We have 7 dogs, our permanent tenants have 3 dogs and we encourage guests to bring dogs. Our guest this week was a professional wildlife manager with 5 hounds! (They stayed in his vehicle and in our camper's little fenced yard and went away all day to help the wildlife service track the mountain lions. No cats are harmed in the process.)
We usually keep our dogs in our house at night. We also have a fenced yard behind the garage so if they go out at night they don't go over by the camper. In the daytime they run in and out if we are home. One is a biter and when we have guests he is either in the house/separate yard or wearing a basket muzzle. Most of our guests love dogs and most of our dogs love guests.
The guests have a deck and yard area that is also fenced so our dogs can be easily kept out. One lovely couple brought the dogs several toys and biscuits and invited their favorite dog to come onto their deck when they were at home.
I have had issues. One guest who was really weird. He was weird to begin with and did not get less weird during his stay. His dog kept getting loose from him and he would not notice. I kept bringing her back. Clueless really that the dog was not safe if unattended on a ranch. Also my German Shepherd watchdog took a dislike to him (she was probably right on) and jumped on his truck which left the tiniest scratch on an old beat up truck and he over reacted. However it was indeed 'my fault' and when I offered to pay for repairs he calmed down. He never did ask for compensation. He was really strange. I was going around cleaning up dog poop in the common area and noticed there was poop in his yard so I cleaned it. He said 'oh no, I would have done that' and I said, 'no problem, I was going by and noticed it so just thought I'd pick it up.' Then he didn't clean any of the poop the rest of his stay and left it all in the yard for me. Guess he wanted his money's worth.
Another couple booked at the last minute while traveling through and although they knew about the dogs and told me they liked dogs it was clear from the wife's behavior that she did not like them and was afraid of them. So we quickly brought them inside and didn't let them back out until they were gone.
A nice family left their small dog unattended in the yard (against house rules) and he was out of the fence (not dog proof and not represented as dog proof) in 5 minutes. I called them and they were surprised that blocking the gap in the fence with a duffle bag had not worked. Then they said they couldn't come back to get him because they were going somewhere that he could not go. After that I tighted up my house rules and reiterate them firmly. No problems since then.
Our best dog guest was an agility competitor with three cute little highly trained rat terriers. She stayed two days, had dinner with us and was so happy with the camper and yard for her dogs. The houndsman guest is pretty great also. Five hounds, goes to bed at 7 and gets up at 4, leaves at 530 am and back in late afternoon. I have not seen or heard him or the hounds in the entire time he has been here (because I get up at 7 and am away at work until 7 pm most days.)
I think the key to having dogs is having clear DOG RULES and making the dogs really obvious in your listing photos and description.
Kerrin
