15/12/2023
We'd like to share some insight into the accusations made by 'Who Let The Dogs Out Walkies' aka Martyn John.
We have plenty of evidence to back our side of things.
As many of you are probably already aware, the accusations made against the business and Teri in particular are complete nonsense. Teri is more than capable of looking after a multi dog household and is more than qualified to deal with a situation like this.
On arrival to the property, the place was absolutely filthy and there were multiple issues. As per our T&Cs, we have the right to terminate a petsitting contract if the property is not clean; however Teri proceeded with the petsit.
With regards to one of the dogs digging up the field - every time he started this behaviour, he was pulled away or put back on lead. However, whenever Teri approached him, he would growl at her.
After the first fight, Teri contacted Martyn's emergency contact, who came out to check the dogs over and called Martyn. He proceeded to hurl abuse at her down the phone before hanging up. He then called Teri and proceeded to have a go at her and hurl abuse at her down the phone, blaming her for the dogs fight and accusing her of not managing the dogs properly. He eventually apologised and gave some pointers about what to do.
Within his advice for dealing with the dogs, he informed Teri that he uses a small room in the flat as a 'time out' area to separate them, which would imply that he himself has issues with the dogs behaviour.
The dogs were fine once settled for a few days, but another fight occured the following week. During this fight, one of the dogs grabbed hold of Teri's foot and ragged it about. Luckily Teri was wearing her walking boots at the time. The same dog also went for Teri's partner on two separate occasions whilst trying to keep him away from the other dog. Again the emergency contact was called, and the decision was made not to contact Martyn at that time due to it being late and him needing to be up early.
The following day the dogs were fine with no issues. Teri was extremely anxious about calling Martyn after the abuse and accusations she received following the first fight. As everything was under control and there were only minor injuries, she decided not to tell Martyn until he was back from his holiday to avoid him getting stressed out and ruining the last of his holiday.
The following evening there was another fight, and after speaking with his emergency contact, Teri expressed a wish to take the dogs to the vets to have their wounds properly looked at and cleaned as the dogs were not happy with Teri looking at it, with one of them growling at her when she tried - this was the dog who had bitten her and gone for her partner twice.
Due to wanting to take them to the vets, Teri sent Martyn a message to explain what happened and expressed some anxiety around having to talk to Martyn on the phone due to his previous abusive behaviour towards her. This then spiralled into Martyn again blaming Teri for the dog fights due to being incapable of controlling the dogs, and threatening and slandering the business due to not being happy with the solutions offered. We were accused of withholding information about one of the dog fights, however, the emergency contact was informed due to Martyn being out of the country and not being able to do anything himself. However, information was withheld from us surrounding one of the dogs (the one fighting) having an altercation with another dog previously. Regardless of the reasons behind the altercation, that dog has a previous history of biting another dog and we were not notified of this. This is another breach of our terms and conditions, and we had every right to terminate the contract, but Teri proceeded with the sit.
We terminated the contract effective immediately after the last fight due to the abuse from Martyn, as we will not tolerate being spoken to the way we have been, or being blamed for the dogs fighting each other when something like that is out of our control. Martyn also expressed that he did not want Teri to continue looking after the dogs.
Regarding Teri's knowledge and qualifications - every time she gave Martyn her professional opinion on why the dogs could potentially be fighting, she was told that that wouldn't be happening and he refused to listen or take any of it into account.
The emergency contact offered to take over looking after the dogs herself, we did not force her to do anything. She asked if Teri could stay one final night despite wanting to leave and the contract being terminated, which Teri did to ensure the dogs were safe and not left alone overnight. She also offered to help look after the emergency contacts dog.
Due to the multiple breaches of our terms and conditions, and the reason behind the contract being terminated, Martyn would not have been eligible for any refunds. However, as a gesture of goodwill, we have refunded the remaining 4 nights of the petsit.
We've then woken up this morning to posts over Facebook slandering the business and Teri, and further abusive and threatening messages from Martyn.
We will be taking legal action with regards to this, but wanted to share our side of the story here first.
