In today’s high-tech society, we have apps to make everything easier—dating, editing, and now even pet care. These pet care apps can aid in helping find a dog sitter, walker, or whatever. However, there aren’t many regulations on around these apps, so up to the specific app company on how to hire the people working on their app. This has become a point of discussion with these kinds of apps because you’re basically paying for a complete stranger to car for you beloved furbaby. How do you know if this person is kind to animals, responsible, or professional? You basically just have to put your faith 100% into the app and hope you get a good person.
This question came seriously into play with a woman using the Rover app. The app has had many ups and downs since its start, mainly because they notoriously do not have a very serious vetting process for participants willing to work. You might think, «how much experience does a person really need to walk a dog anyways?» It’s not about if you can walk, it’s about if you know how to care for a living creature. You wouldn’t hire just anybody to babysit your child—well, for many of these dog owners, their dog is their child.
Recently, this woman went viral for a nightmarish story she had with a Rover walker. Out of the blue, she had gotten a call from a stranger in the middle of the day. What he said shocked her—he said that he had found her dog. It was completely new information to her that her dogs was even lost. The man brought the dog back to her and she was happy to see that her pup was unharmed. However, her next concern was why the heck didn’t she know her 13 and a half year old senior dog was lost? She waited to see if her Rover walker was going to let her know, but hours passed and nothing. Finally, 7 hours after she had gotten her dog back and reported it to Rover, the sitter told her the dog was missing.
She asked her a couple of questions before finally revealing to her that she knows that she lost the dog, because she had her dog. The woman opened a case with Rover and got her pup looked at by the vet to make sure they didn’t get hurt or ingest anything horrible while they were «lost» for hours. Luckily, no one was hurt and the dog was home before the mom even knew it, but a hard blow has been made in having faith in these «helpful» apps. See the whole story for yourself below—plus, Q&As with the dog owner and reactions from other Rover employees, vets, and dog owners.
