A TikToker has gone viral after sharing her worrying experience with a dog sitter. In the clip, which has amassed 1.2 million views, Ellen (@ellentift) began by explaining that her dog, Happy, has separation anxiety, and so while she went away on vacation, she decided to get Happy a sitter through what she thought was a “vetted” website.
Ellen says that when she initially met the dog sitter, she seemed “very sweet” and enthusiastic about spending time with Happy. But after feeling compelled to check her security cameras, she discovered that the sitter wasn’t staying in the house overnight as previously agreed with Ellen. Instead, according to the security camera, she stayed for just eight minutes: leaving the property at 7:30am and briefly returning at 2:30pm.
The next day, as Ellen noted in an email to the Daily Dot, Happy had just 13 minutes of exercise broken up into three brief trips.
The sitter was caught in a lie
According to Ellen, the sitter lied to her by responding to texts as if she slept in the same house as Happy. This, she said, compelled her to confront the sitter. In response, the sitter purportedly kept claiming that she was at “Bible study” for extended periods of time when she should’ve been with the dog. Furthermore, Ellen discovered that the pictures the sitter was sending her didn’t line up with the timestamps on the photographs. When caught out, Ellen says the sitter was apologetic. But this “lip service” wasn’t enough.
“Anyone who can leave my dog alone that much when I am paying them to sleep in my house and love on my dog, and then lie and pretend as if they’re doing it—I’m sorry, but I believe behavior,” she said. “I don’t care what you’re saying to me now.”
“I spent an hour on the phone tonight with the website that I hired her through, and they’re going to try to find a replacement for the last two days of my vacation.” she added. “But this is like, I’m on vacation. Like I’m trying to relax. I was so mad. I was shaking. This is my dog. And he’s like a rescue and he has separation anxiety and trauma.”
Rover troubles
In a subsequent video, Ellen revealed that the dog sitting site she used was Rover. She also added in a TikTok comment that the sitter had a five-star rating on the service.
At the time of filming the TikTok, the sitter was still in Ellen’s house. “I’m hoping they find somebody and I’m hoping that we can have a smooth transition in the morning,” she said, adding that the sitter still, at that time, had a key to her home. Eventually, she got a replacement sitter through the service, but in an email exchange with the Daily Dot, Ellen claimed that the service hadn’t refunded her. She also claimed that, despite purportedly being led to believe otherwise, the original sitter hasn’t been removed from the Rover site.
In an email to the Daily Dot, a spokesperson for Rover said: “We are deeply sorry that the care provided by a sitter on our platform failed to meet this pet parent’s expectations. Our 24/7 Trust and Safety Team worked with Happy’s family to quickly find a different sitter to provide care, and we understand Happy was well cared for over the remainder of the pet parent’s trip.”
@ellentift 1:33am and im not even ready to sleep 😔 #dogdrama #dogpeople #dogperson #dogtok #dogsitter #lame #mysweetpup #poorpuppers #sweetpup #puppertok #dogtok #puptok #shichon #ilovemypup #ilovemydog #dogsarethebest #drama #canyoubelieve #rover ♬ original sound – Ellen Tift
This isn’t the first time that Rover sitters have sparked complaint on TikTok. One customer went viral after revealing her sitter lost her dog and then lied about it, while another purported dog sitter left the animal burnt and traumatized.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
