Personal Pet Care

Gretchen takes excellent care of our high-​maintenance dog, and she goes above and beyond with teaching him better manners while he’s there. She clearly adores dogs, and it shows in her care of them. I would recommend her to anyone, especially if you have a rescue dog with behavioral issues or a dog with health conditions.

Let me start by saying that I have owned numerous dogs, and have had a variety of experiences with dog sitting services (both in homes and with vet/kennels)…some good, some not so good. I am pretty particular about who watches my dogs: they are part of the family and I view their care as a top priority when planning to be out of town.
My family and I moved to Colorado 3 years ago and one of my first to do’s was to find a qualified, loving care giver for our dog Ruby for when we travel out of town. After trying a service where individuals list their availability to dog sit, and having a pretty mixed experience, I found an ad for Personal Pet Care in a local magazine and decided to give Gretchen a try for our next trip out of town.
Ruby is a shy dog, and she also has a seizure disorder (the vet thinks she is epileptic; she has seizures every few months). Gretchen took the time during our introductory visit to let Ruby meet her, on her terms. She asked good questions so she could find out about Ruby’s personality, how she gets along with other dogs, where she likes to sleep, how she acts on walks, and what happens when she has seizures.
We had a great experience with Gretchen during Ruby’s first stay with her and have used her for pet care since that first visit. We receive text messages about how Ruby is doing, and photos. Ruby always appears happy and healthy when we pick her up, and Gretchen gives a thorough update on our pet’s stay with her. It is very evident that Gretchen knows what she is doing with dogs: she knows a lot about them, loves them, and is dedicated to their care.
Last year, we adopted a 2^nd dog, Mojo (that Gretchen actually helped us find because she is networked in the rescue community), and both Mojo and Ruby are frequent customers of Gretchen’s dog sitting service. We have used her at least a 12 – 15 times, over 3 years, and have referred friends to Personal Pet Care who also think her service is great.

We had Gretchen baby sat our son/​dog (mojo) while we went on our honeymoon, first off I found her through
and paid through
but then she offered to cancel the Rover payment and give a discount which now I regret doing since I can’t write a review on there.
When I came for the house visit with Mojo all the dogs were kenneled or sectioned off and I asked her if the dogs usually move freely since Mojo gets to roam around the house… She said they are only caged and section off due to feeding time which made sense. Gretchen had some sort of back injury/​pain so didn’t seem to active with the dogs, but she said she could help train mojo on his barking and wait command. She said she will send email/​photo updates, which I was use to from Rover like they would do that every day. So I went with Gretchen.
I had filled out all the requested forms and emailed Gretchen and she acknowledged she received it. Then my sister dropped off Mojo on a Tues. and she asked for the form that I had already emailed her. My sister said all dogs are still kenneled and sectioned off and it wasn’t feeding time and they all looked sad. Kinda felt worried about that. She also didn’t remember that she said she was going to train him to not bark when my sister asked about it…
Then come 3^rd day in of my trip she still havn’t emailed or anything regarding mojo so I sent her an email, and she responded back that she was having phone issues and now it’s working again (no pictures was sent).
Next day I asked if she could send some pictures, she sent 1 picture of him looking miserable when he’s a happy dog, with anybody else he always had a smile in pictures. So out of an 8 day stay I received 2 emails one of them included only 1 picture… 2 EMAILS, it’s like really you couldn’t keep me updated and anytime it’s like oh my phone doesn’t work, or oh this and that excuse… but when I was calling to arrange meeting time and it worked just fine all week. The only time she updated me was because I initiated it and it was like pulling teeth.
Then the day when I pick him up he couldn’t wait to get away from her. She didn’t train him on anything, not barking, heal etc. that she said she would. On top of that she forgot to give me one of his treat box and I had to drive all the way back to get it.
She was a horrible baby sitter, forgetful, unreliable, and would never use again… my precious dog was so sad… Megan from Rover did a great Job and I wish she was still baby sitting so that Mojo didn’t have to go through this horrible experience. Never use again, ignore those card referrals and look at the miserable animals when you drop off your pet that should have been my first sign.