Dog sitting was not what I thought it would be like

[The Mystery Machine]

This experience has turned me off from ever offering to help someone watch their dog lol. I think I may try dog sitting again only if it's a golden and one that I've had many interactions with so I really know what they are like. I'm not getting paid or anything so cleaning up messes are even more annoying!

Babysitting a puppy is like getting forks stuck in your eye.

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

Op, I hope you're getting paid well for watching someone's pet for 2 weeks. I can't imagine taking that on without being compensated. We have a dog and I remember when he was 6 months old he wasn't 100% trained. I also remember him being more anxious than he is now. Leaving a puppy for that long is really hard on the dog. The poor thing probably just didn't understand.

Maybe the owners might consider hiring someone to stay in their home the next time they go away for so long.

Fyi, our dog hated a crate from the get go. He has a 3x3 play yard he stays in instead. He's content being in it. A crate isn't universally appealing.

We're not getting paid to do this. Offered to help since they don't have family around and they didn't want to board her. I understood the not wanting to board your dog because I'm not a fan of that either. Thought it can't be that hard but boy was I wrong!! I guess I wish they were a little more straightforward with how much she's not a fan of the crate. The wife had mentioned to my hubby that the dog would cry in the crate whenever they leave but we didn't realize it was this bad.

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

Yorkies can be very high maintenance. Because they are so small they tend to be carried a lot and given a lot of attention. The breed also tends to be a bit hyper and yappy. That said, a 6 month old should be completely housebroken and crate trained. I would also crate her a bit more to avoid accidents. Otherwise, I guess you won't be watching her again.

Yeah we are definitely not going to watch her again. After this experience I've decided that I am a big dog person. Most little dogs that I've met just are super high maintenance with their personalities and skin allergies. We couldn't believe how bad this dog walks on a leash lol. Pulling and zig zagging. I don't think she gets much practice. This has really been a learning experience! The good thing that I learned from all this is that my dog loves having a playmate around and does not get jealous. Now just got to get hubby on board to get a second golden.

 

[Sabeking]

I think you have a combination of separation anxiety and breed of dog. I have two yorkies and they are totally high maintenance! They are tough to train. I don't know what your schedule allows but I have scheduled walks during the day at they same time for them and this really helped! They go out first thing, walk at 10am, out again a few more times then another walk right after dinner. When I am not there, in the crate. When we are there certain areas of the house are gated off. I know that's a lot for a sitter but it may give you some sanity!!! Good luck!

 

[Goofy_Disney_Dad]

We always kennel train and continue to use a kennel/crate as their "bed" throughout their lives. It certainly makes housebreaking a much easier task and would be quite helpful to you as a dog sitter in the long run. Do you have a kennel you could use temporarily to stop the waste damage til they come back?

 

[Sabeking]

Yeah we are definitely not going to watch her again. After this experience I've decided that I am a big dog person. Most little dogs that I've met just are super high maintenance with their personalities and skin allergies. We couldn't believe how bad this dog walks on a leash lol. Pulling and zig zagging. I don't think she gets much practice. This has really been a learning experience! The good thing that I learned from all this is that my dog loves having a playmate around and does not get jealous. Now just got to get hubby on board to get a second golden.

Just saw this....mine were terrible at pulling and zig zagging. I had to train them one at a time with a short leash holding them close and slightly behind me. It took awhile but they figured out they were not in charge! Again, it sounds like you got thrown into training stage with a difficult breed! Sorry!

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

I think you have a combination of separation anxiety and breed of dog. I have two yorkies and they are totally high maintenance! They are tough to train. I don't know what your schedule allows but I have scheduled walks during the day at they same time for them and this really helped! They go out first thing, walk at 10am, out again a few more times then another walk right after dinner. When I am not there, in the crate. When we are there certain areas of the house are gated off. I know that's a lot for a sitter but it may give you some sanity!!! Good luck!

I'm thinking she has some separation anxiety too. She cries if either one of us leaves the room even though the other person is there in the room with her. She definitely gets crated when we are not home or can't keep an eye on her and cries. We have all the doors to the bedrooms/bathrooms closed so she has a run of the hallway and open kitchen/living room. I am going to stick to a routine, maybe that will help avoid messes in the house. I never knew how much work yorkies are! I wonder if mini poodles are like this too?

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

We always kennel train and continue to use a kennel/crate as their "bed" throughout their lives. It certainly makes housebreaking a much easier task and would be quite helpful to you as a dog sitter in the long run. Do you have a kennel you could use temporarily to stop the waste damage til they come back?

Yes she came with a crate but HATES it! Cries and cries when she is in it. I crate her when I can't keep an eye on her, when she sleeps at night, when I want her to take a little nap, and just when I need a little break from it all. At least at night, she settles down after a while and goes to sleep. My own dog is crate trained so I understand how useful it can be.

 

[Goofy_Disney_Dad]

Yes she came with a crate but HATES it! Cries and cries when she is in it. I crate her when I can't keep an eye on her, when she sleeps at night, when I want her to take a little nap, and just when I need a little break from it all. At least at night, she settles down after a while and goes to sleep. My own dog is crate trained so I understand how useful it can be.

That makes me wonder if the crate was purchased just for this stay. Doesn't sound like she's used to it at all. If you crate your dogs like we do then you understand how much they find their crate a "home". I feel for you because I can only imagine how difficult it must be dealing with this.

 

[Sabeking]

That makes me wonder if the crate was purchased just for this stay. Doesn't sound like she's used to it at all. If you crate your dogs like we do then you understand how much they find their crate a "home". I feel for you because I can only imagine how difficult it must be dealing with this.

Either that or it has not been used consistently. I'm only going on experience with our yorkies, but they are whiny as heck in the crate! It took a lot of time and resistance to not get them out before they were settled. It was like when our kids were little and they would cry in the crib. My poor husband had to go out on the front porch because I wouldn't let him go in EVERYTIME one of our kids were crying!

 

[Goofy_Disney_Dad]

Either that or it has not been used consistently. I'm only going on experience with our yorkies, but they are whiny as heck in the crate! It took a lot of time and resistance to not get them out before they were settled. It was like when our kids were little and they would cry in the crib. My poor husband had to go out on the front porch because I wouldn't let him go in EVERYTIME one of our kids were crying!

I guess we've been really, really lucky in the crating department then. The only whining I remember is when we first got them and they had the normal separation issues for the first few nights. Other than that, we've been really lucky I suppose. We've never had yorkies so I don't know much about their temperament and personality. I bet the OP is ready for it to be all over though.

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

That makes me wonder if the crate was purchased just for this stay. Doesn't sound like she's used to it at all. If you crate your dogs like we do then you understand how much they find their crate a "home". I feel for you because I can only imagine how difficult it must be dealing with this.

Either that or it has not been used consistently. I'm only going on experience with our yorkies, but they are whiny as heck in the crate! It took a lot of time and resistance to not get them out before they were settled. It was like when our kids were little and they would cry in the crib. My poor husband had to go out on the front porch because I wouldn't let him go in EVERYTIME one of our kids were crying!

She came with the crate during the trial night so I don't think it was bought just for this stay. I do think it may be that it wasn't used consistently or they didn't work super hard to make the crate a fun spot to be because she really hates it. She really is a sweet, sweet dog but more work than I had bargained for! I knew it would be work to take care of her but it exceeded my expectations.

 

[Goofy_Disney_Dad]

She came with the crate during the trial night so I don't think it was bought just for this stay. I do think it may be that it wasn't used consistently or they didn't work super hard to make the crate a fun spot to be because she really hates it. She really is a sweet, sweet dog but more work than I had bargained for! I knew it would be work to take care of her but it exceeded my expectations.

Just keep telling yourself "it's almost over, it's almost over".

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

I guess we've been really, really lucky in the crating department then. The only whining I remember is when we first got them and they had the normal separation issues for the first few nights. Other than that, we've been really lucky I suppose. We've never had yorkies so I don't know much about their temperament and personality. I bet the OP is ready for it to be all over though.

This was our experience with my golden too. She wasn't crazy about it for the first few days/nights but got used to it pretty fast but we worked hard to make it a fun/happy/safe place to hang out. I've only ever had goldens so really no experience with little dogs especially yorkies. My MIL has two shih tzus that are super untrained also but I thought they were the exception not the norm. They are 6 & 7 so there's really no hope for them lol. When the puppy leaves I think I'm going to .

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

Sorry you're going through this. Sounds like a combo of things. I think we all get used to our own dogs personalities.

Mine won't walk "appropriately" on a leash. She pulls and zig zags despite training on training on training. She stops at cross-walks so I quit worrying about it and let her zig zag.

She doesn't do crate with the door closed. Ever heard a shiba scream? It's beyond awful so mine just roams the house with no problem.

If you want to feel better about any of the annoying sounds your dog makes? (This isn't my dog but it's what our bath time is like so we leave it to professionals and tip our groomer WELL!)

And nail clipping time!

 

[robinb]

We do crate her when we can't watch her but she hates the crate and wails/cries the whole time. We are always in the same room as her but when she decides to go, she doesn't always ring the bells but just squats. Her mom said she was able to hold it for about 4 hours at a time. I take her out a lot more than four hour intervals. I thought she would need naps too but this dog is like the energizer bunny, she keeps going and going. When I put her in the crate for a nap, she bangs against the door and cries. I have to run around and catch her to put her in the crate because she hates it so much.

FWIW, my 9-year old standard poodle never got the hang of ringing the bell and she had accidents well past 1 year of age. I too took her out all the time and crated her and she cried. I ended up tying her up next to me so she was out of her crate but couldn't sneak off and potty.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

My hubby and I have a reputation of being huge dog lovers and somehow ended up dog sitting a 6 month old yorkipoo for his colleague for two weeks. Dog is super sweet but is super high maintenance. She is super energetic, climbs all over my sweet golden and takes away toys/bones away from my dog when she is playing with them, cries nonstop in her crate when I have to head out, cries on car rides, and has had numerous accidents in my house. We had a overnight sleepover to test things out and the dog was an angel. I feel like she pulled a fast one over us! Lol. I was concerned about how potty trained she was and was assured that she was getting the hang of it and should be good when she stays over. I guess when I said I would dog sit I expected the dog to be more trained than it is. I'm so sick of cleaning up messes in the house. Dogs peeing and pooping in my house is a pet peeve of mine and I'm starting to count down the days til she goes home. I worked hard to potty train my goldens when they were really young so I don't have to deal with messes in the house. I'm starting to feel like a bad dog person for feeling this way about this whole situation. When her parents emailed asking how things were, we said things were fine since we wanted them not to worry on their vacation. 1 more week to go! Just wanted to vent a little. Thanks for reading.

Dogs can be kenneled. If owners aren't willing, don't own one/ JMHO.

My 28 yr old stepson has a great dog. He works all day, wants to travel here and there every weekend. Always asking for "dogsitting".

NO, sorry. That's our answer every time. My own dog is enough for me. And I always kennel if we go out of town.

 

[minniecarousel]

I don't understand the "no kennel" thing. My sister kennels her dog at the Vets & she likes it. She also sleeps in her crate at night & some evenings, Sis goes looking for her, only to find she's already settled down in her crate!

I agree that there's not much you can do now. It was very kind of you not to tell the folks that their dog is a nightmare while they're on vacation. But when they get back, let them know why you won't be dog-sitting for them again.

 

[Terapin]

Ugh I can't imagine having a 6 month old dog that isn't potty trained. We worked so hard when we got our pups to get them trained so that stage was over with! It's the worst. I feel for you, OP, sounds miserable.

I am constantly amazed how poorly behaved and trained some dogs are, and how many owners seem not to care. I have high energy and rambunctious dogs (two boy Dalmatians who are a year and a half, and an elderly standard poodle), and boy we work hard to keep them in line and nice to be around. Our dogs are still jerks at times, but we are reaping the rewards of dogs who are being trained and who are excellent family members. But that's what we signed up for.

I hope the two weeks passes quickly and you can hand them off again!

 

[mjkacmom]

It dies not sound like that puppy is crate trained, or housebroken. My dog hasn't slept in her crate in about a year, but I will always send it with her to the sitters. Before she started sleeping with dd's' (half the night, then she sleeps on the couch), I'd just tell her to go to bed, and she'd walk right in - it was her safe place (rescue).

Little dogs like that are HARD to housebreak - I had one, and I said never again.