Settling In Your Dog With Us

When a new dog comes to day care we spend a great deal of time assessing their behaviour to see how they respond to a variety of people, dogs and situations. We monitor their body language which gives us an insight into their emotional state. The last thing we want is for your dog to be stressed as that would completely defeat the purpose of sending your dog in the first place. We assess how your dog is responding to the environment, other dogs and even us humans. We give all dogs a 4 week assessment period to give time for a dog to settle and natural behaviour to become comfortable.

Every Dog Is Different

In our experience some breeds simply bound in and are confident and comfortable pretty much immediately. However dogs that are nervous or shy may take a little more time to feel comfortable. All of the settling in process is guided by your dogs reaction and completed at his or her speed.

In all cases though we introduce a new dog firstly to the easy going, well mannered dogs that are good at making everyone feel at home and are able to deal with anything from a boisterous puppy to an anxious dog. All interactions are monitored to ensure that all of the dogs involved are happy and comfortable. If at anytime during play at day care, a dog looks uncomfortable the interaction is interrupted and attention is diverted to other activities.

If your dog has a tendency to guard food or toys it is vital that you tell us in advance so that we can monitor and pre-empt this kind of behaviour as we always encourage good manners and try to prevent dogs becoming over excited thereby avoiding unwanted behaviours such as jumping up, mounting and bullying of other dogs.

We will also assess your dog’s recall, particularly when distracted. Firstly this is done within the safety of our outside space. If we have any concerns about our ability to recall your dog whilst out on walks we will make the decision to only walk your dog on a lead as the very last thing we ever wish to risk is your dog running off. We only let dogs off lead with owners consent and following our assessment.

If we believe that our centre or home is not a suitable environment for your dog we will let you know as we have no desire for your dog to experience stress whilst with us. The purpose of day care is for you to be confident that you are leaving your dog in a safe environment so that at the end of each day you have a happy, contented and hopefully tired dog.