Just as you would take great care in choosing a professional or service which is going to be caring for anything concerning the welfare of yourself or a family member, such as a dentist or chiropractor, that same diligence is necessary when choosing a dog day care centre for your dog. Thankfully, rogue dog day care centres are rare, but even within the choices of reputable dog day care centres, there will be differences in their competence and level of care.
For this reason, and assuming you want your beloved dog to be looked after to the highest level of care, then it is necessary for you to choose which centre they are going to visit each day carefully. If you have never chosen a dog day care centre before, this can be a somewhat daunting task, however, if you follow our advice below on selecting the best dog day centre for your dog, you should find making your selection easier.
- Do Your Initial Research
The first step is to research to determine which dog day care centres there are in your local area. This can be done by searching online, checking dog forums, and looking for local advertising, for example. At this stage, you may wish to eliminate any which are beyond your daily travel time limits as the last thing you want is to have to travel further to dog day care than you do for your work and thus add an inordinate amount of extra time to your daily schedule.
- Seek Referrals And Recommendations
An extremely desirable way to discover the existence of excellent dog day care centres is to ask family and friends if they have used one previously and would recommend it. Asking on social media is often the best way to get the most and quickest responses from those who might have recommendations for you.
- Visit Them To Assess Their Building/Facilities
All reputable dog day care centres will happily invite you to visit them before you commit to using them. When there, assess the building, how well the interior and exterior have been maintained, what facilities exist, and better still, if they offer you a guided tour it allows you to evaluate the entire centre.
- Ask Key Questions
There are many queries you should raise to help you evaluate a dog day care centre, including:
- Staff numbers and ratio to dogs/experience/qualifications?
- What activities are there for the dogs?
- Hours/availability?
- Security e.g. fencing, gates
- Interior ventilation?
No doubt you will have other questions you may wish to ask, and if so, ensure you get answers to them all.
- Check Their Policies And Safety Guidelines
An essential part of the above questioning should include what the dog day care’s policies and safety guidelines are. These will include toy policy, treats policy, how they group or separate dogs, and how they deal with special diets, should that apply to your dog.
- Ensure They Have Emergency Protocols In Place
Continuing with the theme of discovering how the dog day care operates, another vital piece of information is how their emergency protocols operate. In particular, you want to determine that they have robust procedures should any dog have a medical emergency, such as an illness or accident.
- Do They Offer A Trial?
The best way to determine if a particular dog day care centre is worthy of your dog is to have a trial visit where your dog stays there for a day. This can achieve several positives such as your dog getting used to the other dogs there, and the staff get to know your dog’s personality. If your dog seems to have enjoyed their visit, then it bodes well.
