Opinions on Doggy Daycares

[Jd414]

Good or bad?




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[Magwart]

Depends. You can't lump them all together.

My old one in California was owned by a trainer, and her staff all had training backgrounds. They had a careful screening process and grouped dogs by play style. They took special care of shy dogs who were being rehabilitated to learn to play. They were fabulous.

My current one is through my vet. It has good screening, and the play is supervised by the kennel staff. It's good, but not as good as the one I had in California. I do like that my dogs associate the vet's office with play, though, so they are super-happy to go there.

ETA: I think regular play-care was a critical component of one of my dog's rescue rehabilitation. He came to me very frightened of other dogs, because he'd been attacked as a pup. Putting him in very carefully controlled environments to let him learn that he was safe around other dogs did wonders for him. He grew into a dog-social, gregarious adult. I don't think he would have come as far as he did without the high-quality, regular play care sessions.

That said, my friends went to a different play care provider and had a bad experience. The dog came home with a small wound that wasn't disclosed upon pick up, and caught kennel cough there. You have to do your due diligence with play care, just like with a trainer or any other dog service provider.

[Marnie]

I would happily put a GSD puppy into one of these daycares if it was well managed. I would not keep my GSD adult or even my sheltie adult in one.

I think, for young dogs, playing with other puppies or young dogs and being handled by strangers is a huge plus in socialization. Older dogs don’t need it as much and some dogs grow to resent certain other dogs in their group. This can lead to a bad experience.

The largest daycare in this area is owned by a vet clinic. Last week a timid Shiba Inu jumped on a 3 1/2 foot ledge and dodged thru the wrought iron bars and was gone. The owners managed to get it on the local TV news broadcasts. Happy ending, they found the dog 6 miles away, across the river and she was OK. That would be worse case or almost worse case. Getting mauled by another dog would be as bad.

[katdog5911]

The doggie day care Stella has been in has been great. She started at about 4 months old. For some reason there are quite a few GSDs that attend. There is a web cam so you can check in and see what your pup is up tp.

That said....at almost 20 months Stella has started go get aggressive with some of the new dogs last week. So doggie day care may become a thing of the past for us.

Oh and she picked up puppy warts there. Ugh.

But it was a great place for her to burn off some energy and give me a little break. But all good things must come to an end

[angierose]

Depends on the dog and the facility. We used to take Kaylee to one near me. It's in an old firehouse, with several separate play areas and a very knowledgeable staff. It is also in the same parking lot as a vet, in case something bad were to happen. The dogs get to play inside and outside. They post tons of pictures every day on Facebook so you can see what's going on. Kaylee, who loves to play with all dogs even though she's no longer a puppy, loves it there. She'd probably still love it, but it gets expensive and I work from home now anyway.

[Gaberitta]

I'm happy to have found this, I was wondering if the puppy daycare for koda was a good thing. He is very timid of strangers, but loves dogs. So I've put him in there so he can get more socialized with humans. Especially men, he doesnt seem to care for them. I'm hoping another 3-5 weeks in the daycare will help.

[Jd414]

Bear goes 3 times a week and he seems to enjoy it! He's always worn out when we get home at night!


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[torilovesgsds]

I think the socialization for younger dogs may be valuable but at what costs? Fynn went maybe once or twice a week. It's a great convenience to allow us to run errands rather than leaving him home for extended time on the weekend. But we're on week three of home confinement due to CPV (warts) transmitted at the daycare. While it's a very common virus, I probably should have waited until he was older to have stronger immune system. I suppose that begs the question whether the benefits of socialization are still relevant after a certain age?

[Sadie0804]

I took our pup to full day doggie day camp through petsmart and she had a great time! She even got a little report card and everything the only complaint I have is that they don't take the pups out on walks, which is sad for me! But I can see why it'd be a liability issue.


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[Linda1270]

I bring Tess to a great dogie daycare in my city, they put dogs in individual play groups according to their age, size etc. Most of them are trainers, they have agility classes too. They also have a monitor where you can see photos of the dogs playing. This helped Tess out a lot with socialization, however, it's been taking a lot of time for her to actually play with other dogs.

The first couple of times I brought her, she just stood on the sidelines and watched the entire day. This surprised me, all the other dogs I've had loved to play with other dogs, especially my last Lab. As time went on, she began venturing out and sniffing other dogs and choosing the ones she would interact with. She also seemed to love and trust the staff their. She hasn't been there in a couple of weeks due to being spayed.

I have enrolled her in a dogie adventure program and she starts Monday. I can't wait to see how she does. At least I know she will be very tired when she comes home at the end of the day.