Anyone use a Dog Creche - Help needed.

[BBH]

In a couple of years the place where I work is giving up its lease and I'd like to use the opportunity to do something else. I love being at home and am thinking of opening a dog creche. But I have some questions I'd like some help with,

Firstly, what sort of dog behavior course would help ? Or do you not worry if staff have formal training, perhaps experience / recommendation only is sufficient.

Secondly from experience how are they set up ie all dogs together, irrespective of size, youthfulness, temperament etc. Do the new dogs have a meet / greet area ?

How tall is the fencing surrounding their play area ? How much acreage is given over to the dogs.

What sort of stimulation do they have ? Was thinking of setting up some agility type things for those that want to do them.

Also does water feature in their play area, I have a natural pond and a river bank with a small cove if they'd like that or alternatively I could put in a very shallow cooling off pond.

In fact any things you would look for would be helpful before you'd place your own dogs in a creche.

There is deffo a market for it where I am.

Many thanks

 

[Booboos]

Best thing might be to look at US examples as they are years ahead of us. I have seen an amazing dog creche that included a free play area, individual exercise areas, obedience and agility rooms, etc. It was absolutely incredible!

 

[BBH]

Best thing might be to look at US examples as they are years ahead of us. I have seen an amazing dog creche that included a free play area, individual exercise areas, obedience and agility rooms, etc. It was absolutely incredible!

WOW that sounds great, thankyou very much.

I really like the idea of individual areas and my place does lend itself to that quite easily. I've got two years to form a plan and get it ready.

The lady I send my dog to at the moment is absolutely fantastic and my dog loves going there but they literally just play in her garden all day and I was wondering if there was any alternatives that people would look for.

 

[Booboos]

This was a huge establishment run by a lady who is a well known clicker trainer, so they offered all sorts of services from leaving your dog for the day for walkies and social interaction, to individual training done on your behalf, to bring your dog to play in the play area, to group classes for owners.

The instructors were all qualified at this place, but I suppose it depends on what you expect them to do with your dogs. I've had dog sitters and dog walkers before, but I didn't expect them to have qualifications, just insurance and to check that they seemed like decent people! If I were to leave my dog to be trained or socialised I would want the person to be qualified in a training method I believed in as well.

 

[BBH]

Thats a good point aswell. I don't want a place where dogs are trained, rehabilitated etc etc as I think that is more specialised and I agree if I was wanting this option i'd expect the people to be qualified in some way.

I'd like to offer somewhere owners going out for the day can leave their dogs in a safe, interactive environment where they have fun and company. I think for this an animal husbandry course of some sort is good as you still need to recognise when to get a dog to the vet, if its not enjoying its playmates etc etc.

A couple of the places customers would come from are the local caravan parks where holiday makers are going out for the day to somewhere they can't take their dogs and they have said they are not fussed about qualifications etc just want caring, interested staff etc. Thats ok though until something goes wrong and then questions may be raised as to why no-one had any formal training. It may be condition of the insurance that qualified staff are available, i don't know.

 

[Spudlet]

I would think you would need several areas, so that you could separate out any personality clashes and so that group sizes remained small. I would rather see groups of four to five, I think larger groups than that could get unmanageable with only one person in charge. I would also want to see a meet and greet introduction area, as I wouldn't be comfortable with them all being flung in together (this is what happened at the first groomer I took Henry to, never took him back there as it was bedlam!)

I would want to see experience of managing dogs in groups, also obviously a strict hygiene procedure and a full vaccination requirement (inc kennel cough).

 

[BBH]

All very sensible things, thankyou Spudlet.

 

[Ranyhyn]

I looked into this in the past. The hardest thing I found was siting. Not many people want a hangar full of noisy animals close to their house/offices...

 

[soloabe]

Abe goes to daycare 2 times a week for 12 and 8 hours. He LOVES it!

I have seen and experienced literally hundreds of different daycares and now would not send my dogs to anything less that what the place he currently goes to has.

* All dogs have to go through a temperament test with the owners large pack of dogs. They are not just put in with the daycare dogs to see how they do.

* They have 8 separate area's 4 for small dogs and 4 for large dogs. They are generally separated by age and play style.

* No more than 4 dogs to a person.

* No more than 8 dogs to a section. Its usually just 4-6.

* Large unmovable toys are in all area's. Small balls and ropes ect are in the toy box area so only dogs that have been there a while and are known to have no resource guarding issues are allowed into that area.

* Sand pit and pond in the outside area's.

* Dogs all get a bath before they come home.

* Fencing between sections is floor to ceiling but the bottom 4 foot is solid the top is glass.

* 4 isolation area's so if a dog were to get overstimulated or hurt ect they could be put into a large room on their own.

* They get walked around the local woods 2 dogs at a time depending on how long they are staying.

I'm sure i will think of some more things.

I am sure i sound like a daycare snob but i have seen so many horrible places and a few great places and i am not willing to pay for anything less.

 

[BBH]

I looked into this in the past. The hardest thing I found was siting. Not many people want a hangar full of noisy animals close to their house/offices...

I'm very lucky in that regard in that i'm on a road that is great for easy access, great for advertising and with a lot of commuter traffic first thing and last thing but quiet in the day and I don't have any near neighbours, be it offices or residential.

I wasn't thinking of having loads of dogs tbh as I like the idea of only a few dogs so they get some attention. I have an oak beamed barn that wouldn't take too much work to convert into a ' tv room' for them rather than a hanger sized operation.

 

[BBH]

Abe goes to daycare 2 times a week for 12 and 8 hours. He LOVES it!

I have seen and experienced literally hundreds of different daycares and now would not send my dogs to anything less that what the place he currently goes to has.

* All dogs have to go through a temperament test with the owners large pack of dogs. They are not just put in with the daycare dogs to see how they do.

* They have 8 separate area's 4 for small dogs and 4 for large dogs. They are generally separated by age and play style.

* No more than 4 dogs to a person.

* No more than 8 dogs to a section. Its usually just 4-6.

* Large unmovable toys are in all area's. Small balls and ropes ect are in the toy box area so only dogs that have been there a while and are known to have no resource guarding issues are allowed into that area.

* Sand pit and pond in the outside area's.

* Dogs all get a bath before they come home.

* Fencing between sections is floor to ceiling but the bottom 4 foot is solid the top is glass.

* 4 isolation area's so if a dog were to get overstimulated or hurt ect they could be put into a large room on their own.

* They get walked around the local woods 2 dogs at a time depending on how long they are staying.

I'm sure i will think of some more things.

I am sure i sound like a daycare snob but i have seen so many horrible places and a few great places and i am not willing to pay for anything less.

Thankyou very much, there are some great ideas here and more what I was thinking of in terms of ' zones' meeting various needs.