The Great Doggie Daycare Search: Part 1

An emotional event in any proud parents life, the first day of daycare. Will the others like her? Will the teachers watch over her and make sure she’s safe? Will she miss me and wonder where I am? Will she want to come home at the end of the day? My little angel is off to daycare. OK, wait. Before I get to that, let’s talk about the whole daycare decision.

Chili had way too much energy to leave her at home in her crate all day so I was taking her to work. However,she was way too young and energetic to be a ‘lay on a bed and hang out all day at work dog’. There were too many distractions and she wanted to be a part of everything that was going on. The solution, doggie daycare. You may remember that the first trainer we saw said that Chili was not the kind of dog you send to daycare. Hmmm, we’ll see about that.

There are a lot of daycares out there. The first round of eliminations comes out of a few questions:

1. Do we want to send our dog to an outdoor facility or an indoor facility? We decided that we wanted Chili to be spending her days outdoors. Be a dog. She’s such a playful girl with lots of energy and we could just picture her having tons of fun out in the dirt, rain, and occasional snow.
2. How far out of your way are you willing to travel to drop your dog off at daycare? We both left for work pretty early so we needed something close. Some daycares will pick up your dog at your house, but what if the pick up was after you left for work. We didn’t want to give anyone a key to the house, or leave Chili in the garage, or tie her outside until her ride showed up. Hopefully we could find a place that wasn’t too far out of the way.
3. Do you want a place that also does boarding? We definitely wanted a place that does boarding as well. When we go away, we wanted Chili to be familiar and happy about where she was staying. It was also important that we have a relationship with the people that will be taking care of her.

I did some research and we decided to check out 3 different places. The first was a professional facility, although the owners home is on the property, it’s separate from the business. The second was still professional but centered around the couples home, and the third was an at-home daycare facility.

I’ll be honest, I was nervous about leaving Chili with strangers. I was still getting to know her and working on her obedience and I was afraid she wouldn’t be accepted. I was afraid that as soon as we got to the daycares, that she would start lunging at the other dogs and we’d be left with no options.

I called the first place and spoke to a girl named Angie. She said that the first step would be to bring Chili for an ‘interview’ to see how she acts with the other dogs and for us to see if we like the facility and to ask any questions we may have. The day finally came for her interview. When we got there I had to sit for a minute to calm down. I was so nervous. The place had a farm feel with lots of trees but you couldn’t see the dogs. We entered kind of a holding area and rang the buzzer. Angie came down to greet us. She brought us up and around a corner into a building that had another holding area. Chili and I stayed on one side of the gate while 3 other dogs were roaming free inside. Angie had brought 3 well mannered dogs in as test dogs for Chili. The first step was to see how Chili would act on the other side of the gate. This is where I was nervous that she would act up but true to Chili form, she surprised me. She took one look at the other dogs, put her tail between her legs, and hid behind me. I was shocked. Where did this come from? No lunging, no acting up, no crazy, just unsure. I stepped out the way and Angie asked me to remove the lead. Chili stayed calm so it was time to go into the bigger area with the 3 dogs. She was still unsure and tried to hide behind me as the dogs came up to sniff her. I looked to Angie for guidance and she was calm and comfortable with everything that was happening so it relaxed me. I was surprised and happy for Chili. She was doing great. In the field area there must’ve been at least 30 dogs. Some were staring at us with their tails wagging, others were lying in the shade, and others were playing in the kiddie pools. I liked what I saw and more importantly the girls who worked there had a very relaxed and positive vibe. Angie told me that to her it looked like Chili would do fine and she gave me some paper work to fill out if I decided to use their services.

So Chili and I left, although Chili didn’t seem to want to go, and I was excited to tell my husband how Chili passed the interview and did great. Although I liked the place, I still wanted to check out the other facilities. It seemed like a good place but would she really get along well? The future would tell.