would appreciate views on doggy daycare. We are planning (of course!) to take our 7 month boy - fully socialised-to Cornwall on hols. However we will probably have to leave in a local doggy day care some days. I am not familiar with them. They sort of sound great but in a way I am almost considering leaving him at home in our usual excellent boarding kennels instead. Beforehand I am arranging a trial visit to a local day care for a few hours to see how he gets on. I would be interested for any views and whether my concerns are valid - i.e. leaving a boisterous, if well socialised puppy, in the company of all sorts all day.
Clearly not from your area but if your boy is intact ask how that might impact his stay. In my area an intact dog is kenneled most of the time.
I don't use daycare at all. I visited lots, and lots of daycare centres and failed to find any that I would leave my dog in. I absolutely hated the free running daycare models of basically a free for all with lots of dogs in a field, too few staff members, obviously shy dogs traumatised, and obviously over bold dogs getting even bolder. Zero training, zero settle time - awful, and I'd say no place for any dog let alone a puppy. I have heard of, but not experienced, much better day cares with dogs in very small groups, with a high ratio of dog to humans, training time, settle time etc. but I couldn't find one of these for my dog. I think unless you can get a really great daycare, then best avoided.
thanks for both those replies - yes he is intact and both of you have confirmed my hesitations. Very helpful thank you
My dog goes to a daycare twice a week (full days) and it is excellent. There is a lot of emphasis on calm behaviour and they do very varied activities (eg today all the dogs went on a trip to a local ski slope so they could experience snow). All day cares are not the same and some are very beneficial for both dogs and owners. I could not have my dog if it wasn't for day care, as we both work full time. However it is common for daycare to not accept entire dogs over the age of 6 or 7 months.
I use daycare on the odd occasion for my girl. It is run by my dog walkers wife so I'm very knowledgeable about them and the set up. My daycare has a maximum of 6 dogs at a time and have access to 2 rooms and the garden which has a sectioned off agility area (only allowed to be used with the human training them), but have another room set aside for downtime. They have 2 in the relax room at a time and rotate. It is worth investigating and seeing if there is somewhere you would be happy leaving him. Personally I use daycare about once every few months, but it is a really useful resource.
I think if your dog gets along well with other dogs in a free play environment, it will probably be fine. We don't use day care now, but years ago with our first Lab we did, when we were visiting my son in college. We would take Ginger with us to Montana, and put her in daycare on the days she could not go with us. It worked out fine. I have two friends who put their Sammies in day care, one most days of the week and the other one day a week. The dogs get a lot more activity there than they do when they are home alone. We don't use it because we have two dogs, a fenced yard with a dog door, and besides we are home most of the time. I think Cooper would probably enjoy it, Tilly not so much, but she would be fine there also.
