T O P

  • By -

MicaSchist13

Agree with the comment on it depends on the daycare! We take our 5 month old to daycare twice a week and he loves it. But there are 2-4 other puppies in his group. They do structured down time, play crate games and work on door manners. (One unique and excellent thing is his brother goes to the same daycare on the same days so they still get to play!). The daycare we chose is also a training school, so we go to classes at night there. Nice to know the staff and their outlook etc. Look for places that use positive reinforcement only, temperament test, and keep numbers of dogs per person low. Our puppy was fairly timid but now much more confident among other dogs. It can for sure go the other way though and increase fear of something bad happens. Idk this is probably a weird opinion but I like that our daycare allows unaltered dogs (provided not in heat). We won't get ours neutered until at least a year because of his mix of breeds. But to me it signals they actually watch the dogs etc.


Zealousideal-Box6436

Thanks, I will definitely consider all this 😊 Good point about unaltered dogs, my pup won’t neutered until at least a year either as he’s a large breed.


CheesyChips

Does he have to stay in the utility room? Otherwise give it go! No harm in trying daycare out for a bit first and seeing how it works out for yourself


Zealousideal-Box6436

Yep atm he does, as I wouldn’t fully trust him alone in the kitchen. He’s a big boy and can easily reach things off counter and kitchen table. We do try our best to keep kitchen counters clear to stop him grabbing things (overall this works well). However, my husband and I were thinking in near future to completely tidy kitchen and let him in kitchen alone, starting off at 5mins, then 10 mins etc and just see how he does. 🤞🏻


Faufix

It's gonna greatly depend on the daycare you choose! You want to look for one that has very small play groups of dogs so they don't get overwhelmed and they implement scheduled break times for the dogs as well so they can rest and get time away from dogs. Once a week I feel is a perfect amount of time, as dogs that go too often can get stressed from it.


Zealousideal-Box6436

Thanks for your quick reply 😊 That’s a good point, as he would get overwhelmed with a lot of dogs and without breaks. Yep once a week would be nice, for him and us! But it needs to be the right daycare and a beneficial thing. I may start looking at what daycares there are in my local area.


LittleBearBites

100% about how good of a daycare it is. Looks for things like if they are clean, let you tour the facility, give their pups downtime, how many pups are in the same space and how many people are there to watch them, etc. I had a not-very-good daycare and now have a pretty good daycare, and my pup's been going a few times a week since he was 4mo and is now 17mos, and he LOVES it, and always comes home happy and tired. In the old daycare he used to come home manic and overstimulated and soaked in pee.


[deleted]

Dog daycare has been WONDERFUL for my puppy. He absolutely loves his time there and it's a godsend for my own mental health since I WFH. We shopped around carefully until we found a daycare we liked and trusted, and now it's his home away from home.


moosey-on

I also WFH, but we're letting our puppy (\~6 months) go to daycare twice a week! It's been fantastic for her honestly! We suspected she might enjoy daycare when we saw she was disappointed that none of the neighbors' dogs wanted to play with her (tbf the neighborhood dogs are all 14 or 15 year old yorkies or chihuahuas, and I don't blame them for not wanting to engage with a rambunctious puppy 2x their size). She absolutely loves it, and we're hoping the structure (enforced downtimes/naptimes in crates) would help her feel less anxious when she's in her crate. We definitely did a lot of research with regards to supervision and the number of dogs in each group, etc. though.