Dawn Isenhower Sibcy Cline Realtors

One evening, about a month ago, I met some clients at a property for a showing. They brought their nephew along, so I let him help me open the door. When he pushed the door open, the face of a dog peeked out. Upon seeing the dog, he jumped behind me and I immediately apologized. The homeowners had given their dog the run of the home during our scheduled showing. This was not my listing and I was given no indication that a dog would be in the home at all. What a shock!

The dog did not seem a bit disturbed that we were entering the home. The little boy, however, was very disturbed by the dog, so I put the dog in the downstairs bathroom before the showing. The home seemed promising, so we stayed longer than scheduled. During that time, the dog made no noise. He seemed perfectly happy with the situation.

I didn't know how to feel. Clearly, the dog should have been removed from the home, locked in the garage, or confined to a crate somewhere, but he was a very well behaved dog (thank goodness). When we decided to leave, I let my clients and their nephew leave the home before I let the dog back out. He immediately ran to another part of the house as I was making sure that everything was locked up and all lights were turned out. Finally, the only thing that I needed to do was to lock the front door and leave. When I turned around to pull the door shut, I saw the little dog standing and staring at me with great anticipation. There he was with a ball in his mouth looking at me as if to say, "Now that your done with the showing, do you have time to play?"

I need to make myself perfectly clear- animals need to be removed from a home if possible while the home is being shown. If they cannot be removed, they should be locked up or restrained. Having said that though, I will never forget the little dog who wanted to play ball on that August evening.