Athena:
Congrats on the dog. There’s a Shiba in my neighborhood somewhere, and a friend of mine was keen to get one for a while (I have an Ibizan Hound). For names, you never see dogs named either “Steve” or “Larry.” I could never use either of these names for a dog, but I wish someone would.
But only 90% of the dog! Heard about the Shilohs. They tend to be real big. If they are as disciplined as a lot of the standards, you should be OK. Maggie (reg GS) sets up scenes easily, but allows herself to be led away from strangers. She thinks fear is something the other guy gets. How is the disposition/intelligence of the fullgrowns you've met? You see the bitch and dog?
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Wait until she's 3. Nice weightlifting. Most don't like being lifted, anyway. Got Maggie at 12 lbs (day under 2 mos.) 25 at 3...now almost 28", 130 at 4 yrs. Big for F GS, but not for your Shilohs, from what I hear. Still acts like a pup at times, just got back from vacation, got bounced off the wall, slammed into couch - just her saying "hello". The puppy look dies so fast with the bigger dogs.Glad to hear you didn’t decide to go with a Japanese name. That’s what everyone does. Boring!
We have some doggy daycare places around my area, but they are EXCLUSIVE! And they are also E X P E N S I V E!!! One place charges 200 bucks to go through an orientation, and if the dog doesn’t do well, he’s outta there. Dogs that get through orientation are allowed into the program but it costs something like 30 dollars a day. Some of the vets I work with daydream about setting up such a place so they can rake in the cash. I wish they’d find a way to hurry up and DO it, so I could stop working with all these damn sick dogs and spend my days playing with healthy ones. 
Before my wife and I ever decided to get a dog we had talked about what breed we would like. My wife was adamantly opposed to getting a German Shepherd Dog (GSD). I wanted nothing but a GSD. I have grown-up with GSD’s my whole life and love the breed. My wife, however, found them to be too unreliable personality-wise and have too many health problems. While the dogs I grew-up with were awesome our unfortunate experience of late with GSD’s have been bad ones. As a breed they are getting worse in regards to hip dysplasia and they are getting more unstable temperaments. Over and over again we have seen this including the GSD owned by my brother-in-law. Breeders have become unscrupulous and inbred the lines too much. GSD’s are also shrinking in size compared to the original breed standard. (NOTE: This is not to say there aren’t still excellent examples of the breed out there but they are getting tougher to find.)
Interestingly there is a HUGE fight among breeders of GSD’s. Especially between foreign breeders. European and Mexican breeders are on a very different page from American breeders as to the direction the breed should take. The fight, what little I’ve seen of it, seems just short of violent and is vitriolic in the extreme. I had no idea the passion breeding dogs could engender!
Enter the Shiloh Shepherd. Tina Barber decided to “re-breed” GSD’s back to the original GSD standard. Basically, larger dogs, stable temperaments, high intelligence and little to no breed health problems. The breeder was going for Rin Tin Tin + Strongheart + Lassie in one dog. The Shiloh Shepherd is the result. A full-grown, short haired Shiloh is almost indistinguishable in looks from a GSD. However, they tend to be larger than your ‘standard’ GSD of today.
The Shiloh cannot be shown or considered officially by the AKC as a German Shepherd. However, the Shiloh breed is in the process of being reconized as a distinct breed by the AKC (a process that takes years if not decades). Shilohs are currently classified as a distinct, rare breed dog.
As to our Shiloh she was bred for size and temperament (she is due to reach 100-120 pounds…males are 115-150). So far her temperament is golden. We never met the parent dogs but we met dogs from other litters from the same parents and we were duly impressed. She already shows concern for her family and a great “Hi World!” attitude without being hyper. When playing with other dogs they frequently dominate her for the first few minutes of play and then she turns the tables on them and becomes the dominant one (one guy was chuckling and telling me not to worry while his dog was on top of my dog but was frowning [literally] a few minutes later when my dog was holding down his dog).
Anyway Athena, you might consider introducing Mr. Athena to the Shiloh breed if you ever decide to get another dog. My wife who was so down on the GSD gushes daily now at how remarkable she thinks our pup is (and that’s after twisting her arm to go with this breed).
If you ever decide to stop being a software engineer you might be on to a new business for yourself. I doubt you’re the only person in your area looking for such a service. If the population density is fairly high where you live (i.e. near an urban area) you could probably make a go of this.
The place we take our pup to offers a few things that set it apart from many others in our area:
They have a maximum limit in the number of dogs they care for so they ensure proper care for all dogs.
They carefully decide which dogs can play together through both size and temperament. A Shitzu will probably not be allowed to play with a Pit Bull.
They offer several training options. The daily training we have our pup in as well as once a week training sessions. In both cases they insist on owner participation. The weekly training is done with the owner present and the daily training has the pwner participate once per week.
They mandate positive reinforcement training only. This might seem like a no brainer but believe ot or not some day care places we looked at espouse taking a sterner hand with the dogs.
Obviously you’d have to sit down and work out a business model but it still might be a profitable venture for you. Done right (as our day care does) and they have to turn away business all of the time. Done wrong (as some we looked at) and you struggle mightily to stay in business.