the Price of Dog Daycare Away from Home

We paid $20 a day for doggie day care for our Samoyed. The service was available from 7am to 7pm however our work hours made it more convenient to drop our dog off at 8:30 and pick her up at 4pm. We still paid for the full day as we were utilizing one "slot". The daily schedule allowed for a morning and afternoon supervised outdoor play sessions with other dogs of similar age or physical ability plus an afternoon indoor low activity session. Our dog was fed at home by our choice but treats and reward snacks were included in the fee. The service is licensed and bonded, inspected by the local board of health, and has arrangements with a local vet for emergency care. The staff consisted of the owner and three other sitters. All dogs had to be current with their shots and pass a "friendly" test to be sure they would get along with other dogs. Fees had to be pre-paid for the week on Monday morning or your usual slots would be given to walk-in customers. Grooming and extended hour services were available for additional fees.

Our Samoyed is more a social dog than a dog that requires lots of daily activity so she was happy enough to be dropped off anywhere there were other people and dogs. And we would have been happy enough with that too if we felt she was safe. But in our two months there the fence broke twice and other dogs escaped onto a busy street. There were also far too many reports from other dog owners of their dogs getting minor injuries such as cuts or sprains. And many times when we picked our dog up we noticed the staff was generally doing other things, working on the computer, knitting, etc. We'd mention our concerns but they seemed to be ignored so after two months we left the center and went with a dog walker.

If I ever had to use a doggie day care service again, I would definitely ask for references and check them out. And I would do several drop in visits during the day to see how well the dogs were supervised.