The FIFO(Fly In, Fly Out) lifestyle is especially common in Australia.
Guys who work onsite, such as on oil rigs, mines, construction sites, can be gone for weeks at a time.
Some of them have dogs that need to be cared for.
A two week absence is a long time to leave a dog alone at home without someone there who really cares for it.
Paying for a professional dog-sitter or dog-sitter service is not the same as having someone who has a personal attachment to the dog taking care of it.
A potential girlfriend would fulfill that personal touch and these guys want to feel like their dogs are being genuinely loved and cared for while they are away on a FIFO gig.
Your initial instinct whenever you come across a dating profile like this is to swipe left.
Why would a guy on a dating app state that he is looking for someone to dog-sit for two weeks a month when he is away on a FIFO assignment?
Surely, he could have left that bit of information out of his dating profile.
There are other more appropriate ways to go about finding a dog-sitter.
It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
It already feels like this guy’s sole purpose for being on the dating app is to find a girlfriend of convenience to take more personal care of his dog while he is away on a worksite for two weeks at a time.
Your instincts make sense.
Imagine if you had written that you were looking for a guy to help take out the trash or mow your lawn every week.
Yeah, that isn’t exactly attractive and most guys would probably swipe left on your dating profile as quickly as you would a guy who is FIFO and looking for someone to dog-sit.
You can’t imagine why any woman would swipe right on a dating profile of a guy who includes this on his dating profile.
Guys who do this already know that they aren’t going to be home as often as a romantic partner would want them to be.
They have most likely dated women who weren’t fully aware of the complexities that come with being in a relationship with a person who works away from home for weeks at a time.
These were women who thought that they could handle it.
They gave it a shot.
They didn’t last.
The lack of needed affection got to be too much and they quit the relationship.
This has happened with such frequency to guys like this that they feel the need to make it known that a potential partner would be dog-sitting for two weeks at a time.
This is not just about finding a girl who would do this.
This is about finding a girl who is okay with the lifestyle of having a partner who is frequently absent.
Previous relationship failures instigated by their FIFO lifestyle has forced them to be to make certain demands.
These guys know that this isn’t an easy ask of a potential girlfriend.
Mentioning the dog is their way of trying to get around her initial inhibitions.
If she has a dog of her own or a love of dogs, the prospect of dog-sitting may not sound as daunting.
His true intentions go a lot deeper though.
Looking for a dog-sitter girlfriend is code word for looking for a girlfriend who handles all of my business while I am away.
It won’t be long before he expects you to take on other responsibilities.
That means: mail, trash, maintenance around and within the house, house security, running errands for him, setting and cancelling appointments for him, all in conjunction with your dog-sitting duties.
This is a lot to consider when you don’t even know what this guy’s favorite color is quite yet.
Brazenly stating that he is looking for a partner who dog-sits on his dating profile, isn’t going to get him that many takers.
Just like you, the first instinct is to swipe left on a dating profile like this.
But, there are a few who take him up on his offer.
If he is attractive enough and she isn’t looking for anything serious, she just might swipe right.
She isn’t truly looking to dog-sit.
She is just looking to get laid.
The moment he needs her to dog-sit as he is about to head out to a worksite for the next two weeks is the moment she becomes unresponsive to his text messages or replete with excuses.