daycare for pup as preparation for boarding (border collie, how much, lab)
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We have recently adopted a new puppy, the 5th in our adult lives. We have not had a puppy since 2005 and we have not had a puppy with no other adult dog in the house since 2000! So, it's been quite an experience! (Fun, but oh, we remember now how much puppy-sitting the adult dogs did!)
She is now about 5 months old, just under 25 lbs, a black Lab mix. In the foster-rescue home, she had her litter mates and also some adult dogs (I think). She is pretty well dog-socialized, but is naturally quite shy. We've started obedience class with her and there is some carefully monitored off-leash time at the end, and she does well with the small dogs (and then we depart when it's the big dogs' turn). That happens once a week.
Now I have taken her in to be temperament-tested and signed her up for a half-day of day care. I feel good about the monitoring that she'll get at the day care, and we have also booked a "suite" - recommended for pups in the daycare, for the times they might need a break to take a nap, since they tire more quickly than the adults. That's fine with me. But again, she's very shy, and although she did some cute little play-bows with the other dogs in the temperament test, she was very cautious (and very tired when she got home, even though it was a short event).
The reasons that I am launching her in to half-day daycare now (we have had her about three weeks), are: (1) we want to be sure to continue her dog-socialization and we currently don't have a way to do that other than the 1x per week obedience class; and (2) we want to get her used to this place, in case we want / need to take short (1-3 nights) overnight trips. I don't want a fire drill for all concerned when we need to find a place to board her. Barring a family emergency, we do NOT intend to board her overnight for at least a couple of months. The idea would be to take her to daycare maybe once every two weeks until then, and then take a 1-night test trip in October or so.
But I'm interested to hear what people think about these reasons -- especially #2. Do you think going in for a half day, or even a full day, of daycare at a facility DOES in fact help get a dog used to the place, and DOES result in less stress for overnight boarding? Or are the experiences just so different, that it's really pointless to try to get her used to the place in this way? Would she be just as well off, simply being dropped off to be boarded, without having had the daycare exposure? To my human mind, it seems like somewhat regular daycare visits would help reduce the stress of the overnight boarding later. But it seems like I read or heard somewhere that the experiences are so different for the dogs, that it's apples and oranges - no comparison.
Thoughts? THANK YOU! (AND SORRY FOR THE TINY FONT! I wrote this elsewhere and copied and pasted - oops. Lesson learned.)
One of my past dogs went to day care as a puppy. In puppy class she was afraid of the other puppies and the trainer owned a boarding place that also had a day care so recommended I leave her at day care a couple times a week so he could help her learn to deal with other dogs. She was younger then what he usually allowed in day care but he felt it could help her. She would go and for the first two hours stay away from the other dogs but watch them and as soon as she had that day's group figured out she would actually take charge and decide who played with who or what and who could go into the water. Yes she was a bossy girl and around the house was known as Jazz the Queen. It did not get her totally over her fear but helped so that she was able to make friends with dogs but later after being attacked a couple times by other dogs she did become reactive.
At first she loved going to day care and came home exhausted which was good as she was a cattle dog X border collie with a ton of energy. I also boarded her there when I needed to travel. Because she would think she was just going for a day of fun she was fine with it. Then one day I went to drop her off and she did not want to go in and when I left her they put her in the back room behind a half door until someone took her out to the play yard and this time before I got to the front door she had jumped the half door and beat me to the front door. I quit taking her there as it was obvious she did not want to be there. I think something must have happened and the trainer disciplined her perhaps even did an alpha roll as this was back in the 1990's and she was now afraid of him.
He would not admit to anything when I asked but he also knew I was against doing that to her as she was very sensitive dog and even my saying " bad dog" would make her crumble. A couple years later we ran into him and his dog at a park and while he tried to say hello to her she wanted nothing to do with him and was acting fearful the minute she heard him from a distance so yeah he did something to her in the past.
Did it make her anymore comfortable about being boarded, not sure. When I would take her and my other dog to the new kennel and later the vets to be boarded we always had to deal with her drama bout my leaving, She would jump up and wrap her front legs around my leg like a toddler clinging to mom's leg. The people at the 2nd kennel I used said that first time I left her they were afraid she would be a dog that would not eat and would be miserable but once I was gone she was fine and the guy that owned that place loved her and told me he would take her out with him while he worked in his garden. The kennel was out on a ranch and when we would turn on to the ranch road both dogs would get excited, yet she would still pull that drama thing when I left. I guess she wanted me to feel guilty about leaving her despite the fact she had good time. She was always happy to see the owner and his wife. My other dog was like "oh they have food here, I will stay". I got him from the local humane society when he was a year old and despite that he never seemed to mind being boarded. His love in life was food so as long as he got fed he was a happy dog.
When they retired and we started using my vets she did the drama thing and the kennel staff there would laugh as they knew once I was gone she would settle in just fine and they enjoyed her too as she was a well behaved fun dog. Funny thing was most of the vets at the clinic were afraid of her as she learned she could control them with a growl so some of them thought she was vicious while the kennel staff loved her and some of them told me they loved seeing my dogs come in as they loved to go snuggle with them. Those two were both good snugglers and loved attention from people unless you were a vet that wanted to do things that hurt to them.
It is hard to know if daycare will help make it easier for your dog just be aware some dogs have the drama thing going as they seem to know it will upset you when you leave them . I never do a big good bye like I see people doing when I leave my dogs someplace or even at home . Instead I tell them be good and then give some sort of command like" watch the house" as I leave. As doing all the kissy face, I love you good bye etc can make them anxious and help cause separation anxiety. My dogs know I love them and do not have to be told that as I walk away. The current two spent 4 weeks boarding when I went on an out of country trip and they were fine. I think it is often the owners that create the separation anxiety that some dogs have.
It is hard to know if daycare will help make it easier for your dog just be aware some dogs have the drama thing going as they seem to know it will upset you when you leave them . I never do a big good bye like I see people doing when I leave my dogs someplace or even at home . Instead I tell them be good and then give some sort of command like" watch the house" as I leave. As doing all the kissy face, I love you good bye etc can make them anxious and help cause separation anxiety. My dogs know I love them and do not have to be told that as I walk away. The current two spent 4 weeks boarding when I went on an out of country trip and they were fine. I think it is often the owners that create the separation anxiety that some dogs have.
Wow! All of this is so helpful to read, but ESPECIALLY the quoted part above. I completely agree that the goodbye should be matter-of-fact, and ideally with a "watch the house"-type command. (I also usually say out loud my plans in case some of it transmits to them in a helpful way - e.g., "We're going out to lunch together and we'll be back before your afternoon walk," or "I'm going on a trip and X will take care of you. I will be back after two nights.") And YES, on owners creating the separation anxiety in many cases.
It's great to be reminded that the way the dog behaves as you drop them off may not indicate anything at all about how they'll weather being boarded. And it's also helpful to read through your post and sift through my reasons for taking our pup to daycare, and re-confirm that the socializing part IS a valid, standalone reason, whether or not it "preps" her for boarding.
Ohhhh, I miss the luxury of having more than one dog, so that they have a buddy for boarding. We'll see if I cave on that sooner rather than later. (After we got our second dog, we realized that we only THOUGHT that our first dog wanted live-in company. As it turned out, he had a tired and not-thrilled expression as it sank in that the puppy was never going away, so we realized, "oh, maybe dog park / daycare friends would have been plenty for him." So we're taking our time on getting a second dog for THAT reason. But we'll see....)
Thank you again for taking the time to describe your experience so well.
How the dog reacts to the daycare tells the story. I did the 100 people (and as many dogs after shots) in 90 days and day care as often as I could. I was rushing around one day and took the dog in - and their reaction was, oh is he boarding? Uh no. Well, not thinking (it happens), I brought him in on a Sunday, when they are closed for daycare, but their boarding dogs are playing. We had to leave....my pup cried to go back when we left.
Another place, same chain, my dog digs his paws into the floor into a drag/slide to go in. That happened one time, he will not be back to that place. Something happened, I do not know what, but that was enough for me.
We have several places we go to and love. The better ones have cameras so you can see your four-legged child on the nanny cams. We go to a national chain, and have only found one bad apple in McLean VA, of all places.
I did find one downside to socialization..............my pup thinks everyone is there for his pleasure. But better than growling and barking, any day of the week.
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