017- Sitter Safety
How do you make sure you and your clients stay safe while in your care? From reflective clothing to dog fights, we talk about some best practices for staying safe!
Show Outline
Lots of pet sitters do checks or walks late at night/early in the morning when it’s dark
Clothing -reflective gear
Lights
Know your path
Do you bring someone along with you?
Do you carry mace or other protection?
Leashight/flashlight
ALWAYS be aware of your surroundings
If doing house sitting or dropping in, lock the door as soon as you enter the house
Also prevents dogs escaping
Carry keys with you at all times during the visit – especially when taking pets out into the yard. Some clients have doors that automatically lock when closed – you don’t want to be locked outside with the pets
Keep your phone with you in case of emergencies but youll also need it to take pics while. You are walking
Phone use while dog walking
Yes take a picture or two but be very conscientious of where you are walking, especially if it’s on a busy street or in the park where there could be other dogs
Speaking up keeping the pups safe:
What do you do if you encounter unleashed dogs while walking clients
Stun gun? Spray shield like Direct Stop?
Keeping the pups safe also meaning keeping them in your care
What to do if a dog gets out of your care whether by bolting out the door, seeing a squirrel on a walk and getting out of your grip, etc.
What if you live on a busy street?
Double exit protection like a screen door or having some kind of gate across your porch, if you have one
Our street is somewhat busy but our main concern is the neighborhood cats
i.We watch a great dane that loves to chase cats and squirrels so we are always cautious to look out for them when he leaves our house
Snow/blizzard cancellations? Go by school district you are closest to?
Pet sitter safety means being armed with all the knowledge about the pet
including when and how much medicine they take
What food, when and how much they eat
Their schedule, etc
Its best to be consistent to their normal schedule as much as possible
Part of pet sitter safety is not only being safe while you are pet sitting but also BEFORE you pet sit:
So, if you feel uncomfortable at the meet and greet, for whatever reason, you CAN say no
Some reasons for saying no could be if the house is in a bad part of town, or too dirty, if the dog appears aggressive toward you or other dogs, or if you just don’t mesh well with the owner
Take someone with you to the meet and greet (even if the person is just sitting in the car)…or at the very least, let someone else know where you will be and when
Collin and I always go together
Dog proof your house
Dog proof your client house
If you are transporting dogs, dog proof your car
Remember to always have emergency contact information on hand in case something happens
If you are house sitting or dropping in on pets, maybe consider removing signs or car magnets
Products mentioned in todays episode:
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Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
Collin 0:16
I'm Collin.
Meghan 0:17
And I'm Meghan
Collin 0:18
And this is pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter.
Meghan 0:24
Hello, and welcome to Episode 17, where today we're going to talk all about pet sitter safety, whether it's in your home or the client's home or you're out walking dogs, we all want to make sure that we are safe and we keep our pets safe. So pet sitting is a primarily female dominated field, which is pretty cool girl power. And a lot of us pet sitters do those drop in checks, or sometimes dog walks late at night or early in the morning and so we want to make sure that we are safe doing those and that we keep the pets safe as well. And
Collin 0:57
just part of the very basic part of that Safety when you're doing it at nighttime or when it's dark is making sure that others can see you. So if you are doing walks at night or in the dark, making sure that you have bright clothing on reflective clothing, you can actually go and buy reflective tape that you could wrap around the leash handle, or that you could wrap around a backpack or put on the harness or those kind of things if the dog doesn't have those already, and then making sure you are closed, head to toe and reflective clothing if you're doing things in the dark. You can also add lights to your equipment, your backpack, your hat, your belt, making sure that there are flashing lights, red and white lights so that people can see you when you're walking.
Meghan 1:37
And also there's something called a leash light where you can attach it to your leaf. And that would be a simple way to get a light on there too.
Collin 1:43
Right, the more reflective the more life that you have, the better off you're going to be as far as visibility from drivers or other pedestrians.
Meghan 1:50
Also being aware of your surroundings is always very important.
Collin 1:53
While sometimes you may be tempted to be spending time on your phone, checking messages or scheduling your next meet and greet or working on The next appointment during during the walk is not the time to be doing that. When you are entering a home, if you're doing a drop in, make sure you get into the home first before you are become distracted by a phone or something else going on, so that you can continue to be aware of what's going on around you.
Meghan 2:17
Yes, so when you're doing in a house setting or a drop in, you always want to make sure that you lock the door as soon as you enter the house.
Collin 2:24
And this can also prevent dogs from escaping too. I know one of the house sets that we had when we were just first starting out, we hadn't really gotten to the habit of locking doors behind us. And this one dog that we came in and sat turns out they could open up doors that were locked because they just had the latch handle not the turn knob kind
Meghan 2:44
and so he would just put put his paw up there and unlock the door and
Collin 2:49
dog ran away and so we had to go finding a dog so locking the door behind you is both a safety mechanism as far as making sure nobody follows you into home but also making sure that the dog or Pet doesn't get
Meghan 3:01
out. Another safety aspect is carrying the keys with you at all times, especially when you're taking your pet out into the yard, the door may accidentally lock behind you, or you may have accidentally locked it and not known it. And so keeping the keys with you at all times is a good way to make sure that you can enter the house whenever you need.
Collin 3:21
This is one of the things that I am constantly terrified of was being locked out of an owners house because the door was locked into that little knob that will turn key on the inside of a knob sometimes can get clicked. Even if you don't intend it to then the door shuts behind you and you have no way to get in. So that's one of my ongoing fears. And now I'm kind of obsessive about making sure I have the keys with me at all times. Or that I have a second way of entry back into a home. If that does happen
Meghan 3:46
along with the keys. You want to make sure that you keep your phone with you at all times in case of emergencies. So yes, you'll also need to be taking pictures of the dogs if you are outside with them. But it's also a good way to in case you do get locked out of house. Thank you Sure you have that phone on you in case you need to call somebody.
Collin 4:03
Yeah, having having those numbers all pre programmed in there or in the Notes app or written down somewhere else, so that you can contact them if you need to.
Meghan 4:11
And speaking of using your phone while you're sitting, using it while dog walking, so yes, you want to take a picture or two, but you want to be very conscientious of where you are walking, especially if it's on a busy street or in a park where there could be other dogs. So while it's not a good idea to use retractable leashes while dog walking, you may want to use leashes that wrap around your waist or pack walking. I know some people use these and some people don't prefer them, but if you do use them, make sure that you are being safe with them, using them with the correct dogs, ones that don't pull lot or ones that are trying to chase after a bunch of squirrels.
Collin 4:50
And while you're in a park or just walking around, making sure that you're looking around and looking for other dogs as Megan mentioned, especially if they're off leash. This is a really common complaint that people have when they're walking dogs. Maybe you're at a park trying to enjoy it by themselves, there could be a lot of dogs out running off leash. Now this could be intentional, because the owners think it's a wide enough space and they can just let the dog off and run. Or it could be unintentional. The high winds came in the night before and knocked down doors and fences and latches and stuff like that, and dogs escaped that night or running around. This can become especially tense if you're walking a client's dog and an unleashed dog approaches you.
Meghan 5:32
What do you do in that scenario,
Collin 5:34
there are a few things that you can do to make sure that you avoid the dog fight entirely. So one of the first things to do is start reading that dog's body language that approaching you where its ears pointed. Is it have the hair raised on the back of his neck? How is its tail acting? Is it approaching in an aggressive manner in a fast paced manner or his habits tongue out and it's looking happy? Is it trotting towards you? Or is it Kind of approaching you in a very tense manner. First assess the dog's behavior before you take any other action. And then the big thing that you're trying to do here is distract. You're trying to distract your dog that you're walking and you're trying to distract the dog that's coming close to you. So first, as as walkers, we typically have a bunch of treats on us, break out those treats, start waving them in front of your dog's face to make sure that they are not paying attention to the dog that's approaching, and then position yourself in between the approaching dog and your clients dog. Not to say put yourself into harm's way, but you were trying to break that contact that eye contact and that attention that the approaching dog has. You can try and put yourself behind a parked car behind a tree behind something else as a way of, again, breaking that attention span. If this doesn't work, you're going to start shouting at the dog and loud aggressive, no sit, go home down Stop kind of commands, and then throwing treats at them as a way to distract them maybe a really good way you can we're trying to break that focus. While you're doing this, you're keeping your dog close to you on a short leash. Again, another reason why you should never have your dog on a retractable leash, so you can maintain quick, fast and constant control of them or at all times, and you're continually trying to back up and move further and further away from the approaching dog. At this point, if the dog is continuing to approach, it may be time to break out some sort of deterrent. citronella spray is a really great option that can act as an irritant to an approaching dog. There are some more commercial grades that are more like pepper spray, but you don't really need those but they are out there that you can use and enact on dogs as well.
Meghan 7:45
Some people also use stun guns, the curious I'm done with them. Also personal protection I've heard as well. And then like Colin mentioned a spray shield. A company called direct stop makes that
Collin 7:57
you may see all the people out there Walking with sticks walking sticks are kind of short sticks that you can use as deterrence as well to keep the dog a little bit further away than just putting your hand out. Now unfortunately, if the dog if none of those work in the dog continues to attack or maybe you lose control of the clients dog that you have going in there, a dog fight may breakout. At this point, you have to remember that you cannot and should not get in the middle of that. That's a really great way to send yourself to the ER very quickly, although it's going to be your first instinct to reach in there and try and grab them away. You absolutely cannot that do that, especially by herself at this point during the dog fight. Again, trying to break out the dog spray and spraying it on both dogs because now both of their focus is on each other and you've got to break that attention. So you're breaking that spray out using it again. We've heard of some dog walkers carrying loud air horns as a way of hurting the dog's ears and again, you all you need is to get one brief moment Braking of attention to regain control, grab the leash, move them away and start getting more and more distance between you.
Meghan 9:07
Also if you're boarding, so it's in your house or if you're doing daycare, which is also in your house, you could if you have a blanket close, you can throw a blanket on top of the dogs that are hiding. Hopefully that will break their attention and allow them to stop fighting for a moment so you can focus back.
Collin 9:25
Often your first instinct once again of yelling frantically and grabbing at dogs is just going to escalate the confrontation further and it is not going to help. Now if this dog fight does break out, obviously you need to be contacting the local authorities and reporting the incident of the off leash dog and letting the pet owner know that it occurred and seeking proper medical attention and care right away if you need to. Even if the dog doesn't have visible, outward injured injuries, you should definitely take them to that to see if they have anything going on internally as well.
Meghan 9:57
So if the dogs play too rough when they're in your care Or a fight breaks out or you know, you potentially think of fight may break out, it's a good idea to take off the dogs collars so that they don't get tangled up with each other.
Collin 10:09
But obviously you want to avoid that as much as possible. So you're looking for possessive behavior, you're, you know, we always ask if they have a favorite toy or blanket or something to bring it over. For with that, because if they have a favorite pillow or a favorite blanket, or a fellow or favorite bone to chew on, they may be very possessive of that. So ask the owner, are they possessive of things? And if the owner responds, yes, then you know that you should not be breaking out that dogs specific toys and watching for that possessive behavior. So you don't get those kind of fights in the first place.
Meghan 10:43
So what do you do if a dog gets out of your care whether it's by bolting out the door, seeing a squirrel on a walk, getting out of your grip?
Collin 10:50
So yeah, if a dog runs away, and one of your first instinct is going to be to start yelling and running after the dog and quite honestly, this is just either Going to make the dog think that it is playtime and they should be running more and more. Or they are going to be very, very scared of a crazed person yelling and running after them and they're going to run away even faster.
Meghan 11:13
So I've actually heard that running in the opposite direction works sometimes because it attracts the dog to where you are going. The dog thinks, oh, there's something exciting over here, this person is running that way I will go, I will follow them. Of course, this doesn't work for all dogs. Some dogs just want to do their own thing. But this may work for some,
Collin 11:32
right. So here you're going back to eating treats out for the dog, and at this point, you can break out literally anything that you can think of that may entice the dog. So if you don't typically give a dog deli meats now maybe the time to break out the deli meats to attract the dog back to you. staying calm, staying together not being frantic, or, or energetic and running after the dog because you're trying to entice the dog to come back to you. Imagine what you do whenever you see a stray dog On the street you don't go running after it going here
Meghan 12:02
if I know here if I know here Fido,
Collin 12:04
bring good frantically know, you put on your sweet dog lovely voice and you try and get them talk to them smoothly and calmly and get them close to you. As you can hear, you're also needing to make sure that if the dog does do this, you grab the streets, grab a leash and harness some way to recapture the dog, maybe even at a distance. So you're thinking of ways to possibly lasso the dog, preferably to get the dog close to you. So you can grab the dog before it can further run away.
Meghan 12:31
Also, some dogs really enjoy car rides. And so thinking about safely getting your car close to the dog and opening up the door and Lauren with priests or your sweet boys, and sometimes the dog will just jump right in,
Collin 12:45
right. So obviously what you hope is to avoid these situations entirely. So setting up a double entry. If you have a door that leads directly to the outside getting a baby gate or some sort of barrier the dog has to go through in addition to the open And then making sure that they are well trained in their commands. And that's really hard for pet sitters, because we get pets of all sorts of behavior and training and all sorts of behavior and training in our care. And so while they're with you, you do need to be trying your best to be setting some ground rules. And that's hard. And you may not ever get to that point. But having good conversations with a pet owner beforehand, do they bolt? How if have they gotten out before when they got out? What did you do? And the scariest response quite honestly, that I think I ever hear is when people go, yeah, we just waited for them to come back or now we just found them. Because that doesn't instill a lot of hoping you have been able to find them. If that does, making sure they're microchipped and have their identification collars on as well at all times when they're in your care.
Meghan 13:47
Then what do you do if you live on a busy street? Our street is somewhat busy, but really our main concern is the neighborhood cat and the squirrels that go up and down the trees all the time. So we're really cautious to look out for them when Pets leave our house. Particularly we have a client who has a very large Great Dane and he loves to chase cats. And so we're always conscious of the neighborhood cats that are around before he before he gets dropped off. And before he leaves our house.
Collin 14:17
Yeah, it's kind of an all hands on deck kind of situation when the owner is either picking up or dropping off of we have been scouting the area for cats been looking out for them, tried to shoot them away if necessary. And then we've even assisted the owner out to the car with the dog as a way of keeping more control over him so that he doesn't bolt and it can be scary if you live on a busy street with lots of cars going back and forth. And so at that time, you are communicating with the owner. You are also assisting them. Maybe bringing the dogs in or taking them out so that you have more eyes on the road just in case someone gets out someone can stop a car if the dog doesn't get hit. Even the owner for that matter if they run out not thinking trying to get after their parents.
Meghan 14:59
Really, it's all about knowing each individual pet. And this is why it's so important to have that mean great beforehand.
Collin 15:06
What kind of questions do you ask at the meet and greet?
Meghan 15:09
Well, I think you've covered some of them. Just really getting to know what scares the pet. What excites the pet? What they like if they do, like, some dogs are not food motivated. And so when if they were to get out of your care treats may not work for that, do
Collin 15:23
they have a favorite toy? And if they do have a favorite toy, you ask them to bring that to you so that you can provide that for them? Especially if they run away? You can have a play thing for them as well. Yeah, I think the follow up question of, do they get scared? Do they get anxious do they bolt? And the next question is, what do you do about that? Ask the owner How do you handle those situations? so that you have a starting point. If they come back and they say, Oh, we just let it go or the dog just runs away and they come back or they don't you know you've got some work and some thinking to be going on in there. But if they have a good better response, you can be that much further along in the planning and safety preparation. Senior
Meghan 16:00
so part of pet sitters safety is not only being saved while you are pet sitting and while the pets are in your care, but before you pet it, so if you feel uncomfortable at the meet and greet for whatever reason, you can say no, like we always say Know your limits, know your boundaries and you can say no to any client or any reason.
Collin 16:18
Yeah and that can be because the pet that they bring over doesn't get along with the pets that you have its behavior is way off. It can also be because the client weirds you out. And this again is very important of if you are by yourself, let somebody else know that that's in your inner circle of where you're doing the meet and greets what time they are and when you should be done into a do a follow up call. That may sound overkill, but you can never be too cautious with these kind of things. And if somebody is coming into your home for a meet and greet, same thing, let somebody else know that that meet and greet is going on in approximately when do you think it should be done
Meghan 16:57
or if you are pet sitting with us nificant other than that significant other would, would likely be there at the meet and greet. So Colin and I always go to the meet and greets together, whether it's in our home, or at somebody else's home, if you can't have somebody with you at the meet and greet, even, maybe there's a person sitting in the car, who may not be
Collin 17:17
going in with you, or even affiliated with a pet care. But again, if it's at nighttime, or if it's in a new area, or you're getting weird vibes from the person, if the if you get weird vibes from somebody, don't ever just go over to their home, meet them in a public park and then maybe do a follow up at their home after that if you need to. Safety is part of the preparation. So if you're doing walks, make sure you have the walks, either memorized or in an app so that you can follow them so you're not getting lost in the early or late hours at night. And you communicate again, you communicate those walks in those paths to people, especially if you have any sort of reason or just inkling of being uncomfortable so that people know where you are at all time. So we just talked about Making sure that you are communicating to others when you are leaving your home, but also part of safety is knowing when you should stay home instead of leaving.
Meghan 18:09
Yes. So in case of inclement weather, snow or blizzards, you may have to cancel your pet sitting for that day or your dog walks. You obviously don't want to be walking dogs in a blizzard. And you may you may still have to go over and check on the dogs but there may be a point where you there's six feet of snow on the ground and you can't get out thinking about if you are going to go by the the school district cancellation policy that you're nearest two or what your cancellation policy will be. If there is inclement weather.
Collin 18:40
Yeah, you're talking about tying your cancellation policy to a school districts cancellation policy. So if the school district cancels, you automatically cancel because you know, the roads are not safe enough for travel.
Meghan 18:52
Right. That's just one way to do it. You can have your own cancellation policy that has nothing to do with school district. I was just putting out
Collin 18:58
no right but that it goes into thinking about are the road safe for me to drive? Can I drive in them? Do I have the vehicle for them? Where am I going? And what are the road conditions going to be like along my path and having set cancellations policies already in order because the dog if the dog pees inside, that's much better than you getting an Iraqi being stranded on the side of the road. Nobody would want that to happen, regardless of what happened to the dog at that point.
Meghan 19:27
And some of what we just talked about is covered in our emergency preparedness episode, which was Episode 15. You can go back and listen to that for a lot more of what to do in an emergency. Another aspect of pet sitter safety means being armed with the knowledge about the pet. We talked on this a little bit earlier, but knowing when and how much medicine they take, when and how much food they eat, and just their overall schedule. It's best to be consistent with their normal schedule as much as possible. And that's for the pet safety as well as your safety
Collin 19:57
and getting back to asking good questions during Meet and Greet and listening for the kind of responses that you may get. You may ask, does Fido get along with other dogs? And they say, Oh yes, they get along with all the dogs, except for really large ones. If you don't catch that last one, and you have a very large one in your home the next day, and you're sitting Fido, you could be in for a world of hurt. And so again, you're reading body language, you're listening to the owners responses. So if you are a house sitter, or if you're doing droppings on pets, you may want to consider removing your advertising signs or car magnets so that others aren't aware that you're there taking care of somebody's pet. It could act as instead of advertising for your pet sitting business. It could advertise to others that nobody is currently at that home full time and they may try and break into it. In addition to that before the owner leaves, you can ask them to inform their neighbors that they will have a pet sitting service over or somebody checking on their house so that you don't get the cops called on you.
Meghan 21:00
Another safety aspect is dog proofing. So if you are in your if you are boarding or doing daycare in your home, you want to make sure that you dog prove your house, you want to make sure that you dog proof the areas in which the dogs will be not having breakables on the floor.
Collin 21:15
So when we talk about dog proofing, really, we're trying to avoid a couple things here we're talking, we're trying to avoid direct injury to the dog. So the dog being caught or tangled in something like cords or high pile carpeting, or they may get a claw or dewclaw stuck in. We're also trying to prevent them from chewing on objects, especially objects that they may try and swallow and consume. And sometimes it doesn't always go the best for them and they may start choking or have other serious side effects from that.
Meghan 21:47
Yes. So then you want to perform dog CPR. If you are not certified, you need to get certified. This is very, very important. So you want to when performing CPR, you want to cover the pet nose with your mouth and exhale. Then continue giving chest compressions for a cycle of 30 and then to rescue breaths, and then repeat that for two minutes.
Collin 22:09
Yeah, and you can also perform the Heimlich on dogs as well. You are going to be checking to see if there's if you can move the object out of their throat in some manner. And then if the dog is standing, you'll put your arms around her belly and join your hands and make a fist and then push firmly up in forward just behind the dog's rib cage, and hopefully trying to force that out in performing an artificial cough effectively. There are other ways to perform the Heimlich at the dog is lying down or if it's a small dog. But while you're doing that, or you're getting ready to do that, get ready to move the dog or seek emergency veterinary care if necessary. While we talked about being CPR and first aid trained for the pets, make sure that your first aid and CPR trained for humans as well.
Meghan 22:57
We had a client who last winter slipped Some ice right in front of her house, and she
Collin 23:03
really damaged her back and we had to help her get up and walk her to her car and take care of her after she had fallen
Meghan 23:11
another aspect of dog proofing his dog proofing your client's house. So again, that means removing any cords that you see that the dog could be chewing any hazards, any plants that could be toxic to the dog or that they like to chew on.
Collin 23:24
And while you're at the owners house if you plan on coming back over doing a drop in visit late at night, make sure before you leave when it's still daylight that you turn on a nightlight you other in the kitchen or on the outside of the house. So there's some light in the area whenever you return and you're not having to walk up to the door in the dark.
Meghan 23:42
And make sure you have the key ready and you're not fumbling for your keys when you go up to the owner's front door.
Collin 23:48
Making sure you're reducing and minimizing as many distractions as you can and you're as prepared as possible so that you can get into the door and get it shut behind you. I know all this stuff can sound very paranoid and very Somebody's always out to get you kind of thing. But taking these small precautions right at the get go can really go a long way to making sure that you and the pets are safe in the long run.
Meghan 24:13
Also, if you're transporting dogs, you want to dog proof your car.
Collin 24:16
When you're transporting your dog, you also want to make sure that they are secured properly, not just for their safety, but yours as well. If you were to get in an accident, yes, there will be there's potential injury to a dog that is not secured, but also having a 60 hundred pound dog flying towards the back of your head that is unsecured whenever you have a front end collision will not end very well for your spine. So a secure dog is a safe dog for both you and themselves.
Meghan 24:46
Also having the child locks on in the backseat, the locks and Windows because they could they could roll down the window and jump out of the car.
Collin 24:56
And I don't want to have to chase the dog after jumps out of a window. That sounds like no fun at all.
Meghan 25:01
You always want to remember to have emergency contact information on hand on your phone, in your wallet somewhere in case something happens. If you have any additional pet safety tips that you think would be beneficial for us or other pet sitters to know, you can either go to our Facebook or Instagram page at pet sitter confessional, or you can email us at feedback at pet sitter confessional calm, and we'd love to share that with our community and other pet sitters.
Collin 25:29
Thank you guys for listening to Episode 17. Next week, we've got Doug from bad to the bone pet care out of Florida. He's going to be talking about what it's been like running an operating a small business. If you've enjoyed this episode or any of our episodes, please share them with your pet sitting friends or give us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Meghan 25:49
We really appreciate you and
Collin 25:50
you can subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, so you never miss a new one. Thank you
Keywords: dog, pet, home, pet sitter, owners, approaching, walking, leash, running, door, house, safety, locked, client, care, bolt
