Puppy back from dogsitter smelling of smoke

catkins

This afternoon we collected our puppy from the dogsitter (he was there from yesterday lunchtime) and hj smelt strongly of cigarette smoke. Both me and OH are unhappy about this and are thinking of not using the sitter again.

I spoke to a friend on the phone however and she said we were being ridiculous about it. Admittedly she has no pets and is not really an animal lover.

What do other people think about it? Neither me or OH smoke but if we did it would not be around any pet of ours let alone a young puppy

McKneff

I'm a smoker and try to treat our cat as I would any one else in the house, we smoke in the conservatory, the cat is banned from there until we have finished, and 15 minutes of the door being left wide open she can come in again. She is either outside or shut in the living room.

The vet said that it does affect them the same as any other living being. We took her for a sore head and the vet said she actually knew we smoked because she was a bit wheezy and smelled of smoke, we were horrified and so our rules kicked in.
If you are not happy about it OP, change your dogsitter.

We used to both smoke in the house, how the hell the budgie lasted 10 years when we both stoked up in the sitting room is beyond me. lol

BillyB

Did you discuss with the dogsitter that you'd rather s/he not smoke around your puppy, before they started looking after him?
Some people wouldnt see this as unacceptable, maybe speak to them about it. It may be that they didnt see anything wrong with it.

catkins

BillyB wrote: »

Did you discuss with the dogsitter that you'd rather s/he not smoke around your puppy, before they started looking after him?
Some people wouldnt see this as unacceptable, maybe speak to them about it. It may be that they didnt see anything wrong with it.

We didn't realise she did smoke. Or it may be her boyfriend that smokes.

We know her but not really well. She is a dog groomer too and used to groom our previous dog. She really loves dogs and we totally trust her to look after our puppy. We have only had him 2 months but this was the third time she had looked after him. Neither of us noticed him smelling the other times.

She lives with her boyfriend and I know she was working part of yesterday and today so think he may have been looking after our dog. We don't have a problem with that but if it is him smoking around the puppy we are not happy.

We don't really know how to mention it to her. Because we don't know her really well it is not easy to text or phone her and say anything. We wouldn't want to upset her.

We will definitely still use her for grooming even if we decide not to let her look after our boy again.

Really I wanted to see if others thought we were silly and over reacting as my friend did.

whitewing

I don't have pets and I don't think you're overreacting. You should mention it to the sitter - she is a professional so she ought to be able to deal with concerns like this being raised.

Fire_Fox

I certainly don't think you are overreacting as passive smoking and even residues on clothing can cause health problems in children so why not puppies? But at the same time you didn't specify no smoking so it is awkward.

whitewing

None of my friends or family smoke (any more) so it never actually occurs to me that anyone does. I wouldn't specify for that reason.

littlesnuggy

A friend once went to great lengths finding a dog-sitter, carrying out thorough phone interviews before narrowing down a shortlist. One 'candidate' was rejected after the phone calls just because she sounded like a smoker!

I wouldn't let my dog be looked after by a smoker and would be miffed if my non-smoking dog sitter took him somewhere where he was subjected to it.

Torry_Quine

It seems that as you never mentioned smoking in possibly never occurred to her that it would be an issue. Presumably she has her own pet(s) and smokes near them.

POPPYOSCAR

Be honest with her.

Tell her that it was really noticeable that he smelt of smoke when you collected him and that you were surprised as you did not think he would be in a smoking environment.

See what she has to say, perhaps if she understand that you are not happy about it, she will ensure it does not happen again.

con1888

I wouldn't be happy, I would mention it in a friendly way and see what they say.

People aren't supposed to smoke in workplaces and regardless of the fact she works with animals in her home it's still a workplace where she deals with customers.

I wouldn't use a pet sitter who smokes around my pets, it will harm them the same as it does children. I'm not a smoker but my mum is.