Don’t waste your money: new pet sitting app

(WHTM) – If you need a pet sitter, now there’s an app for that. Rover, a new service sometimes called Airbnb pet sitting, is much easier than asking neighbors, but a couple has learned there are some risks involved.

Jonathan Cage and his wife, Jessica, adore their ‘pandemic pup’ Buckley. So when they left for Christmas, they hired a dog sitter from Rover who said she would be home with Buckley all day. But Jessica says the alert from her home security system told a different story.

She says the babysitter didn’t spend hours with Buckley, but was barely there. “I noticed that she had come and gone. She had come to check-in and was leaving in five minutes. I thought that was weird!

The couple therefore reviewed their outdoor cameras. “When we were reviewing the camera footage, we pieced together that between 11:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. she had been there for maybe 5 minutes in total,” Jonathan said.

Jonathan and Jessica say not only was Buckley left alone for hours, but they later discovered feces in several places on the first floor. “He had been to the bathroom several times on the carpet, and maybe once or twice in the hallway.”

Rover has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB), but has been sued for dead or injured dogs in the care of an observer. To protect yourself and your pets, the BBB suggests:

• meet any Rover goalkeeper personally before hiring them;
• carefully read reviews of babysitters;
• and look for sitters who have passed Rover’s enhanced background check, not just the basic one

Rover tells us he’s investigating Jonathan and Jessica’s complaint and wants to work things out with them. Next time, however, they’ll spend time with a dog sitter before handing Buckley over to them.

“Get to know the person yourself, trust yourself. If something is wrong, it might be,” Jonathan said.

If you have any issues with a dog sitter, be sure to report it to let the next family know so you don’t waste your money.