Rover App/Website?

[DogDream]

Has anyone used Rover to find doggy day care (or walking or boarding etc)?

I’m looking for a day care for my dog and I know he would hate the big commercial set ups that seem popular round here. He’d much prefer to be in someone’s home. But I can’t find that kind of set up locally.

Rover has people willing to do doggy day care in their homes. I thought about giving it a go. But I hadn’t heard of it previously and don’t know how legit/safe it is.

Any advice?

Weirdly I was just about to post the same thing. I had never heard about it until I saw a Facebook post the other day.

I went to visit someone this morning for a “meet and greet” as she had confirmed she had availability for my summer holiday dates. But it was awful. 5 big dogs shut in one room in a 3rd floor flat with no lift or garden. Surely that can’t be right? I couldn’t wait to get out of there and felt really sorry for the dogs. It’s been on my mind all day. There was one bowl for water which was empty.

I’ve got a couple more “meet and greets”
this weekend - am hoping they’ll be much better.

Good luck!

I used to do dog boarding at home and advertised through that website.
I only took one or 2 dogs from the same household at a time and had a lot of repeat business.
I did long weekends, and holiday bookings mostly, and was very choosy about which dogs I took. I always went for a walk with the owner and the dog first to ensure they got on with mine.
I imagine there is a huge variety of what people offer on there, so I'd definitely keep looking.

I found ours on there and now use her a lot and wouldn't go to anyone else. But absolutely do a meet and greet first. We went to meet a few people who advertised as only taking dogs from one household but it wasn't true, they were just saying that to look more appealing and would actually take multiple bookings at a time. One of them had 7 dogs at once and then 2 of her own

I found our dog sitter on there but we did visit them a couple of times before leaving our dog with them. We met their 2 dogs and let our dog play with them for a couple of hours. They asked loads of questions about what our dog likes and then we tried an overnight stay. They send loads of photos and videos so I know he’s having fun.

I’ve used Rover for booking boarding and out of four sitters I’ve been in touch with, two have been fantastic (and we’ve organised repeat visits at both), one was great but has now stopped doing bookings due to a change of personal circumstances. The fourth was booked in but cancelled one week before our August holiday which was not very convenient. I’d echo PPs who say to definitely arrange a meet and greet so you know where your pet is going to.

We used Rover and found a dog sitter who would stay at our house when our dog wouldn't settle at the dog boarders we had booked. The dog sitter ended up being someone we knew from our village. It's just a good search engine but I would still do all of the checks and do a trial run with a new person

Thanks everyone. And they have insurance and everything? It feels very casual!

Rover is just a search engine for dog walkers, sitters and daycare. They don't do any background checks and pretty much anyone can sign up and call themselves a business.

They do offer very basic "insurance" but any decent dog walker/sitter etc. should have their own anyway.

By law, anyone who offers daycare or boarding must have a license from the local council and they shouldn't be advertising at all without including their license number somewhere on the advert. Any insurance (including Rovers insurance) will refuse to pay out if the business isn't operating legally.

Personally, I would search privately for a well-recommended, licensed and insured daycare in your area and arrange a proper meet and greet. You could find that person on Rover but please, please make sure you do all the proper checks.

My DD is a doggy daycare and uses Rover to advertise, after intial bookings people book her direct as the app takes 20%. She is fully insured herself not just through app and only takes one dog at a time, Glasgow based if of use to you OP.

• and home boarding