Daisy’s Omaha Dog Day Care Journey

Join us as we share an Omaha dog daycare journey with Daisy, a 9 month-old Great Pyrenese.

Daisy’s owners recently applied for membership in our low volume Omaha dog day care club.

Since we only allow 12 dogs in a room in our little Omaha doggy daycare, we put all new dogs through a three part evalation process. This gives us a chance to get to know the dog and owner as we evaluate their dog on his or her friendliness, manners, personality and confidence.

Our Omaha Dog Day Care Club Membership Process

We started the process with a telephone call to go over the basics. We have a number of hard rules all dogs must meet like being dog friendly, spayed or neutered, 6 months or older and enjoy being around other dogs.  We also spent a little time discussing her personality, needs and her owner’s goals for daycare.

Once it was clear that Daisy seemed to be a good candidate for our doggy daycare, our next step was to invite her into our facility on a Sunday for a VIP tour. We like inviting dogs into our building on a day we are not open for day daycare so they can focus on getting comfortable in the space; sniffing around, going anywhere she wants and of course getting some yummy treats.

Daisy’s nose was to the ground for much of our tour which is exactly what we wanted to see. But she also showed a few signs of anxiety. Her ears were back a bit and her tail was slightly tucked. These were subtle signals, but as dog behaviorists who have worked with thousands of dogs since 2012, we notice the little things.

These little things told us we should slow down a bit to let Daisy sniff around some more. We sat down and chatted about the daycare’s video feed for dog owners and our daily schedule. When dogs see thier humans sit down, this often signals they will be there a while causing them to start exploring the area.

About 5 seconds after we sat down, Daisy started moving around the room with more vigor. She went further away from her mom and walked deeper into the corners of the dog day care room; stopping to sniff the things she found interesting. Even though we disinfect the floor 5 or more times a day, Daisy was drinking in all kinds of smells. Her tail started moving more, her body was less tense and she seemed to be enjoying her doggy daycare visit.

We waited until Daisy was moving around with her ears forward and tail up before we continued. It took an extra 5 minutes out of our 30 minute tour, but it was time well spent. From that point forward, Daisy moved around with a bounce and relaxed body language. A confident and happy dog! Exactly the kind of pup we want in our little Omaha dog daycare.

Omaha Dog Day Care Club Behavior Evaluation

Daisy was now ready for the last part of our dog day care evaluation process; meeting other dogs.

While we know the dogs in our daycare really well, we cant say the same about the dogs we bring in as potential members. Even though Daisy seemed very comfortable on the tour, we need to see how she responds to other dogs before we can offer a membership in our dog day care club.

We had Daisy come in a little after the daycare dogs finished thier lunch and rest time. She was a little anxious at first in the lobby, but her apprehension was mild and quickly forgotten once the daycare staff started to give her treats, pets and love.

We took Daisy into our dog day care training room and closed the fence gate behind her. While we were confident Daisy would be nice to the other dogs, we never take dog behavior for granted. Using a fence allows us to make sure both dogs stay safe if one of them doesnt like the other.

Daisy did great with all the dogs she met one on one. We spent a little over 30 minutes introducing her to the dogs one at a time. Other Omaha dog day care facilities dont spend this amount of time when introducing dogs, but for us its mandatory.

While there is an added cost to us for this process, when it comes to dog safety, we think this time is a wise investment.

Giving Daisy the ability to meet all the dogs individually allows the dogs to sniff until satisfied. This is much more relaxed and comfortable than being surrounded and sniffed by a bunch of unknown dogs all at once. Many dog fights start from a bad setup of a dog being surrounded as soon as they come into the room. Those sitiuations are easily avoidable with a little bit of advanced planning.

We have seen this indivdual introduction process pay off time and time again. In this case, Daisy was much more confident. Bonus; the dogs in our dog daycare weren’t over the top excited as they got to meet her a few minutes earlier.

The dogs did some sniffing wqhen she came into the room, but it was only a few dogs at a time. This gave her the time and space she needed. It was great seeing Daisy start bouncing around the room playing with her new dog pals.

We held our most enthusiastic player Finley in his crate for the first minute or so to give Daisy time to become comfortable in the group first. Another benefit of having such a low volume Omaha dog daycare is we can manage the dogs in multiple ways. By waiting until Finely calmed down, we gave Daisy time to feel relaxed and safe in the room.

We waited until we saw signs of Daisy intiating play before we let Finley out. Once she started bouncing around and offering play bows, we knew we were omn the verge of adding another member to our Omaha dog day care club.

The set up worked wonderfully. Instead of Finley jumping up on Daisy due to being over excited, he gave her some licks and kisses alongside some soft body language. Within a minute or so, Daisy was starting to give signs she wanted to play with him too.

We add in another daycare attendent when dogs come into the room for the first time. Sometimes we need to give a dog guidance if any of the dogs ask for space or start to get too excited. You get to see our attendents  help guide Dex away to give Daisy a little space and help him calm down while still hanging with the group.

Seeing Daisy running around and playing with her new buddies put a smile on everyone’s face. Did we mention we are are also a really fun Omaha dog daycare?

It took us 2 and a half hours and 3 visits, but our investment paid off beautifully.  Daisy is now a member of DGP’s new Omaha dog day care club. We will start celebrating desired behaviors, teaching some basic obedience cues and other confidence building games each time Daisy comes in for doggy daycare.

Daisy’s owners signed her up for 2 days a week to make sure she gets to have some fun with her new pals during her owner’s long day at work.

Welcome to Dog Gone Problems’ Omaha Dog Day Care Club Miss Daisy!