What happened when I put up a camera.......

[JudyN]

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Do you pay her extra for 'dog-sitting' - I mean as an extra part of her service, rather than simply a set rate-per-hour. She might feel that interacting with Maggie and making a point of making it a good relationship is just an extra chore. It might help if you explained to her that you can see that bonding/interactively well with Maggie doesn't come naturally to her, but that you can help her with this - as you are doing - and allocate a portion of what you pay as being specifically for this. She might then feel that interacting with Maggie is a 'special' job rather than 'just another chore'. She is both a helper/cleaner AND a 'trained' dog carer!

Does that make sense? I'm meant to be working so it's a bit rushed...

 

[arealhuman]

One thing that springs to mind reading these posts, is she might actually be scared of dogs. I was when I was a youngster, so was my sister who got bowled over by three dogs once on the beach when she was a toddler. My uncle's GSD used to scare the you-know-what out of me, so when we visited with our parents, he had to be shut away (he wasn't aggressive, just playful I'm told). So, perhaps fear and not knowing how to act around dogs may be a factor. @JudyN's idea is a good one in any event.

 

[Violet Turner]

Speak with your pet sitter and see what she says because she could feel scared of her jumping up or she had a bad experience with a dog jumping. Try and work on this with your puppy and you can see how it goes. It depends on what she says if she would like to do 5 days. you can always tell her the camera is there and if she doesn't like it then you can remove it. She should be fine but if she has never owned a dog then she will be confused and maybe a little scared of your puppy mouthing etc. My advice is speak with her and see if she is fine looking after the puppy for 5 days. Has she owned a dog from your knowledge? If not she could be very frightened.

 

[Caro Perry]

If she's not confident with dogs asking her to pet sit for 5 days is quite a big ask. What happens if she isn't coping after 2 days? Will Maggie be left in her crate for hours? Is there any chance of a dry run for a day before you go to make sure that she knows what she needs to be doing and is happy to do it? Certainly you need to get her to be spending some interactive time with Maggie whilst she isn't being expected to clean as well

 

[Maggie Mul]

If she's not confident with dogs asking her to pet sit for 5 days is quite a big ask. What happens if she isn't coping after 2 days? Will Maggie be left in her crate for hours? Is there any chance of a dry run for a day before you go to make sure that she knows what she needs to be doing and is happy to do it? Certainly you need to get her to be spending some interactive time with Maggie whilst she isn't being expected to clean as well

@Caro Perry - You are absolutely right, it is quite a big ask, but as she has known Maggie since we got her, we thought she would be a good choice. Our helper is very enthusiastic when she talks about Maggie and says she likes her and she thinks Maggie is a good puppy. She looked after her for 4 hours whilst we went out on Friday night. This seemed to go well and she even took her out for a walk on her own. We had planned for her to come over a lot in the next 2 weeks to spend time just with Maggie as you suggested so she can get to know Maggie's routine's better. Her FT job is looking after a 2 year old, so I kept telling her, Maggie is exactly the same!! You can't leave her alone or take your eyes off her if she is not occupied or sleeping!! We will initiate some extra contact this week! Thanks for taking the time to advise everyone

 

[Maggie Mul]

Do you pay her extra for 'dog-sitting' - I mean as an extra part of her service, rather than simply a set rate-per-hour. She might feel that interacting with Maggie and making a point of making it a good relationship is just an extra chore. It might help if you explained to her that you can see that bonding/interactively well with Maggie doesn't come naturally to her, but that you can help her with this - as you are doing - and allocate a portion of what you pay as being specifically for this. She might then feel that interacting with Maggie is a 'special' job rather than 'just another chore'. She is both a helper/cleaner AND a 'trained' dog carer!

Does that make sense? I'm meant to be working so it's a bit rushed...

Makes perfect sense! Thank you! Normally if she works 'after hours' or on her day off, we pay the same rate and she helps out around the house and has Maggie. We asked her to come over on Friday as we were out for the evening but we made it clear this job was for pet sitting. I made it clear to her that she didn't have to do any cleaning but her role was for Maggie. She seemed happy with this and maybe like you say, Maggie didn't feel an 'extra' chore as we were paying her to look after Maggie!

 

[Josie]

Sounds like it’s being resolved which is great @Maggie Mul - hopefully with some dedicated time spent with Maggie she will become more confident

 

[Maggie Mul]

Sounds like it’s being resolved which is great @Maggie Mul - hopefully with some dedicated time spent with Maggie she will become more confident

I hope so!! I have going to ask her to come over on tuesdays before I go to work and we will do the morning walk together, and then ask her to come over for 1 hr 3 evenings a week before we go and for a couple of hours on Fridays too. I think this will he,p them to get to know each other better and for her to learn some management strategies, as I think this is all she is missing really. I will put together a schedule for her to follow and hopefully that will make things easier for her.

 

[arealhuman]

I'm glad this seems to be sorting itself out