u/Complex_Boat_8537

I am currently at a sit until Sunday for four dogs and two cats. For the cats, my only responsibility is to refill their water. They have an automatic feeder that is already topped up, and the owner said they should be fine. There is also a large litter box in the basement, but I was told not to worry about it.
For the dogs, I am not meant to walk them per the owner’s request. They told me I can come and go as needed and even said I could have someone stay with me if I wanted. Their main priority is simply that the dogs are fed on schedule.
I am here alone, which I prefer. My routine has mostly been letting the dogs out for bathroom breaks, putting them in the backyard when they get rowdy so they can burn off energy, and feeding them.
I did not sleep well before arriving. After I got here, I fed the dogs, spoke with the owner briefly, and then they left. I let the dogs out about three times within the first hour and a half to help them settle and take care of bathroom needs. After that, I fell asleep until around one o’clock. When I woke up, I let them out again, rested for a bit, and then got up.
This is my third sit, but it still feels a little strange being in someone else’s living room. Because of that, I usually stay in the room they designated for me with the door open so the dogs can come and go. I do not really watch TV, so I have worship music playing.
I still need to place an Instacart order, but otherwise I have a lot of free time. I feel a bit odd just relaxing even though there genuinely is not much for me to do. They do have toys, but the owner said I can just let the dogs play together in the backyard instead of throwing anything for them.
This is also the first sit where I was specifically told not to walk the dogs, which makes sense given their breed and energy level. Right now they are just outside while I am in the restroom.
The only behavior I have noticed is some resource guarding, with me being the resource. One of the dogs growls at the others when they come near me. The first time I noticed it was when a cat tried to sit on my lap. The dog began growling and lifting her lip. Later, she was in bed with me while I slept, and when another dog tried to get onto the bed, she growled at him as well.
When this happens, I stop interacting completely. I stop petting her and remove myself from the situation. Because of this behavior, I have decided not to let the dogs sleep in my room at night. The owner said I could either let them sleep with me or put them in their own room, so I will be putting them in their room.
In about three and a half hours they will eat, and after that there will be two more bathroom breaks for the rest of the night. Other than that, there is not much to do.
Honestly, it still feels strange how easy this sit is. It feels like I should be doing more, even though there really is not anything else required.
Edit: They are all inside now, and it has been about 30 minutes. The dog that growls is now chewing on a toy and keeps wanting me to throw it. However, given that all the dogs go for it and her tendency to growl, I do not feel comfortable doing that. She also seems to growl at times even when no one is bothering her or near her, just while she has the toy. I am going to keep a close eye on her in general.

This is my second pet sit, but it’s actually through Wag!, not Rover. I’m posting here because the Rover community is much larger, so I’d really appreciate anyone’s two cents at this point.
I’m staying until Sunday, and I got here about 50 minutes ago. The sit is for two dogs. One is more welcoming, and the other is very nervous and skittish.
The owner mentioned they usually get two walks a day, so I was going to take them on a quick walk before feeding them at 4 PM. Looking back, I realize I probably overstepped because it was way too soon. The more welcoming dog nipped at me, and I think it may have been because I accidentally pinched him with my nail while taking off his harness. Now I’m worried I made a bad first impression.
I’ve let them outside twice, but they mostly keep to themselves and don’t really come by me, even when I call them. I don’t see any toys for them to play with, so I’m not really sure what I should be doing. I also feel a little awkward because I’m staying in the guest bedroom, and there’s a computer with a webcam pointed in the direction of the bed I’ll be sleeping on. I don’t think it’s on, but it still feels a bit strange, so I’m literally using speech-to-text in a whisper. 😅
I’m not scared of the dogs. I just feel really out of place. Should I just sit quietly on the floor and let them come to me? The nervous dog won’t come near me at all, and while the other one will come over occasionally, he’s still very wary.
I know trying to walk them so soon was probably my mistake, and now I’m worried I ruined everything. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

This will be my first Wag! sitting booking, and I just got approved for it. I’m a little confused about how to read the booking card. It shows 12:00 PM–3:00 PM on the side, then the dogs’ information, and at the bottom it says Ends on the 26th, 9:00 AM–12:00 PM.
I just want to make sure I’m reading it correctly. Am I supposed to arrive on the 24th between 12:00 PM and 3:00 PM? I want to be absolutely sure so I don’t show up too early or too late.

I just got home from my first-ever Rover sit and was checking the app to make sure everything was in order with my payment. I noticed the booking is still showing as active, even though the stay ended between 2:30 and 4:00 PM, and it’s now 4:45 PM. Is that normal, or did I do something wrong?
I’ve already completed the feedback for each pet and the owner. The only thing I’m wondering about is that I marked one of the dogs as resource guarding because he snapped at another dog that got too close to him. After that, Rover asked if I wanted to report the incident. Since it wasn’t anything serious and no one was injured, I selected “Continue without reporting.”
Could that have affected the booking status in any way, or is it normal for a booking to remain active for a little while after it ends? This was my first Rover sit, so I’m just trying to make sure I didn’t accidentally do something wrong.

Hey y’all,
I am currently at my very first pet sitting job, and today is day 4 out of 11. In all honesty, I have not been getting good sleep since the day I got here.
The first night, from leaving my house to staying here, I only got around three hours of sleep out of nervousness and could not fall back asleep. I still made it through the day until around 8 PM and ended up falling asleep around 10:40 PM.
The next morning, I once again woke up around 1:30 AM. Since they have a coffee maker, I’ve been chugging two shots of espresso every morning because I just haven’t been able to get good sleep. I’ve been doing that every morning up until now.
Yesterday, I ended up taking a nap between the time I came back from the first walk around 10:30 AM and the next walk at 3 PM. I walk the dogs for a total of 30 minutes a day, broken down into 15 minutes for each walk. There are three dogs, and I don’t feel comfortable taking all three at once, so it takes about 45 minutes, sometimes a little longer, to walk them all.
The owners told me that the walks are not mandatory and that the dogs don’t expect them every day. I just feel bad because there’s a certain time of day when they start getting antsy.
Right now it’s 9 AM, which is around the time I normally take them for their first walk of the day, but I am extremely tired. I already chugged two shots of espresso, and it hasn’t helped. I feel like the lack of sleep over these past four days has finally caught up to me, and I have no desire to go outside.
I also don’t get the best sleep because I’m sleeping on a twin bed with one or two decent-sized dogs and a cat every night. There have been nights where I couldn’t fully stretch my legs, and I wake up in the middle of the night with my shirt tangled around me. I also can’t really move much because the cat is right next to me. These animals are very cute and cuddly, but being scrunched up like this is uncomfortable.
I really don’t want to go outside today because of how tired I am, but I feel bad because I know they enjoy their walks. They have a fenced-in backyard, not big by any means, but enough room to do their business , and even when I do walk them, I still open the back door throughout the day so they can go outside and use the bathroom. Of course if I decide not to walk them today, I’ll just make sure to let them out into the backyard more often.
I’d just like to hear everyone’s thoughts and advice. Thank you.

I’m currently at a house sit, and one of the animals I’m watching isn’t feeling well, so I need to monitor his litter box usage. They use crystal litter, and I didn’t know that crystal litter doesn’t clump. I initially let the owners know that I didn’t see any pee, and they told me to make a soup/concoction with squeeze tubes and water. They also let me know that crystal litter doesn’t clump.
I went back to check again, and I found pee in three main spots. However, while I was searching for more, I disturbed the litter, and the original three pee spots kind of disappeared and were absorbed into the crystals. I sent the owners two pictures of what was left, but to me they just look like off-white crystals now. I followed up the pictures by saying that I did disturb the litter a little bit, but I’d let them be the judge of what they see.
They know what the crystal litter looks like before and after he pees, but I have no idea since I’ve never used crystal litter before. I just know that I didn’t see any blood or any unusual color. At first, the urine was a bit darker yellow, and then it became a pale yellow. It wasn’t overly dark, but it was very noticeably pee. As I continued searching, though, the spots got mixed into the crystals, and there was only the tiniest bit remaining.
I just hope they don’t see me as incompetent or think I’m trying to downplay the situation or that I don’t understand how serious it is. They originally told me to feed him the soup right away because they thought he hadn’t peed. However, he did pee, so I haven’t given him the soup. I did message them and ask whether I should still feed him the soup now that I know he has urinated, but they haven’t gotten back to me yet.
I’m just wondering what you all think.

I’m currently pet sitting for a couple and taking care of four pets—three dogs and one cat. I just started yesterday, and I’ll be here for the next 10 days. This is my very first pet sit, and honestly, it feels much less intense than I expected, which is making me wonder if I’m doing something wrong.

My routine right now is:
•In the morning, I feed the pets and let the dogs outside to use the bathroom.
•They relax for about 30 minutes, and then I take them on a roughly 15-minute walk.
After that, we come back inside, and I usually have a few hours with nothing to do.
•Around 3:00 p.m., I take them on another 15-minute walk.
•I come back, take a shower, and then feed them dinner at 5:30 p.m.
•Throughout the evening, I periodically open the door to let the dogs outside. If they need to go to the bathroom, they’ll usually go out. Sometimes, though, they choose to stay inside even when I call them.

I usually go to bed around 8:30–9:00 p.m.
The owners specifically told me that walks are not required and that the dogs would simply enjoy them if I chose to take them.
What I’m struggling with is that I feel bored and like I’m not doing enough. I’ve cleaned up after myself, there are no chores left to do, and the pets are mostly just relaxing. It’s currently 1:00 p.m., and I’d really like to take a short nap.

My questions are:

Is it generally okay to take a nap while pet sitting if all of the pets’ needs have been met?

Is it normal to spend a lot of time simply hanging out with the animals or relaxing by yourself between tasks?

What are some things I can do during the downtime so I don’t feel like I’m being unproductive?

This is my first pet sit, so I’m still figuring out what is normal and what isn’t.

I’ve just arrived for this 10-day pet sit, and while reading through the information packet they left for me—which details everything I need to know about the house and pet care—I saw that they mentioned they had been too busy to go shopping before leaving.

There’s some sandwich meat, but no bread or mayo, and aside from that, the kitchen mostly has snacks and junk food, which I’m not complaining about. However, I can’t help but think it would have been nice to know this before I arrived rather than finding out after I was already here. Now I’ll need to spend my own money to have groceries delivered.

I’m also wondering what the expectation was regarding food. Was I supposed to bring my own groceries, or were they planning to provide some? We did briefly talk about it during the walkthrough, and they mentioned that they would stock up the kitchen for me.

I completely understand that life gets busy and things can slip through the cracks, especially when preparing for a trip. I just feel that a heads-up beforehand would have been appreciated so I could have planned accordingly.

I started doing Wag! a couple of months ago, but I don't get many gigs because of transportation issues.

I recently joined Rover and finally have my first booking coming up on Monday. It's a 10-night stay for $578 total. I also have another booking later this month that's four nights for $250.

For the second booking, the owner asked if I wanted text because they understand how much Rover takes in fees. I kind of panicked and told them the exact amount I would receive, which is $250. The original booking total on Rover was $316, but after Rover's fees, my payout is $250. They seemed to go quiet after I said that, and I got the impression that they thought $250 was a fair amount. Since I'm still new and honestly don't know what a good price would be, I just told them that if they didn't want to change anything, that was completely okay. I'm not sure if I handled the situation correctly or if I should have approached it differently.

I lowered my prices because I thought that might be why I wasn't getting many requests. I've seen such a huge variety in what sitters charge that I'm worried about overpricing myself, especially since I'm brand new.

For reference, these are my current rates:

House Sitting

- $28 per night

- Holiday rate: $34

- Additional pet: +$17

- Puppy rate: $31

- Cat care: $20

- Additional cat: +$10

- Extended care (one night or more): $28

Drop-In Visits

- $24 per visit

- Additional 60 minutes: +$14

- Holiday rate: $30

- Additional pet: +$15

- Puppy care: $27

- Cat care: $22

- Additional cat: +$9

- Extended care (one day or more): $25

- Bathing/grooming: +$15

Dog Walking

- $19 per walk

- Additional 60 minutes: +$11

- Holiday rate: $24

- Additional pet: +$12

- Puppy rate: $22

I also offer care for all of the animal types available on Rover.

I based my Rover prices somewhat on my Wag! experience. On Wag!, I had to raise my rates above the standard pricing in my area because the lower rates just weren't worth the trip, especially with transportation costs.

I would really appreciate some advice:

- Are my current rates reasonable for a brand-new sitter?

- Should I keep my prices where they are or raise them?

- Is it better to wait until I have more reviews and experience before increasing my rates?

- How did you decide what to charge when you first started on Rover?

- Do you think $250 for four nights and four dogs is fair, or am I undercharging?

- Based on my rates, do I seem competitively priced or too low?

I'd love to hear from more experienced sitters because pricing has been the thing I've struggled with the most.

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I just finished my first meet-and-greet today and everything went really well. The clients were super nice, welcoming, and easy to talk to, which helped ease my nerves a bit.

However, I’m still feeling pretty nervous overall. This will be my first pet-sitting stay (10 nights-quite long), and I haven’t been away from home for an extended period in a while, so it feels a little overwhelming right now.

They did mention they will provide a very detailed packet with instructions on how to navigate their smart home and care for everything properly. They are also stocking food and drinks for me and even got brand new bedding ready, which I really appreciate. They’ve been extremely considerate, and I really want to do my absolute best for them.

Even though today went well, I struggled with nerves beforehand and barely slept—I only got about 3 hours of sleep, which made it harder to function. I have another meet-and-greet coming up with a different client, and I want to feel more prepared so I don’t end up anxious or blanking out again.

I’d really like to improve in a few areas:

* How to calm my nerves before and during meet-and-greets

* What important questions I should always ask clients

* How to properly care for both pets and the home during a long stay

* What I should always double-check before leaving or finishing a visit

* How to stay focused and not freeze up or forget things while I’m there

I really want to do a great job, take proper care of the pets and the home, and make sure the clients feel completely comfortable trusting me.

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