is it worth it? (Advice needed)

Bad Experience

Almost a week ago, I had a meet and greet for someone to do drop ins for her two labs. She had to introduce them to me separately by keeping one in the car at a time. Didn’t think anything of it. Dog A was extremely sweet and was very social and was easy to meet. Dog B however, she had to walk by me first and had to essentially approach me gradually with the dog as the dog was extremely vocal and was clearly not trusting of new people. Dog B calmed down after I gave her treats and that was that.

Owner wanted to schedule some drop ins before the main booking to see if dog B would be willing to let me walk her. Considering she was a bit hesitant on warming up to me during the meet and greet I figured it would be beneficial for the dog who was shyer get used to me, so I agreed to the two drop ins

Well, first drop in happened two days ago and I’m still processing it. Owner was working from home (thank god) and as soon as I walked in dog B started freaking out and barking nonstop. For 25 minutes, owner and I were trying to get dog b to calm down because dog B could NOT go near me even with treats, toys, food, nothing. Then she’d calm down and she’d start barking again nonstop and running away and it was making dog A freak out too.

Owner suggested going outside and playing fetch and it somewhat worked because dog b started calming down but she still wanted to run away from me and was trying to go back inside the entire time. She wants me to go again for another drop in to have dog b get used to me before they go on vacation 2-3 weeks from now.

I went over the services she wanted from me and as of right now, there’s only one more drop in visit before they’ll be gone for almost a week and she wants me to do 3 drop ins everyday for both dogs and suggests I just let dog b go outside while dog a gets a walk. Which I don’t understand how it’s going to work when dog b literally avoided me like the plague whilst continually barking the entire 45 minutes I was there

The owner disclosed to me dog b has never had a dog walker and is only used to the boarding person she goes to, but the boarding person is fully booked during the vacation they’ll be on and I think perhaps it’s why, despite the first drop in being complete crap, she still wants to try dog b having a walker. I’m really trying to be considerate because I’m sure it’s very difficult having a behavioral dog not get used to someone when you’re going on vacation soon with no one to check on her and I really want things to work out but after that first drop in, is it even worth putting the time into it?? And working with dog b??

Like I feel terrible for us already having put time into seeing if dog b would trust me but it was just a constant game of back and forth of the owner even getting dog b near me. I never cancel on people and I haven’t done so in a while so I guess my judgment is just clouded at the moment.

Posted Mar 14, 2026, 3:21 AM UTC

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