Here are some things that every first time dog day care human should know about the dog day care experience:
1) Health and vaccinations are extremely important. Dogs are pack animals. They get up in each other's business. They can easily access another dog's water bowl if they set their mind to it. Any infection or disease can spread quickly in a communal enviornment. Patrick's Pet Care maintains very clean facilities and we do our best to proactively communicate the observation of any illness. But please do your part: if your dog is sick at home (diarrhea, vomiting, coughing); please let us know so we can keep an eye out for these things on our other guests; and please keep him/her home until he/she is better to prevent the spread of any illness. To ensure all of our four-legged guests remain healthy and safe, we require you to keep your dog's vaccinations current. Failure to remain current on vaccinations will result in your dog being asked to stay home until they have been vaccinated. We don't yet require dog flu vaccine, but we strongly recommend it!
2) We reserve the right to discourage bad behavior in order to foster an enjoyable enviornment for everyone. This includes the possibility of telling naughty dogs "no," in a firm and deliberate tone (but no yelling), it also potentially includes a harmless squirt of water at a repeat offendor with a household water bottle, or in some cases it can mean that your dog could be segregated/given a time out in a crate. Dogs personalities can also change depending on who they are around. Typically we'll say "no" or use the water bottle to manage behaviors like:
-Mounting
-Excessive Indoor Marking or Accidents off the Grass Patches
-Excessive Barking
-Excessive Jumping
-Excessive Mouthiness toward dogs or humans
-Excessive Destructive Behavior
-Any sort of Barrier or Leash aggression
Dogs will be dogs. And we do want them to have fun, so we use our training and best judgment to decide what's best for the whole pack and what is "execessive." If they don't respond to "no" and/or the spray bottle, we'll give minor offenders a "behavior warning" to make note of the behavior for our staff and for you that we need to work with them to address it.
More serious offenders are given "strikes." Strikes are given for any sort of aggressive behavior (including retaliation) as well as for resource guarding, or anything that in the sole discretion of Patrick's Pet Care staff may cause a safety issue for anyone in our facility.
Three behavior warings = one strike. And after three strikes, the offender is asked not to return. In extremely rare cases, a dog may exhibit a behavior that earns it all three strikes in the same day or in the same incident. This would almost certainly, but not always, be biting a human or another dog.
We do all of this thoughtfully and compassionately, and we keep you humans in the loop. But if you don't want your dog cared for in this way, we would respectfully refer you to another facility.
3) We also expressly reserve the right to create structure in order to foster an enjoyable enviornment for everyone.
Much like kids, dogs can get worn out and cranky and don't even know it themselves. We want everyone to have a good time, and if your angel is having a bad day, or causing others to have a bad day - that's okay. It happens to everyone once in a while. But we may segregate him/her temporarily to allow for a "cool down." Or, at our discretion and in communication with you, we may require that your dog have regular, structured napping periods of an hour or two or more in order to provide the necessary down time many dogs need to thrive in day care. Some people think their dog should be out running around all the time because "that's what they are paying for." That's not always best for some dogs, and we'll be sure to let you know if we think that's the case with yours. If this sort of thing would upset you, or you don't feel comfortable letting us decide when your dog needs that structured time when he or she is in our care, we would respectfully refer you to another facility.
4) Minor injuries can happen! Again, dogs will be dogs. Just like kids at the elementary school playground, there can be scuffs and maybe a skinned knee once in a while. All of our guests are screened for behaviorial issues and aggressive tendencies. We do not invite aggressive dogs to Patrick's Pet Care. But play groups do form. Pack mentality does happen. And occasionally dogs play rough. Sometimes two dogs who know each other really well and who have played together for months could one day get into it and one dog might come home with a cut, or in a worst case "cherry eye" from rough play. Other times two dog friends who have really high energy play with each other in a way that might seem quite rough, and there could be scratches. It does happen as you can see in this video. But our staff is vigilant and will intercede to stop any fistacuffs between guests and communicate the matter to the humans. If we feel uncomfortable because of what we're seeing or hearing, we're going to stop what is going on and separate the dogs involved. We also pride ourselves on low human to dog ratios so we should be able to keep a close eye on your pup, but it is possible he or she could come home with a scrape that we did not notice. If you're concerned, please bring it to our attention because we want to hear from you. But be prepared because it can happen and there are inherent risks in bringing your baby to a room of dogs who are all there to have fun!
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