Doggie Daycare Yay Or Nay?

[Sambuca]

Bummer it didn't work out for Zero. I take my boy to daycare every so often (maybe 6-7 times a year when I'm crazy busy) and he loves it. I'm a pet sitter so he's used to being around other breeds all the time. Also, I've worked at day cares and know what I like and to look for and I hear about the reputations of lots of day cares from my clients and other pet care workers I know. The day care I use is very clean, I asked about their e-vet policies and like their answers, I get e-mails if there is a parasite or other contagious issue that has come up (which is bound to happen in a kennel like setting) and every time we come, whoever greets us, knows Bu's name. Considering we are rarely there and there are 4-5 different people who have greeted us, I find this very impressive and telling. It tells me that they care about the dogs. The other thing I like is that the day care is relatively new and most of the employees had day care experience before they started at this day care. Bu loves it there and I am comfortable with his care. When I come to pick him up, I always watch through the window (that's from the lobby into the day care area) for a bit before they get him and he's usually napping or following the workers around, but what ever makes him happy. The other thing I have requested is that his leash and collar are put on BEFORE he leaves the day care area, just in case someone is coming in the door while he is let out. They are pretty good about it, although at first whenever it was someone new, I had to reiterate that.

[Guest oldNELLIE]

I see that you got a lot of "yay" responses, but that it didn't work out for Zero. I'll share my story from a few years ago.

 

When we first got Nellie we felt that she might be bored being home all day and that maybe she would like to play with other dogs every now and then. So we took her to the local daycare and by all accounts she did fine. She went twice and then we went away for a long weekend. We opted to board her at the daycare.

 

I can home 2 days before my husband and went to pick up Nellie. The girl at the desk looked a little hesitant and told me there had been some blood in Nellie's stool and that I should feed her rice and chicken for a few days. I was skeptical but said fine, paid and they brought Nellie out. She looked terrible. Her head was hanging and she was walking slowly. I got her out into the parking lot and she squatted to poop and started hemorrhaging. It was awful. I couldn't get her to walk back to the door to ask someone for help, so I carried her to my car and drove her to the vet.

 

As it turns out, she had given herself such a bad case of stress colitis that she had to be admitted for the night to receive IV fluids. The vet said she could have died. I was heart broken that we had left her there and they never called to tell us something was wrong.

 

I was younger then and a new dog owner, and didn't know how to properly handle the situation so I never called to tell them what had really happened while she was in their care. It has been nearly 4 years...and now that I am much more of a momma bear I often feel like I would like to call and speak with someone about it but I think it has been too long. I don't think they would even remember her or that the same people even work there any more.

 

We board her now at a great place that does group play time, but he lets all the GH have yard time by themselves. He says in all his years owning a kennel he has never seen a GH that really wants to play with a group of dogs unless they are housemates.

[brandimom]

If I had a choice I would not take my dog to a doggy daycare.

 

My reasons ..

- The greyhound's skin is so thin that any damage that happens is likely to happen to the greyhound and not the other dog.

- Most employees at a doggie daycare are going to be kids working at minimum wage (or slightly better) and are likely to be more interested in talking to their fellow workers than carefully watching the dogs for signs of trouble

- It only takes a second for issues to arise and if there are a bunch (10, 12 ...) of "big dogs" the employees armed with "spritz water bottles" are not going to be able to control the dogs

 

I guess I'm a little jaded but, I cringe at the thought of the "vet bills" from a play date gone bad....

 

editd to add .. and what about if very serious damage is done and the vet cannot fix it (pit bulls go for the neck)

I have got to agree with MaryJane. The doggy daycare and dog parks scare the crap out of me. It only takes a moment for something to happen. I have never even taken my grey to a dog parks to let him run free. On the other hand I have some friends that take their greys to the doggy daycare and dog parks and never had a problem

[Guest ladyandthemoose]

Here is my experience:

I used to take Charlie when he was an only dog when husband and I would be gone for longer than our usual work day. The owners ran the day care and seemed to be very knowledgable at the time, I asked them all the 'greyhound' questions I could think of, but I was also new at this dog-owning thing too. Charlie passed his 'evaluation' and was allowed to stay and play. Even though he was overwhelmed with the barking and the loud noise at first, they took video footage of him to assure me that he was having a good time once he settled in and he did. First few visits were incident free, however, one day after a few hours at day care, I picked him up and heard him crying from the holding area--they wouldn't let me go back there. I paid for his stay and the owner who was supervising the dogs that day, went back to get him and he had a huge gash in his back leg and a puncture wound on the opposite leg. He tried to claim that the puncture wound didn't happen there (of course it did) and that the gash must have been from the nail that was sticking out from the wall from a piece of moulding that had come off the wall. The owners claimed they didn't want dog owners back in the dog play area because it made the dogs too excited. I wish I would have thought that through more instead of just assuming the doggie day care people knew more than I did, since I had just adopted Charlie, I believed he was in good hands. The reluctantly reimbursed me for the vet bill (even put a frowny face in the memo line--very professional).

They are unbelievably sight-hound-stupid. Someone from my rescue group later tried to arrange a greyhound play date there and they wouldn't let just our group have the room for the day, which is fine, whatever, but when they were asked about small dogs and greyhounds that have a strong prey drive, they said, "they're not worried about that, little dogs like to be chased" and "if it becomes anything let than friendly chasing they'll stop it" and when asked about muzzles for all dogs if there was going to be rough play, they said, "That's one thing I don't understand about you greyhound people. Dogs use their mouths to play, I just don't see how your dogs could be having any fun wearing muzzles." idiots.

 

So, in conclusion:

 

Ask lots of questions to be sure the owners are sight hound savvy (or at least not completely stupid like these people) and weigh the risk of skin tears and stitches.

Although I love the idea of doggie day care and the socialization benefits, not to mention the exercise they receive, I would not likely try it again (anywhere).

Good luck. Hope you have a better experience.

[Guest ladyandthemoose]

Here is my experience:

I used to take Charlie when he was an only dog when husband and I would be gone for longer than our usual work day. The owners ran the day care and seemed to be very knowledgable at the time, I asked them all the 'greyhound' questions I could think of, but I was also new at this dog-owning thing too. Charlie passed his 'evaluation' and was allowed to stay and play. Even though he was overwhelmed with the barking and the loud noise at first, they took video footage of him to assure me that he was having a good time once he settled in and he did. First few visits were incident free, however, one day after a few hours at day care, I picked him up and heard him crying from the holding area--they wouldn't let me go back there. I paid for his stay and the owner who was supervising the dogs that day, went back to get him and he had a huge gash in his back leg and a puncture wound on the opposite leg. He tried to claim that the puncture wound didn't happen there (of course it did) and that the gash must have been from the nail that was sticking out from the wall from a piece of moulding that had come off the wall. The owners claimed they didn't want dog owners back in the dog play area because it made the dogs too excited. I wish I would have thought that through more instead of just assuming the doggie day care people knew more than I did, since I had just adopted Charlie, I believed he was in good hands. The reluctantly reimbursed me for the vet bill (even put a frowny face in the memo line--very professional).

They are unbelievably sight-hound-stupid. Someone from my rescue group later tried to arrange a greyhound play date there and they wouldn't let just our group have the room for the day, which is fine, whatever, but when they were asked about small dogs and greyhounds that have a strong prey drive, they said, "they're not worried about that, little dogs like to be chased" and "if it becomes anything let than friendly chasing they'll stop it" and when asked about muzzles for all dogs if there was going to be rough play, they said, "That's one thing I don't understand about you greyhound people. Dogs use their mouths to play, I just don't see how your dogs could be having any fun wearing muzzles." idiots.

 

So, in conclusion:

 

Ask lots of questions to be sure the owners are sight hound savvy (or at least not completely stupid like these people) and weigh the risk of skin tears and stitches.

Although I love the idea of doggie day care and the socialization benefits, not to mention the exercise they receive, I would not likely try it again (anywhere).

Good luck. Hope you have a better experience.

 

Oh sorry Guess I should read the whole thread before I put in my two cents. Sorry it didn't work out for Zero.

[MaryJane]

Thanks for the update Tony.

 

You might want to see if there are some other greyhound owners in the area that have a fenced yard and if so, you could turn them both out with muzzles and see if they will play together.

[Guest LindsaySF]

Sorry it didn't work out. I think many Greyhounds would react like Zero did. There are some Greys that enjoy that type of environment, but overall given the typical Greyhound temperament, I don't think it's a good match.

 

 

 

 

Here is my experience:

 

<snip>

 

Ask lots of questions to be sure the owners are sight hound savvy (or at least not completely stupid like these people) and weigh the risk of skin tears and stitches.

 

Although I love the idea of doggie day care and the socialization benefits, not to mention the exercise they receive, I would not likely try it again (anywhere).

Good luck. Hope you have a better experience.

Wow. What a dumb place. I'm glad they paid for the vet bill, but shame on them for letting it happen and not coming clean about it. And yeah, I'm sure it was lots of "fun" for your dog to get torn up. Idiots.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2010 by LindsaySF

[Guest FullMetalFrank]

I work at a boarding facility that offers day care; and I deeply resent the remarks about most daycare staff being young and disinterested or too dumb to get a "real job" elsewhere! Our facility has a very good staff; yes we are underpaid but we do what we do because we love working with animals. I am 46 and a graduate of our local vet tech program; we have college students and former vet techs and also certified kennel operators on our staff as well. People who are careless or unmotivated get "sniffed out" pretty quickly and don't last long with us.

 

We seperate dogs into groups by energy level, play styles, etc... and also our own personal observation of the dogs. We have a very large repeat clientele and we know the dog's individual personalities pretty well. Some will play with one or two other dogs only, some get together in a large social group. Some have individual play time with a staff member.

 

I bring my greyhounds to work with me when we aren't busy; three hounds, three different play styles. Frank gets along with the quiet, lazy dogs who wander around with maybe short bursts of playtime. He loves the pools in the hot weather which surprised me! Chelsa likes dogs who will chase and run. RJ also, but she can be snippy and pushy and is very high prey and can't be with dogs much smaller than her.

 

Is daycare ideal for everyone? Absolutely not. But to write it off with a blanket statement isn't right. People need to visit their local facilities and get a feel for it themselves, as it seems our OP has done.

Edited December 27, 2010 by FullMetalFrank

[Hubcitypam]

I work at a boarding facility that offers day care; and I deeply resent the remarks about most daycare staff being young and disinterested or too dumb to get a "real job" elsewhere! Our facility has a very good staff; yes we are underpaid but we do what we do because we love working with animals. I am 46 and a graduate of our local vet tech program; we have college students and former vet techs and also certified kennel operators on our staff as well. People who are careless or unmotivated get "sniffed out" pretty quickly and don't last long with us.

Sounds like you have a great place!

 

I shared my experiences in two years at a day care that is currently nominated for "Best in Dallas". I saw things that would make your toes curl including walking into the run room and seeing two twenty year old kennel helpers packing a bite wound with scryptic powder to make it stop bleeding. How bad do you think that hurt that poor dog before I intervened? On holidays we'd have 150 dogs being watched by 6 people with squirt bottles who often were busy texting chatting or on the phone. The little dogs were always placed in the suites with no supervison which is where Viviace the IG had his throat ripped open by the Westie. Most of our help honestly was young and drug addled with no dog experience or older with multiple felonies and some dog experience. I was not kidding about discussions of which jails were the best...and this daycare/kennel is in a very affluent neighborhood and in the running for best in Dallas ....

 

I'm sure there are excellent facilities out there, but in retrospect the one I worked at was not one. I do know several of our less suitable employees found employment at other dog day cares after they were let go so there are certainly other places with not so high standards.

 

I totally agree that one should visit a facility, take a tour and look at the staff and staff to dog ratio -- 20-25 dogs per staff member (which was what we did year around) is not a good ratio. Also, I'd ask if you are allowed to drop in and watch your dog play. If they won't let you that is a big red flag.

 

Wasn't dissing you FMF, just sharing what I saw. You shared the excellent place you work and I'm sure there are a zillion other places in between.

Edited December 27, 2010 by Hubcitypam

[a_daerr]

I also say nay. I took my Henry to an indoor/outdoor dog park that also does doggie day care. It was okay for short periods of time (an hour or so) but after a few bad experiences, I can't even get him near the parking lot. It's very hard when you have all different ages and breeds of dogs with different ways of playing, different energy levels, and different levels of training/obedience all placed in the same area. I could tell that it made Henry uncomfortable when dogs were constantly running around and barking. Certainly, you know your dog better than anyone else, so it's up to you to make the decision about whether or not doggie daycare would be a good idea. I would definitely say two things though: (1) Do your research and make sure you are 100% satisfied about how professional, clean, and well-staffed the daycare is, and (2) Be an advocate for your dog. Look for the signals that will tell you whether or not your grey is happy with it.

[Guest FullMetalFrank]

I work at a boarding facility that offers day care; and I deeply resent the remarks about most daycare staff being young and disinterested or too dumb to get a "real job" elsewhere! Our facility has a very good staff; yes we are underpaid but we do what we do because we love working with animals. I am 46 and a graduate of our local vet tech program; we have college students and former vet techs and also certified kennel operators on our staff as well. People who are careless or unmotivated get "sniffed out" pretty quickly and don't last long with us.

Sounds like you have a great place!

 

I shared my experiences in two years at a day care that is currently nominated for "Best in Dallas". I saw things that would make your toes curl including walking into the run room and seeing two twenty year old kennel helpers packing a bite wound with scryptic powder to make it stop bleeding. How bad do you think that hurt that poor dog before I intervened? On holidays we'd have 150 dogs being watched by 6 people with squirt bottles who often were busy texting chatting or on the phone. The little dogs were always placed in the suites with no supervison which is where Viviace the IG had his throat ripped open by the Westie. Most of our help honestly was young and drug addled with no dog experience or older with multiple felonies and some dog experience. I was not kidding about discussions of which jails were the best...and this daycare/kennel is in a very affluent neighborhood and in the running for best in Dallas ....

 

I'm sure there are excellent facilities out there, but in retrospect the one I worked at was not one. I do know several of our less suitable employees found employment at other dog day cares after they were let go so there are certainly other places with not so high standards.

 

I totally agree that one should visit a facility, take a tour and look at the staff and staff to dog ratio -- 20-25 dogs per staff member (which was what we did year around) is not a good ratio. Also, I'd ask if you are allowed to drop in and watch your dog play. If they won't let you that is a big red flag.

 

Wasn't dissing you FMF, just sharing what I saw. You shared the excellent place you work and I'm sure there are a zillion other places in between.

 

Absolutely. It's one of those things where you really want to do your homework and check a potential daycare situation out thoroughly; I am not saying every facility out there is a safe place. I just didn't want to be lumped in with the ex-cons and dingbats!

[Guest sja5032]

I used to work at a doggie daycare, I quit after 6 months. I have some horror stories of bad employees and worse management that will make anyone think twice about daycare again. I will admit most of the employees were very good, knew what they were doing and enjoyed the dogs. The owner did not appreciate the help at all, and thats ultimately what led me to quit. One worker accidentally used floor cleaner instead of bitter apple to repremand a barking dog during the overnight shift, the dog ended up with ulcers in its eyes, nose and throat. The parents of the dog were never told the truth. My own dog (non-grey) received a small puncture wound which was way too clean to come from playing it was definately some sort of sharp object that did it and the owner refused to pay for the vet costs (I wouldn't have cared if it were play related but it was definately unsafe area related), a non-worker's dog had a similar wound a few days later, they paid for her bill and then went on a cleaning spree to make sure everything was safe. In general the daycare is well liked by clients and always reccomended, if they only knew! Also I am unable to disclose the name of said daycare because i had to sign a release when I was hired.

 

A friend of mine runs another daycare which is wonderful, great employees, good environment in general, so don't lump them all together!

[Sambuca]

I posted about the day care I use. Now I'll post about the 3 I worked for.

 

The first was only for a month or 2 because they only had part time position (like 12 hours a week). They were very clean and very small. In fact, I think too clean in that, that's what I was doing my entire shift was cleaning. The 2 owners were always there, 1 in the office and the other in the grooming area. There was generally only 1 of us in the day care at the time, but they had a limit of 25ish dogs at a time and they were temperament tested pretty well. No powerful breeds allowed and for the most part dogs over 70# allowed. It was actually a very nice place and I still recommend them. I did call at 1 point after I got Bu to set up an interview and they said they would call to reschedule, but they never did. I ran into the owner and she said it was because they have metal fences and with the gh skin they weren't comfortable having Bu there.

 

The second day care was horrible. I worked there for a month and got bitten by the same dog on 3 different days, each time the dog had jumped up and bitten me. The last time I needed stitches in my face and I quit because they were blaming me for the bites. A bunch of the other employees were afraid of her because of her known issues, so this was going on way before I started working there. I was in a back room that wasn't very big with 12-15 dogs and a door leading outside to a small walkway. Even if I left the door open all day, the dogs wouldn't go out there, so I did a lot of cleaning. They never wanted the dogs unsupervised (which I understand), but the phone broke and it took them over a week to fix it, so if I had to go to the bathroom, I had to leave them alone to find another employee. The heat for the back room broke and they took weeks to fix it so I was freezing. I had a helper that I think was special needs and wouldn't listen to me. She always sat on the floor and I kept telling her to get off the floor and instead of asking why, she gave me major attitude until I realized she had no idea that it was dangerous and I explained myself. One day while she was there, 2 dogs got into an argument. I ran to the dogs to break it up, she ran through the gate and didn't close it, and through the door and didn't close that either. I was livid. Why was she there is she was going to run away if there was an issue? And why didn't she close the door behind her? Thankfully she ran into the kennel so there weren't any loose dogs, but I did have to corral them all. At another point the manager hired his friend to do some painting. He was given a key to the gate leading from the daycare walkway to the parking lot and would come and go at will. I was again, livid. If any of the dogs had gotten loose, it would have been on me and I never knew he was coming so I couldn't lock the dogs inside. I hated that place and flinch whenever I hear someone uses them. I came in after I got the stitches in my face and the main boss, who I didn't know well, looked at me and never acknowledged me. I HAD STITCHES IN MY FACE from the job.

 

The 3rd place was also great. I only work they if they are desperate for help as they're far from me. I'm friends with an employee, which is how they found me. They only have outdoor daycare facilities and they take anyone, but dogs with issues are separated. They have a bunch of separate large pens so even those dogs could run a bit. Bu would come with me and he loved it there. When he had enough, they would turn him into an office dog with the office managers **zus which was cute to see. They were very clean and all the dogs were well cared for. The employees were great and when there was a dog argument, everyone went running to stop it, once the immediate danger was over, all but the people holding the problem dog(s) would run away from them, because the non problem dogs would follow the employees that were running and the person(s) who had the dog with an issue could get it out of there quicker. They have probably close to an acre for the day care area, so the running away worked, in smaller day cares, it wouldn't do a bit of good. If they were closer, I wouldn't hesitate to send Bu there regularly in decent weather.