Dog sitting – Why I no longer sit small dogs

I stopped sitting dogs under 40lbs in 2024. This was largely due to the overall size of the dogs that are recurring clients which has tended to be 80-150lbs, the temperament of small dogs, their propensity for slipping through cracks or under fences and escaping, and their care and health being tougher to manage. Don’t get me wrong, small dogs can be great for a lot of lifestyles but there were just too many issues I was running into sitting them.

I sit a lot of very large dogs. I don’t know specifically why clients seem to pick me for their large dogs. It could be that I have a large dog and because I’m male instead of one of the many ladies on Rover. There are tons of female sitters who are definitely as good or better than me but it does seem there’s an inherent bias to leave larger dogs with men. All of that aside, it is unsafe to put large dogs with small dogs unless you know the temperament of the large dog very well and you are willing to closely supervise. It wouldn’t take much for a 150lb Rottweiler to take out a Pomeranian in a couple seconds and there is no fixing that. At least with dogs of similar sizes you have time to intervene if needed.
Small dogs often have small dog syndrome which is pretty much reactivity to large dogs they don’t know. This just isn’t something that I care to try to fix in client dogs. I’m not a dog trainer so I would prefer to just not mess with that.

I find that small dogs have to be supervised more closely than other dogs because they somehow figure out how to escape even when it seems like there is no way to escape. I’ve had small dogs inexplicably crawl under fences and through cracks that they shouldn’t have been able to fit through. Larger dogs that can’t jump fences are pretty much stuck so you don’t have to worry about that as much with them.

Lastly, small dogs generally need to eat more frequently and if they don’t eat they are more susceptible to other health conditions. I’m not a vet so I’m not pretend to explain any of that but I do know you have to worry a lot more about small dogs not eating because they can starve or become susceptible to other health conditions more quickly from not eating than a large dog that has more in reserve.

If you are a small dog person and have extremely limited space, small dogs can still be a great option. I have just found they present more issues for me given my clientele so I no longer sit them.