I was talking to my physical therapist one day when I decided to share that I ran a dog sitting and dog walking business.
Just some normal conversation, you know?
My physical therapist at the time shared that she was going out of town for the weekend to see family.
She had just one dog, a golden retriever. A pretty easy dog to take care of, right?
Anyway, she went on to say that she already had someone willing to stop in and care for her dog for the weekend.
That someone happened to be a young teen. I forget the exact age. But, he wasn't very old. And I think he was in junior high still.
Plus, his mom had glowing things to say about his ability to care for dogs.
That usually goes well, right?
So, I didn't try to go down the avenue of making a sale. My physical therapist seemed set. And she appeared content with her decision.
I went home from that appointment thinking nothing of the conversation. It was just some chatter. No biggie. I didn't expect anything to come of it.
Well, the next week, I decided to ask her how everything went.
Again, I had no real motivation in doing so, other than to just make some conversation.
A Nightmare Was Unleashed!
Well, it turned out that the situation couldn't have gone more horribly.
My physical therapist's dog needed to eat a very specific amount of food. Otherwise, dire consequences would happen.
Well, the teen overfed the dog.
And the dog blew up and defecated all over the physical therapist's two-story home!
Fortunately, the dog itself was okay.
However, the home was not.
The defecation was so extreme that it couldn't just be cleaned off by a professional carpet cleaner.
Instead, the carpet all had to be replaced, costing my physical therapist thousands of dollars.
I'm not sure what the total actually was. But, it wasn't cheap.
In addition, the teen's family didn't have any insurance to cover the loss.
I suppose my physical therapist could have taken the teen's family to small claims court if they wanted. But, that's another layer of complexity to add to an already extremely busy life.
Plus, to my knowledge you need to have a way of forcing collection of the funds also. Just because you win the claim, that doesn't mean you automatically get the money. Again, that's to the best of my knowledge.
The Moral of the Story
Look, it seems like such a simple situation, right?
Just feed the dog what it needs to eat. No more. No less.
That's it. That's all there is to it...
But that one simple, yet extremely important, step was overlooked!
That's why hiring a professional dog sitting/dog walking service makes sense.
Sure, you pay a little more up front. But, you also get a more mature professional who writes all the details down and tracks them so things are done right the first time!
In addition, professional dog walking/dog sitting services carry insurance and bonding. If a dog sitter/dog walker made the same mistake, it would have been covered by the dog sitting service's insurer.
Anyway, you're always free to make any decision you want.
...But keep in mind what can happen as a fair warning!