The Dog sitter

Being with your dog, teaching him tricks and going out to the park every time you want is the dream of each one of us. Unfortunately, the harsh reality of the world of work has led us to absent from home inevitably for a few hours during our days.

Dogs who are waiting anxiously for us also for many hours undoubtedly do not have a life so full of distractions. If your grandfather, aunt or cousin are not always available to give us a hand, here comes in our help the infamous figure of the ... Dog Sitter!

Who is he?

We begin by saying that many people believe that walking with their dog for some minutes in the neighborhood where our quadruped friend simply frees his / her needs.  Actually, there is much more.

Walking is a fundamental activity not only on a physical level (because of course moving is an exercise) but through odors, noises and meetings the dog processes a whole series of important mental motivations that directly affect the quality of his life; A dog satisfied by the various experiences he can do in the course of a day is a much more receptive and definitely quieter and relaxed dog. The “promenades” becomes understandably something very important, so we do not speak only of physiological needs but also of satisfying those less obvious ethological needs.

The dog sitter therefore needs to be chosen not so easily, even just because in order to "walk" our dog takes the trouble to take our place in everything and for everything.

So again, who is this ??

Trying to give a "dictionary-definition" could say that it is the one who contributes to the psychophysical well-being of our dog. He assumes an important role, not the reductive: blaze-discharge agent.

Here are some simple tips for a conscious choice of a good Dog Sitter:

Knowledge of the canine world

A dog sitter, it seems superfluous to say, must be interested in dogs in general to understand the body language and to know the basic characteristics of the various races.

Method

Have some flexibility in the times and be organized according to what you are asked (walk to the park, take it from the groomer or keep it in your own home). Depending on the type of dog you have to prepare a suitable path with fresh water always available and maybe some game or recipe to always carry with you.

A walk to know each other (a sort of test drive)

It would be desirable for the first walk to be always with the owner. The dog, let's not forget, does not know the person in question so through this walk you can better observe the method and how it relate to our hairy friend.

References

There is no professional dog sitter list, it is a good idea to rely on word-of-mouth, it is advisable to hear and see at least 3 or 4 people in person so that they can have a direct comparison.

Questions

A respected dog sitter makes a lot of questions about the dog he has to carry around, he wants to know his habits, character, any physical problems and even his fears (bicycles, people with hat etc .. etc ..) to prevent any problem during the promenade.

The test of the 5

Usually a dog needs 5 walkings to fit with the person we chose and probably the dog will be happy to go out and go for a walk. If, however, after these few walks we see some reluctance to go to the meeting with him, and perhaps even a certain fear, the person we have designated is not the most suitable. So it is good practice to always have an alternative.

In conclusion...

If for a long time we have to leave our dog alone in our home for many hours,  consider to "break" his daily routine through a person who enjoys our confidence.  It is something to be taken seriously in consideration. Not only so for the "needs" but above all and basically for his mental well-being.

A Sitter Dog does this ... it helps us to have a dog happy and satisfied.

Alessandro