I've been trying to break up with our dog walker for about 3 months now. It hasn't worked. I never had a romantic relationship that swelled into an exhausted love/hate, on-again/off-again embroilment, but this sure feels like one. Like any truly ambivalent relationship, our dog walking entanglement is painfully running its course.
I get all riled up and declare, like the fed-up girlfriend in a tumultuous paring, that I'm going to end it. But then get angsty by fretting over all the positive things about her and back down again. She's great with Auggie! She's totally dependable! She's reasonably priced! She's licensed and insured and has lots of experience with dogs with special needs!
But the bottom line is that she is driving me crazy.
When I met with her back in October, I was very clear that Hubs was on an academic schedule, that it was subject to change, and that he had long school breaks where he would be home and could walk AugDog himself. She seemed totally OK with that. Until the first break rolled around. There was drama, and push-back about her not getting paid for 2 weeks, and she could easily fill Auggie's time slot with another dog, but that she liked Auggie and wanted to keep working with us. I felt frantic for a few days, but eventually we all cooled down and we decided to keep working with her rather than start over looking for a new walker.
The negative vibes started simmering again when we told her that we really only needed 4 walks a week instead of 5 during the winter and spring. Passive-aggressive text convos, coupled with guilt trips and my determination to do what was best for Auggie resulted in deciding to stick with her, even agreeing to keep paying for all 5 days even though we only needed 4. We just stuck it out with gritted teeth.
But then, after these last two weeks with Hubs home on break, we did a little research and asking friends, and figured out that we could really just cut the cord on our walker and get a better, cheaper, less emotionally-draining arrangement. I emailed her. I told her that we appreciated her great work with Auggie, but it seemed like a good time to start using a different walker whose payment policies allowed us to get just the 3-4 walks we needed each week. No reply. For three days.... Grrrr... Finally, on Sunday night, I get a text asking me if we would let her keep walking Auggie until she had another arrangement lined up to take his slot. She also mentioned that someone had asked for his slot 3 weeks ago, but that she had turned them down, which she now regretted.
And despite seething a little over the blame-game she was mustering, I just texted her back a cheery "Sounds good! Let us know as soon as you have a new client."
Because I am just that.... nice? Stupid?
I'm consoling myself with the assurance that I do not want to burn any bridges with her. We may need her in the future, and I do think that Auggie really likes her. So I'd like to keep on her good side.
I am, however, reminded that there is such a thing as "too nice". Especially when it comes to professional services. What can I say? I'm a sucker. And I don't like to piss off people whose help I may need in the future. Is this what it's like to ditch a baby sitter? I'm sure AugDog would be fine no matter who takes him out for his afternoon bathroom break. I'm the one with all the glitches.
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