Looking after other peoples animals.

Hi everyone I hope that wherever you are in the world you are having a lovely week. Currently in England it is snowing rather heavily and all o my village are snowed in which is super fun. Still no excuse for not going to work at the pub considering it's only 3 doors up from me. So for me yet another busy week of working but I was given the idea by a friend to write about what it's like looking after other peoples animals and the pressures of it.

So to start I do have some experience in this area as in the past I have house sat for people with dogs and horses and I have also dog minded and walked others dogs when it has been asked of me.

1. So for me the biggest worry when looking after an animal is if it becomes ill and you have to take it to the vet; this is a worst case scenario however whilst looking after animals it always does play in the back of your mind.
2. What if the dog runs off? this is a big worry for me when considering the history of some of the dogs I walk. However I think that if you are worried about this then walk the dog on the lead and make sure that the garden is secure. This will reduce the pressure on you and as long as you take the dog on a long enough walk for its exercise requirements then all should be well and good.
3. Feeding, now for some animals this is really easy and they will eat whatever is put in front of them, however some like my dog are picky so and so's who will have days when they just don't eat. For example about a week ago Fizz didn't want to eat and yesterday she ate 3 huge meals! I don't think I'll ever understand that dog. Anyway I digress so what I'm saying is there is no need to be worried if it's just for a day, the animal may have eaten something weird outside and as long as they aren't showing any other symptoms then they will be fine. Just keep putting the food down and they will get around to it.
4. Particular diets, so with some horses that I have looked after in the past have had diets that seem very individual and I totally understand that however it does take a few days to get into a routine, but keep at it ! I got there within 3 days with these ponies. Another issue I had was getting the horses/ ponies to eat out of the right trough but I worked out a way to do it within 3 days and really I think you just have to read the situation and think on your feet because you don't want to disturb the people on their holiday.
5. Letting the dogs out; now for me who works a lot this was something I really had to think about because I knew that I had to be fairs to the animals and let them out 4-5 times a day and I factored this into my everyday plans. For me these plans were super important and really helped me stay on top of everything.
6. Bad habits, now for me I try to be strict with the animals just because I don't want them to think that they can get away with things around me. I also think that this is important because you don't want the owners to come back and have their animals behaving badly. So try to be strict and reinforce rules that you know the owners like to enforce upon the pets.
7. Relationships; now for me especially if you are looking after the animals for more than a week, you develop a bond with the animals because they realise that you are their honorary human and that they rely on you. For example some horses that I looked after were very timid at the beginning of my two weeks however by the end they were very trusting of me and would allow me to brush them, this is purely because I was the one feeding them everyday and walking the dogs through the field every day.
8. I must stress that if at any point during looking after someone else's animals you are at all worried or panicked about the animals. Call the vets. Every owner should leave you with their animals vet details so that in case of an emergency you can take them to the right place. At the end of the day remember that you want the owners to come back to all healthy animals. So don't be afraid if in doubt call the vet.
9. Checklists; for me when I house sit I have a few checklists on the go, so I have one which is a set of tasks I have to carry out every day and they become a routine, then on other days I may have some more day specific tasks that I have to carry out. I know this sounds super tedious but I really find that it helps because writing them down helps you to remember more things that you need to do, like down to the tiniest detail, well that's I how I do them.
10. Making the call, this is always tough because if something major does happen whilst the owners are away you will have to contact them, in which ever way this may be, I cannot stress enough how important it is to use the correct words. You don't want to make them panic about something small however you also don't want to lie to them if it is something more serious. For example when I was house sitting over Christmas I know I've told this story but here we go again, the horse shelter flipped in the high winds, after realising there was nothing I could do I emailed the owners and they contacted the correct people to come and sort it. The reason I decided to contact the owners immediately was because I didn't want the horses to be at any risk for any longer than needed, the situation was sorted so that the horses were safe by the next morning which was great.

So that's it my 10 points about looking after other peoples animals. Along with having a very thorough hand over note making sure they have answered all of your questions there should be no need to contact the owners, just remember your checklists and all of the jobs you have to do an enjoy it, animals sense energy and if you are grumpy whenever you take them out then they won't be as happy as they can be.

I hope you enjoyed reading this short blog, feel free if you liked it to go back and read some of my other blogs. I hope to see you here next week thank you again for reading and remember to keep smiling and remember the positives in life.