Dog sitter not following directions WWYD? Sort of a weird situation

[NRB]

Ok part vent part question. Would you fire this sitter or just talk to her and explain that you really want her to do the things that she agreed to do.

So… Bear with me a little backstory…I have a weird bed fetish. I like my bed clean. I change the sheets once a week. I shower at night, get on clean pjs and slip into my nice clean bed, I keep a dog cover on top of my comfortor and the dogs are invited to sleep at the foot of the bed on top of the doggie blanket. Not in bed, not under the sheets. Hubby has been married to me for 15 years and he gets this.

I do not like anyone else sleeping in my bed but me, my hubby and the occasional kiddo. I have three guest beds in the house that are kept clean for guests.

I have told the dog sitter not to sleep in my bed, and when ever she comes over I tell her which guest room to sleep in. We have had the conversation where I say do not sleep in my bed, I don’t like people sleeping in my bed, DO sleeping in the guest room where I’ve placed your towels to use.

I got home from vacation, after long day of travel with melting down kiddos. It’s midnight. I Find my bed made up, in a way I don’t make my bed. My pillow shoved under the bed, my sons pillow in its place. I pull back comforter and find a huge dog sized body stain complete with muddy marks at the head of my bed. All three pillows sport the same stains. So obviously the dog sitters been sleeping in my bed with my muddy dogs.

I’m pissed and I strip the bed and remake it.

Now I get it I have a weird bed thing going on. But I’m still pissed that the sitter didn’t follow my request.

But she’s the only dog sitter I can find. I’ve used her for a few years now. The other dog sitters I know work further away from my house and wouldn’t be able to let the dogs out mid day. And my dogs can’t go 8 hours between potty breaks.

I am tempted to just board them, find a neighbor to feed the cat and pet rats.

[kookicat]

Can you lock your bedroom door? I would bring it up with her- you can do it nicely, but don’t just leave it.

[ShotenStar]

How about a lock on your bedroom door? Give the same instructions about which guest room to use and leave your room locked … maybe with the bed stripped, just in case.

(and this would be why I don’t have house critters … I cann’t stand the thought of someone loose in my house when I’m not there.)

star

[Laurierace]

I would fire her.

[GoForAGallop]

Coming from a pet sitter who does regular overnights…that is SO WEIRD!

I must have a weird bed thing too, because I don’t like sleeping in the main bed, to the point where I will just bunk down on the couch if it’s only going to be a few days, if there isn’t a guest bed, even if the house owners told me to use the master bedroom.

I can’t imagine choosing it if there were three other rooms, nevermind after the owner had explicitly told me not to…

…and it’s super poor form of her to leave the bed all disgusting, no matter which one she slept in! Whenever I leave a house for the last time, the bed I’ve slept in has had the sheets washed and replaced (I leave a note so they don’t do them again!), I vacuum, tidy up, etc. I can’t imagine just leaving a giant mess for people to come home to…

[Laurierace]

I too am a petsitter but do not do overnights as that limits how many clients I can cover at once. I have three dogs here as we speak. She was probably wearing your undies and using your toothbrush too, you might have to move! Just kidding, hopefully.

[Shiaway]

Are you sure the dogs didn’t get up there and dig under the covers to sleep in the bed? Maybe she was afraid to confront you about it?

[BostonBanker]

I would ask her if there was a reason. Maybe the dogs were stressing about her being in a different room if they are used to sleeping with you and your husband, or something else. If you’ve been using her for years and haven’t had issues with her, this is kind of a weird thing. Maybe she has a reason for it (and didn’t mention it because she didn’t think it was a big deal).

“Hey, I noticed that the dogs were on the sheets in the master bed. They are usually so good about just staying on their blanket. Did they seem stressed out?”

[NRB]

Humm the bedroom doors can be locked from the inside only but all you need is a little pin to open it from the outside. There is no key. We keep the pins on the door frame in case our older child locks her door from the inside. Or the bathroom. So all you would need is that pin or something like it to open the door. I could lock it in that fashion and see what happens. Place tape over the door frame and see if the tape is broken when I return.

And then what? It’s a weird situation. I mean there is a stranger in my house with access to personnel stuff. I trust her not to go through my things. But then again I have to wonder. Why is she sleeping in my bed?

And then again maybe I’m jumping to conclusions. Maybe I left the bed unmade, the dog decided to sleep on my pillows while I was away, the dog sitter discovered her there, and kicked her out of bed and made the bed up???. But it’s never happened before. Dogs are 5 and 2 yo, I’ve had them for 4.5 and 1.5 years. It’s not like they’ve suddenly decided to sleep on my pillows when I leave the house. Or is it?

[littleum]

How incredibly odd.

Are you sure she SLEPT in your bed? The way it sounds to me- the logical thing- is that the dogs got into your room and were digging around on your bed. She attempted to straighten it. Perhaps she didn’t pull off the linens to wash them because she didn’t know how to clean whatever sort of linens you have without ruining them. It’s really strange she would not have at least told you or left a note about something she should know you’d notice.

I find the idea that she slept in your bed against your express wishes REALLY strange. If you HONESTLY believe she did that I’d ditch her, because that’s just CREEPY.

Either way, I’d probably not use her again. Either she let the dogs into your room and instead of dealing with the mess, just covered it up, or she slept in your bed…

[NRB]

All good points. Except Laurirace that’s a terrible idea. My undies are gross who’d want to wear them? JK.

Dogs of late have opted to sleep on the sofa in the sun room and not on the bed with us. Hubby and I actually kicked them out of the bed since last summers bad tick season… But the older one has been hopping up onto our daughters bed and sleeping with her at some time in the early am. Doesn’t bother me, I figure why give my daughter my own idiosyncrasies about beds.

So I’m not so sure the dogs would want to hop into our bed after we left town. If anything you’d think our female would be sleeping on top of our daughters bed. It was messy (we left at 4 am for the trip so I expect to come home to messy beds) and not dirty.

When I interviewed her for the job and she started she had asked me to give her a detailed listing of where I kept all the cleaning supplies, the vacuum cleaner and etc. I was impressed, But I do come home to a dirty house every time I’ve been gone for a weeks time. Not trashed. Not horrible. But not how I keep a home, dog hair and dirt covering the floors of the stairs, and the living room. I vacuum once a week and I run it a second time in the high dog traffic areas. Like the stairs, the living room etc. and the floor in the dog room is covered in muddy foot prints. I run the wet swifter in there 2x a week. It’s a 10x10 room it takes maybe 3 minuets to clean.

[Simkie]

Do you really need someone there overnight? When we go out of town, my petsitter comes over several times a day to manage the critters, but does not stay. Works fine for my dogs, although I could see needing someone there more if I had a very young dog or one with medical issues.

[NRB]

[QUOTE=BostonBanker;7516108]
I would ask her if there was a reason. Maybe the dogs were stressing about her being in a different room if they are used to sleeping with you and your husband, or something else. If you’ve been using her for years and haven’t had issues with her, this is kind of a weird thing. Maybe she has a reason for it (and didn’t mention it because she didn’t think it was a big deal).

“Hey, I noticed that the dogs were on the sheets in the master bed. They are usually so good about just staying on their blanket. Did they seem stressed out?”[/QUOTE]

The weird thing is that the dog mess was under the perfectly made up bed comforter. So someone had to make that bed. If the dogs had made a mess and it were me I’d pull the sheets, wash them and shut the door or use one of the 2 available baby gates (left around the corner obviously not being used) and gated the dogs out of he bedroom. Left a note for the homeowner.

[Come_Shine]

I would never put anything past a dog - lol! Have you seen the video of the beagle pushing a chair over to the kitchen cabinet to hop up or the one of the dog boogie-ing on the owner’s bed when she’s out?

[NRB]

[QUOTE=Simkie;7516144]
Do you really need someone there overnight? When we go out of town, my petsitter comes over several times a day to manage the critters, but does not stay. Works fine for my dogs, although I could see needing someone there more if I had a very young dog or one with medical issues.[/QUOTE]

No actually I don’t. I can let them out at 10 pm and then again at 7 am. One dog occasionally poops overnight. It’s rare, but he can be crated overnight. Actually both can be crated overnight. Good point.

[NRB]

[QUOTE=littleum;7516125]
How incredibly odd. Perhaps she didn’t pull off the linens to wash them because she didn’t know how to clean whatever sort of linens you have without ruining them. …[/QUOTE]

My bed linens are from Target or Linens and Things sales racks, pretty basic stuff. Nothing fancy at all. If you knew what Good Linens look and feel like then you’d know that Mine are not good linens, lol.

[bluecharm7]

I used to be a pet sitter, and actually never stayed in the master bedroom unless the owner specifically wanted me to. I have a bed thing too, so I would wash all of the sheets before I slept in any of the beds and before leaving the last day.

And the house’s that I stayed at, I always cleaned them as much as possible before leaving.

Is it possible the dog got into the bed? That happened to me once with a German Sheppard that I was watching, he slammed through the kiddy door separating the part of the house he wasn’t supposed to be in and got muddy foot prints all over a wool comforter.

I tried to wash it, not realizing it was all wool and practically destroyed it. It shrunk to 1/2 its size, I left a note explaining what had happened and that I was so so so sorry, and offered to pay for it. It must not have bothered them because they never mentioned it and paid me the full amount.

Did she have any references at all from other places she pet sit at before?

[Jhein12]

I would find another dog sitter. There are plenty that would be willing to follow such an easy (and common!) rule. I don’t sleep in my own parents bed… I sleep in the guest bed. It is there for a reason. I would hate for someone to sleep in my bed if I had 3 guest beds! That is outrageous… it isn’t like she had nowhere to go. If she breaks that easy to follow rule who knows what other rule she will break.

[Canaqua]

My first thought was that it was the dogs who helped themselves to your bed. It would be pretty stranged for the dog sitter to sleep there after you specifically told her not to.

My dogs would most certainly take advantage of the situation and get all cozy in my bed. My BC mix loves to tear off covers and get into beds when no one is in them.

Dog sitter may have just found the mess the dogs made and made it back up as best she could figure out. Personally, if I found a muddy dog in the owner’s bed while I was sitting, I’d wash the sheets, but she may not have felt comfortable doing so. I’d certainly have told you what happened to, but maybe she isn’t confident enough to do so?

[NRB]

[QUOTE=Canaqua;7516275]
My first thought was that it was the dogs who helped themselves to your bed. It would be pretty stranged for the dog sitter to sleep there after you specifically told her not to.[/QUOTE]

another good point. But why was the bed made?

There has to be some polite way I can find out… I’m not very diplomatic. I tend to be straight forward and to the point. I have no clue how to ask her in a round about way…

I do have it in my head that she slept there for 3 reasons. First in the past she’s slept in the kids rooms (before kids arrived on the scene) and dogs slept on bed with her and she told me how much she liked that. And 2, When I had first asked her where she would like to sleep she told me that normally she sleeps in the homeowners bed because that was where the dogs were used to people sleeping. And I did say at that point, do not sleep in my bed thank you very much. and 3, she told me that the dogs do not seem comfortable sleeping in the upstairs guest room (this was before the pet rats time) To which I said the dogs are fine and they can cope. My mother has spent the weekend in the house with the dogs, I know they are mellow and well adjusted. They do not miss me that much as to jump into my bed and sleep on my pillows.

The master and the kids bedrooms are on the ground floor, along with the kitchen and the tv…the main living area of the house. The upstairs bedroom now has a couple of pet rats in the bathroom…Once the rats arrived the dogs were baby gated off of the upstairs because the dogs are ratters and really really want to kill the rats. The dogs would also like to get to the cat, who of course lives in the basement bedroom. So if you are a dog sitter who thinks its fun to have dogs sleep on the bed with you… the only place to sleep is in the main floor… but the dogs sleep on the sofa in the sunroom, and in the am the female is on my daughters bed. Wouldn’t she have hoped into my daughters bed and made a muddy mess? Why my bed? She hasn’t slept there since last summer. I’m sure she’d like to sleep on my bed, but she got the message from me that it is off limits to her. So she no longer asks me to get up onto the bed…she sleeps with my daughter who LOVES her and loves the idea that she is sleeping with her.
dogs.

By the way I’m glad to see other people besides me have a bed thing.