I contacted Trisha in September 2017 about watching my two special needs dogs over Thanksgiving, at…read morethe recommendation of several people in my neighborhood's Facebook group. She seemed like a great fit, and we hired her. Sadly, it did not end well, and I must recommend that other pet owners do not hire this company.
Details:
-They are operating an illegal business. Their LLC has been suspended by the State of CA for tax issues, making it illegal to advertise, accept payment, or do business. The city says their business license expired 7yrs ago, also illegal.
-They advertise themselves as bonded/insured, but no one can find record of their insurance company ("PAS Pet Sitters Association") even existing. A well-known company with a similar name ("Pet Sitters Associates") has confirmed that they have no record of Dog Gone Pet Pros ever being bonded/insured by them.
When I first contacted Trisha, I emphasized the importance of not leaving our dogs home alone more than 8hrs/day (one has severe separation anxiety), which she agreed to. She admitted after we boarded our plane that she never planned on being with them more than 12hrs/day, and tried to leave them alone 14-16hrs/day (basically just sleeping at the house). For a dog w/ sep anxiety, that is *torture*, and she had no compassion whatsoever. At the insane price of $85/night, I 100% expected her to spend more than 2 waking hours with my dogs, especially since that's what she agreed to in writing & in person.
-Before leaving town, we decided to turn on our security camera at the front door and gave her a heads up as a courtesy; she immediately brought up that her marriage had ended "at some point in the last 2 months" and her kids' father was out of town, so she couldn't stay with the dogs & needed to send her business partner Jamie (a man we had never met). We were sympathetic to her situation, but it didn't sound like this was a new development; she'd been texting me all morning and didn't mention anything was amiss. It appeared as though she planned to have Jamie stay with the dogs all along, and only told us about it because of the camera.
-We were forced to agree to Jamie staying with the dogs temporarily, while we quietly looked for a new sitter to take over. We were shocked to see on our security camera that Jamie invited a female companion (non-employee) to stay at our house overnight each day, without asking our permission or notifying us. When confronted, he just texted me "sry I forgot to let you know but I didn't feel like being alone"-- completely unprofessional.
-Despite being specifically warned to triple check all doors and gates because our deaf/blind dog has no way of finding his way home if he gets lost and would likely get hit by a car... Jamie left a gate open, and one of our dogs ran away. Thank god he got the dog back, but again, didn't tell us about it until confronted & denied responsibility for leaving the gate open.
-Our camera was mysteriously unplugged. The camera automatically notified us & sent us the last clips before it was unplugged; Jamie was yelling at our dog to come to him while the dog whimpered off camera, and then the last clip was Jamie walking towards the camera before it went offline. It could have been an accident or intentionally unplugged, but it was the last straw for us and we needed these people out of our house immediately.
We had one of my husband's marines go over & check on our pets, and supervise while Jamie packed up his stuff & left. It is incredibly stressful to be halfway across the country while a total stranger has full access to your home & pets, knowing that they have lied to you repeatedly & not knowing if they are the kind of person to retaliate (again, had never even met Jamie).
The constant lying and the blatant lack of regard for our dogs' welfare & safety (or even our house's safety, allowing a non-employee to stay there) was horrific, and I have to strongly caution other pet owners to never hire this company.
If you go on their website, they proudly link to a newspaper article where Trisha & Jamie say they got into the petsitting business because Californians seem willing to spend a lot of money on their pets, and petcare businesses have low start-up costs. They are in this for the money, not the love of the animals, and it shows in how they do business. Avoid at all costs.