What would you do?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I will try to make this as short as possible; not an easy task for me :wink: Last week my dog was boarded with a woman at her home that we have used once before for 3 night; my SIL has also used this woman. This stay was for 8 nights and before leaving P I had a typed note with emergency contact, dos and don’ts, medicines needed during the visit, etc… This sitter and I also discussed P’s food allergies and quirks, as I had also done during her last stay.</p>

<p>On night 8 I get a call from the sitter that P is having bloody diarrhea (sorry for the graphic description.) She thinks she needs to go to the Emergency Vet, and I agree. Once there, it is decided that P’s colitis has returned. It seems the sitter decided to add food to P’s kibble each and every meal for 8 day. She was feed yogurt, raw carrots, spinach and scrambled eggs. Each of these foods as a small treat one or twice would have been ok, but give during 15 meals was way too much for her. Now remember, my directions mentioned her food allergies and she was only to be feed her food and treats that I sent with her.</p>

<p>Said ER visit with an overnight stay plus a follow up at our regular vet ran us $1100; Sitter charges $50/night. The sitter was so upset that my dog was ill, and felt horrible. She didn’t want to leave P at the ER, but the vet said she was very dehydrated and needed immediate IV fluid along with meds. If the sitter took her home, the vet said she would only be bringing her back in a few hours. I gave the go ahead for P to stay the night and sitter left. We were coming home the next day anyway and after talking to the vet in the afternoon, it was agreed she could come home.</p>

<p>My dilemma is, do I pay the sitter? I really thought at the very least she would offer to reduce my bill with her. When we discussed leaving P at the ER, she made mention that if it were her dog, she wouldn’t be able to afford the stay. While I don’t cherish forking over $1,000 there, I wanted my dog treated and I wasn’t there. Even if I were home, if the vet said she needed to stay for IV treatment, I would have left her anyway. Actually, in the last year between the two dog, we have had several ER visits and surgeries :0</p>

<p>When I went to pick up my dogs belongs yesterday the sitter made no mention of the bill, nor did she earlier in the week when she called to check on P or during our email. I decided not to ask, but when I got home I found the bill in the food container; the bill was for the full amount owed.</p>

<p>While the sitter is upset by what happened, I do feel she is at fault; the vet even told her all the new foods she feed P were the cause of her problems. I am not mad at her as I think she truly believed adding these foods would be fine as this is what she feeds her dogs as well as others. That said, she did know P have a sensitive stomach, allergies and colitis that flairs up at time; although she hasn’t had a flair up in almost 2 years.</p>

<p>My husband thinks we should not worry about it assuming we want to continue using this sitter. He feels we will anger the sitter and the opportunity to use her again. I don’t have another sitter available at this time, but will look for other options. That said, I still feel comfortable using this sitter as she now understands the importance of following P’s diet.</p>

<p>We have run through a few idea as to how we want to handle this, but I would love some outside thoughts. BTW, my groomer wanted to know if the sitter paid for the ER visit as it was her opinion that the sitter should have offered. I have no problem with the sitter not paying for the ER, but I am surprised she still requested her full fee.</p>

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<p>That would be the last time that sitter watched my dog! But, if you think you may use her again, you better pay her.</p>

3

<p>I wouldn’t pay. Are you kidding me? She’s lucky you aren’t hitting her up for the ER bill since it was her fault he landed in the ER. You left explicit instructions; if she doesn’t want to follow clients’ directions then perhaps she’s in the wrong business. I absolutely would not pay her, and I’d never use her again and I’d tell SIL to stay clear as well.</p>

4

<p>Vet bill: $1,100
Boarding $400</p>

<p>Since it was the sitters fault that your dog ended up at the vet, you should ask for at least half of the vet bill, $550. You can tell her you will deduct what you owe her for the boarding, $400 and she can give you a check for the difference, $150. </p>

<p>If she is an honorable individual she will be grateful that she is getting off so cheaply. You can also let her know that you would like to use her services in the future and you hope to recommend her to others (which may depend on how she handles this).</p>

5

<p>OP says she would like to use the sitter in the future. If the sitter receives no pay (and a bill on top of that) she will surely never sit for them again.</p>

<p>Yes, it was the sitter’s fault. The sitter should forfeit the 400.- fee, and be happy if the owner hires her again.</p>

<p>If the OP changes her mind and never wants to use the sitter again, then sure, she can go after the $1100.- in small claims court, then search for an alternate and better dog-sitter.</p>

6

<p>If it were a friend or family watching the dog I could understand not wanting to blame them, but this appears to be what this person does for money and they are to blame. If you left your child with someone who advertises child care and they ignored your specific instructions and your child ended up in the ER you’d consider leaving them with that person again? Sorry, not me and I’d be hard pressed to pay them.</p>

7

<p>I wouldn’t pay the sitter and I would never use her again. If I leave instructions to not feed someone certain foods, and they do, just wrong.</p>

8

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<p>I can’t think of ANY reason why I would use this dog sitter again. Your dog was seriously ill because she did not follow your directions.</p>

9

<p>Just wondering: Is this sitter a teenager who might not have recognized the seriousness of your instructions? (In which case I might pay them.) Or is this sitter an adult who certainly should have known better?? (In which case I wouldn’t pay them or use them again.)</p>

<p>Either way, this is a very immature person who thinks dogs need “treats.” Dogs really don’t care. Treats are for the people, not the animals.</p>

10

<p>The sitter is an adult who use to be a vet tech and actually does hospice care for dogs. She is a dog lover and spends a lot of time with the dogs; she does not work outside of the home, so she has a regular schedule with the dogs. I know she takes them to a local trail for a 2 1/2 mile walk everyday as well as playtime at home and lots of love.</p>

<p>Reading each of your replies makes me realize I probably shouldn’t use her again. My dog seems to love to go there and runs right in to play with the other dogs. Not to be ugly, but my husband says she is stupid in that she didn’t understand that just because she adds food to all the other dogs meals, that didn’t mean it was ok for P. I keep going back to what I told her about the foods and thinking maybe I didn’t make myself clean on what was and wasn’t allowed; but them I look at my typed note, and it is pretty black and white. I did say she could have some fruits and vegetables occasional for treats, but I never said add 4 new foods to each and every meal. Another problem is the sitter must not pick up the dog’s poop; if so, she would have notice I would guess days earlier that there was trouble. Usually there is mucous is the stool which means an episode is brewing; I immediately start P on her medication and in a few days all is good. I am guessing this had been going on for days and that is why she got so sick.</p>

<p>As far as the sitter adding foods to the regular diet, she believes the foods she added were healthy for the dogs, and that is why she does it. She told me the vet looked at her like she had horns growing out of her head when she explained what she fed P. I do wonder of the sitter really understands it was the foods she added that cause the problem as she mentioned to me that maybe she got into something in the yard.</p>

<p>I don’t think I would try to get the money for the ER bill from the sitter, but I think it would be fair for her to not charge me for her services.</p>

<p>On Monday I am going to call our trainer who up until 8 months ago always boarder the dogs for us. The only reason we stopped using him is he stopped boarding regularly. He now has a lifetime boarding fee, but is is way more than we needed to spend as we don’t go out of town much. My husband was going to offer him a set amount up front for a year and go from there. Don’t know if he will go for that, but we will try. </p>

<p>We just got our granddog back for 8 months as our daughter just began traveling for work internationally and will be gone 1-2 weeks a month. The boarding fees are out of her price range for that long and she doesn’t feel that boarding that often is fair for her dogs. Actually as we speak we are in Chapel Hill as this was a good meeting spot for the exchange. We brought our dog with us as I wasn’t going to leave her with the sitter while she was recuperating. Both dogs have enjoyed their day in Chapel Hill and are currently sacked out on the hotel floor :)</p>

11

<p>I would have a hard time trusting her again and would be anxious every time I left the dog with her, especially since you get the feeling that she doesn’t “get” that the foods caused the problem. </p>

<p>I would stall a bit while I investigated other boarding options. Ultimately, though, I can’t imagine paying her and I can’t imagine that she expects to be paid! She is either really dumb or really ba**sy.</p>

12

<p>Well she left the invoice in my food container which makes me think she was afraid to give it to me. The last time she handed it to me when I picked the dog up and I paid her on the spot. This time, I saw the invoice in the container and chose to ignore it while we spoke for a few minutes. I figured if she wasn’t going to mention it, either was I. Of course the moment I drove around the corner, I pulled over and opened the bill. I think I really expected to see a note saying I didn’t owe anything or at the very least half. </p>

<p>Again, my husband thinks she is stupid, but he has never met her.</p>

13

<p>Hmmm. I think he’s right. It is an awkward situation and it stinks that your dog likes it there but still. The fact that she left the bill in the food container tells me she realizes that she screwed up and should not be surprised when you bring up this issue with her.</p>

14

<p>Why don’t you and SIL trade pet-sitting? We’ve never boarded our dog. Dh has a cousin in town who takes him when we can’t travel with him. And we care for his dog when his family leaves town.</p>

<p>I’m sure she said she thought the dog “got into something” because she didn’t want to take responsibility for what she’d done. Was hoping it was an accident.</p>

15

<p>Snowball, I think you need to be pro-active in this matter and inform the dog sitter that due to the unexpected vet bills resulting from her negligence i.e., feeding your dog people food you, will not be being paying the boarding bill.</p>

<p>If you are uncomfortable doing this, you can pretend that you never found the boarding bill that was tucked in the dog food container and wait and see if she has the gall to ask for it. I wonder if she tucked in there because she was afraid/embarrassed to hand it to you and is hoping you will just pay it.</p>

<p>While it doesn’t seem like she will offer to release you from the boarding charge, I doubt she will send you a 2nd bill or a reminder notice. If you don’t send her a check now, I bet she will just let it go. I am sure in her heart she knows she did wrong.</p>

<p>On a separate note, I can’t believe how costly dog boarding is in your area. We pay our house-sitter $25 a day to watch our house and our dog! Do you have a friend, neighbor, college age kid that would like to stay in your house, take care of your dog and make some easy money?</p>

<p>Hope all this works out!</p>

16

<p>I don’t have pets, but I do have 2 kids, and I have left them with caretakers. If my kid had severe allergy to certain food, I would have made it very clear, and every time I called I would have asked what my kid had for food at each meal.</p>

<p>I say pay the sitter. She made a mistake, just like any employee could at a job. As an employer, you should have done your due diligence before you hired her. You could fire her, but you still owed her for the time spent. If you wanted compensation for any wrong doing then you would have required her to have a liability insurance, and her cost to you would have been higher.</p>

17

<p>^^
I don’t know that I agree it was a mistake in that sense. Feeding the forbidden foods once or twice would be a mistake, but they were apparently given at every feeding. </p>

<p>The OP says:</p>

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<p>and</p>

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<p>Also, the OP states that if the sitter had been paying any attention at all, she should have noticed the problem days sooner than she did.</p>

<p>Given all of that, there are only two explanations for the sitter’s behavior. She was negligent. Or she chose to disregard the OP’s clear instructions. Either way, she shouldn’t be paid, and should consider herself lucky if the OP doesn’t ask her to pay the vet bill.</p>

18

<p>I would look around before I used this girl again. If she was a vet tech then she should have known to take your instructions seriously. Why do you not use a boarding kennel? We use a small family owned one and they are very attentive and also walk the dogs (although not for 2 miles). For my mid size dog, they charged $15 a night and that included giving him medication. We couldn’t afford to go away if we were paying $50 a night.</p>

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<p>^^^
That’s what I think, too. There are a lot of good establishments that will take good care of your dog. You might also consider having a house/dog sitter come to your home. In my area we have several cageless kennels where the dogs are free to “hang out” together, play together, etc. We’ve been using one of them for years. The only time they are crated is during feeding time so that there are no incidents of one dog eating another’s food. My dog loves it there and wags her tail furiously the minute we pull in to the driveway.</p>

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<p>I think I would go ahead and pay her for the time spent, but I would make it very clear to her that you had a substantial vet bill, you will not be using her again and you will make it known to others who may be looking for dog-sitting services that you were disappointed. Or maybe you just pay her half of it and say that in light of a $1,100 bill, you’re deducting X of it from there. I doubt she’d go after you in small claims court.</p>