As a family, we’ve always had dogs in the house for as long as I can remember. As a small child we lived in the countryside and would be out every day for long walks with the dogs and they were a central part of our lives. As I became an adult I moved into the city and didn’t have any pets at all for a long time, living in rented apartments where there were ‘no pet’ rules and I didn’t yet have the money to buy my own place. As I got older though, settled down, got married and had kids of my own, I always wanted to get back to how it was when I was a kid, a dog at the centre of the family, bringing cuddles, walks and plenty of laughs. So that’s what we have done in recent years, brought a little pooch into our lives, but what made the biggest difference to our happiness was using a dog day care centre to help us out.
There have been a few things we’ve noticed since putting our pet dog into a day care setting. Overall, they’ve come together nicely to make for a pleasant home life, with our pet at the heart of everything, calm, well-trained, well-behaved around other dogs and strangers in a public setting. We couldn’t ask for anymore.
Safety – The biggest factor was wanting that peace of mind that our cherished pet was safe from harm. We’ve got cameras in the house to keep an eye on him when we’re not at home, but it’s not the same as knowing exactly where he is, with real-life human being and other dogs having a great time without us!
Separation anxiety – This goes both ways, as we all miss him terribly when we’re not with him for the day, but we knew that we had to think of ways of limiting separation anxiety, because at some point there will be times when we have to leave our dog at home alone for a few hours. Without proper training this can lead to destructive acts such as chewed up pillows and shoes, because the dog is bored. Over time, doggy day care helps to eliminate separation anxiety.
Socialisation – We knew how important it was for our dog to socialise with other dogs, pets and human beings, especially when he was a puppy. The developmental stage of a dog’s behaviour is crucial in making sure that they are as comfortable as possible around different people and dogs and in very different settings to home. With our doggy daycare centre, our dog is thriving, learning how to stay calm in specific situations, to limit aggressive behaviour and how to play well with other animals.
Put together a robust routine–From experience, we knew that the quicker we got our dog into a strong and regular routine, the better it would be for his health, wellbeing, and that of our family as a unit. Doggy daycare provides a consistent setting and routine, provides daily exercise and experienced professionals who know what to look out for and how to develop the behaviours of a dog.
With the help of the experts at the doggy daycare centre, we now know that as a family, our pet dog is looked after when we are all at work and school. The last thing that we wanted was to leave him at home during the day, getting wound up without any person there to look after him or to entertain him for those few hours every weekday. On top of that, we’ve noticed that the house training processes we’d already started have come on leaps and bounds since we started using a dog day care centre that specialises in dog behaviour courses as part of their set up. Being alongside other dogs each day has also helped incredibly with our dogs socialisation skills.
