Unattended Dogs, all day!

OK Folks, I need advice. Increasingly we seem to be the doggy day care. Multiple dogs per guest, and they leave the dogs alone in our rental all day. Sometimes in kennels, sometimes loose. I am worried. What if it is a 100+ day and the air conditioner goes down? Or anything else. We are not always home. And I never go into the cottage once guests arrive. How can I place a limit on hours unattended, and how many hours is acceptable?

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I think no more than 4 hours depending on the breed.

We donā€™t accept dogs any more because of Homeownersā€™ Association regulations but when we did, I didnā€™t allow the dogs to be unattended at all. I would remind people of this when they booked and give them the name of a pet-sitting company locally. Then in the rental, Iā€™d have the business cards of the pet sitting company and a dog day care centre. I also used to tell guests that if they left their dog alone I would enter the apartment to calm it down. I never had to and it was probably not legal for me to do so anyway (?) but I never had a problem.

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Why are you letting guests bring multiple dogs and then leave them in your rental all day @ranchlife ?

You can make any rules you like as long as they arenā€™t discriminatory. Such as :slight_smile:

  1. only one dog per booking

  2. No dogs to be left on the premises when guests are not in residence.

I agree if the guests want time without their pet they should pay for doggy daycare.

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Gotta agree with @Helsi ā€“ if you donā€™t want unattended dogs, donā€™t let them on the property. Dogs cost you more time and effort at cleanup, add yard cleanup to your chores, and obviously the issues with unattended pets and potential failing ACā€¦

I had that problem once and pretty much my only specific rule is no dogs left unattended.

Thank you folks! Great ideas. I understand, we are perfect for dog people. Tile floors, yard, etc. And I also understand that people may want to go out to dinner, so I was Ok with them leaving for a couple hoursā€¦but, now it is becoming an issue. Our latest guests brought 6 dogs, left them in kennels in the house. 7 hours the first day, then 8 hours the next.
We actually had guests last month that checked in, left about 30 min later. Did not return until they checked out the next morning. Their two small dogs were in the cottage the whole time. The people never even used the place, it was simply a place to house their dogs.
I rewrote my listings to reflect ā€œDogs are not to be unattended more than four hours per booking date.ā€
Now lets see what happens!

Good God this breaks my heart.
How can people treat their dogs like that? :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

As one said, dogs shouldnā€™t be alone for more than 4-5 hours max.

You should write in your house rules that dogs should not be left unattended so you could enforce it if people keep being d!cks to you and especially the dogs.

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Stop accepting dogs. Easy Peasy.

RR

You can decline pets, not dogs.

There will be no dogs cats emuā€™s or other animals staying at my place. I am not going to be bullied into accepting someones fake assistance animal. So basically unless they show up with a red cane and a seeing eye dog they will be turned away.

RR

Hello from beautiful Montana,
We have had this problem and thus no longer accepts pets. We do list in the rental description that while we do not allow pets, we encourage them to love on our two dogs, Rosie and Focus.

We called the tenant and said ā€œYour little dogs have been barking for four hours. Either you come and take them to the kennel or we will. Let us know what works for you.ā€ Of course they were annoyed, but then so were we.

If you love your animals, you donā€™t allow them to bark and cry for you for four hours.

Just my humble opinion.

Judy Helm Wright

Hearing dogs and wheelchair assistance dogs are also a real thing. I think the distinction is real assistance dogs are trained. ā€˜Emotional supportā€™ dogs are often quite unhinged as they have their owners bad moods forced on them, Iā€™ve met a fair few snappy lapdogs.