Dog sitters? Rover? Trusted House Sitter? Petsmart boarding?

[Anonymous]

New to the area and have two dogs - one is a senior dog (almost 15) and one is a 1.5 year old. They are labs.
We have some international travel coming up later this year (2 week trip in late June and a 2.5 week trip in November - so still a lot of time to work this out!) - and we have no friends or family in the area to take care of the dogs. Was looking into options, such as Rover, Trusted Housesitter or commercial boarding and was wondering if anyone has any experience with these?

We would prefer for someone to stay at our place, mainly because the senior dog needs to be let out more often. We are metro-connected (we live across the street from an orange line station and have restaurants and a grocery store on the same block as our apartment).

I'm leaning towards Trusted House Sitter, as the membership fee is so much more reasonable than a rover sitter or taking them to a boarding kennel. A Rover sitter or a kennel would run us over 2 grand, and that's on the cheap side.

Any thoughts? I'm hesitant to join THS because IDK if anyone would want to sit for us -- though we are directly connected to metro/bus station, so they have full access to the tourist areas.

[Anonymous]

If you have 2 dogs an in home sitter is going to be cheaper than a kennel.
Also a lot of kennels/boarding places don’t have overnight staff so the dogs are left crated for many hours with no mean of escape in an emergency such as a fire.
I would go with Rover. I’ve only used them once but was happy. You can also see if any older teens in your neighborhood might be interested. We’ve done this too. Had a 17 spend a few nights over Thanksgiving.

[Anonymous]

My strong preference is always to get our dogs enrolled in a chain daycare/boarding situation. Our current one is District Dogs.

For an older dog it's a little stressful, yes, but we always do short visits first before going on a longer trip. I think having a stranger in the house with them would be stressful too.

For me there's no replacing the reliability of having a larger company and staff and I don't want to deal with the added complication of someone caring for our house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have 2 dogs an in home sitter is going to be cheaper than a kennel.
Also a lot of kennels/boarding places don’t have overnight staff so the dogs are left crated for many hours with no mean of escape in an emergency such as a fire.
I would go with Rover. I’ve only used them once but was happy. You can also see if any older teens in your neighborhood might be interested. We’ve done this too. Had a 17 spend a few nights over Thanksgiving.

It's all about personal preference. To me the chance that there's a fire and my dog is stuck in a crate is way less than the chance of something going wrong when a 17 year old is staying alone in my house. And yes, I know there was recently a tragedy at District Dogs. Staff was there, but you can't prevent all risk.

[Anonymous]

I've used trustedhousesitters, but for very self sufficient cats. It went great, but I think the likeliness of having someone accept your petsit is to 1) have a home in a desirable location, 2) have a CLEAN home.

Of course do your due diligence by reading the person's profile/reviews, and try to facetime them ahead of time. Our housesitter was in another state, so meeting her wasn't a possibility.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I should add that we are only living here temporarily. We have a 2 bed /2 bath apartment, with minimal furniture, so we are not living in a house that needs much care, nor do we have a lot of valuables here. We are only living here until March 2025 and then we go back to our actual house in CA

[Anonymous]

I do dog sitting for my friends and neighbors. I would urge you to check on facebook or nextdoor for a local person. Benefits - you can meet them ahead of time. They can meet your animals. You can do a trial run (1-2 nights). They know your area.

Trusted housesitters are great! For house sitting. How do you know someone will be comfortable driving in your area? In your vehicle? How do you know how they will interact with your animals? You will not get to meet them prior, you will not get to read their vibe. If there's an issue and your senior needs to go to the vet, are they going to be ok doing that? In a brand new city/state/country?

[Anonymous]

Reach out to your vet, OP. My vet keeps a list of techs who pet sit. With an elderly lab I'd be terrified that if he crashes while gone, a pet sitter will have to deal with that and I'd rather have it be someone who has connections to the clinic/knows how to administer meds/etc.

I always opt for keeping them in the home and having someone stay vs. boarding. Far less stressful for the animals IMO.

[Anonymous]

We've had good luck with our dog staying at a Rover sitter's house. We found a govt employee that works from home, so someone is almost always in the house. They have a fenced backyard and let our pup snuggle with them. Our pup always comes back seeming happy and they send daily photos and updates.

It's a good compromise between the cost of someone staying at our house and the stress of boarding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do dog sitting for my friends and neighbors. I would urge you to check on facebook or nextdoor for a local person. Benefits - you can meet them ahead of time. They can meet your animals. You can do a trial run (1-2 nights). They know your area.

Trusted housesitters are great! For house sitting. How do you know someone will be comfortable driving in your area? In your vehicle? How do you know how they will interact with your animals? You will not get to meet them prior, you will not get to read their vibe. If there's an issue and your senior needs to go to the vet, are they going to be ok doing that? In a brand new city/state/country?

PP who used trustedhouseistters for cats:

1) they had their own car, and drove from 2 states away. They have been in my area before and were very familiar with it. I'm also metro accessible, so they didn't need a car.
2) Dogs may be different, but I needed the basics for my cats, plus show them a little TLC. I knew my cats were scaredy cats, but chose a house sitter because I felt like they would have come out of their shells (and they did!) with the added time.
3) You read the profile, and do a video chat with them. And then Google the F out of them.
4) be honest and up front about the likeliness of an emergency. You know your pets. communicate, communicate, communicate. No pet/house sitter has to accept any "job" - someone who's communicative and honest about their animals' needs is much more likely to get an honest and communicative sitter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do dog sitting for my friends and neighbors. I would urge you to check on facebook or nextdoor for a local person. Benefits - you can meet them ahead of time. They can meet your animals. You can do a trial run (1-2 nights). They know your area.

Trusted housesitters are great! For house sitting. How do you know someone will be comfortable driving in your area? In your vehicle? How do you know how they will interact with your animals? You will not get to meet them prior, you will not get to read their vibe. If there's an issue and your senior needs to go to the vet, are they going to be ok doing that? In a brand new city/state/country?

PP who used trustedhouseistters for cats:

1) they had their own car, and drove from 2 states away. They have been in my area before and were very familiar with it. I'm also metro accessible, so they didn't need a car.
2) Dogs may be different, but I needed the basics for my cats, plus show them a little TLC. I knew my cats were scaredy cats, but chose a house sitter because I felt like they would have come out of their shells (and they did!) with the added time.
3) You read the profile, and do a video chat with them. And then Google the F out of them.
4) be honest and up front about the likeliness of an emergency. You know your pets. communicate, communicate, communicate. No pet/house sitter has to accept any "job" - someone who's communicative and honest about their animals' needs is much more likely to get an honest and communicative sitter.

You dont think theres a difference between an elderly dog and "very self sufficient cats"? Seriously gtfo here with that comparison, these are two totally different situations.

[Anonymous]

You mentioned you are on the orange line. KSR pet care will do in home pet sitting and they are wonderful. We trust them with our dogs and cat when we go out of town. It is expensive, but we think for peace of mind it is worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do dog sitting for my friends and neighbors. I would urge you to check on facebook or nextdoor for a local person. Benefits - you can meet them ahead of time. They can meet your animals. You can do a trial run (1-2 nights). They know your area.

Trusted housesitters are great! For house sitting. How do you know someone will be comfortable driving in your area? In your vehicle? How do you know how they will interact with your animals? You will not get to meet them prior, you will not get to read their vibe. If there's an issue and your senior needs to go to the vet, are they going to be ok doing that? In a brand new city/state/country?

PP who used trustedhouseistters for cats:

1) they had their own car, and drove from 2 states away. They have been in my area before and were very familiar with it. I'm also metro accessible, so they didn't need a car.
2) Dogs may be different, but I needed the basics for my cats, plus show them a little TLC. I knew my cats were scaredy cats, but chose a house sitter because I felt like they would have come out of their shells (and they did!) with the added time.
3) You read the profile, and do a video chat with them. And then Google the F out of them.
4) be honest and up front about the likeliness of an emergency. You know your pets. communicate, communicate, communicate. No pet/house sitter has to accept any "job" - someone who's communicative and honest about their animals' needs is much more likely to get an honest and communicative sitter.

You dont think theres a difference between an elderly dog and "very self sufficient cats"? Seriously gtfo here with that comparison, these are two totally different situations.

Damn, it's only Monday. Calm down--you sound crazy.