HO downplaying their pet’s behavior issues

UPDATE: They now have a new listing for their home in Park City, Utah for a little less than a month. We looked at the responsibilities, and they still are omitting that the dog has the behavior/anxiety issues I listed in this post, so they did not take our advice about being honest. Good luck to whoever applies…

We just cancelled a 5+ week Chicago housesit we had booked back in Nov. 2024 after reviewing the Welcome Guide. We realized there were lots of discrepancies (and omissions) regarding the dogs behavior between what the responsibilities in the listing stated, what we were told about the dog during the interview and what was written in the Welcome Guide.

Basically the pet has extreme anxiety but on the listing, there was no mention of this. It wasn’t until the interview where they mentioned the dog would howl if left home alone for more than 4 hours (neighbors don’t like this). They stated we could use doggy day care if we wanted to go out for longer or in the evenings to avoid the dog howling. This seemed fair so we moved forward and we got a good feeling about the HO as they seemed like honest people. Fast forward to yesterday, when we got to review the Welcome Guide (after something told us to request it, although we usually don’t this early on—now we know we should always request it immediately), we noticed it says “We can leave the dog home for 2-3 hours” so now, it’s less time, which we found confusing. In addition to this, in the Welcome Guide they stated the dog can “sometimes” pee or poop when they are gone and in another part of the guide it says “sometimes” the dog has accidents in the apt when they leave her alone for a few hours. What’s a few hours? Will she pee or poop if left for 2-3 hours or 4 hours? It just gave us the impression that she has more accidents than what they are saying and it’s being downplayed. They stated this was not the end of the world because they have hard wood flooring… We are spending 5+ weeks with the dog, if they happen to pee and/or poop in the house everyday for 5+ weeks, that is not fun! We went through this in a previous month long sit where the HO said their dogs were potty trained but yet they pooped and pee in the house every day for 30 days straight, and one of them had hookworms (didn’t found out until a few days before it was time to go)… so we weren’t risk going through that again. On top of what I mentioned before, the dog also seems to be difficult when by other dogs during their walks. We cancelled because we don’t like that they told us one thing during the interview and it was much worse when we opened the guide. We sent them a long message along with advice (letting them know to be honest in their listing about the dog’s anxiety/behavior) so this doesn’t happen again and sitters are aware from the get-go.

So. I’m writing this because I’m tired of pet parents not being fully honest about their pets behaviors in their listings. If they have extreme anxiety and they pee and poop in the house, say that. Stop sugarcoating the truth about your pet. It’s a completely waste of time AND money for the both of us. Lesson learn for us as sitters, request the Welcome Guide as soon as possible to ensure you have all the details about the pet and ask even more questions during the interview.

I’m also posting this because it sucks that other sitters won’t be aware of this listing as we can’t leave a review or some sort. I’m not sure it they’ll take our advice and update the listing to mention the dogs behavior/anxiety issues.