You can’t get work done with a toddler in the house. It doesn’t matter if the toddler is a child in the throes of the terrible twos or Lizzy, my 15-month-old rescue pup.
In both cases, daycare can be a necessity. But there’s the rub. Daycares for humans don’t make toddlers audition for a spot. Doggie daycares do.
Many Toronto doggie daycares have long waitlists. Some daycares don’t accept dogs over 20 lbs. Some do not accept dogs that can’t get along. Most do not take unneutered dogs.
It’s safe to say that, in Toronto, it’s a struggle to obtain a doggie daycare spot.
At Debonair Dogs, in Toronto’s Summerhill neighbourhood, the intake starts with the meet-and-greet, says Masha Vujevic, the daycare’s owner. Dog owners and their dogs visit the daycare for up to an hour.
During this meeting, Vujevic is interested in hearing about any medical problems, whether the dog has had altercations with other dogs, whether it shares toys well. She asks the owner to take the dog off leash and watches its reaction. Does the dog stick by the owner, mark its territory, play with the other pups?
“It’s a deep dive of questions. Who are you? Who is your pup?” Vujevic said.
Dogs that pass the meet-and-greet then come to the daycare for a half-day trial, Vujevic says.
Dogs that exhibit extremely anxious or introverted behaviour would probably not enjoy daycare. “Not all dogs are daycare dogs,” she said. She watches for aggressive behaviour or extreme resource guarding. In those cases, daycare might not be right at that time, but the dog may be able to try again after eight or nine months of training, she says.
Dog pals
Most doggie daycares have months-long wait lists. But everyone’s story about securing a spot is different.
Angela Mullins’ five-year-old Basset Hound, Olive, has enjoyed daycare since she joined Mullins and her wife Holly Gronau at three months old. But it was dumb luck that netted her a spot.
Mullins and Gronau are dog people, but they’d never had a dog in Toronto. Mullins lobbied for one; Gronau set out expectations. One condition was the dog go to daycare — for socializing, stimulation and having dog pals, the latter being particularly important for Basset Hounds.
When Olive arrived, Mullins walked her to the nearby daycare to register her. Staff were aghast. Didn’t she know? Their waiting list was seven months long. Uh oh, thought Mullins. “My wife is going to kill me.”
“This was an incredibly important service I’d been depending on and not smart enough to investigate because I just didn’t realize,” she said. “So I put her on the list. And I started calling around other places, and they also had waiting lists.”
A week later, Mullins and Olive ran into a neighbour with her dog who attended the nearby daycare in downtown Toronto. After commiserating over daycare frustrations, they exchanged phone numbers to arrange doggie playdates. A few days later, the daycare’s owner phoned Mullins and said, “I hear you have a Basset Hound puppy and you are on our waiting list. One of our current clients highly recommended that I reach out to you because we really should take this dog… We’ve never had a Basset Hound here.”
Et voila. Olive was in. No skills test, no size test, no audition. She started out attending five days a week, but her owners cut it back to three days a week because it tired Olive out.
Alas, a month from now, Olive’s daycare will close its doors. Finding a new one means joining waiting lists and checking weight requirements — and auditions.
“I’m at a point in my life where I probably don’t need to take her to daycare,” said Mullins. “I can manage her, working from home. But I feel like she needs a spot where I can take her a couple of days a week so she could be around other dogs.”
Enrichment activities
Olive’s friend, Dante, a young, large Doberman, will also be seeking a new doggie daycare. When Dante arrived five months ago, Mullins helped her neighbours, Lynn Taylor and Katharine Liberatore, get him into the nearby daycare.
The two adopted Dante from the Toronto Humane Society when he was 10 months old. Dante had a spotty start in life — re-homed twice, no training and was absolutely manic, says Taylor. A trainer is helping Dante get over that rough start. And daycare helped him be the best dog he can be.
He did not have to audition to get in, thanks to Mullins’ help. But there was some debriefing after he attended to make sure it was a good fit, Taylor says. “They said he barked a lot. But he doesn’t like to be confined.” Once that was sorted out, Dante was fine.
Now, Taylor and Liberatore face the same uphill struggle of finding a new daycare for Dante. Their task is made especially difficult due to Dante’s large size.
“Being a big dog owner is different from being a little dog owner,” says Taylor. “So much more is expected of them.” A little dog jumping up on a neighbour in the elevator is cute, if a little annoying. If a big dog does the same, “people are talking lawsuit,” she said.
And what of my dog Lizzy’s audition at Debonair Dogs?
It hung over both our heads for a week. Would she be the good girl she’s working toward being in training? Or would puppy energy and her rough start in life take over and make her Loco Lizzy at just the wrong moment?
All went well. Lizzy and I toured the doggie daycare to learn how the day was structured: the dogs spend their mornings doing enrichment activities such as following scent trails set down by staff, bubble therapy or arts and crafts. Then it’s walk time, followed by socializing. They end their day listening to Tibetan meditative music.
Once Lizzy passed the first part of her audition, she spent a half day there for staff to watch her in action. Fortunately, Loco Lizzy never showed up. She played well with others and enjoyed enrichment time, bringing home a painting of her paw.
Now, with the combination of daycare sessions and regular visits to the dog park, Lizzy moves ever closer to being a consistently good girl.
Great article!