Is Dog Daycare Right For Your Dog?

Topics To Think About Before Enrolling Your Dog In Daycare

Some dogs thrive at dog day care and benefit from gaining exercise, enrichment, and more with other dogs! Unfortunately, the environment can be hard on other dogs and can actually prevent them from learning necessary skills that they need for a calm, happy life with you.

Often, owners with dogs who have trouble settling and adolescent dogs jump to doggy daycare as a solution to keep their dog busy and tire them out. For these dogs, though, sending them to daycare can be setting them up for more problems down the road. Daycare doesn’t focus on teaching these dogs how to settle down. Rather, it places them in an environment with constant stimulation and excitement, encouraging them to keep looking for the next thing to do; the next dog or person to jump on; the next object to check out; and more. They come home exhausted and fall right to sleep at home, but we quickly start to build up dogs who ONLY are able to settle when they’re absolutely exhausted! Imagine if you needed to run a marathon every day in order to rest!

Beyond that, most dog daycares don’t focus on encouraging and teaching dogs good behavior. They often rely on the idea that other dogs will teach good social skills to your dog, and the workers are there simply to step in if there’s a fight or a dog being excessively rude. The dogs that go to daycare vary day to day in terms of temperament, play style, likes, dislikes, tolerance, and more. Because of this, there’s no consistency in what your dog is actually learning from the other dogs!

Think of it like how children learn–this is an oversimplification, I know, but there are parallels that hold true!–and realize that we would never send our kids to school if that school consisted of letting all of the kids run around in a room together all day with minimal direction. Instead, we have teachers–trainers and behavior consultants–who offer lessons and guide them instead. And, in addition to this learning, we have small, curated play groups where everyone is well matched and the group size helps ensure safe, appropriate interactions for everyone!

Questions To Ask Yourself and Your Dog Daycare

Does your dog try to control or herd other dogs?

This can be stressful for your and other dogs at daycare environments.

Is your dog easily overwhelmed or nervous?

Daycares are hectic! Surrounding your dog with things that make them nervous or a constantly changing environment can set them up to fail and can make your dog’s nervousness worse.

Is your dog intact?

Daycares often don’t allow intact dogs over a certain age. Beyond that, intact dogs in group environments can easily lead to fights without adequate management and supervision.

How does the doggy daycare handle jumping, barking, humping, marking, and other similar behaviors?

Avoid daycares that use punishment based methods like squirt bottles, loud noises, physical pressure, etc. that can make these behaviors worse long term, especially if these behaviors are the result of your dog being stressed.

How much continuing education do the doggy daycare workers need? What is the background of the workers your dog will interact with day to day?

Many daycare workers aren’t well versed in dog body language, meaning they can’t deescalate tense situations before they turn into fights easily. They also can very easily misread the cause of behaviors (describing them as naughty or your dog being ‘dominant’ rather than as a result of your dog’s stress, fear, etc.).

What is the ratio of dogs to people? Is there an adequate number of workers to ensure your dog is getting the attention needed for their safety?

It’s very easy to miss cues in large groups and for groups to escalate in behavior quickly. Beyond that, an overloaded worker can’t effectively redirect and manage behavior to ensure play is equal and fun for everyone.

Is your daycare giving your dog plenty of opportunities to rest and decompress or are they just sending you home with an exhausted dog with no off switch? One short nap is not enough. Some dogs take time to learn to settle. Exhausting them constantly never teaches them that skill and can lead to dogs that can’t relax unless they’re constantly exhausted.

If you find a dog day care you LOVE in Northeast Ohio, please share with us! We love recommending places that we can trust to put the emotional and physical well-being of their dogs first to clients looking for dog day care recommendations!

What Can My Dog Do Instead Of Daycare?

Day Training! Where Our Trainer Works With Your Dog While You Work

Our Day Training packages are the perfect solution to your dog’s training & behavior needs!