Doggie Daycare
 

Ok, so tomorrow is the BIG day. My shortie Jack Russell goes for his interview to see if he "plays well with others" and can be a part of doggie daycare.

I have to admit that I am a bit anxious about it. My 13lb Jack Russell can be a bit of a bully with others....always having to be the alpha regardless of the size of the other dog. :dog:

I also have to admit that I am pathetically excited. My application is already filled out, I have the vet records, and I am all ready to go! I gave him a little talking to tonight about politeness and manners.

He is only going to go once per week, due to cost, but I think that he will love playing with all the other dogs!

Anyone else have their dog(s) in doggie daycare?

P.S. Thanks again, Toughy, for your help!

The doggy daycare that is in my area is so specialized now. They have their day broken down like this:

Play Time - if weather permits
Morning Snack
Play Time
Lunch
Quiet Time (Naps)
Aromatherapy
Snack
Play Time
TV Time - Animal Planet/Cesar Millan

Spa Treatments or Grooming is done in the morning

Yeah!!!! How exciting.........I can't wait to here how your baby does.......

good luck and glad to help you out....

It went really well. :thumbsup: I spent three of the four hours that he was there watching him on the web cam at home...lol

I liked the people a lot and the place was very clean.

His first full day is on Wednesday. There is another Jack Russell that comes on Wednesdays, so that is good because he needs a smaller dog that will rough house with him. :slapfight:

Andrew, here the dogs just play all day. No naps required, which is different from all the other daycares that I looked at. He does have the option for a nap, though.

:duck: <-- to go with Sue's chicken

I'm glad he had fun. :)


I may send my little dog when my next semester starts. I think she would love it.


That's sweet that you watched him on the webcam. :awww:

Hi Dapper,
My girl is a Rottie/Shepherd mix. She doesn't think she is a dog. I have tried taking her to dog parks but she isn't interested. I have renamed these parks as 'pet' parks. My girl goes up to all the dog owners to be 'petted' while their dogs are frollicking with each other. LOL! She enjoys the solitude of her own place with a petdoor to the swimming pool area.

I have a new renter moving in with a boxer pup this should be interesting to see how much she will interact.

I have never heard of a doggie daycare. I used to walk dogs years ago. Do they have kitty playgrounds?

I own a dog boarding facility. Although we don't do daycare, per se we offer a different type of boarding over traditional kennels. We have areas and match them up by size, age of temperament. Each area has hammocks and its own doggie door and outdoor fenced area. So they not only play together but sleep together. They can play all night if they really want and it happens. lol

Sometimes there are fights and often they work through it until they decide their pecking order. Nothing serious, just the way communicate. Some dogs love playing with others while others want to be left alone. I use part of my house, have a building and I even allow some dogs to sleep with me. It's not unusual to see dogs all over my house, office or anywhere else I'm hanging out.

I take care of quite a few jacks and they can be bossy but after they spend some time they adjust and do just fine. they are very territorial dogs but learn to share space.

It's great that he's able to be social and around other dogs. Its the best thing for both of you. I feel bad for dogs that stay home a lone all day but in some cases there isn;t a choice. He's going to have fun, you'll be happy and it will create an even deeper bond for both of you.

Good luck and keep us posted on how he does.

Dapper,

How I got involved with DDC, was about 3 years ago. I went on a sales trip that my sister won to the Caribbean.

I had an older dog (7yo) but was a mix of Akita, Chow, and Lab mix. And she weighed in at 90+ pounds. If I took her anywhere, she would sit on my lap. Go figure. I used to go and watch "Survivor" at a friend's house, and we all would end up sitting on the floor with our pets.

But anyway back to the DDC, I went to the Caribbean, and put her in a kennel/daycare center. She had a ball. She had so much fun, she did not want to leave. I am not kidding. She would play in the Little Tikes (the hard plastic) castles, houses, pirate ship, and even the baby pools. There was my baby right in the pool playing with the tennis balls.

Unfortunately, I had to put her down from hip displacea. Now, I have 3 cats, and a small mini pin named Dino Martini. He is a rescue. I also foster dogs for my vet when she needs help.

Andrew

Well, FF, I can't say that I have ever heard of a kitty playground! lol

That is pretty funny that your dog would rather play with the owners than the other dogs. My guy seemed more interested in the person who was sharing the space with him and the other dogs at first, but then he got into the swing of it.

Your place sounds fantastic! I like the set up that you have.

This kennel/daycare has a "camp" theme, with their crates being called "cabins" for the overnight guests where they get "campfire treats" before going to bed.

During daycare time, they always have access to the outside as well, and also have the groups divided based on size and temperment. It really seems to be a good place. What is going to be tough is not jumping onto the web cam 10 times a day while I am at work to see what he is up to!

My dog lived with his biological sister for the first three years of his life, and he has been without her (or any playmate) for the last 1.5 years. I am very active with him, but the rough and tumble play with Daddy is just not the same as the rough and tumble with another dog.

I am glad that it has worked out that I can now send him to a daycare, so he can be with other dogs. :dog:

I'm sorry you had to put your dog to sleep, Andrew. But, I bet the time she spent on this earth with you was wonderful for her.

Dapper,

She was my girl. Everywhere I went - so did she. She was just a lovebug. She would go walk the children to the school bus in the morning, and sit and wait with them, and at 3pm on the dot, bark until let out, and greet them when they got off the school bus. You could set your watch to her. :princess:

It was by far the hardest decision I ever made. But I had to do it. She had nothing left to support her hips. All the muscle, and tissue had worn away. She literally couldn't walk. I had to use a beach towel to hold up her 2 back legs. It was time. We both knew it. I was with her thru the entire procedure. It was more humane than what we do with human beings imho.

Now, I have Mr. Martini who is my new love. And let me tell you he is a pistol. He thinks he owns the house, and is the king. I just am not going to burst that little bubble of his. :king:

I think that it takes strength to put down an animal down that you love. It is an unselfish act. I have been fortunate enough that I have never had to do that. We had one dog while I was growing up and I was in college when my parents had to be the ones to make the decision to put her down.

Hey DapperButch,

I'm in a really similar situation to you. I've also got a Jack, one of the longer legged variety, and I'm thinking about doggie daycare for her, and like you, once a week due to cost. Like yours she generally presents as the alpha, but I think she'll settle it. Figure we'll give it a shot anyway. In the past even when she starts out bullying a dog she usually gets over it and they do fine. There is one - absolutely ridiculous - exception to this rule. My folks have a 160lb great dane. Every time we are there my 13.5lb Jack snarls and snaps at him. Thank goodness, for her sake, the dane is totally laid-back and just looks at her like she's nuts.

Yes, that is what always happens/happened with my guy. He settles after strutting his stuff and being a bully for a few minutes. He has done just fine at daycare!

LOL about the Great Dane!

Good Luck!

your place sounds great...I have taken my dog to a 'kennel' one time in her lifetime. She was depressed for over a week after she came home...she didn't eat for the 2 days she was there and got terribly constipated. She is used to being with me almost all the time. I suspect that she was just put in a run and left alone...It's good to know that you give such personal attention to your boarders. If I have to leave my girl behind, I have a trusted friend stay in my house with her. She's older now and she likes being home.

Hi all. Thought I'd toss in my thoughts on boarding facilities. Now, Friskyfemme, I don't know what sort of facility you used, so this may not really be applicable to your situation. Even so, I wanna toss this out.

I will not board my dog at a facility that is not devoted primarily to boarding. I worked at a vet clinic for 10 years. I don't wowrk there anymore, but several times boarded my jack russell there. I believe that she was ignored, yelled at - abused might not be too strong a word. The kennel folks - who I knw well because they were there when I worked there, told me how awful my dog was. The last time I boarded her there, much like friskyfemme's expereince, it took her weeks to recover. I was really afraid they had done permanent harm.

I asked around to see if other folks could recommend a good facility. One place in particular got quite a few mentions so I checked them out. The facility is a bit out of town, but they will come pick up your dog and then bring them back home. The facility is on farmland. The dogs there are assigned a primary care-giver, who gives a great deal of one-on-one time to the dogs. They are taken on long walks, taken to fenced in areas where they can run and play. The goal of the facility is to take the best care of the dogs as they can. They have my business as long as I am in the area - when Norah is brought back home you wouldn't know that she had boarded - zero anxiety.

I used to think that it was important to board where there was a vet clinic. I now believe that is not in your dog's best interest. I highly recommend boarding someplace where boarding is the primary service. Your dog will thank you.

Hi, Wicket W. Warrick.

You make a really good point and it makes a lot of sense to me. At a vet clinic the focus would be on taking care of animals that come in for appointments and for the sick animals that are staying there overnight. It makes sense that since the primary mission of the facility is to take care of sick animals, that the healthy boarding animals could be unconsciously lost in the shuffle.

However, reading about how Norah was most likely treated hurt my heart. Not paying as much attention to the boarders in an unconscious way (due to the main mission of the facility being something else), is one thing, being unkind is another. I am so sorry that Norah may have not been treated well.

I, personally, am very fortunate that I have two neighbors who take care of my guy if I am gone for an overnight (they come next door and hang in my house for a few hours, put my guy in their yard, take him for LONG :dogwalking:, etc.) and I have retired parents that will watch him when I go away for several days. I am very, very lucky.

It sounds like the place you found now is utterly fantastic. I can imagine how glad you are to have found that place.

On a related note....after my dog's first full day of daycare yesterday, he was falling asleep on the way home while STANDING UP (strapped into his seat belt, of course!) I would say that he had fun!

I actually had an interview set up for him at another doggie daycare for this morning, but due to snow in rush hour traffic (and I didn't need to go out of the house for any other reason), I decided to wait and do it next week. There is nothing wrong with the first daycare, it is just that it is a new facility and there are not too many small dogs for him to play with, so I was considering somewhere else (yesterday there were 7 dogs there...I think that 3-4 dogs is a more common. The other place usually has about 20 dogs, per the receptionist).

Again, I am so glad that Norah now has a safe and fun place to go and that your heart can be at peace when you send her there!

Thank you so much for your supportive words about Norah. My girlfriend was the one who picked her up from the last horrendous boarding at the vet clinic, and I think it's a good thing. I am a VERY laid-back person - but I would have lost it had I been there. They are damn lucky that I wasn't. On a side note, I will continue to go there for medical treatment. There are several excellent vets there, and hell, I was there for 10 years. I did tell my boss - rather, the boss since I guess he isn't mine anymore - and I trust that he has dealt with it in an appropriate way. I don't believe he would allow this sort of treatment to continue.

Very cool about the doggie day care - falling asleep standing up sounds like a good thing to me! We only have one here - well, actually we might have more - but the one I know of I'm really good friends with the owner - she was a client at the vet clinic while I was there - plus it's been around a while so they have dogs of every possible size. You know, I need to quit talking about it and go see how she does...