Karen wrote:
Greetings

This is a sensible group on Usenet, so I thought I'd ask here.

My daughter is paying her way through college by babysitting. She has 4
different families she baby-sits for regularly. She took on an assignment
for a new family through a referral. She normally doesn't take any new
assignments on, because the families she sits for, treat her very well.

The family has 2 children, and the parents are both doctors. They also have
a pet dog. Within 1 hour, my daughter noticed the dog had one of her less
than a week old sneakers in it's mouth, ripped to shreds.

She paid for these with her money, they ran her $75. The parents refuse to
pay for her sneakers, saying she should be responsible for her sneakers.
She left her shoes at the door, because they have a very nice new home.

I say the people should have warned her about the dog being a chewer, and
should take responsibility for their pet.

Needless to say, she learned a lesson the hard way.

What do you say?









Is this a puppy or a fullgrown dog? A pup I would expect to chew.
Sounds like fullgrown if it tears shoes to shreds. If it tore her
shoes, I would expect that it does damage to the owners' belongings,
too. Very odd that they did not warn her. There are several choices,
and you probably have them in mind: Isolate the dog or put her
belongings away when there to avoid future damage. The thought that
bothers me most is whether if the dog damages the owners' belongings
while your daughter is there, will they hold her responsible. I think
it would be a good idea to give notice and depart from their employ.
Since your daughter was considerate enough to leave her shoes at the
door, it is pretty trashy to avoid responsibility for damage their dog does.