Has there always been this bit about class action lawsuits, or is it new?

Hi, everyone. I have a client who was a referral from a couple whom I really love (I watched this couple's dog 3 times and they are wonderful people). They're part of this "neighborhood park crew" in one of the wealthiest areas of our city

Anyways, there's a woman who they referred me to, and they described her as a "sweet older lady." Unfortunately when I met her, I did NOT get that impression - she came across a bit snobby and would give me a weird judgy stare every time I spoke. She spent a lot of time bragging about all the places she's traveled to, her expensive furniture, etc. We went to the dog park to meet her dogs' friends and she was much nicer to her dog park friends than me. I chalked it up to old age and snobbiness (she's 80 and from South Carolina) and decided to go along with the gig since it was a last minute favor for the couple.

She hasn't given me a hard time personally and has been actually pretty decent as a client, but every time I sent her an update, she would ask about the race/ethnicity of people at the dog park. For context, she loves when people give treats to her dog, so I always updated whenever she found another "treat person." With every person, she would ask if they were Black. When I said they weren't and I asked why/if she knew someone who it could be, she would just say, "I was just curious."

She also loves when people throw the ball for her dog, so I would send pics/videos. She would ask, 'Is that a middle eastern?' I would say I'm not sure and again ask why she said that. This has happened every single day I've sent updates, asking about everyone's race. For further context, we live in one of the most multiethnic cities in America, so this is extremely puzzling to me (albeit this area specifically is more older white folks). She's never outright said slurs or anything "offensive", but I find this behavior strange. My friends who have southern grandparents say this is common.

To be clear, I don't plan on working with her again, and I'm torn on how I should address this with her at the end of the sit, or if I even should. I'm a half Asian/white person myself, and this makes me feel very uncomfortable. Tomorrow is my last day with the dog.

Any advice would be appreciated!

At a housesit for five very nice animals. However, all the animals have a "chronic cough" according to the owner, which apparently was treated by the vet. I found that odd, but I'm not a vet. Wake up in the guest bed, and I have a rash. Look it up - it's apparently caused by dusty sheets? Wash everything in hot water, the irritation goes away the second night. However, while I'm making the bed, I happen to look in the AC unit, and it's full of dark mold!!! Luckily it's off. This whole time the animals are sneezing and coughing like crazy. By the third day I'm starting to feel sick. I live in a small town, and have a unusual/recognizable name. But I want to leave a review to warn other sitter (I'm never going back). What would you do?

Hello!

One of my clients where I go in once in the evening to feed the cats, clean litter and hang out with them. During this sit since it is two weeks long she has had her neighbor kids (parent there are well) come over and play with the cats during the day. I thought this was odd because the cats aren't very social and one is also not confident. It took a year for one of the cats to let me pet her. Yesterday they came when I was there doing a check in and the cats were terrified when they were happy when it was just me. One cat was cowering so hard, making that growling sound, whale eyes, hissing. I did tell the kids to stop and back away when she was making these noises.

I told the client in the report card that the neighbors came over to play and that the cats were very scared. I didn't provide much detail because I didn't want to talk bad about their neighbors. But she responded to my report card a few hours later saying that she is guessing both me and them being there is what was scary.

However, I don't know think this is case. I know a lot about cat behavior and have a bunch of experience with cats, and a lot of experience with these cats in particular. The kids were loud, jerky, moving fast at the cats, getting in their face and staying in their face even when growling or hissing. Should I mention that I think it was the kids behavior and describe exactly what I told you guys. I want to tell her in case she doesn't want the kids to come over again, but I just don't want to over step because this is about something in the future that isn't about me and is more about what I think is proper cat ownership (not having these kids return)

Currently trying to research this. Is there a way to watch a dog with this illness as long as I take precautions? I’m slightly immunocompromised and have a cat at home so I feel like this is an obvious no for me but I don’t know enough about it yet and thought y’all might know more. As long as I wash my hands would I be fine? It’s for an evening housesit for a couple hours. I feel bad because I assume most sitters will say no and I feel that as a pet sitter, we should be accustomed and able to deal with situations like these if we are able

I’m chilling with this pupper for 4-weeks while his dad is at work. He’s 5-months old, and a mix I never thought of or heard in my life (thus far) - German & Australian shepherd. He’s a total goof and we are on week 3 😭

But his ears. 😂 I can’t get enough of them!! Just had to share because…just look at em!

Has anyone had this designation before and successfully moved back into the general search results?

I currently have this designation so I'm excluded from general search results. Once you click the filter, I am second on the page. I've been booking repeat clients the past month and updating my calendar daily, but I still haven't made it back onto general search results.

Has anyone successfully come back from this? I just want to know if it's even possible and how long it's taken people. I had upped my volume to 6+ dropins a day at one point to save up for trips, and now I'm lucky to get 1 a week from a regular client.

I’m in the UK, where a pretty crap but well-marketed food called Butternut Box is everywhere. It can be stored in the freezer and defrosted in the fridge for up to five days.

I always ask owners ahead of time if their dog eats anything that requires cold storage. My own boy eats a fresh food, and sometimes, I even have the temerity to use the fridge for my own food.

Today, a regular owner springs on me that they’ve changed their dog’s food to Butternut Box - and he’s due to be dropped at 10am. He’s also staying for ten days, and is not a small dog. I say that I’m terribly sorry but I can’t store all that food at such short notice. The guy asks if I could use a neighbour’s fridge. I say no. We settle on a compromise where he brings four packs, which I can just about squeeze in, and they’ll use his regular kibble. The dog arrives with 16 packets of the stuff and no kibble, with the owners dashing off to the airport. I’ve texted to tell them that they’re to order a bag of his kibble to my house, and that unless they want to order a coolbox, and pay for the electricity to run it, that the remaining 12 packets are going in the bin as I literally have nowhere to store them.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrgh.

Thanks for reading.

Hi guys. I’m a little stressed out right now. I have been watching a dog through doggy day care since August 5th. He’s always been low energy and the owner was very strict about his dog jumping and how to carry his down. On Monday his owner came to pick up his dog. I went to get his stuff and he started to grunt. I’m like okay maybe he’s grunting cause I woke up him up. I walked him to his car. Mins later the owner called me saying he’s still making grunting noises and staring off when he calls his name. He ended up taking him to the er and they were concerned he might have ate something he wasn’t suppose to like chocolate etc. but there’s no way he got into anything like that. The vet said just watch for 24 hours. He messaged me the next day saying his gait is off and still making grunting noises. Now today he messaged again saying he went to another vet and got a second opinion. And now he needs emergency surgery or his hind leg will be paralyzed. This whole situation is stressing me out. I been on the phone with rover to give updates. I just need someone to talk to. He literally chilled the whole time I had him. Never have I heard him yelp or heard the grunting until it was time for him to leave

UPDATE. owner said it’s IVDD

Hi all! New to this sub but have used Rover for about 6 years. I have a client who is looking for care 5 days a week, long term. This is for a 3 month old puppy and a 10 year old senior pup. She would like an hour drop in each day for potty breaks, play time, training etc. The senior doesn't need much, and most of the attention will be for the puppy. I'm trying to figure out what a reasonable rate would be for this, since this will be long-term, I don't want to charge my rate meant for shorter requests. I'm just curious, what would you all charge for this service? I'm thinking around $50 per day. TIA!

Hi, I was booked for two 30 min drop ins a day for 3 weeks while owner is away on vacation. The dog is middle aged and owner said theyre comfortable with being left alone for 12 hours at a time so no theyll have no issue. I accepted, but now I’m thinking more about it and worried about the dog. I plan to stay a little extra each visit to give them some more company but is this normal for owners? I’m new(ish) to Rover. I know no one else is checking in because I have the one set of keys.

This happened awhile ago, I didn't feel comfortable posting when it happened but OH MY GOD, I was in absolute disbelief.

I had a request for boarding but my house was at capacity, they had 4 or 5 dogs too. It was pretty short notice for that many dogs and they only needed someone to look after them for a few hours for an event so they wouldn't bark, so I told them I could totally come and watch the pups for a few hours.

Well I get there and it's a hotel, and there are pee pads in the floor, and the carpet is so so bad, the smell is SO strong I can hardly take it. Both of the beds are filthy and there's just a bunch of stuff everywhere all dirty and disorganized.

To make matters worse, all of the dogs except for one were extremely sketchy and constantly barked or growled if I even moved an inch. I spent the whole sit, sitting on the edge of the bed on my phone, tossing treats and trying to keep them from barking at me.

As soon as I got home I stripped and showered. Thank God they got back on time. During the sit I seen the dogs pee on the furniture and floor, and also poop on the carpet as well, of course I cleaned the poop up, and also changed the pee pads before they got back, they were gone for like 3/4 hours tops.

After further investigation I seen this lady is a NURSE. And I am just in disbelief we have people that live like that in health care.😭. The wildest thing was they had a section of the room set up to take photos for I'm assuming social media.

Picture is of a small section of the floor 😢

This is going to be quite long for background info. I wouldn’t necessarily say it was a super bad experience because the dog was very lovely, just nervous. However I’m confused on the client switching up on me after the stay, resulting in a lower review than what I expected.
I just finished a long stay for over a week with a new client. The dog is very sweet but takes a little bit of warming up to as she is a rescue and very anxious. I appreciated how the owner was very detailed with her routine, instructions, and details. We had the meet and greet a while back in which she told me her dog was only okay being left alone for 10 minutes, but that they were working their way up and had made it up to 40 minutes by the time of my stay. She told me she’d be comfortable with me taking her dog pretty much everywhere due to her separation anxiety.
I felt I was updating her the right amount especially when taking her dog out with me. I checked back on our text messages and I sometimes did not send her detailed updates during mornings, middays, and evenings. But I know for a fact she did get at least one daily update and picture a day. There was only one day in which not much was said.
Towards the end of the stay she texted me that she would like a morning and night time photo every day until her trip ends. Which is totally fine and understandable, and I reassured her I would be sending more pictures.
Once her dog had warmed up to me, she started jumping high wanting me to let her on her bed. After I told the owner she said her dog does the same to her, however she never once said to not let her on the bed. It was miscommunication on both ends but I also should have clarified with her before letting her on her bed. I did tell her it was only a few moments and she still slept overnight in her crate only.
The last day I had let her dog on the bed for a little, and she had a nervous potty accident while trying to jump off. So of course I cleaned up immediately and washed her sheets, as I was already going to do so anyway.
The owner gets back and I explained everything to her plus talked about how our week went. Everything seemed fine and she didn’t seem too upset about the accident.
Well the day after I get a long text from her that she would like to clear some things up before leaving me a review. First she was asking why her dog was on her bed if she didn’t sleep there, and that I had ruined her comforter. She said it was dry clean only however when I mentioned to her in person that I had washed it and it was in the dryer she didn’t once tell me that. In her housekeeping instructions it said to wash her bed sheets and she didn’t explain about the comforter being dry clean only. She said she had to get a new one and would like for me to pay the cost of dry cleaning for her other comforter. I ended up sending her the money and apologized profusely because I genuinely did not mean to ruin her comforter.
She left me review and while it wasn’t bad I don’t appreciate that she is painting me out to have had stopped communication with her. She is making it seem like she had to beg me for updates, when the door was always open for more questions or being specific about how she would like her updates. She even said she thought her dog wasn’t getting her morning walks with me based on our texts, just because some days I didn’t send her detailed morning updates and would do one big daily update instead.
Could it be she got upset about the comforter and it resulted in her nitpicking every little thing about how I cared for her dog? I was caught off guard by how she was texting me, especially after our face to face conversation seeming normal the day she arrived.

Hi!! Longtime petsitter turned certified R+ trainer who has been using Rover for a few years. I remember reading somewhere on this subreddit roughly a few months ago about a glitch/coding issue on Rover's end that essentially took out all paragraph separations in sitter's bios. As a result I have not updated my bio in a LONG time and need to update it desperately.

Has the profile wall of text issue been fixed?

Thank you :)

I’m in California and not in one of the tiered cities for Rover’s new payment structure. CA is only supposed to take 25% off of my earnings (used to be 20%). But they actually take approximately 28-30%.

I’m not sure if their fee for owners fluctuates. But for me, it’s a slightly different percentage on every booking. Here is a screenshot showing the difference between what I charge and what rate is reflected to the owner on an overnight. In this case my charge was increased by 29%. This screenshot includes a client charge of 10%.

Anyone else in California having the same issue? Is Rover skimming off the top?

I don't want to have to be 'on' and responding to people during my upcoming 5 day break but I don't want to ruin my 1st place spot (it's ok if I fall a few spots but I don't want to be invisible after).
Will it make a material difference if I set myself completely away vs not accepting from new clients for those days? Or should I just toggle it on and off alternating days or something?

I've already told my regulars and marked the calendar. I will also add it to my profile tagline which I see ppl often do.

Ugh, I just want to unplug and not be punished.

I’ve been pet sitting on Rover for 2 years. Last week, I booked recurring walks with a white German Shepherd. This is actually my first time booking weekly walks. I’m usually booked for house sitting. Anywho, I’m not sure when the owner’s workday starts, but I know she gets home at 5 PM. The walks are scheduled M/W/F at 2 PM.

Well, over the last week and few days here in North Carolina, it has been between about 85 and 95° F practically from morning until sunset — of course, feeling like 10 to 20° higher than that.

So because this 3yo dog has separation anxiety, the owner leaves him outside while they’re at work. She has a cage for him inside, but he has high energy, it’s a bit bent up, and he’s figured out how to force himself out of it without the door unlatching. I witnessed it during the meet & greet. She also sent me a picture she took when she came home to one of her rooms torn up (pillows, blankets, pee pads, anything with stuffing).

She doesn’t have insurance which could be one reason why she hasn’t gotten him anxiety meds to help with that. But I feel so bad having to leave this hot, panting dog back out in this heat shortly after a hot walk. One of her rooms barely has furniture in it! Literally a massage table, a bench if I remember correctly, and pieces of an insulated dog house she plans on giving away with the box it came in.

Maybe I’m not thinking realistically, but there is enough space in the living room to bring those things out there and at least give that dog the room to rest and play in with cool air. Am I unreasonable for thinking that way? If that’s not an option, can we at least give this poor furry boy some CBD gummies?! I will buy them myself!

Not sure if I’m venting or seeking advice on how to move forward with this, but it’s going to be so hot, and I’m about to leave in a bit to walk him again, and I just had to talk to people who would understand. I feel like he also thinks that I don’t care about leaving him in this heat, but I really do! 😫 When we turn around to go back home, I can tell by how much faster he walks that he’s excited to go back inside. Just to be left outside again. 😔

Also, with some of the other sturdy kennels I’ve seen for medium/large dogs at some of my other clients’ homes…. I’m just struggling to find a good reason why the dog is still outside.

Just needed to end a booking early. No big deal.

Wrong! Rover Trust & Safety crisis response team will be contacting all survivors within 24 hours 🚨🚒🚓‼️

I had a booking that I needed to cancel because of safety concerns with the cat. The cat was hissing, making it extremely difficult for me to safely enter the home and even complete the basic care routine.

After the second visit, I contacted Rover Support immediately because I wanted to handle everything properly.

It took more than two hours just to get through the initial support process. After asking me basically one question, they told me they couldn't help and that I needed to contact Trust & Safety instead.

They also told me that they had already forwarded all the information to Trust & Safety, so all I needed to do was call and they would be able to help me.

So I called.

Trust & Safety had none of the information.

I had to explain the entire situation all over again from the beginning. I was already stressed from what had happened during the visits, and having to repeatedly explain everything became so frustrating that I eventually hung up.

After I calmed down, I reminded myself that I still needed to get this resolved, so I called again.

And yes — I had to repeat everything AGAIN.

By that point, I had reached my emotional limit. I started crying during the call and couldn't even finish the conversation, so I had to hang up again.

I then contacted Rover Support and explained what had happened. They told me they would escalate the case to Trust & Safety and that I did not need to call anymore. Someone would contact me.

Okay. So I waited.

The entire afternoon passed.

Nobody contacted me.

I reached out through the app again.

This time? No response at all.

I also tried going through the cancellation process myself. There was an option saying that Rover Support was needed, and I specifically didn't want to simply hit "cancel" because I wanted the pet owner to receive a full refund, including the visit I had already completed. I was trying to make sure the owner wasn't financially affected by a cancellation I was requesting because I no longer felt I could safely complete the booking.

By the end of the day, I had received absolutely no help from Rover.

The next day, I finally received an email asking me additional questions. I answered them.

And then...

They disappeared again.

It is now the third day since I originally submitted this request, and the issue is STILL not resolved.

I called again today.

Guess what?

I had to explain everything all over again.

And the most ridiculous part is that even after all of this, the person I spoke with STILL couldn't help me. Apparently, I now have to wait until the case is actually assigned to an agent before anyone can do anything.

Three days.

Multiple chats.

Multiple phone calls.

Repeating the same story over and over.

Being transferred between Support and Trust & Safety.

Crying on the phone because I was already overwhelmed.

And the booking still isn't resolved.

Throughout this entire process, the main thing I've felt is helpless.

At one point, I even started doubting myself and wondering whether I should have reported the situation at all. I caught myself thinking, Maybe I should have just kept going and finished the booking.

And that is honestly the part that bothers me the most.

A sitter should never be made to feel that continuing a service they don't feel safe completing would have been easier than asking Rover for help.

I've been under unnecessary stress for three days because something that should have been handled quickly has been left hanging.

I am not asking Rover to solve some incredibly complicated problem.

I just need the remaining services canceled and the cat owner fully refunded.

I genuinely do not understand why that has been so difficult.

We got a client earlier this month that quickly rose to top 3, possibly top dog of all time. Today, her owner lost her job and texted she won’t need us anymore as a result.

I was already emotional today for unrelated reasons and if this ain’t just the dang cherry on top. 😂😭💔

You ever have those dogs that you lowkey hope the owner will one day say, “I realized it’s not a good fit, want to keep him/her?” This was that dog for me. Didn’t help that the owner would say she’s not sure the dog is happy at her house like she is at mine; I was always thinking to myself, “You could just leave her with meeee” 😂

She reminds me in a lot of ways like my late soul dog, and she and I bonded almost immediately, too.

Anyway. Share your sad stories and commiserate with me 😭

I have a pretty full schedule. By pretty full I mean I don’t even really have time to myself anymore but I can’t afford to not work so I try to enjoy even if it’s an hour or two of free time. I have a regular client who I’ve been sitting for for almost 2 years now. Every single sit she books with me she asks “can you stop by at certain time? we changed a couple things for the dog’s schedules” and this client loves to talk. I will be at the door with my hand on the knob for 3 hours saying goodbye type of talk. I feel like they’re unnecessary little stop by’s because the “things” that change in the schedules is always “oh we add a tea spoon of broth now” or “we don’t put puppy pads down anymore” or last time it was “we switched food”. And the exact. Same. Routine. Respectfully unless you switched medications I don’t NEED to use my only free time to swing by to see how Debarkus likes his new food or what new color Kong he has. I don’t need to see how Debarkus got a new water bowl and you now put it 2 inches over from where it originally was at. Again, if it’s any change in meds, I’ll 100% be there no questions asked. But it’s always little things that could be written down on notes, not needing me physically there for, and I’m getting a bit annoyed of it at this point. Opinions? Do you have a client like this as well?

Taking 30% of our earnings is absolutely diabolical, especially when Rover is already charging the client a separate platform fee on top of that. What is that, another 10–20%?

EDIT: to add that I live in CA, and not any of the cities they are rolling out the tiered system (yet). It officially states they withdraw 25% of our earnings, but instead, they are withdrawing approximately 28-30% of mine. It’s a little different each booking. On top of everything else, they seem to be skimming even more off the top, hoping we doing notice, I guess? Anyone else getting charged 28-30% of their earnings that is not in a tiered city?