Hey April! Youāve asked for an essay...
We do have a size limit: under 40 lbs. but the truth is itās feast or famine. Lots of dogs under 15, and the occasional 30+lbs. very little in the 15-30 lbs range. Poodles and yorkie mixes are common stays. Sasha (our 11 yr old teacup yorkie) just isnāt a fan of other dogs; I havenāt figured out why but she often inspires bullying against her. Sheās often picked on. Smaller dogs, we can easily control. Bigger dogs, one wrong step and she could easily be killed.
And itās an issue with Parker. A big dog jumping on Parkerās cage is much more terrifying than a little cavalier King Charles spaniel. We occasionally thought about opening up to larger dogs - a sweet golden retriever would be very welcome here. But our small dog business is busy enough that we donāt really want any more incremental business, period. Weāre actually hoping it slows down this year. We hit CAPACITY for what weāre willing to do.
And of course in the meantime Iām looking at getting a part time weekend job as a kennel attendant to really help put a dent in the debt. So busy in one area, so take up more work somewhere else too.
Lord, well behaved, potty trained dogs...Iāve got a few stories. But it comes down to this: you adapt. That simple. We only take two clients at a time to keep it easy on us. We have the ability to separate the house into two living parts, upstairs and down stairs. If we have a dog who isnāt getting along with Sasha or other dogs, eddie and I divide and conquer. One will stay downstairs with one dog, the other will stay upstairs with the others.
Dogs will often sleep in the bed with us, so if we have dogs who donāt get along, or too many dogs (we get a lot of duos, like the cavalier and three legged yorkie above, and part of those two clients at a time is occasionally two pairs of dogs at a time), we will sleep in separate beds to make sure they all get bed time.
And yes, Iāve had a puppy reduce me to tears. Only once, but he was freaking insane and it was having behvaioral effects on Sasha, making things a lot worse.
If a dog isnāt as potty trained as advertised (only really happened once, and we should have known better because it was a 13 week puppy), we just revert to puppy potty training techniques: out every couple hours, after a nap, after dinner, etc.
Responsibility for others dogs is tough. Iāve got a few terrifying stories about dogs slipping collars and harnesses (Iām no longer a fan of any restraint device. You name it, weāve had a dog escape it). Miraculously all these stories end ok, but itās absolutely forefront of our minds that it may only be a matter of time before we lose one despite our best efforts. A friend lost their dog when a rover sitter lost the dog while on a walk. Itās just a risk you take.
But for all the risks, there are absolutely rewards. We kept the miki shown earlier in this thread, and he was sweet but had NO obedience training. I was able to teach him sit, and you could see a lightbulb go off. He LOVED our training sessions, and it supposedly changed how his parents interacted with him. They initially though he was ātoo smartā to learn sit...their words: āyou tell him to sit and he sits there thinking āscrew youāā. It was a beautiful thing to see and be a part of.