hi folks, I've mentioned before that I have had to start putting our pup (6 months) into doggy daycare for one day a week when I go off to work in the big smoke. I have obviously heard lots of stories about daycare and so did a lot of research and think we have found the best in our area (Exeter, England it is a small centre, no more than 12 dogs ever and no more than 4 dogs per worker. They go on interesting walks, have structured and free play and lots of places and opportunities to rest. The owner sends videos of your dog to you at the end of the day and even makes healthy and delicious (according to tatti) home baked treats for the dogs. Most importantly, my husband (who drops off and picks up our pup) says that when they arrive, tatti can't wait to get inside and when he goes to collect her he sees the dogs all calmly playing: no craziness, no dogs hiding or panting or looking anxious: all tails are high (and pup has a happy tummy when she comes home) My question is, I think we have found the best place and I trust the owner with my pup but invariably she is coming across other dogs with bad habits (there is one particularly barky dog). How do I ensure she doesn't bring these home with her? I've noticed that she barks about once or twice a day now if she hears something outside- this is more than before. And is there anything else I need to be looking out for to make sure my puppy stays happy? To be honest, I think she likes it there more than home- I'm boring for most of the day when I'm working
I'm not experienced at this, so I'm sure that far more qualified people will be along to give you advice, but I would think it would be difficult to prevent her bringing home any behaviours she is learning there; it will be a case of managing them and training conflicting behaviours at home. So, if she's barking, train a "quiet" cue. We sometimes meet the dog of a friend of ours when we go on walks. He's a terrible rock-carrier. Something that I don't let mine do, for fear of worn and chipped teeth. Willow will always start carrying rocks when we are with him. She doesn't do it any other time, as it's something I trained out when she was younger. So I would say that being with Alfie brings out this bad habit in her. Luckily, she has a pretty good "drop it" and "leave it" cue (at least with rocks), so I use those. I don't think it's a bad thing to be "boring" during the day. My two could play with each other all day if they chose, but they tend to relax all day and only wake up for the exciting times. It's an important skill to be able to settle when there's nothing interesting going on. If dogs are truly bored, they make their own mischief. If I've gone too long without interacting with mine, Shadow will start staring at me. This is his way of saying he needs some stimulation, so I'll do a bit of training or play for a few minutes. That doesn't happen often, though.
There are different ways to do it. One is to train them to bark first and then train the quiet afterwards, like in this video: For me, I chose a different approach and tell them "thank you!" when they've barked, move them away from the thing that's making them bark and give them a treat. Now, if they bark at something and I say "thank you!" in a chirpy way, they come to me for their treat. I guess there could be a chance of them learning that a bark starts the chain that ends with a treat, but they've not worked that out yet
I think keeping up your training and, as Fiona suggests, trying to correct anything that does start occurring is about it I'm afraid. I've just cancelled Charlie's group walks - my vet suggested I did so but I was glad about it from a training perspective too. Free running with other dogs ruins Charlie's training and he picks up undesirable habits from other dogs too. On the up side though, it was fantastically good for his confidence around a lot of dogs on the Common and really helped him return to normal after his second op. I'd do it again, I don't regret him going for a while even though I've had to rework his "don't run over to other dogs" training a bit. So, if it's a good daycare and positive for Tatti in lots of ways, you've just got to live with the costs that comes with, really - what matters is whether overall it's a good thing for your dog in terms of activities, company, socialisation etc - they all come with benefits.
Day care has been great for my dog Cooper (23 months). He loooooooves going there! He also loves coming home to me who, I am sure, bores him but he comes home tired after playing all day with the other dogs. I don't mind him barking if he barks for a reason (noise outside, etc). I want him to alert me. Now, if he is barking just to bark, that's a different thing. Cooper loves day care so much that, the days he does not go, he sits in front of me and starts to whine....I then tell him "we are staying home today", and he sort of settles down. I think day care gives them more positive things than negatives. Enjoy your tired puppy when he comes home!
Fab, thanks all. I think I just worry too much about everything. It has definitely been positive on so many levels. She loves it and there isn't really another option (other than to leave her at home and have a dog walker come in to take her out at lunch and I don't think she'd cope with that very well). So far, the barking has been to alert us of something happening and have been saying very calmly to her that 'I know' when she looks at me as if to say 'I just told you something is happening, why aren't you doing anything about it?'. It's generally a one off 'woof' or 'woof woof' rather than continual barking so if it stays this way I'm ok with that. We do have some very barky dogs as neighbours too which always gets her interest. So far no barking back (fingers crossed). If anyone thinks of anything else I should watch out for though....
oh stop it! now,you know that's not true! I was trying to work on my phone......Again,can't type in the body of a post but it was letting me if I sent an empty one and the editted! Feeling left out! But the problem is definately with me.......just so weird that I can email,facebook,text...but can't Forum!!!
