Need help with a dog day care issue

In My Humble Opinion
1

First, I don’t own a dog, and I don’t know much about dogs other than some are cute and all have slobber. And for some unknown reason, 99.9% of dogs adore me.

Now…get ready to play dog psychologist :slight_smile:

I have a friend with a two year old lab mix. He’s kind of doofy, but is a sweetheart.

When my friend goes out of town, she and her husband leave him at a dog day care place. A month ago was the first time they ever did this. The owner called them after five days saying the dog is exhibiting unacceptable behavior, such as getting all the dog toys and “guarding them,” blocking workers from the other dogs, and getting into fights with the other dogs.

The owner suggested that if the dog ever stays there again, someone could come and take him for walks once in a while to get him to “chill out.”

That’s where I come in. My friends are gone for ten days, so he’s there a second time. The place called and said the behaviors were occurring again…could I come walk him?

I arrive, and they get him and bring him to the lobby on his leash. This dog normally just goes ape shit around me. When I’m visiting my friend, he won’t leave me alone. He loves me to play with him and scratch him and everything. I think he’d be happy if I sat down with him and read to him out of the phone book.

Today he ignored me. He went to everyone in the lobby and and wagged his tail and sniffed and seemed happy.

So, I took him for a looooooooong walk to a big park. He was not himself. He was anxious. He didn’t want me to pet him. He was ultra wary and super skittish.

After an hour, I wanted to go back. We had to walk over a bridge to get to the park, and I wanted to take a different bridge back over the river. He freaked out…it’s the kind of bridge with a metal grate for the deck, and he didn’t like the noise, I guess. Or…I was afraid he knew we were going back. I could NOT get him to move…in fact, he jerked back and tried to get out of his collar. We went off the bridge and onto the riverbank esplanade…and he freaked out even worse. The cars go back and forth, and we were under the deck grating…he was freaked out by the cars and the noise. That’s totally understandable, and when I was a kid I had a dog who was freaked out by things flying overhead.

Anyway, he made it across the other bridge just fine…it has a concrete deck. We got within a block of the dog day care. I was afraid he’d bolt and I’d never get him back in.

It was the opposite. He knew we were nearby, and he perked up and got all excited. His tail wagged for the first time in two hours. I opened the door and he RACED in, wagging and slobbering. He ran to the door to the dog area and begged to go in.

And I’m baffled. Maybe I misunderstood, but I thought I was helping a dog who is traumatized by day care and is homesick. I said to the woman, “Wow, that’s the first time he’s been happy all day. He actually wants in there.”

She said, “Are you kidding? He LOVES it in there.”

So what’s up? My impression is that he does like the place, but isn’t very well socialized. I think he’s just playing, but has never been corrected on socially inappropriate behavior.

And why can’t this place deal with him? Shouldn’t they know how to deal with his behavior? Is it common for dog day care places to call like this?

Thanks! I’ll provide as much extra info as needed, but, like I said, I have no idea.

2

Is it totally inappropriate to wonder why people who travel so often (and stay away so long) even have a dog?

Yeah, the dog isn’t socialized to other dogs. If the day care people aren’t up for that kind of training, the dog’s owners need to find someone who is.

And good on ya for helping your friends. :slight_smile:

3

Would a good idea be to take him to a dog park? (I don’t mean me…I mean my friends :slight_smile: ) Portland has several sanctioned off-leash areas in local parks. And how do you go about it? Scold the bad behavior and praise the good?

Another question…why don’t the dogs at the day care “take care of it”? Don’t they let him know that his behavior is unacceptable? I’m sure I sound sarcastic and naive, but I’m sincere. I’m just not around dogs like this.

4

I was wondering why the day care didn’t take care of it too. They are being paid to watch this dog, and part of that means dealing with problems as they arise. I know you are saying “day care”, but is this a boarding situation, or is the dog going home at night?

I have not put my dog in day care (yet), but I have spent many hours at my trainer’s place and while she doesn’t do boarding, she does a boot camp and dogs stay there for a few weeks at a time. She will not tolerate that sort of behavior from dogs she is being paid to watch and train, and would end it right quick. Dog hoarding toys? Toys get picked up and put away. Dog blocking other dogs? Dog gets put on a tether, or back in its kennel. In other words, the dog would lose privileges that he would otherwise have until he learns to play nice.

I don’t think at this stage taking him to a dog park would be a good idea. Dogs who get into fights aren’t welcomed. He needs to be socialized, but not in that sort of environment. Have they done any obedience training with him? My other suggestion was to tell your friends to find another place - maybe one with a trainer who can deal with his bad habits a bit better.

5

I agree with Hanna.

6

Skittishness on metal is very common, in fact part of the training you do when raising guide dog puppies is leading them over grates so they will get used to them.

In my untrained opinion, this sounds like a dominance issue. We are hosting an intact male for Guide Dogs, and though he has been trained he will grab bones from our female, and if she picks up another one, grab that also. Have you seen this dog interact with your friends? Does he rule the house?

Does the day care center have crates for the dogs, so he can get a time out? I don’t blame them for not trying to train a badly trained dog - I bet they don’t get paid enough for that.

Your friends might want to think about hiring a pet sitter if this dog is not suitable for company. It is more expensive, but the dog is in his natural habitat and the house gets checked a few times a day also.

7

I find it really, really odd that any type of dog boarding facility that has reputable dog trainers on staff (which it should. . .) would ask that you come walk a dog for them. That’s their job. Your friends need to find a new facility.

Any time I’ve boarded our dogs, its been at a local breeder’s boarding facility (she breeds New Foundlands for the water rescue teams). She has huuuuge dog runs, so each dog can have his own indoor and outdoor room, but also spends a lot of time each day socializing all of the dogs, walking each one, and making sure each gets their own “special” time that they are used to. This is pretty standard for a boarder worth their salt. The only thing she does that is above and beyond, I think, is she lets the doggies who are staying over into her house in the evenings to lay around with her family.

8

The boarding center is not going to train to socialize this dog. That is not what it’s for. That would be an extra charge if they did do that kind of thing.

I hate to say it but I live in Chicago and city people don’t care acout their dogs. I go to the park and it’s just SAD. You see a lot of people and 9 out of 10 of them are sitting on a bench with a dog attached to a 50 foot leash. They are talking on their cell phones ignoring their dogs. Of course these people THINK that is playing with their dogs.

Poor doggies look like they could cry. They want to play, they want to be part of their master’s world. But all they get is ignored.

I can just look at these dogs and they come running up to me “Play me with me,” “Pet me,” “Throw me the ball.”

Dogs are great but they are a lot of work. This is why God made cats. If you can’t be bothered with a pet, a cat, well let’s face it most of the time the cat can’t be bothered with you :slight_smile:

That day care in the OP is greedy. They should’ve said, “Your dog is not socialized, till he is he can’t come back.”

9

It’s because 99.9% of dogs adore everyone.

10

Depends on the nature of the business. For example, many dog walking services and doggy day cares reserve the right to refuse service to people who have really ill-trained or ill-socialized dogs that display aggressive behavior towards their other clients and/or staff. Some will not accept intact male dogs, no matter how well behaved. Other businesses are boarding and training and they may work with the doggy troublemakers, but that’s a different service.

We have a dog walker take our pooch over the lunch hour. The service explicitly states that the pet must be spayed or neutered, must understand basic commands like “sit” and “stay”, can not display aggressive behavior to people or other dogs, and must have complete tags (dog license and identification tags).

11

“So often”? Where in the OP is it suggested they’re out of town “often”? The OP’s friends were out of town for one 10-day stretch. If you have a dog, you can’t go on a week and a half long vacation? WTF?

12

The daycares responsibility isn’t to train your friends dog, it’s to take care of him, feed him, play with him and make sure he’s safe. At the same time they have to make sure that every other dog is safe.

They CAN work with your friends but they don’t HAVE to. I’m sure they would be more interested in working with your friends if they spend some time talking with them about the dogs behaviour and what might be required to help him adjust. It’s not that he’s unhappy there it’s simply that he doesn’t understand the rules.

I know when we first got our little rescue, Kaia, she was going to daycare with her brother Mojo. Mojo had been there for quite a while and had lots of other doggy friends and she was quite jealous of him playing with the other dogs. The daycare had a relationship with the rescue group that we got Kaia from so they worked with us, probably more than they would have with a family they didn’t have history with. We worked together on socializing her, particularly with the Great Danes that were Mojo’s favorite chase partners. Luckily those were the dogs that belonged to the owners. Once she was sure that she could play too her aggression dropped, but it was a fairly intensive process. Until we were sure that she wasn’t going to attack some poor puppy just for playing with Mojo we had to limit their participation in the group runs for their safety. Luckily they had multiple group areas so we were able to gradually put her into larger groups until she was comfortable.
FYI, in our case daycare was close to work for me so I dropped the dogs off there in the morning on my way to the office and picked them up on my way home. They got tons of extra exercise and socialization. We started it so we would be more comfortable taking them to the off leash park and continued because they loved it and while it was affordable I couldn’t justify leaving them at home away from their friends.

13

This is what I was wondering too. Our doggie goes to the Dog Spa when we’re out of town and they do EVERYTHING.

As he’s not altered (lets not go there - kthxbye) he doesn’t get to play with the other dogs; however, he has his own personal attendant when he’s there who takes him to the dog play park daily, brushes him, baths him, plays with him daily etc and this is all included in the fee (which is the same as any other dog day care or dog spa in the area).

Now, he’s a very, very well balanced dog, as well as being very well socialized with humans, cats and other dogs, so that’s not an issue for him, but the fact that the dog day care in the OP is suggesting that someone else needs to come and walk him makes it sound like they’re NOT walking him which I don’t think is appropriate.

As to doggie acting a bit different - that doesn’t surprise me - my dog acts a particular way around folks when he’s at home because he’s on his own turf and feels comfortable. If he’s in a new place and a bit nervous, it’s not surprising that he would be a bit out of sorts on your walk.

14

There is a lot of variation in boarding…and a lot depends on how much you are willing to pay to board. In this case, it seems like the friends have sprung for a “low maintenance” sort of doggy playgroup, rather than a structured boarding kennel. Some kennels won’t let two dogs into the play yard at the same time to avoid potential fights. Some walk dogs, some just give them stretch time out side.

It does sound like this dog and this kennel are not a good fit. We usually ask someone to housesit for us when we go out of town and stay with our pets.

15

Well sure, but not even walking the dog seems pretty bad.

I wonder how much the couple in the OP is paying per day - it may be good for them to up their budget a little to have a happier dog.

16

Well, it’s the second time in a month. May not be a pattern, but it could be the beginning of a trend.

17

I’d recommend hunting for a new daycare/kennel that hires people who are more knowledgeable and experienced with canine behavior. If the workers are allowing this to happen (guarding, fights etc) that tells me they aren’t up to the challenge. Is this a place that actually hires/pays for experienced folk? Or do they just hire anyone and everyone as long as they’re cheap?

Is the dog fixed? That could also be attributing to the aggression but to me it just sounds like he isn’t well-socialized with other dogs. Sometimes all it takes is one dog to put him in his place and he’ll smarten up. (Or if he’s like my obnoxious Dobie gal, he’ll just try harder & from out-of-nipping range. Sigh.)

Has he gone to any training classes?

The kennel I board at keeps dogs separated, even during playtime. This way they avoid potential problems & injury. I don’t want to get a call finding out that one of their other dogs attacked mine. Oh, and they walk the dogs themselves. They don’t call people to do it for them.

A hearty “NO” to this. If a dog daycare can’t handle certain dogs, then they need to either tell that owner to find a new site, hire people who know more about dogs, or open a coffee shop instead.

18

This. I mean, I get what folks are saying about it not being their job to deal with overly aggressive dogs. I can accept that. But if these folks think the OP’s friends’ dog is too aggressive, they should have not taken him back a second time.

19

I can’t get over them calling an **unpaid volunteer **to come and walk the dog. WTF? I used to work at a small shop that was next door to a doggie daycare place, and I can assure you, this was not their standard operating procedure.

Are there other similar businesses in the area? Not necessarily a knock against the current daycare, but not every place is the right fit for everyone. No harm in trying a different place the next time they have to leave town.

Markxxx, let’s not paint all “city people” with a brush that broad, m’kay?

20

Unless they only have dog runs, it may be that they do walk the dogs, but seeing as how the OP dog was displaying aggression to other dogs and staff, they though it would be helpful if someone the dog knew took him for a longer stroll.

I don’ t think that would actually help any, but if their staff couldn’t walk him because he was too unpredictable with them, I suppose it’s an alternative worth trying.

And Marxxx, we’re city people and I can assure you, your broad brush doesn’t even come close to painting an accurate picture.