I too would be seeking legal advice. The situation could have been much worse, what if you had not been able to get home pretty soon the dog would have bled to death. Anyone who walks dogs as a proffesion should be responsible. Was this meeting so important it could have cost your dog its life. How did she know you would be able to get home at a minutes notice!
The other people who employ her ought to be made aware of the situation you were put in, and decide for themselves whether they want to take the risk of her leaving their dogs injured!
We all know accidents happen sometimes but would you leave a dog with a bad wound while you went to a meeting. I know where my priorities would lie.

Glad your dog is on the mend

Longdog

Thanks for the advise, i am still in shock so will conact my ex dog walker in a couple of days, my girl is now fine, but as you say it could of been alot worse, i asked her why she didn't call me straight away, she said she had to first drive home and find my number so my dog was there for a good 45 minutes on her own, she even had a wee on the, which show you how distraught she was as she is such a clean girl bless her.

I will look into this further when i'm calm :)
I just feel a bit respsonisble as i took this woman on with goo recomendation and this happens.

Suzi

As someone who used to do this I am appalled that she left the dog in those circumstances. I still do take on a couple of the dogs that used to come to me regularly and one agreement I have with the owners is that if I am in any way unhappy about the dogs health, or if it has an injury, then I can take it straight to their vet for attention. One of the first questions I asked of any owner was the phone number of the vet, obviously if circumstances permit you contact the owner first, but in an emergency, which I would class your case, I would phone them from the vets.
Ingrid

Hi Ingrid,

She had all my number and vets name, but they were at her home, i asked her why she didn't have a mobile phone, as i thought that would be crucial!
She said she would of taken her to the vets but, had a meeting! I'm not sure that she knew how serious the wound was, she bathed her leg in salt water and left to call me, i was home in 10 mins but my poor girl was so distressed. All over now thank god.

Suzi

P.S i did sign a contract when i go home in half an hour i will dig it out and see what is says.

As i said i will call her in a couple of days and let rip. She did call later that night in a flap saying how sorry she was, she is an older lady, thats why i trusted her and my girl seems happy to be with her, its a shame this has happened, it makes you realise how much you love your dogs as i was panic stricken when she called me, as anyone would be.

Thanks all
Suzi

She is certainly legally and ethically responsible. I would consider a mobile phone to be a must when walking a dog, especially someone else's pet. I'd be interested in seeing what the contract states and at the very least would be notifying her customers and any vets or pet stores, etc. that were advertising her services. I would not have been as upset with the dog being injured in her care IF and that is a big 'if' she had not compounded the incident with her total negligence. She had a meeting to go to? She also had a primary responsibility to see to the welfare of your pet.

Please, please do not try to justify it in your mind by saying she might not have known how serious the injury was. Using that rationale, she might not have also known if the injury had damaged a tendon or an artery which might have bled out. There is no excuse for her not to have taken your phone number with her when she walked your dog.

I would also check for her insurance. You are certainly entitled to receive damages based on her lack of responsibility. I'm sorry but I consider this to be of the same magnitude as a hit and run driver who then tries to make it all right. The dog needed medical care immediately, not the 45 minutes it took her to get to her home (or meeting) and contact you and then the 10 minutes of utter panic that you spent driving home and the resultant time to get to the vets. The appropriate thing for her to have done was to have known who you used as a vet and to have gone immediately there. I assume that they have your phone numbers on file and could have contacted you for permission to treat while you then drove there.

Age, intent, being a 'nice' person are all not excuses for her behavior.

I'm sorry, but I'm furious and it's not nice to make a legal-sort mad **winking**.

i know, eveything you have said happened and i have been going over and over it again in my mind and you are all right, i am still so angry with the walker i know i will pick up the phone and a load of abuse will come out. I still can't beleive it myself.

There are no excuses i know - but believe me i will be taking some sort of action somehow.

Suzi

If I can help in any way, please do not hesitate to contact me. I'm used to dealing with 'defendants' and sorting out difficult situations. Just remember when you call her that it is best to try to remain calm and non-accusatory while you try to sort it all out. Good luck!

Thank you for your help, and i will be very calm when i finally speak to the ex walker.

Its great to have people to talk to about this, i feel better already

Thanks again
Suzi

Hi Suzi,
It must be so upsetting to have someone you trusted let you down like this. It's quite possible this woman's meeting really was very important to her. It may also have been something she couldn't miss, like dialysis or something. You just don't know! Most people who love animals enough to work with them would never leave them in distress without a really good reason.
I hope your dog has a speedy recovery.

Quinn

Hi,

I asked why the meeting was so inportant she had to leave my dog bleeding tied to the kitchen drawer, a elderly friend of hers was remorgaging her house and need my walker to be there as she gets confused.
If it had been something like you mentioned i understand, but it was handled wrong, the walker did not handle it right and left my dog in distress! and me :(

Sounds like she didn't have her priorities right. I wonder why, if she had all her phone numbers handy, she didn't call her friend to see if she couldn't reschedual her appointment?
Quinn

I just don't think she was prepared for what happened and panicked, she realised she didn't have any numbers on her, i found a message on my phone at home before she called me at work, knowing i was not at home as she had just left my dog their.

I know she loves her animals but just couldn't cope with what was going on and was not prepared for the worst. I havew advised her to get a mobile and keep all numbers with her in future, not in a drawer at home. I will not use her again.

Suzi

I was shocked to read your posting about your dog walker.
I have walked other peoples dogs for 4yrs now,{I have kept,bred,loved and shown dogs of my own for 20yrs}.
I am not a professional and not insured and the dogs owners now that BUT I would NEVER have done what she did I treat the dogs as if they are my own and would have said STUFF THE MEETING and rushed the dog to the vets . I would have a serious word with your walker and employ someone else as what she did was DISGUSTING.
I have only ever had a couple of cut pads and a bruised leg on the dogs {nothing that needed vetinary treatment}that i have walked and I ALWAYS told the owners what had happened when I got back or phoned one whan she was at work. I do hope your dog is on the mend now.

Emma

I don't know much about the ins and outs of professional dog walking but you never know what is round the corner be it a terrible accident out of your control and god forbid the owners suddenly blame you! I believe you would act differently from Suzi's dog walker but maybe after hearing about this terrible ordeal you should consider insurance anyway, for your own peace of mind if nothing else ??!!??

Hope this doesn't sound patronizing cos it's not mean't to I'm just thinking of you really :-)

Claire.
x

P.S. Suzi hope your dog is continuing to improve, give her a big hug from me :-)

I doubt the lady concerned has insurance if she is just a one person operation, it isn't cheap because of the risks involved with unknown dogs.
From my point it's not that the poor dog was injured that is the problem, it's the fact that she just tied it up in the house and left it, what if Suzi had not been available, would she have just left the dog till Suzi came home.
We all know how easily dogs can injure themselves and I certainly wouldn't blame anyone looking after my hooligans if an accident happened but I would be damned annoyed if they were left without medical help.Ingrid

no worries I only walk them 2-3times a week and I have told the owners that I am not insured but the dogs are and the lady is happy with that