Anyone here send their dog to daycare?

[chessie]

With winter approaching won't be able to leave my pretty active dog out all the time while we are at work. While it was raining few days back we left him in, our new dog was awful. he chewed a lamp and a blanket. Thinking sending him 2-3 times a week to help with midweek boredom. He is awful in a crate or I would crate him all day, and our other dog is fine in the house since he literally is a couch dog.

What are your experiences with daycare for dogs? Checking a few out this weekend. he already gets two runs a day, and has free access to go outside whenever he likes.

[dexteroni]

Quincy goes 2 - 3 days a week; either Tuesday and Friday or Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. How often he goes depends on his energy level on Sunday. He alternates between two different places so it's not the same dogs and same people every week. The variety tires him out more, plus I like that if one place goes out of business or we don't like it anymore, we don't have to start from scratch.

A good day care will have an evaluation process to make sure he gets along with the other dogs. As long as he's well socialized and like other dogs, he'll probably be fine. And I like to only use places that have webcams aimed at the play areas. It makes me feel better to know that I can see what's going on any any time, plus it's fun to watch them play. I also try to avoid places that crate the dogs for a midday break. I want him to run and get tired. If that's the only way the staff can control the energy level, to me that means they don't have enough people or proper training.

Dexter stays home; he was never that active even when he was younger, and certainly not now in his old age.

[womet]

We send our dog a few times a month- on the days that the cleaning lady comes and a time or two in between. He loves going, and it keeps him from getting into trouble at home. He loves going there. He usually starts wimpering 2-3 blocks before we get there. And once inside, he goes apeshit until they let him back there. Our place has lots of open space and the dogs have free access to the outside.

The best part about "camp"-- he's exhausted when I pick him up. He's usually asleep before we leave the parking lot.

[ellipsis]

We have a pretty hyper boxer. He used to go to daycare 1x a week when he was younger and was more amped up. The only thing I didn't like was that he came home pretty beat up (scratches, etc.) from rough play (probably more noticeable since his hair is so short), and he's gotten kennel cough twice. Make sure your dog is up to date on his shots. He has mellowed out a lot since then so I don't really like to take him as much anymore.

[chessie]

I gotta do something. He keeps me up all hours of the night, 2am, 3am, and4..etc..Poking me to get up and play all night/early morning. I need him tired. DH feels its completely worse then a child at this point. From what I can see from the 2 places I have researched would cost us 15 a day from 8-6.

[Deleted]

My dog likes day care more than home. Like a PP said, a good place should evaluate your dog and be able to read his social cues. We took our dog to the same place for several years but last year we had an issue with him suddenly being aggressive toward other dogs.

The new place determined that as he ages (he's 7 now) he seems to be preferring the company of only one or two dogs instead of a large group. A good place will both recognize and make accomodations for individual needs.

[ssmjlm]

Sadie goes 1 day a week to help with her SA/boredom. We initially went to our old vet, but found out she was being stuck in a kennel if there weren't enough dogs that day.

Now she goes to "camp" through a local pet store at their location nearest us. It's all indoors, they have a small/less hyper dog room and then a larger/more hyper dog room. They also do "nap time" from 1-2pm each day where they turn out the lights so the dogs can just unwind for a bit (they're not put in kennels). Also she had an evaluation process and they regularly check vaccine records. They also regularly update who is on the approved pick-up list for the dogs as well.

Sadie loves it and like pp, she starts whining once she sees us getting close. Plus all of the staff know her and several of the other regulars by name. Since we pick her up later in the day when there are less dogs left, we'll regularly see her just hanging with a couple of her buddies.

[aimeedyan]

My three went daily while we were living in a hotel waiting to close on our house. It was amazing, and I so wish we could afford to do it on a regular basis!

We used Camp Bow Wow. I took them for an evaluation where they stayed a few hours (free) to make sure they were well socalized. All of them did well so they were allowed to come and stay a full day after that. The location we went to had 4 different large play rooms inside, all with a large outdoor area attached. They seperated the dogs by size. Each play yard (indoor and outdoor) had a seperate camera so I could watch online which I loved. The dogs being boarded did go back to their crates mid-day for lunch/break but day care dogs played all day.

My dogs LOVED going, even my momma's boy that is convinced he's human, and were completely exhausted each night.

It was a good experience for us.

[dexteroni]

Oct 11, 2012 10:09:44 GMT -5 chessie said:

I gotta do something. He keeps me up all hours of the night, 2am, 3am, and4..etc..Poking me to get up and play all night/early morning. I need him tired. DH feels its completely worse then a child at this point. From what I can see from the 2 places I have researched would cost us 15 a day from 8-6.

Yeah, it sounds like he will really benefit from going to day care. We can throw the ball 100 times a day and it doesn't tire Quincy out as well as a full-on run and tumble with his dog friends. And even when he's not running, he's interacting with dogs or people, or going in the pool or on the little play structure they have for the dogs; mental stimulation is just as important as physical.

And $15 is super cheap. Our places are 27 and 22, but if we buy a multi-day pass it brings it down to 20 and 18 respectively.

[Deleted]

Oct 11, 2012 9:44:00 GMT -5 chessie said:

With winter approaching won't be able to leave my pretty active dog out all the time while we are at work. While it was raining few days back we left him in, our new dog was awful. he chewed a lamp and a blanket. Thinking sending him 2-3 times a week to help with midweek boredom. He is awful in a crate or I would crate him all day, and our other dog is fine in the house since he literally is a couch dog.

What are your experiences with daycare for dogs? Checking a few out this weekend. he already gets two runs a day, and has free access to go outside whenever he likes.

oh we love it. Love love love it. We send him randomly, usually for overnights (with daycare the day before) but if we are going to be gone longer than normal, etc we send him. He seriously goes nuts when he gets in the car and figures out where we are going. I open the door to daycare and just drop his leash and he sprints to the back room (one time he pulled me flat on my butt when I was pregnant, so now, drop the leash, haha). I hear them call out "Jackson is here!" and then usually a splash as he hits the puppy pool.

It gets his energy out, he interacts better with dogs, and comes home exhausted. tired dog = good dog.

We wanted one that had free play all the time. There's a two hour nap in the middle of the day but the rest of the time the dogs just get to run around. It's awesome.

[dirtyred]

Ours goes at least once a week.

Once she figures out where she's going, she gets all excited in the car. She runs to the door, and then when we get in the building she starts barking at the employees because they're not letting her in the playroom fast enough. She never looks back.

And she's exhausted when she gets home, so we know she had fun.

[womet]

Our place is $18 but gives you a break if you buy 10 days at a time.

[Deleted]

Ours is, um, 29 dollars a day. So 15 or 18 bucks seems like an awesome deal to me.

[momof2boys]

If ours was 15.00 a day i'd send my dog everyday, ha! My dog goes two to three times a week, but its 25.00 a day. Weeks that we have extra expenses I do two days, but for our sanity we prefer three days! It really wears him out, he is usually tired the entire next day after a day of daycare. This saves him from eating things in our house and getting into trouble!

[chessie]

Nice thanks guys! Have an interview with one of them on Saturday, after that hopefully I can start next week. Heres to a whole night I get to sleep..

[grosnl19]

We sent her twice a week when we were living in the States (Chicago) and paid $30 a day. She loved it. It was also a doggy hotel so she stayed there when we went oot.