Does my dog need Daycare?

Working with dogs and especially puppies on a daily basis and with lots of Daycare places popping up all over town, I get asked a lot whether dogs actually need Daycare. It is an interesting question where there are lots of aspects to be considered. I worked in a Daycare place for a few months a while ago and will talk a bit about the Pros and Cons:

Daycare is a great way to make sure that your dog doesn't get bored and won't need any additional exercise on the day, maybe not even on the following day. I have seen puppies coming in very timid and growing into wonderfully confident dogs. When puppies are under 16 weeks old, they still need a lunch feed which can be given by Daycare staff whilst the working parents might struggle to provide that additional feed.

Those are great aspects of Daycare. On the other hand we need to consider that we usually aim for our dogs to be a relaxed family member. For those of you who have done Puppy Class with me you will know that I recommend to give puppies up to 80% quiet time a day, in order to make sure that our puppies learn to relax and turn their busy brains off. A dog that gets to run around all day, bark at everyone and be barked at by everyone doesn't learn to relax and gets used to getting stimulated all day long. Some Daycare places promise to give the puppies enough quiet time. That's great. Ask them how often that is and to see the rooms where quiet time is provided, ask yourself if that is a suitable, calm place for your puppy and let them show you videos of your puppy relaxing. Maybe they even have a Daycare Live-stream, then you really know they have nothing to hide. I would in general be very careful whom to trust with a young puppy – what they learn at a young age is often extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to reverse.
Even Adult Dogs need quiet time and would usually sleep at least half the day, especially when being as highly stimulated as in a Daycare. Where and how is that provided? Have you seen proof of dogs actually relaxing at your Daycare? And even more important, have you seen that YOUR dog is able to relax here?
I have mentioned that your dogs get used to being stimulated all day long. Ask yourself if you are happy to give your dog access to Daycare for the rest of their life. If you were thinking of it as a temporary solution, then you need to make sure your dog doesn't get too used to it.

Back to the training aspect: training is done by positively reinforcing good behaviours and by making sure our dogs don't get rewarded for unwanted behaviours. Therefore we need to control what our dogs do in order to control what they learn. Dogs can learn behaviours from other dogs while you are not around to address it, Daycare staff could unknowingly reinforce behaviour that you don't want reinforced and dogs can also reinforce their own behaviours if they feel they're working for them. Let's take a working dog, a Collie for example. Their job is to keep the sheep together, at Daycare there are no sheep, so they will often try to herd the other dogs. Maybe just eying them down will work, or maybe they will get into trouble for that because dogs don't like to be starred at. Maybe biting their legs will put the unruly "sheep" in place or maybe it won't and again, the Collie could get in trouble. Last resort might be barking at the other dogs, that usually gets them to move. Now your Collie has learnt that barking is a rewarding behaviour and is therefore more likely to show that behaviour. Do you want your dog to become barky? In short: if you want to control your dog's development you might want to look into alternatives to Daycare.

Another point on the training perspective is that a dog who enjoys Daycare (and that's by far not every dog that is there) will play with his doggy mates all day long. Remember that in training we always say that YOU, as mum or dad or older sibling, need to be better than all the distractions around. It is pretty hard for you to compete against dogs that will play all day long. If you want to be the best in your dog's life, then you should be providing most of that fun and stimulation yourself. That is actually not that hard, you don't have to do hours and hours of walking your dog and doing training. You just need to find something that you and your dog enjoy doing together and develop it further and further, so your dog always gets mentally stimulated when doing it. And maybe that is already combined with physical exercise. Otherwise, depending on your dog's breed playing with the ball, going for a bike ride or a jog or taking the dog for a walk will be good physical exercise that, if combined with mental stimulation, doesn't have to exceed 30-60 minutes once or twice a day (breed dependant). If your dog enjoys playing with other dogs, you could arrange a play-date with a friend once or twice a week. Ideally you would start the play date with some focus work and then reward your dog with the playtime. Lots of dogs that have learnt how amazing it is to work with their mums and dads don't even hugely enjoy playing with other dogs anymore. That doesn't mean they are poorly socialised, they don't mind another dog running up and sniffing them. They just don't need to play with that other dog, because their best friend (you) is providing them with more fun. Want to learn some new ways of providing that mental and physical stimulation? How about investing all that saved Daycare money into training classes, like Agility, Nose Work, Tracking, Tricks or general Fun & Obedience?

I have mentioned that not every dog in Daycare enjoys being there. I have heard lots of dog owners say that they know their dog had a great time, because he was so exhausted when he came home. There is a difference though between happily-tired or stressed-exhausted and you would need to make sure that your dog belongs in the first category. A dog that shows stress already on their way to Daycare or on the way through the door, (unless it's his very first day) doesn't want to be there. But I have even seen dogs that fly through the door in the morning because they are excited to see the lovely staff or because mum or dad are so excited, but they actually don't want to be put into an area with the other dogs at all.
You might say that you know for sure that your dog loves playing with other dogs, but we need to consider how different the environment of a Daycare is. Some Daycare places have over 50 or even over 60 or 70 dogs in per day. And I couldn't say it better than Robin Bennett and Susan Briggs in the www.TheDogGurus.com: "Many dogs play well with a few dog buddies or in very small groups of dogs, but that comfort does not automatically translate to large dog playgroups or new locations. Off-leash play in professional pet care centers can involve very large groups of dogs and high activity levels. The environmental change is like the difference between your visit to a small county fair versus Disneyland; the level of activity intensifies significantly."
Also Patricia McConnell points it out in her article about Doggy Daycare (http://www.patriciamcconnell.com/theotherendoftheleash/doggy-day-care-fun-for-fido-or-not): "[...] it is important to remember that dogs did not evolve to play in large groups. Play between dogs is primarily between two individuals. Groups of dogs can play well together, but if you watch carefully, there are always two dogs as the primary “actors,” and other dogs on the periphery, trying to join in." "The fact is that many dogs are not comfortable walking into, or spending time in a group of 20 or 30 or 50 dogs, it's too overwhelming."

Do dog fights happen in Daycare? Yes, they do. A well-run Daycare does everything to minimise the risks, but fights still happen. Does the Daycare of your choice have a low enough staff to dog ratio to ensure that a dog that got attacked gets the much needed after-care of making sure there are no deeper wounds physically, but even more important the dog doesn't leave Daycare that day being terrified of dogs and becoming reactive towards them? Some issues are hard to resolve later on, especially if you are not sure what actually happened. Are you getting solid advice and honesty here?

Do you want your dog to go to Daycare in order to be better socialised with other dogs? The most important time for socialisation is puppy age. Arrange play-dates with friends that have sociable dogs and sign up to a well-run puppy class where monitored play time is given. Monitored playtime doesn't mean to chuck all puppies in a room and hope for the best. It means to make sure that only puppies play with each other that are a good fit and to make sure that no pup walks out of class terrified or as a bully. Once that socialisation window is closed it is harder to socialise your dog. They might be frightened of other dogs and Daycare would just make that worse. You can still teach your dog to feel safe around other dogs, but that should involve a trainer that works with non-aversive methods. (Please don't just hire any trainer, do your research!)

On the note of research: if you decide you want to bring your dog to Daycare, please do thorough research as well. Maybe you can find a very small Daycare place, possibly in someone's home.
See if you can observe the place properly without your dog before you decide. Maybe even video the interactions between the dogs to watch it again at home. Are the dogs relaxed and happy or do they seem stressed and on edge? Are you allowed to suss the place out several times before making a decision?
What is the staff to dog ratio? Do you think that one staff member can give proper care to more than 10-15 dogs? I think that is pushing it already. What training has staff received? Ask them if they had lessons in canine body language (reading stress, fear, distinguishing between appropriate and inappropriate play, etc.), whether they have been trained how to break up fights, how long were those trainings and how often are they being refreshed? Read the vibe in your Daycare. Does staff seem happy, friendly and dog loving or do they seem stressed? How clean is the place and how loud is it? Would you be comfortable spending your day there?
How does staff interact with the dogs? Do they have time to play and cuddle or are they constantly running around trying to put out fires? Ask them what the protocol is for dogs that are being identified to not enjoy Daycare.
Where do the dogs toilet? Are they all having access to the outside on a regular basis (once an hour at least for puppies and every couple of hours for the older dogs) or do they learn that toiletting inside is okay?
Is there lots of space to play, but also lots of space to rest? Are resting areas in cozy corners, behind walls or barriers? Do they have nice, comfy beds? Is it a safe environment with no sharp objects sticking out, no ways to escape, non-slippery floors, etc.?

Some dogs do enjoy Daycare and some places are nice, small-scale, well-managed and provide a great alternative for days where you are busy from early till late. You have a great feeling about a Daycare place? Awesome! Start with short sessions with some days off in-between and carefully observe how your dog changes. Keep checking out those videos or even better live-streams and share them with your friends. :)

Do I take my dogs to Daycare? No. I have done for a few short sessions when I was working there myself, but even then I always made sure to give them lots of downtime in the office. I always noticed they were getting very intense which makes sense with all their working genes in them.
In nature a dog would go hunt in the morning, then eat and sleep and depending on how big the prey was repeat the same thing in the evening. Therefore, Hank (my 2 1/2 year old) gets a good run in the morning and then some nice toys (like the Planet Dog Snoop or a frozen Kong or the Wobbler) and maybe a bone and after he has finished all of that, he just sleeps until I get home. And that is fine with him, because we gradually got him used to staying alone for longer and longer. When Mousy (9mths) was younger, we made sure to gradually increase time that she stayed alone as well. As long as she needed lunch feeds we didn't leave her longer than 3 or 4 hours on her own. That also helped with toilet-training. If your work schedule doesn't allow for lunch time visits, check out one of the awesome pet care services in town. They are happy to go over to your home for a visit, feed the pup, cuddle them, play with them and also take them out if you want them to. Those services would be my first choice if I knew I don't have time to walk my dog or give them enough stimulation. Some of them will also walk 2 dogs at a time and match them to have some great play/socialisation. It is also quite common for pet care services to use the walking time for some recall, lead walking and focus training. We run Group Dog Walks that might be your perfect Daycare alternative.

If you leave your dog at home, especially when they are younger, try to give them not too much space and lots of stuff to do (mental stimulation) and why else do we have dogs, if not to play, cuddle and run with them when we come home? :)