Mum furious as tradesman brings dog to her house – and lets it run free in the garden

A mum has expressed her frustration after a tradesman brought his dog to her house unannounced and let it run free in her garden – ruining several plants in the process

If you need work done on your house, it’s likely you’ll make arrangements for a particular tradesman to come over and complete the work for you – be it a plumber, electrician, builder, or otherwise. But how many times have you had a tradesman in your house who brought their pets on the job with them?

That’s what one woman has claimed happened to her recently, as she said she was stunned to discover the man completing work on her home had brought his dog with him. And although the dog stayed inside the van at first, it was soon let out to run around the woman’s garden without her permission – destroying plants and doing its business on her grass in the process.

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In a post ranting about the situation on Mumsnet, she said: “I’m having work done on my house. Major works. A particular trade turned up today for the first time – he’s sub-contracted to my builders. It’s 10 am, so not like they were in a rush to get here.

“After I chatted to them to confirm specifics of the job, I disappeared. I then see a dog being let out of his van and running around the front of my house. I then see him and the dog go round to back.

“By the time I get to the back, said dog is running into my borders over my plants, and on my lawn. By the time I get the back doors open to say something, the dog is peeing and dumping on my lawn. The guy is nowhere to be seen – or told – quickly enough to stop the dog.”

The mum said that once the tradesman had left, she found one plant completely broken and the remains of dog poo on the grass – which she believes is “bang out of order”.

She did admit that the builder seemed to have “bagged most” of the poo, but there were remnants left behind that she had to clean up herself.

She added: “Am I being unreasonable to think this is bang out of order? He’s now left and I went to look – a plant stem is broken and there are the remains of dog poo on my lawn. Ok, my garden is a bit messy as I’ve not been able to do anything out there for 4 weeks due to builders’ stuff – but it isn’t a builders’ yard or uncared for.

“When I say remains – the owners clearly bagged most of it, but there are remnants left.”

Commenters on the Mumsnet post were equally as baffled by the tradesman’s behaviour, as many of them said they also wouldn’t have liked to have a stranger’s dog run rampant in their garden.

One person said: “I wouldn’t have liked that either. What if you’d had pets that don’t take well to random dogs in their space?”

While another added: “I would let your builders know and say that you’re really not happy with the sub-contractor and that if he comes back again he is not to bring the dog. I’m a dog owner but this would really annoy me.”

And a third wrote: “I have a large garden where it wouldn’t matter if a dog ran round and I often let the neighbours dogs there. But even so, the builder’s contractor wasn’t to know your circumstances, such as if you had young children or a cat or a reactive dog. He should have asked if you minded, that’s just manners and he should have thrown water over any remaining poo.”

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