I hate leaving my dogs to begin with, and am extremely fussy (as you should be) about who I leave them with and am just finding it so hard to find someone decent right now. Family and friends are out as they either have babies or will be away. We used a company before that did homeboarding on a friend's recommendation for one night and liked them. Unfortunatey, they then had a fit at my friend who'd been using them regularly because she forbade them to let her dog off lead on walks and they said they 'didn't have time' to be keeping dogs on lead (!!!!) so they are OUT. We will be away for a weekend next month (to visit my puppy!) and I don't want to leave them in kennels, it has to be a home environment as they are house pets. Unfortuately, every company that I ask to ensure they will keep my dogs on lead seems to have some sort of issue with it. ARGH! Why would you let a dog you don't know off lead anyway!?

I don't know anything about home boarding dog walkers etc but I would have thought they would want dogs on leads. What if they let it off and lost it!!

exactly!

I think they have to do an actual walk if they're on lead, I.E more hassle for the dog walkers. I would love them to meet my dog walker who does home stays too. She has two dogs at a time on lead or doing recall trainin with them on long-lines!

Why ? If the dog is well trained and the owner has a trial run with the dog sitter and then agrees that they only go on walks where it is safe and no where near roads etc I can't see the problem . I would hate to go away and know my girls would only have lead walks as they would go bananas not being able to have free running !

I would not want anyone sitting my dogs to have them off lead in anything other than a secure area - just asking for trouble.

I am fortunate in I have a friend who will house and dog sit for me.  I have a huge garden and for the time he's here, that's where they stay, he plays with them there and is under strict instructions not to let them loose.. he did take one of them training with him when he took his dogs, but he stayed in his van (he doesn't like being left)

I can't imagine anyone wanting to let someone else's dogs loose in 'public' as it were.... very scary!

Why? Because they're my dogs and those are my wishes primarily, and I am the customer. I have my dogs trained to a reliable recall and they get off leash time with me daily. A few days on lead wouldn't kill them when with a sitter,however it would ruin my holiday to be worried that someone has let them off lead and my very fast greyhounds have ran off, chasing a cat or a plastic bag, gotten lost, or worse - knocked down by a car. Not a risk I'm willing to take.

I would want assurance that they were to be walked in a safe enclosed paddock or similar, if they were being let off lead, with a breed like greyhounds. :-) With my spaniels, my friends who dogsit met up with me for a walk before they first had them, so they could see how they reacted off lead, and so they could reassure themselves that the dogs would come back if the friend called them. When I have done a little dogsitting, I've only rarely let the dog offlead, they are usually on an extending lead (wouldn't work with a greyhound wanting to run of course!) unless I have had the dog a few times, got to know them, and been reasonably sure that the dog will come back to me and won't run into danger if they don't come when called!

Surely the customer is king here. And what the customer pays for/requests should be what they get. If the customer wants lead walks then that is what they should get.

This has actually made me wonder whether dog walkers insurance covers off lead walking as surely this is an added risk with someone elses dogs (not the same in my opinion as the owner walking a dog off lead).

I completely agree with you Inka. I wouldnt have thought it's a big ask to ensure your dogs safety but i am not a dogsitter so what do i know?!

Why ? LJS

because i trust my dogs 100%.....I do NOT trust dog walkers/sitters 100%

my dogs are very precious to me and i would rather not use either. i tried a house sitter once, they were good at the lead thing. let me down on other things. paid good money i did too!

Perhaps it is me but why do people have such distrust with people as there are plenty of reputable dog walkers sitters about who have extensive dog experience. I know of two regulars on here that I would put my utmost trust in :-)

It is the same for childminders and nurseries as would hate my child to be do restricted they feel smothered because they do not have the same freedom / routine as when they are with me.

It is all about research and definitely references that should give you assurances that they are in good hands.

I love my children and dogs equally and have left both with people whom I trust and are allowed the same treatment whether with us or them.

Sorry you are having this problem. All the insurance policies for home boarding and dog walking require written permission from the owner for the dog to be let off the lead, in order to cover any incidents when the dog is off the lead. I'm guessing that the companies you have contacted so far have blanket policies about what permissions they require from the owner to cover themselves and the home boarder, and also have a certain standard of obedience they require from the dogs they take on, and are not desperate enough for business to take exceptions. I'm sure that if you keep looking you will find someone who will be more appropriate. I certainly would not have a problem with keeping small dogs on lead but I would not take on large dogs that couldn't be exercised off lead as I do not believe it would be possible to care for them properly. At least the boarders are being honest with you.

LJS you are being completely naive if you think dogs react the same way with family, friends and strangers as they do with you. Just try logging on to doglost.co.uk every day for a week to see the amount of dogs who go missing when they were being minded by family or friends and you will not feel anywhere near as confident to go off on holiday leaving your dog in the care of someone else. It is not distrusting the people, it is distrusting the dog with a virtual stranger. Those on here who insist that dog minders keep their dogs on leads are being responsible and know that their dogs will be there when they come home. Dog walkers who let off new charges are not ones I would employ. As a dog minder, I don't get let the dogs off until I am fully confident that they trust me and respond to me calling them back and I only take on one dog at a time.

G Rets with all due respect I think after over 25 years of owning dogs and also having various people look after them for more times than i can remember I think calling me naive is quite frankly insulting !

I have extensive experience of this subject so please do not liken me to somebody who doesnt know and hasn't experienced the situation.

I have known dogs to get lost and killed because of such minders that don't keep them on a lead, it's just not worth the risk in my opinion and I would never want any o my dogs being looked after by someone who would have them off lead.  My dogs would have to be with the person almost every day any way to fully trust them.

I wouldn't trust my dogs to listen to someone else when off lead.

> I wouldn't trust my dogs to listen to someone else when off lead.

Same here, but then Buster wouldn't take commands of somebody he didn't know VERY well even while ON lead!

I just 'rescued' an online 'friends' dogs from a home boarder for a few days till she came home - I hadn't met the dogs before (nor the owner) so they were fine loose here in the garden and were well behaved and fairly responsive, but when we went to the show they stayed onlead as I couldn't bear anything to have happened to them whilst they were in my care.  I'm having one of Molly's pups back (now 14months old) for a fortnight and he wont be off lead out of the garden either..... we'll be at shows, but I have an extending lead for these instances... I wont risk losing someone else's dog and I wouldn't expect mine to be lost by a dog sitter either.  It's ok if they know the dog, will respond to them etc, but not otherwise.

I have a doggy guest at the minute, non-paying, pup of mine(I say pup but she is 6 yrs old!!lol).  She comes walking with me regularly with her owner and she stays with me frequently too but I wouldn't chance letting her off lead.  In fact, she takes every opportunity to escape as soon as a door is opened.
She hates being here as I treat her like a dog and she is bottom of my pack.  At her house, she is a princess and doesn't have an owner, she has a slave!  Had to laugh, she got her dinner down to her tonight which was the same as everyone else but she usually gets a bit of whatever her owner eats.  She took one sniff and walked away so my springer helped herself to 2 dinners!lol.  Well, she could do with a few pounds off(and so will my springer if she keeps eating 2 dinners!).  I now have a spaniel covered sofa where she is snoring with her mum. Bliss.

My dog sitter knows never to let my girls off lead. She knows them well but I much preferr to be 100% safe in the knowledge that the girlies will be there when I come home and a week or so of road/lead walks will do them no harm at all.
The person paying for the service calls the shots.... I stopped using the last dog sitters when he got a bit chatty about the next job they were moving on too, another regular like me, he said "They did not want us to let them off the lead but we know the dogs now so we do, " Never came to me again !
So they get lead walks. I am happy they are fine with it and the dog sitter does not have the worry.
It is what I want and that is my  right I am paying the bill.
Aileen

I don't even let the OH walk Daisy off-lead, he very seldom walks her so doesn't understand the protocols I go through for walking a dog aggressive dog.

Even Spud ran away from him many years ago !, the first I knew was my neighbour at my door with Spud, she'd been walking past and he was standing at the front door !. Poor Eddie was pelting up the road in a complete panic, I think he was more worried about what I'd do to him for losing my boy. It wasn't because he didn't like Ed, just that he wasn't used to being walked by him.
So no, I wouldn't risk letting a stranger walk a dog I owned off lead, I'd even be very fussy about who was allowed to walk them on lead.

We have a dog sitter/walker who is employed by a company to look after dogs in her own home that comes onto our local park. Lovely lady but would I trust her with my dogs, a big fat NO. A Labradoodle that she looks after attacked my (then) 11 month old and took a piece out of her face. The dog was off lead. Then, the other day she came onto the park with her own dog and a GSD which I have never seen before. She let them both off but could not see who else was on the park. I grabbed my 15 week old puppy and my one year old (that got bitten last time) and had to leave my others off lead as they were spread out. The GSD was fine , great, but the two dogs then started chasing two ducks that had just landed on a puddle that was in the park. The male duck took off with the two dogs in hot pursuit, but stayed quite low as it was probably loath to leave its mate. She never once called them back from the chase but stood there smiling at the 'fun'. Her own dog eventually stopped but the GSD kept chasing and as the duck flew towards the entrance to the park she then started calling it. At this popint the dog could not be seen. She called in such a soft voice I doubt the dog could even hear her. Luckily the duck changed direction and came back into the park. We stood there in total shock as the park has a hidden entrance to traffic and a couple of dogs have been killed running out of the park. I say again, would I want my dogs being looked after by her???? This company that she 'works' for has loads of credentials but I just wish the owners could have seen the antics.

Haven't read to the end of this topic yet but LJS, i have greyhounds. If they are let off and see a hare a mile away, they will be GONE long before some dog walker can catch them. They could get lost, knocked down by a car, shot by a farmer et al. I do not wish to pay someone to risk my dog's lives and worry me throughout my supposed holiday. Perhaps if I had a labrador I would feel differently but as it stands despite my dogs having a reliable recall, I am very choosy with the areas they are let off in, the other people/animals present, and the general conditions.

Anothe issue which concerns me is that throughout the British Isles, greyhounds are not seen by the mainstream as suitable pets. Therefore, I take great responsibility in letting them off safely, and them recalling safely. I don't want someone else letting my dogs off and my extremely fast dogs galloping up to someone, petrifying them, and perpetuating the myth that they are a vicious and scary breed (ridiculous though that is). They are large dogs and very fast so it would not surprise me if a child, or non-dog person, would be frightened to see them running full pelt up to them in a park.

We're going away for 4 days, not even 4 full days, they will be fine on lead for that period.

Yes fair enough some dogs would be at more of a risk but I suppose having Labs that is why I am perhaps more relaxed and just the way they are trained I suppose:-)

I have yet to meet a hare/rabbit on my walks but I can only presume that when I do all our reliable recall work will be for naught.... I'd rather a dog walker not experience this with my dogs!

My dogs go after rabbits  and hares ( self service supper) but we only walk on land that is safe and away from roads.

They are also trained to the whistle as well which also helps but the difference between a gun dog and a sight hound I can see why the caution is there :-)

So sorry you are having this problem  - I have pugs, about as from form your breed as you can get, but my dog sitter knows to only walk them on lead as I would not trust them not to get distracted and trot off.  For a few days, as long as they get walked, why risk it.  Happy to recomend an excellent Hom Sitter in the North East, but have a feeling that is no use to you?

Thanks everyone, I actually found someone and she was as shocked as I was with the reaction of the others - she said she keeps all dogs on lead unless told otherwise and she knows them really well.