I decided that I would look into the option of putting Athena in daycare for the day. However, I was nervous that Athena may not be a daycare kind of dog, or worse, her "dog aggression" might surface in the presence of so many dogs (refer to It all started with a pit... for more info about Athena's "dog aggression").
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| Moooommmm, how often do I have to tell you that I LOVE the other doggies! |
After looking at every single daycare in our general radius, we finally decided on a daycare that had decent prices ($24 per day), allowed pit bulls, and had excellent reviews. This particular daycare is a bit different than the others that I looked into because it required a two-hour evaluation (the evaluation includes introductions with all of the dogs and caretakers as well as play time in the group of 30+ dogs). All of the other daycares only required a fifteen minute evaluation.
I feel silly admitting that I had trouble sleeping the night before Athena's evaluation because I was just so nervous about how Athena would do. In the morning, we dropped Athena off and the daycare staff promised to call us an hour into the evaluation to give us an update.
Exactly an hour after dropping Athena off, we received a call and I held my breath as they gave me a report on Athena's first hour of the evaluation. I almost cried when I heard this, "Athena is doing excellent. She has shown no signs of fear or anxiety and she's acting like a daycare pro. She got right in and started playing with all of the dogs and has even made a couple of best friends."
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| I told you there was nothing to worry about! |
We picked Athena up an hour later and heard a further rave review, "Athena was perfect! All of the staff agreed that they couldn't even tell that it was her first day of daycare." You better believe it that my girl got some extra special lovin' when we got home because I was so extremely proud of her!
So, next week Athena will be back at daycare playing with all of her doggy friends. It feels great to know that there is a place where Athena is welcome when we don't want to leave her at home alone.
Do you ever take your dogs to daycare? What did you look for when searching for the right place to take your dog?
Way to go Athena! I'm so glad she had fun and made some friends.
ReplyDeleteWe've put Boomer and Dottie in daycare before, in several different places, and have found that they did pretty well other than wanting to be together the whole time.
I'm glad she did good.
ReplyDeleteThe only time my dogs go to a daycare is when they come with me to the boarding kennel I fill in at occasionally. The kennel is more like a daycare, and the dogs have a couple huge fields to hang out in. I don't really trust other people to notice the warning signs that my dogs may not be getting along with another dog. But then, I'm a little paranoid about it. I know if Koira is involved in an altercation, the breed issue would come up, and it would likely be labeled her fault, no matter the circumstances.
I'm paranoid about Athena getting into an altercation too, because I know that she would most likely be blamed if she were involved.
DeleteI looked into a daycare here for Ray and the only one I found at the time required a Bordatella vaccine which is not standard and I wasn't comfortable with him having. I really want to take him to a daycare but am worried that he doesn't have very good greeting manners and gets pretty excited. (See his post yesterday regarding meeting his cousins.) On the other hand, that is exactly why he does need daycare. Quite a quandry.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you found a good one for Athena, though. Maybe I should keep looking...
Yes, I understand the excited greetings. Athena gets so excited when she greets other dogs she just does play bow, play bow, play bow! Some dogs get a little intimidated by all of her excitement, but it's all in play and she catches on pretty quickly if the other dog isn't as into playing as she is!
DeleteHooray! So glad to hear Athena is doing well. I work at a daycare as well, and we do the same thing: we do a quick "touch test" when the dog comes in to make sure he/she is ok with us petting and touching them. After that, we do an evaluation day in which the dog stays with us for about 2-5 hrs, interacts with a small group of our dogs and possibly even integrates into the pack depending on how comfortable they seem. I really, really love this idea. At my daycare in Chicago, we did a quick 15 minute test with just one dog and that often wasn't enough to really tell if the dog was social or not.
ReplyDeleteEven though I have worked at 2 daycares now, I have yet to bring Rufus to our new one simply because he prefers smaller groups of dogs, and we have no outdoor area (his favorite place to play with other dogs), so I've been hesitant to bring him in. We shall see tho.
I think that the 2-5 hour evaluation is way more reliable than a 15 minute one. I don't know how they expect dogs to show their true colors in only 15 minutes!
DeleteGo Athena!
ReplyDeleteWe haven't tried out daycare yet other than when we've boarded/daycare together. We found a place out in Boring that is really reasonable, puts our dogs in a smaller group of dogs for the first morning they are there to evaluate how they socialize and then place them in groups according to their evaluation. Everyone has done really well. I haven't done a regular old daycare here in the city though....I keep thinking about taking Hurley once in a while.
We might have to check out the place in Boring for the future. I think I've heard about it from some other people too and it sounds like a great place!
DeleteWe love Nola's daycare! Although Nola's pretty laid back and would be fine at home alone while we are at work we think it's important to keep her social life intact too! She has made many friends and we love the staff there. They have an interview process like you described and they have cameras in all the play yards so we can see what she is doing at all times. It's great. So glad Athena loves it!
ReplyDeleteAthena does alright at home alone, but I just like giving her a bit of socialization from time to time. I think it's so important for her because she loves when she gets to meet and play with other dogs.
DeleteThere wasn't a doubt in my mind that Athena would ROCK her evaluation!
ReplyDeleteWe started putting Polly in daycare to help socialize her and get out some excess energy that she cannot burn with Turkey (since he is such a grump towards her) and it has been essential to her development. I am so glad Athena has a place to go and play with other doggies when her mama and daddy are away! :)
I'm so glad that she rocked her evaluation! You know just how nervous I was about it, so I'm very relieved that everything went well!
DeleteYay Athena! It sounds like you found a really good place to play with other pups during the day :D
ReplyDeleteWoohoo! I think you'll always be baffled by Athena's previous "dog aggression" label, but that's a good thing:) I'm lucky enough to work from home and not need day care, but I think Norman would be a pro, but I wouldn't trust Kaya in a group of 30 dogs in a small space. It sounds like she's going to have a blast there!
ReplyDeleteI am more and more baffled by the dog aggressive label every day. I just don't get it!
DeleteElli used to attend daycare as a young'n. I don't trust people to handle her well anymore. Where I can see the warning signs long before she reciprocates other dogs' inappropriate interactions, most daycare attendants can't/don't. Then Elli is blamed and locked away for 10-20 minutes. I find day cares to be way overstimulating for most dogs anyway.
ReplyDeleteBut, how super awesome that Athena's "dog aggression" was bogus beyond belief. :D
I think that day care can be overstimulating as well, especially for dogs that attend multiple (if not all!) days in a week. At least our day care has a designated 2 hour nap time in the middle of the day when dogs must take a rest!We will only be using day care for emergencies when we can't expect Athena to stay in the house for hours on end and even then, we will be using our lunch breaks to pick her up so that she doesn't have to spend 12 hours there.
DeleteI don't want to underestimate my pups but I am fairly confident they would not do well in daycare. We once took him to a boutique attached to a daycare and he started quivering and crying when he heard all the dogs barking. I'd never seen him shake like that--he was shaking like a nervous chihuahua! I'm sad because I bet it'd be great for them but I wouldn't feel comfortable at this stage. When we had to be gone long we had a friend take them out mid-day (back when we crated.) Now that we don't crate they do get left alone around 6 hours or so which I feel isn't ideal but obviously not horrible.
ReplyDeleteI'M proud of Athena! I love of her smiley pic! She is such a star. I'm sure her first family just had no idea how to manage two dogs.
That is so sad that Hades was so scared at the doggy daycare place! I was sure that's how Athena would act because she gets really nervous when she hears other dogs bark.
DeleteI'm thinking Athena's last family just had no idea to manage two dogs as well. It's can be quite a science!
Yay Athena! I would be way to nervous taking Hank to daycare only because he is a puppy and his style of play pisses off the older dogs. But he was use to be only home in the crate for 2 maybe 3 hours a day (we worked different shifts) then my boyfriend lost his job so really if he's in his crate its because we went somewhere. I can usually find someone to come let him out if needed.
ReplyDeleteBadger seems to be "dog selective", so instead of taking him to daycare, we have a dog sitter come over several times a day if we're out for an extended period of time.
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