California dog parents pay for expensive pet sitting service to watch their precious pooch at home, but confront the sitter after they lie and bring the doggo to an unknown house over 5 miles away

Author image for Blake Seidel
Blake Seidel • Managing Editor & Brand Manager
Jun 24, 2025 10:00 AM EDT

One of the things you will eventually have to deal with as a pet pawrent is figuring out what to do with your doggo when you go away for vacation. Whether it's one night or one week, you want your pupper to be in the best care pawssible. We know this from personal experience. It's hard to find someone you trust with your precious pooch; they are your baby, and it's hard enough to be away from them, let alone not stress over whether the dog-sitter is following your directions exactly.

Well, following the feeding directions is the least of these pawrents' problems below. They paid for an expensive pet-sitting service where the babysitter comes and stays at their house to take care of the doggo. However, when they checked their pup's location, they saw that their dog was in a random house 5 miles away from their own! They got bamboozled, either by the tracking system or the babysitter. Scroll down to read what happens below!

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  • 01

    Paid for dog sitters to stay at our house. They took our dog to stay at another residence. (CA)

    'We are paying for a premium service and this is not being fulfilled'
    via Luca Alberti photographer

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    Location: California. We are currently out of town and paid for a dog sitter who specifically stays at your house. We did this because our dog is not comfortable staying overnight in other locations and gets stressed when she isn't in her
    via u/SuperJezus
  • 03
    home. Hence why we paid for this premium service. In our agreement with the sitter it states that the services will be provided at the dogs home. We have used the same people before multiple times and we always come home to a safe and happy dog.
    via u/SuperJezus
  • 04
    We are still away on vacation and don't return until next week. We have a tracker on the dog (the whistle activity tracker). And last night it showed that our dog is at a house 5 miles from ours that we don't know. We
    via u/SuperJezus

  • Tracking systems can be unreliable. Even our the Airtag we have on our pup's collar malfunctions sometimes. But, if it were us, we would also be looking into it (and upset). You never know what could be going on when you're not there!

  • 05
    texted our sitter a general "hey is everything ok" and they responded with a picture of our dog napping at home, saying she had a great day. We checked the tracker this morning and it still shows the dog at a house 5 miles away.
    via u/SuperJezus
  • 06
    They still have our dog for 4 more days and we have no reason to believe that our dog is in any danger since these are popular dog sitters in the neighborhood. I'm don't want to confront them currently, because I think they will realize
    via u/SuperJezus
  • 07
    there is a tracker and remove it, and I want to know how long our dog is away from home. However I am annoyed that we are paying for a premium service and this is not being fulfilled from the rates and policies on the company website we agreed to. I feel misled.
    via u/SuperJezus
  • 08
    Cheezburger Image 10520718336
    via Gabe from Pexels

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 09
    Once we return home, can we withhold the pay for the nights and days where our dog wasn't home? Are there other steps we should take? I am taking screenshots of the location and our tracker saves all of this info in an app.
    via u/SuperJezus
  • 10
    Update: tracker shows dog has returned home since noon today. I'll keep monitoring and confront once I'm reunited with my dog.
    via u/SuperJezus
  • 11
    NoorahSmith Do you have a ring camera or any surveillance at home?
    via u/NoorahSmith
  • 12
    SuperJezus Part of the contract is that cameras have to be turned off when they are there for privacy reasons
    via u/SuperJezus

  • We understand why they would want the cameras to be turned off, but we would never agree to it. We just need that level of control. If we're inviting someone to stay in our house and be with all of our things, we want that extra level of security.

  • 13
    ThrowmeawayAKisCold NAL, but it reads like your reputable sitter is double dipping: being paid to house sit in the home by two or more separate parties.
    via u/ThrowmeawayAKisCold
  • 14
    Cheezburger Image 10520724224
    via juststock

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 15
    EE_108 I would handle it with whatever service you booked through, the dog owner in me wouldn't cause an issue until I had my pet back just to be safe.
    via u/EE_108
  • 16
    You cannot refuse to pay entirely. Even in small claims the best you could argue is the delta between the premium cost and whatever was provided. If, for example, your trip is 5 days and it was $60/day for standard boarding
    via u/EE_108
  • 17
    and $75/day for in-home you have an argument to pay $300 instead of $375. You do not have an argument to pay $0.
    via u/EE_108
  • 18
    Kitt-nMitten "Hey! My mom is stopping by with new tags for Fido, she'll be there in 5!" See what happens
    via u/Kitt-nMitten
  • 19
    bootzilla79 Where is the tracker on the dog? If it was on the collar or something, could it have fallen off and landed in a shoe or a bag that then went to the sitter's home?
    via u/bootzilla79
  • 20
    I'm not trying to make excuses for this person, just suggesting you think through the possibilities (and maybe you have) before making any accusations, just in case there
    via u/bootzilla79
  • 21
    is some sort of misunderstanding that could land you in the position of having to replace dog sitters you have really liked before this.
    via u/bootzilla79
  • 22
    soscots I'm not saying that the whistle is incorrect, but I used to own these trackers and I would get alerts from it telling me where my dogs were and they sometimes showed the dogs in a completely different location
    via u/soscots
  • 23
    5-10 miles from my house when they were in my home with me. I worked with support to try and get it resolved and they couldn't fix it.
    via u/soscots
  • 24
    Nia_Jediknight Okay I just read that the dog sitter MADE you turn your security camera off. SEND SOMEONE YOU TRUST THERE TODAY.
    via u/Nia_Jediknight
  • 25
    violet_sin Some trackers use triangulation, and are de d wrong in certain areas.
    via u/violet_sin
  • 26
    I had a tracki device with a year subscription on our car, it would show the car at home, then out in an orchard 3-5 mi away, then at the grocery store (in the opposite direction). So mid drive the calculation was wrong.
    via u/violet_sin
  • 27
    Car was never in the orchard, just a weird point between several cell towers. IDK what kind you have, but, you may be experiencing this
    via u/violet_sin

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dogs pets house dog parents pooch expensive confront animals
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