Are the benefits of dog daycare right for me?
Are the benefits of dog daycare right for me?If you’ve been wondering if putting your pup in doggy daycare is the right thing for you, we’re hoping to put your mind at ease! Across the internet, you can find numerous articles discussing the benefits of dog daycare. It’s also easy to find articles that can scare you away. Properly socializing your dog is a key factor in making sure your pets will feel comfortable around new people, new additions to the family (pet or baby!), or even during big life changes like a move to a new home. We’re going to go through a few positives and a couple negatives and discuss how Charlotte Kennels’ dog daycare can help your dog feel safe and happy in unfamiliar situations, how we can help them maintain good health, and how we minimize the risk to the dogs while in daycare.
Group Play allows your dog to learn vital cues from other dogs
Poorly socialized dogs can have communication issues. Dogs who are without the opportunity to learn from others may find it difficult to play well with others. So by providing the dogs a safe environment to learn to speak to each other, they can start to recognize the cues given to them by other dogs and begin learning boundaries for better behavior.
Exercise makes for a healthy body!
Dogs need their physical needs met to remain healthy. A dog’s body is built to roam the wild and hunt for food. Because of this, a sedentary lifestyle can result in bad joints and achy bodies later in life. In a case where a dog’s body is hurting, it may lash out or act in unexpected ways, so it’s important to help them by providing a safe method of exercise. Doggy daycare at Charlotte Kennels is mainly outdoors with a ton of shaded area for the dogs to cool off if they need to. We allow the dogs to run and chase and hide and seek for up to 4 hours at a time, always under supervision, before it’s time for rest.
Separation Anxiety – the not-so-silent killer of furniture and other home goods
You’re likely not a stranger to one of these experiences if you’ve adopted a puppy or rescued a shelter pup:
- Opening your door to your home after a long day at work to find last night’s leftover strewn across the floor
- Coming back in from checking the mail to see the stuffing of a pillow mysteriously coating…everything
- Stumbling across your niece’s gift for her birthday next week chewed to pieces in the closet where you thought it was safe
- Pulling back into your driveway and finding Fido has flown the coop
These can all be signs that your dog is experiencing separation anxiety, though this blog post probably isn’t what’s clued you into it. However, bringing your dog to group play times can help relieve some of that anxiety by maintaining a routine and keeping your dog’s mind off their human being gone. Scheduling your dog for daycare on your longest work days will help put your dog at ease – and your wallet too. This is one of our favorite benefits of dog daycare.
What about injury?
Just like in children’s daycare, accidents and injuries can happen. We do everything we can to maintain a safe, monitored environment for the animals to enjoy group play. We keep the ratio of dogs to staff as low as possible, never going above 15 dogs to 1 person, but most commonly around 8 or 10 to 1. This allows our staff to truly get to keep eyes on the dogs and settle the dogs when tensions can rise. We have large dog play separate from small dog play for the safety of the small dogs.
Every dog isn’t cut out for group play. Some dogs are uninterested in others. Some like to just sit in a corner and sunbathe. It is our responsibility to assess what kind of temperament your dog has. When a new dog joins the pack at Charlotte Kennels, we do a temperament test where we empty the play yard of all dogs except the new one, and slowly trickle new friends into the yard as the new dog becomes adjusted. We monitor the body language and behavior of the dogs to make sure no one is being overstimulated, scared, or becoming upset.
I’ve heard kennels can be gross and a breeding ground for disease!
It’s incredibly important to sustain a clean environment for the dogs to nap and play. It’s equally as important that we confirm vaccination records with your vet. Any dog who comes in to the facility has had a rabies vaccine. We go a step further and require Canine Distemper and Bordetella vaccinations as well. The Bordetella vaccine is similar to the flu and doesn’t cover every strain of the virus. It helps avoid infection and spread and reduce symptoms. We clean the kennels in the mornings and evenings with KennelSol. We also spray the entire kennel area down with a Wysiwash and scrub each room quarterly.
It’s our hope these words have been able to dispel some concerns you may have about the benefits of dog daycare. It’s a wonderful feeling to see your dog excited to get out of the car and run to play with their new friends. Interested in checking out the daycare? You can book from our booking link. Have some more questions? Read through our FAQs!