LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — If you’re going out of town this weekend or anytime soon, you may need to hire a dog sitter. One of the easiest and fastest ways to do that is through an app, like Rover, that can connect you to those services.
But a warning to the locals before you do that.
We’ve now spoken to three families in Las Vegas, all with heartbreaking stories, after leaving their pets in the care of a Rover sitter.
“I thought I’d done all my research. I thought I checked all the boxes,” said Nicole Manson, whose walkers these days are more lonely. “It literally broke my heart. I’m like, sick to my stomach all the time.”
Instead of exercising with her mini Aussiedoodle, Gunner, she desperately searches for him.
“He meant the world.”
Manson, who is Navajo, explained that dogs have long been an important part of Navajo life.
“He’s like a child. He literally loves to be held.”
The Navajo people believe that dogs can absorb negative energy without harming themselves and they protect the family that way.
Manson got Gunner as a puppy, a gift from a friend whose dog had a litter.
“My friend knows I’m Navajo, so we don’t buy animals–dogs.”
That is because they are considered protectors, which are priceless.
“He was always with me. We would travel together back and forth between Utah and Arizona, seeing family. He loved my dad and brother very much.”
Manson lives in St. George, Utah. In late October, she went to Las Vegas for a family function at South Point and didn’t want to leave one-year-old Gunner behind.
“I wanted him to be somewhere close because this was gonna be his first place where he was gonna be alone, without me. And so, I picked the nearest place on Rover.”
Sitter Irene Moore has her own dog to keep Gunner company and is highly rated on the Rover app.
The two had a Meet & Greet before Manson decided to hire her.
“His home is very homey and it’s very welcoming for my dog.”
Everything seems to be going great… until it isn’t.
“Gunner was with him for 10 hours. The first five hours were constant messaging, pictures, videos, and the last five hours were quiet.”
Around 10:30 pm, Manson received texts from Moore saying, “Call me… Emergency.”
“She was like, ‘Gunner’s out. We need help finding him’.”
Moore declined to go on camera for this story but spoke with 13 Investigates at length over the phone. She said she helped search for Gunner for days, made and posted flyers, and made repeated calls to shelters and vet hospitals. He also spoke with professional tracker Michele Dorais-Hood, whom Manson reached out to for help.
“I got an article of perfume from the owner of Gunner,” Hood explained, which he gave to his tracking dog, Smooch.
“And we tracked Gunner leaving the house, going through the neighborhood and out onto the main street. And then, he lost a scent across the street in a neighborhood, which could mean Gunner was taken.”
The sitter lives in a gated community less than two miles from South Point.
She has a front gate with a hole in the bottom of it big enough for a small dog to get in and that’s not the only problem with the sitter’s property.
“She’s got these concrete pillars and they have this netting, very light netting, on the front,” explained Hood. “And there’s a big hole in there, so any dog can get out.”
Gunner’s escape may have been recorded on the sitter’s Ring app. But in a text to Hood, Moore said her Ring device had stopped recording a week earlier because her drive was full. He wrote, “I didn’t know it stopped because I rarely/don’t check clips.”
There is another concern. In some of the photos Moore sent, Nicole noticed that Gunner was wearing a strange collar.
“His collar was not his. It was a different collar and it looked like a barking shock collar to him.”
Manson does not own an e-collar, did not give one to the sitter, and said Gunner had never worn one before.
“You would never put a bark collar on them for quieting them without the owner’s permission,” Hood said.
In a text stream, Hood questions the sitter, asking “Is that a bark collar?” Moore answers “Yes it is but please don’t tell her (Nicole) that. She will think it’s abuse. I told her it’s just a collar. She’s been barking for a long time and my neighbors are complaining.”
“If someone he didn’t know put something on him that hurt him, yes, he would run away or he would hide or stay away from the house or the place that hurt him,” Manson said.
There’s no way to know if the bark collar contributed to Gunner’s anxiety. The sitter said she removed it before she ran away.
Rover’s Trust and Safety team suspended Moore’s account pending an investigation but reinstated it a week later, citing his “open communication” and “dedicated effort to help find Gunner”, writing, “Sincerely- we sincerely believe that you did everything in your power to help.”
Manson feels the sitter was negligent in keeping his home and supervising Gunner. And even though it had been almost four months, he still had no hope of finding her.
“I’ve been coming out here every weekend. He is a loved dog. I know people find dogs and they think they’re being neglected or something. He wasn’t. He was very much loved. He’s still loved.”
And he just wants the one he loves to come home.
“I won’t ask. Literally … All I want is my dog.”
The sitter said she took her Rover profile down after the incident with Gunner and hasn’t done any dog-sitting since.
Rover declined to participate in an interview, but sent the following statement:
“We were very saddened to learn of Gunner’s loss, and we hope that he will be reunited with his family soon.
To support search efforts, our team is offering a $500 reward for information leading to finding Gunner. We also purchased hundreds of flyers, posted them online in pet forums linked directly to local vets and other care facilities, and issued full refunds. We also reached out to Rover pet sitters in the area for help in the search.
In addition to staying in close communication with Gunner’s family and pet care provider, our 24/7 Trust and Safety Team conducted a thorough investigation to better understand what led to Gunner’s disappearance. We understand that as a result of this investigation, this care provider, with a long history of successful and safe services, has pledged to implement measures to prevent such an incident from happening again.
No one knows their pets’ needs and behaviors better than pet parents, so we encourage pet parents to conduct Meet & Greets with several potential sitters as well as visit the environment where the pet will be provided. care before booking a stay. These conversations, in addition to aligning expectations for care, are important in facilitating safe stays.
We recognize that choosing a care provider is an important decision and we strive to provide information throughout this process. On the Rover platform, pet parents can read verified reviews from past clients to help determine if a pet sitter is a good fit for them and their pet. Except in situations where our policies are violated, Rover does not modify these reviews, regardless of review score or content. This means that if a pet parent has a negative experience, they can leave a publicly available review on the sitter’s profile.
At Rover, we work every day to maintain the trust that millions of pet parents have placed in our community. In the Las Vegas Valley, pet parents have made nearly 200,000 individual bookings, with over 97% of reviewed services rated as 5 stars.”
