Doggie daycare or Dog walker?

[Mary-E]

Good morning,

We are brining our puppy home December 14th and we are super excited. I've been waiting a looooong time for our lives to settle down to the point where we could really give a dog the home it deserves.   I work 3-4 days a week, and was thinking I would take him to doggie daycare.  However, I have ready a couple articles/blog posts by animal behaviourists/trainers that shed a negative light on doggie daycare.  I also have the option of a dog walker coming in once a day.   What do you do?  Any good tips on what exactly I should look for in a daycare?  

Thanks Mary

[Wendy]

I was furloughed right after Clyde came home, so I had about 3 weeks at home before I had to go back to work. Itook my puppy to doggie daycare and he loved it!  I decided not to use a dog walker because I didn't want him crated all day. Puppies need to play. I used Dogtopia and had no problems. The people there loved my puppy, and there were several doodles in the group. It didn't negatively impact training at all.  Clyde was older when we got him so you need to check out minimum ages.   Look for a place that is clean, that separates dogs by size, and that LOVES dogs.

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

You don't say, but at what age were you thinking of placing him in a daycare, or even using a dog walker? A very young pup should not be placed with other dogs, or even walked where other dogs have been, because of ParvoVirus.. A good daycare center would not even accept him, without all his vaccinations.
As far as daycare...first off, clean! It should not smell of feces and urine. They should test your dog, to rate how well it gets along with others. Ask about the number of dogs attending and how many workers they have attending the dogs. The " pack" should NEVER be keft unattended. Make sure your has had a Bordetella dose against kennel cough. Young dogs are susceptible .....again, a good facility will not accept a dog without one.

[Mary-E]

I thought that the recommendation now was that socialization is more important than waiting for all vaccines?  

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

You can do both. Enzo came everywhere with us in her first few months...her feet never touched the ground, but she was/ is, extremely social. Socializing with other dogs can be done with other dogs you are 100% have been vaccinated, on ground no other dogs have " visited"
Before you decide, do a search of " Parvo" here on the puppy forum. Read the horror stories some of our members expierenced when their pups came down with it. Extreme sickness, even death. Then decide.
You can also speak with your Vet. Mine was 100% against puppy classes and public walks until all Vac. we're completed.

[Olivia & Chanel]

We faced the same decision with our pup.  And I think its kind of like with a child--depends on the dog's temperament and quality of the doggy daycare or dog walker.  When our pup was 5 months old (after all of his vaccinations), we tried him out at a daycare that was highly recommended.  It was not a positive experience.  It was too loud and overwhelming.  I don't think she slept at all that day.  And even though she was separated for her size, she could still hear the older dogs barking.  We then found this AMAZING dog walker who picks her up from our house, walks her with a group of 6 dogs her size for at least an hour and usually in a local regional park or along the waterfront and brings her home.  She is usually out of the house for 2-3 hours.  So I think that it just depends of what you find.  Good luck.

[Rica + Margot]

Our vet okayed our pup to walk and socialize with her dogs pretty early. She had to be up to date on vaccines and have a negative fecal sample to go to daycare. We just take her to daycare every now and then since I work at home.

The one we take her to has a separate section for puppies to just hang out by the front desk with people/other young puppies. As she got older they'd give her more time to play in the small dog playroom. It was a great way to get her to socialize too since we quickly learned that she loves to play with other dogs and people. I think they do a bit of training during the day too. She sometimes doesn't want to come home since she has so much fun!

I think as she gets older and I have to work outside of the house, I may switch to a dog walker and do daycare once or twice a week. Also for a young puppy, a regular walk may be too much strain on their joints, but play is good exercise.

[Lori, Winnie, Bob and Indie]

Doggy Daycare literally saved our sanity! There is no way we could ever get Winnie's "puppy energy" down to a manageable level without it. As soon as she had completed her vaccinations, we started taking her there 3 days a week. The facility we go to separates the dogs by size, keeps them constantly supervised, trains them to not bark, and gives them individual napping areas over the noon hour. She loves going there, and comes home nice and tired. :-) She has her favorite puppy friends that tend to be there on the same days, which is nice.

The only downside for us has been having to bathe her more often. Even though it is a clean facility, the dogs "mouth" each other a lot when they play, and she looks pretty "rag taggy" at the end of the day. And, she has caught 2 "colds" that made her snuffly and sneezing for a week or so. Other than that, it has been well worth it to take her there.  

[Laura and Angus]

We got our puppy Angus at 11 weeks and have since had a dog walker come walk him twice a day. He mostly sleeps during the day, but she comes to walk him/play with him and feed him lunch. He does fine with this - I give him a long walk when I get home at 3:30 to get out some of that extra energy left over from sleeping throughout the day. We looked into doggie daycare too, but they would not take a puppy before 4 months - when they would have all their shots. You can socialize with people and other dogs at your house if you kmow their owners have gotten the pups vaccinated.

Congrats on the new pup and enjoy!! It has definitely been a wwhirlwind for us :) DK has been so helpful for us new puppy owners!

[Michele Kiss]

We waited until Fenway was about 10 months before taking him to daycare. He loooooooves it (he is very social and loves to play) but our trainer recommended waiting till he was a bit older. 

We work from home, so we don't have to crate him all day. I know some people don't have that option, we were lucky enough to be able to wait, so we took advantage of that in making that decision. 

We also have a dog walker, who even overnight-sits if we go out of time (we don't kennel him.) We've had our dog sitter since Fenway was very young and he loves him. I'm guessing with a new puppy though you can't get away with one visit per day... When we went out of town he would come and walk Fenway probably 3x/day when he was very young. He just couldn't hold it long enough. 

Doggie daycare will tire them out more, IMHO, but there are trade offs (may pick up bad habits, more risks of fights or getting sick, have to have had ALL their shots, etc.) Personally I would potentially wait till they're a little older (6-12mo) but it's your choice and it's based on what's best for your pup with the options you have available. 

Even once we started taking Fenway though (~10mo) we only take him for a short time - first visit was 2 hours, then 3. Today will probably be about 4. At most we do a half day. 

[Mary-E]

The dog walker starts next Wednesday and he will come twice a day at first.  After the holidays he will come once a day at lunch time.  We may have some accidents at first, but baby will be crated in the exercise pen and can use a pee pad if he has too.  I've decided to hold off on doggie daycare until we finish our first training class at the end of Feb.  

[Kelly & Zoe]

We do both.  We started with dog walkers/sitters when Zoe was 3 months (dog sitting only until 4 months when vaccinated) twice a day, 3 days a week.  At 6 months when she could walk for 20 minutes or more and hold it much longer, we switched to walks once a day around 4:00 - leaving her alone for about 6 hours - she did awesome.  At 8 months, we added a once a week visit to doggie day care in addition to dog walker 3 xs a week.  I did my homework on the doggie day care places, checking out several before choosing.  I'm very happy with my doggie day care and think it's important for socialization.  Zoe's now 1.5 yo and she is incredibly well socialized with other dogs (she thinks all dogs and all people are to looooove).  And she LOVES it.  Our day care place never crates (unless a dog has very bad behavior), a viewing area where you can watch the dogs socialize, *many* people on staff who really watch and handle the dogs, and a separate area for large/aggressive or small/non-aggressive.  Zoe's tall and 50 lbs, but they have her in the small dog area because she's pretty gentle.  She's always pooped far into the next day when we take her to doggie day care.

I think waiting until training class befoie dog day care is an excellent idea.

We also put in dog doors (we live in a mild climate), and Zoe was trained from a very early age on how to use them, so leaving for several hours became a non issue around 6 months.  Once we dog proofed the backyard, we gave her free reign and other than the occasional dug up hole or plant (argh) she's been great with it.  After 5 months we never had an accident in the house.  And, she's a fairly independent dog who misses us when we leave, but doesn't have anxiety about it.  We never did crate her, like you we penned her into a smallish area that we did not care if she had an accident - and she rarely did.