Michael

We have a 10year old male boerboel - while our first experience with Michael was positive (dog stayed only 1 night with the sitter as a trial), our second experience was less successful (stayed 3 nights with the sitter).

Upon arrival our dog apparently made a mess on the sitter’s carpet, although this is highly uncharacteristic of him as he has not done that in our house even once in 9 years.

When we collected him we were informed that the dog destroyed one of the sitter’s toys (even though his breed is known to be powerful chewers, and while we for that reason sent him with his own toy). We reimbursed the sitter for the toy.

These two incidents led to the sitter afterwards notifying us via Pawshake that he will not look after the dog again, even though when we collected the dog the sitter said all went well. While we fully respect the sitter’s decision, we would have appreciated honest feedback upon arrival. This left a bad taste.

Ratings:

2 stars for communication: lack of transparency.

2 stars for conscientious: given circumstances difficult to gauge.

2 stars for accuracy of profile: sitter’s setup is not suited for large and/or old dogs (based on our experience and his feedback).

3 stars for treatment of animal: Unsure and not comfortable commenting.

3 stars for value: cost in line with other sitters.

NS: I asked Michael to remove the photo of our dog from his profile (boerboel playing seemingly peaceful with a red toy during his first trial visit) as I would not want this photo to mislead other dog owners implying the sitter comfortably looks after this type of dog. At the time of posting this review this was not yet done, nor has the sitter responded to my request. The photo was also posted without our consent.

Our experience with Michael has been very positive. Our 10yr old boerboel was clearly well looked after as he was calm and relaxed when we collected him. We received frequent photos and updates of how was doing. Can definitely recommend Michael.