Hi, My pup, Plum, is 16 weeks and I'm starting to think about an occasional day at doggy daycare so I can properly concentrate on work (instead of work, puppy training, work, garden visits, work, walks, work, cuddles etc - you get the picture!) Is she too young? I'm going to visit a place next week highly recommended by a friend. The woman works in her own home and the pics show happy dogs sprawling over sofas and enjoying walks etc. What questions do I need to ask and what should I be looking out for? Is it a problem if some of the training I do with her when she is with me might come undone a bit in a different environment? She's not allowed on the sofas here - will that teach her bad habits if she's allowed there? I'm not sure I worried so much when I was looking for daycare for my son back in the day!! Any thoughts and advice gratefully received. Jayne
I've been bringing my almost 6 month old Corona to daycare since she was old enough to go. Once, sometimes twice a week to get things done. It has been my saving grace since I do most of the puppy rearing myself and she loves it. I have 2 that I use. One is at my vet's where they go out and have supervised play 3 times for an hour and a half each. She stays in a run and has lots of attention and comes home pooped. They work with me on things like no jumping up and so on. It has also been convenient for some appointments that they will do while she is there, like when she had an ear infection. The other one I use is much like you described. It's like a house with furniture. They have free run of inside and outside and go in their runs only for sleeping and eating. This is my first choice for overnight stays. I've only used them once but will be using them more often now that I know more about them. She loved it and really wasn't too excited to leave. She kept returning to the ladies that work there for cuddles!
My dog - when he was small - went to a puppy creche. This was in a big garage connected to the office of the local dog training company. They had just a few puppies at a time and the day involved a lot of snoozing, a bit of supervised play between 2 puppies at a time, and some outings for socialisation. When he was older, I visited a lot of doggie day cares. They were mainly free running daycares, with a lot of dogs in a field. No structure, barely any downtime etc. The vans used to transport the dogs were, in my view, totally unsuitable with dogs just restrained by chains on their collars. No safety crates etc. I discounted all the places I saw, and wouldn't send my dog to any of them. I think they would be terrible for a dog's training, physical and mental well being. I have heard of, but sadly not found, day cares that provide a much more structured day for dogs with lead walks, small group activities, a lot of settle time, and so on. This sounds ideal. I'd say an individual looking after just a few dogs in her own home could be good. Depends on how knowledgable that individual is about caring for dogs, and how to handle puppies. Remember your pup is still very young, has joints that are delicate and still very much growing. So whatever daycare you find, the person handling your puppy needs to be mindful of that, and have the capacity to adjust a routine to suit a puppy rather than an adult dog. I spoke to one person on the phone about sending my then 5 month old to daycare and asked about how he would limit exercise for my puppy. His answer was that he wouldn't, the pup would be free to run all day in a field with adult dogs and I'd be delighted that my pup would come home totally exhausted. I put the phone down on him, I was so annoyed.
I have recently been researching and visiting daycares and I have just decided that I will not send Quinn to one. I think it really does depends on your dog, but the ones we have here are not spacious enough for the amount of dogs they take and cannot possibly separate the dogs appropriately by age, size, demeanor etc. I didn't like the answers I was getting to my questions - like how are dogs disciplined, and where do they rest? I found one I thought may be suitable and did a trial but I believe Quinn was stressed, as she is playful but prefers to play chase and isn't in the middle of the dog party at a dog park and daycare kind of forces that. She was far too excited to be picked up to have had fun, and had a cut on her head which indicates to me that she could not get away from the play. A good day care will have a structured day with built in rest time where the dogs are required to sleep (they are meant to sleep in the day time), and have space for them to be away from the group if they need a rest. I feel like a lot of people want to pick up an exhausted dog at the end of the day - so daycares cater to that by allowing all day running and playing. Puppies especially should be watched closely and have rest time. I am also weary of behaviours others say their dogs have picked up by going to daycare a lot - namely barking and rough play behaviour. I think there are really good daycares out there - they are just hard to find as it is an unregulated industry (here in Canada) and also depends on your dog's personality. Some dogs would really like that crazy atmosphere and be totally fine. Also read reviews online - look up the place you are visiting to see what people are saying. We started with a dog walker when Quinn was around 6 months and she went with other puppies to play - she was gone about 2 hours. We switched away from a company and now have a private dog walker and she does 1:1 walks, and will stay and play at our house or take her to her house and does overnights/sitting. We have dropped Quinn with her if we go out for the evening. She texts me updates and I can get in contact with her at any time. I feel better with that set up. P.S. my OH said he was more worried and anxious about Quinn's first day home alone/with the dog walker than when he dropped his kids off for their first day of day care! haha
I would recommend you visit the doggy day care and stay for longer than a few minutes to get a feel of the place. See how the dogs are behaving, are they happy, etc? Is it cool/warm enough? Do you get a good feeling? Do they have a webcam so that you can check up on your pup during the day? We were lucky with the day care Snowie went to. The woman running the place has a dog behaviour qualification and she had trained her two assistants well (so it appeared -- they were very kind to the dogs, I liked that). There were three pens: one for puppies, one for old dogs that weren't interested really in playing, and one for all the others. The dogs were swapped in and out depending on their personalities and how they coped. When Snowie developed a limp (not from day care), I asked that he be taken out into a solo spot several times a day to rest, which was done with a person present to calm him (he was very boisterous!). There were crates as well where a puppy that didn't want to be pestered got popped into with something to chew. Small groups of dogs were taken out during the day for walks in the park. And there was an outside area with a sandpit. All the dogs were assessed before being allowed to stay, and there was at least one dog I know of that was not allowed to come back because it didn't play nicely. Some people didn't like the place, pointed out it was just a warehouse with carpeting. Yes, that is what it was. But Snowie was happy to go there and the other dogs were friendly. He definitely learned how to behave politely around adult dogs (they were sometimes mixed up in different ages, not always the same groups the entire day) and I think he picked up his good dog language skills from being at this day care. However, I would never send him there now at age five years of age because he does not like being with a mad group of dogs for too long. I take him to the park around the corner (that you had to pull him out of when he was a puppy), and after he's walked the perimeter and marked every spot, he gives me a couple of barks to let me know he's ready to leave... while all the puppies in the park are playing madly and having the time of their life.
I agree completely and wanted to add that the daycare I use has scheduled play AND scheduled naptime. It just happens that their nap schedule falls right in line with Corona's so I really liked that. They take it so seriously in fact that they are only open for a couple of hours at a time for pick up and drop offs because they do not want to disrupt the dogs when they are resting. I think it's important to also inquire about which Vet they use in case your pet needs medical attention. I highly respect their choice, it was important to me considering all of Corona's issues. As far as the negative learned behavior, I must admit that Corona came back barking a bit more than usual but when we returned to her training schedule (which included the command quiet), she remembered her manners quite quickly here at home.
That sounds like a good idea. I would want to know whether there would be anyone at home to supervise your puppy while the adult dogs were being walked, as obviously it will be a while before Plum could go on that length of walk. @Debs lives near you and knows of a person who does good dog care in her own home, so it might be worth sending her a message.
I have used day carer used a dog walker when Harley was just over 1 year old. She was walked with 3 other dogs. She would only let dogs off lead if they had a reliable recall which she tested prior to taking them in a group situation. She broke her ankle a year later and started doing daycare whilst her husband done the dog walking. Harley goes to daycare occasionally and has also stayed there overnight. They limit drop off and pick up times to limit interruptions. There are a max of 6 dogs in a day. They have scheduled sleep times, walk times, garden playtime and training time. When she stays overnight they allow Harley to sleep with them and leave the stair gate open, but she tends to sleep with their 2 dogs. It really is a home from home, especially at night as they are in the living room with the family. I interviewed 8 dog walkers before I decided on the ones I use. I asked about off lead walks, their training methods, sleep time, how they deal with energetic dogs and dogs that pester others. I also spent about 3 hours at their home getting to know them and watching how they interacted with Harley, their dogs and the dogs in their care. I know I'm lucky because they are very similar to myself in terms of genuinely caring for dogs and wanting them to have positive experiences.
Homer went to day care from 4 months old. We found a couple who work together, which enabled them to do a shorter puppy walk and longer active dog walks. Homer spent his first few months walking with puppies and the older slower dogs. He has done good doggy friends there. He goes regularly 5 days a week during school term time.
A new doggy daycare opened near us just the same time as Pongo arrived. We'd never heard of the concept before but it was a life-saver! He went quite often (and yes, sometimes just so that we could have a day to work properly at home). For the first year it was great - not too many dogs, very well supervised, and well staffed (at least two staff on at any one time). It had a large indoor area, and also a large outdoor area with lots of toys and games. There were also plenty of chill-out spaces where dogs could go to be quiet and undisturbed if things got a little over-excited. There was excellent line-of-sight between the reception desk and all the areas where the dogs were, so the staff really could keep an eye on everything; and all the staff demonstrated that they were good with the dogs and able to spot and manage any problems. Pongo absolutely loved it, it was his biggest treat and it was very good for helping him learn to socialise nicely and to "be a dog" properly and politely. After a year, however, they got busier and busier. This was good news for them but very bad news for the dogs. In the end they would regularly have 30 dogs where they originally had 6 - 10. They re-shaped the reception so there was a glass partition between staff and dogs (to cut down on noise), so there was less direct supervision. It became more and more frenetic and high-energy, and the chill-out areas were used more for segregation than calm chill-out. Pongo began to come back not just happily tired, but utterly flaked out and panting for hours. There was one day when we picked Pongo up and the owner said they'd had problems with him, he was being aggressive and attacking other dogs. That shocked me to my bones and made me realise that this was NOT the place any more for my calm, gentle boy! He has not been back. So my message would be that day care is a fantastic idea, very good for your dog and a great experience IF it is run properly.
I would look for somewhere they give the dogs plenty of down time. Playing all day is not good for them especially when young. Tatze had a good daycare place when I worked, they only took six dogs and took them two walks a day. I'd love to run a doggy day care - hubby would not be so keen!
Stanleys favourite place in the world is doggy day care. He goes once or twice a week when we're both at work or overnight if we need to go anywhere. (We're at a wedding in London this weekend for example so he's going then). She never has more than 5 dogs. He gets two walks every day, a bit of play and then they just chill. I know Stanley sometimes struggled to settle at first and she asked if she was OK to crate him to stop him bothering the other dogs - we said this was fine. As long as I feel like Stanleys happy there he will continue to go
Thanks so much for all the replys, lots of food for thought and a list of questions for me to ask. Really helpful. Thank you
