternative if you keep an eye out.

[willywillywillywilly]

I think the answer may be a back door key. Leave the other 3 dogs in the garden, come and grab mine whilst maybe kicking boots off at the back door, hopefully dog won’t excited wee as she won’t see the dogs until she’s outside and then off they pop for a walk?
Don’t know if that’s a reasonable ask or not though?!

Definitely not unreasonable! We have had a dog walker and I know that her other clients all have various reasonable requests like this for what she should do when picking up/dropping off and they are very easily accommodated.

[icansingaskittlesrainbow]

It’s a bit different where we live, in that we are on an estate where all the houses are very close together and there is only really this one dog walker. Our houses back on to a huge area of fields, valleys, streams and a 5 mile circular paved area/cycle path. So she just collects the dogs one by one and then drops them back. Dogs can’t be off lead on the walk due to the wildlife, hence having a play in my garden before she drops them home.

[llangennith]

I've never heard of such an arrangement! Find a better dog walker. This is definitely unacceptable.

[Nesssie]

The answer is to not let her bring the other dogs in, that's such a cheeky and bizarre thing to do. Just say that whilst you appreciate you agreed to it originally, you've realised that it is destroying your garden and creating a lot of mud, so you are asking her to stop.

[Heyha]

The only way I knew our dog walker had been was because the lead had moved! They did pick up all dogs in their transport and take them somewhere for a good run though (doggy daycare and grooming as well as walking). Sounds like you need something more like that setup as I'm assuming what you're using at present is one of the many 'people who like walking and dogs and want to work from home' outfits. Not staying they are all bad but yours doesn't sound like they're acting as a business with customer service in mind. I'd take what you're getting from a pal doing me a favour but if you're paying well for the serrvice I'd expect better.

[MistakenHoliday]

I wouldn't expect our dog walker to clean up my dog's mess but wouldn't want them to add to it with other dogs' either!

Ours picks up in a van so the then other dogs wait there while the dog walker comes to the door. Our dog shoots out and jumps in the back of the van as soon as he hears the gate. Job done

[OrchidInTheSun]

So she's basically using your house and garden as a dog park? No, that's not okay. My dog walker walks just my dog. The other one I sometimes use collects/drops him back in a van.

[icansingaskittlesrainbow]

I think the answer may be a back door key. Leave the other 3 dogs in the garden, come and grab mine whilst maybe kicking boots off at the back door, hopefully dog won’t excited wee as she won’t see the dogs until she’s outside and then off they pop for a walk?
Don’t know if that’s a reasonable ask or not though?!

[justasking111]

Our dogs come in muddy after a walk, they have to stay in the kitchen until they are clean and dry. Your walker is very unprofessional letting dogs run amok inside your house.

[TheGreatestShoeman]

Every dog walker I've ever used has had a Van for collections so they wouldn't bring other dogs into the house. The set up you're describing would be completely unacceptable to me. It sounds very disrespectful. My dog walker used to park up, walk in, boots off on the step, come in and get the dog, quick lead clipped on, back out, boots on and away they went. He was awesome, quite often my boy got extra time and extra walks as he would use him for company for excited dogs and puppies as he was so calm and well behaved. The only sign he had been was how tired the dog was and the quick note detailing where they'd walked and who with :-)

[StrongTea]

Surprised she doesn’t kick her wellies/boots off. She would be better leaving the other dogs in the back garden while getting your pup. I know the mess my lot make when coming back from a walk.

[Namechangeforthiscancershit]

Ok you definitely need to put your foot down about that!

[icansingaskittlesrainbow]

I would leave it by the door, but she tends to get unsettled hearing noises outside as the road is quite busy, so gets put in the middle room with a cd playing.

[icansingaskittlesrainbow]

And also she said can the dogs have a run off lead in our garden occasionally, as they are all kept on leads for their walk.
Occasionally has turned into once or twice a week when I imagined perhaps once a month.
I always end up getting myself into these situations.
So the other dog owners have lovely clean houses, my house is the last pick up so gets trashed and 4 dogs churning up my garden 😩

[EvaHarknessRose]

Can you leave pup crate near the door.

[Namechangeforthiscancershit]

I wouldn’t expect her to clean the floor (though I’m sure some do as dog walkers tend to be lovely helpful people)

The arrangement of bringing 3 other dogs into your house is the problem I think. I wouldn’t be happy with that at all