wanted to share an incident

two summers ago i signed up for rover as a sitter, since i didn’t have much to do (i’m a college student) and i make my own hours at my job anyway. first dog i sit for is named sasha, described as “a puppy at heart, but nervous around strangers.”

we do a little meet-up at her owners’ house and they show me her usual walking route. she’s pretty friendly to me!! wagging her tail, accepting ear rubs, not the best behaved with jumping and barking, but they say she’s still pretty young. she’s got the classic pit bull head shape and broad shoulders. a little scary, but she’s probably about 30 lbs. i can handle it.

then it’s time for me to come by and walk her by myself. i let myself in, announce myself, and she’s in her crate FREAKING OUT. growling, lunging at me, practically foaming at the mouth. i call the owners, they apologize and say “she gets like that sometimes.” which is crazy because if you know she behaves like this, why were you just going to let a 19-year old girl waltz on in there without warning her? i bail on the whole thing for my own safety, owners are super apologetic and pay me for the day anyway.

i’m extremely thankful she was crated. i was totally alone in there, and if she had attacked no one would have known until the owners got back from that wedding. why do people with aggressive dogs never want to admit that their dogs have behavioral issues?? all it does is set people up to get hurt.