Housesitting Horizons: 6 days of madness
No walking. You must carry me, human.
I never thought I’d wake up spooning a dog. I was momentarily confused as I came to from my slumber, thinking that Tom had shrunk and grown a lot of hair overnight, and come to think of it I didn’t usually spoon him. As my faculties returned I found myself tangled up with a four legged friend and felt even more confused. The position we were in was intimate. Am I now in a relationship with this dog? How did I get here?
We had arrived at the sit on a Monday, not ideal as we were both supposed to be working but this sit filled a small gap we had in our full time travelling life and we decided to jump at the opportunity of 6 days free accommodation. The dog we would be looking after was a Cocker Spaniel, which is a breed we really like as they are usually well trained, cuddly, easy to walk, independent and a nice size (not too big or too small). We weren’t excited about the sit but at the same time we weren’t worried about it either. To tell you the truth we hadn’t really thought too much about it. Having done over 20 housesits now, we’ve looked after a lot of pets, some that needed extra care and attention, but it didn’t seem like this dog would need too much from us other than walks and cuddles.
How wrong can two people be?
When we arrived at the house we were met by the lovely couple who lived there and introduced to the dog. She was lovely - cuddly, enjoyed a stroke and seemed to like Tom and I.
However, almost as soon as the homeowners left to go to the airport, her behaviour changed. She became very needy, wanting attention all the time and barking incessantly if she didn’t get it. Her bark was loud, high pitched, and seemed to echo through every room. It instantly gave me a headache. We tried playing with her, cuddling her, distracting her, but not much worked.
When we walked her, she would refuse to walk certain ways. She’d simply stop walking. You’d try and drag her, stretching the lead to it’s maximum extension, and she’d roll over on the floor and become a dead weight. It meant that you’d have to pick her up for a few hundred feet, no matter how muddy or wet she was. My coat began to get ruined but I would not be dictated to by a dog.
On walks she was also very submissive towards other dogs, rolling over on the floor when she saw them, but when they approached to sniff her, she’d try and snap at them. It meant that as soon as we saw another dog we’d try and get her to go in a different direction or have to pick her up, afraid of the outcome.
Back at home, if I had a bath, she barked, if we watched TV, she barked, if she went in the garden, she barked. Work was becoming impossible as I allowed Tom to prioritise his job and mine went on the backburner as I had to entertain the dog. This took its’ toll on me as I love my work and had things I needed to get done. I became exasperated and short tempered as I struggled to understand what the dog wanted each time she was asking for attention from us.
Night time was the worst. We are heavy sleepers, deep sleepers. We’ve slept on the highest bunks on noisy trains in Russia, in tents whilst wild camping illegally and on the floors of airport terminals. We are hardcore sleepers. Not on this housesit. The dog wanted to be on our bed - we’d been warned about this by the homeowner. We were fine with that, as long as she stayed at the foot end and didn’t move around too much. We were assured that would be fine. We should’ve known better.
She clambered up onto the bed, staying on the covers but wanting to be in between us. We relented as we wanted to sleep. Light off. Wriggling. Shuffling. Suddenly the dog has burrowed her way under the covers and her head is on the pillows in between us. Marvellous. Not only that, but she routinely moved around, kicking us both in the face, in the back, in the stomach. It was uncomfortable and kept us awake.
She was a lovely dog for a few hours, but our time with her descended into a chaotic few days of just trying to get through the sit, which is never what we want. We felt she definitely had separation anxiety and some sort of attention deficit. She struggled to chill out. This felt like puppy behaviour but the dog was 8 years old.
We are experienced at pet care, especially when it comes to dogs. But this was a challenge that we struggled with. God forbid a new or inexperienced sitter takes on this challenge. Before the sit we had ideas that we may return to do another sit for this couple, but unfortunately it will be impossible for us to do that and do our jobs which we have to prioritise.
It really is a lottery with housesitting. Pets are usually well behaved, or behave as their owners describe them, but sometimes you get a sit where the owner hasn’t adequately forewarned you of a problematic pet, and spooning a dog in the night can feel like a rude awakening.