Daycare? 6 mo. old BC

[deadlywarbler]

My little pup is just over 6 mo. old now and doing so well. Smart, affectionate and well behaved (aside from a few little puppy things). It was my goal and continues to be to invest a lot of time with her. This means I am up early to let her out of the crate, play ball throughout the day and make sure she has a visitor if I can't be there. It's worked out great so far. I took her to a party the other day and one woman said, "Wow, she's so happy!" This just made my day since having a happy dog that loves being with me was the paramount goal.

 

As she gets older I am going to need to exercise more extended care for her during the days. My work has definitely suffered as a result of needing to go home to spend time with her. I am curious what everyone thinks about doggie daycare. We have a good one here in my town, but I don't want to throw the pup into a situation where she's not having fun.

 

She likes other dogs, but shows a bit of timidness at the get go. Eventually she comes to and loves to play. It's hard to imagine letting a whole day go where I have zero control of the dogs environment, so naturally I'm a little apprehensive.

 

What has been people's experience with daycare? She wouldn't be starting it until she's about 10 mo. old. Thanks!

[Sue R]

My dogs have not needed daycare. A good walk morning and evening, other playtime (like fetch), training time, and time with us when we are home. Also chew toys and bones. Kongs and other food-based occupiers are useful. All that said, two of mi.e spent a few hours at a daycare once or twice and they had a great day but were ready to go home to their real life. Hope you fi.d a solution that works well for you!

[Sue R]

PS - If dogs are always entertained, they lear. to expect to be entertained. My dogs know there's my time, their time, and our time.

[highway61]

I'm in the same situation, but my 12 month boy is still intact and haven't found a daycare that will take him. I'm waiting until he's 18 to 24 months if/when he gets neutered.

[urge to herd]

Gibbs goes to daycare when I'm going to be gone for more than 7 hours. I do it as much for me as for him. After a long day for me, I'm ready to take him for a walk, do a little trick training and then tend to myself. He falls asleep pretty early on a daycare day.

 

He also dearly loves to play with other dogs. He's good with all kinds of dogs, even loves annoying puppies and does a good job with playing with them, but letting them know appropriately when to back off. Gibbs also seems a bit apprehensive when I first drop him off, but he does well, and isn't frantic when I pick him up.

 

Is there a way you could do a half day here and there, and see how she does? Not all dogs like daycare. I'm fortunate that I have good, reliable dog walkers who also help when I need it.

 

Ruth and Agent Gibbs

[Alchemist]

A lot will depend on the individual dog. It's hard to anticipate how your six-month-old puppy will relate to other dogs when he grows up. Most Border collies I've met are OK playing with other Border collies, especially if the games involve "chase", but they may not appreciate the games other breeds want to play. My dogs are all fine with other dogs, not at all aggressive, but that doesn't mean they'd be at all happy in a daycare setting. The two adults really aren't interested in playing with other dogs, and they'd probably be mortally offended by labrador retrievers in their faces.

 

I use a dog walker instead of daycare if I'm out of town for the day. I'm lucky in that I can find people I can trust who will hike with them off-leash (and my dogs have great recall - they can be called off deer).

 

I'd vet most daycare places carefully. Are they savvy enough to know that simply throwing a ball all day long for a Border collie will engender obsessive behavior? I think I'd also worry lest they get injured, either from too much "fetch" on a hard surface, or by colliding with other dogs.

 

My 13-month-old dog would probably think he'd died and gone to heaven in a daycare setting, but he's still intact, so it isn't an option.

[medic09]

Alchemist is right that it is individual. You may have to try it two or three times, and see how it goes.

 

We take our two pups occasionally to day care. Have done so since they were about 5 months old. It has helped in socializing them well, and they've always enjoyed it. They come home tired and happy and sleep well. Initially, we took them for just four hours or so, once a week. As they got older, we left for a whole day if we needed to. So far, we've never needed more than twice a week, and not every week. We were away recently for two weeks. Our house/animal sitter had an emergency, and left them at the day care for a day and it worked just fine.

 

So even though we don't need it much, we like to occasionally take them there just to keep them socialized and flexible. On the other hand, our 13 year old girl does not like it, and we never leave her there. The two pups are almost a year old now, and I'm sure there will come a time when we'll stop doing it with them. The only other advantage is the day care also boards dogs, but they only take dogs who go to the day care at least occasionally. Since we'd like to keep that option available, we may continue infrequent day care just to keep the relationship.

[border_collie_crazy]

like everyone said, depends on the dog! I work in a doggy daycare, but the one I work at is different from most in that we are extremely large(100 dogs is a super slow day), and we work with dogs, we don't screen, we take them all and work with them to help shy dogs out of their shell and help anti-social dogs or rude dogs learn appropriate behaviour.

 

Border Collies are hit and miss with daycare, some love it, some hate it, some are jerks lol. Border Collies like to control their surroundings, because of this some BCs just handle daycare, because they don't like the dogs around them behaving all crazy and they want it to stop and they become "fun police" . some BCs are great though and play just as crazy as the other dogs lol

[Tess's Girl]

I have a daycare in my town that I absolutely love. It's huge, like border_collie_crazy's there usually 100 dogs a day there. It's nice though because the dogs aren't out all day long, they have play groups based on size and in between they get to rest by themselves in individual kennels.

 

Tess sounds a lot like your dog, she generally likes dogs but she likes to take it all in before she warms up to them. She loves daycare. The first time it was a bit overwhelming for her, but by the end of day she was doing great and she was thrilled to go back the next time.

 

My girl is pretty low-energy as far as border collies though. M-F she's typically alone 8ish hours a day. I can come back at lunch if I need to, but I don't always. She does great. We usually go for a walk in the morning and go play ball and go for another walk in the evening. She definitely doesn't need daycare but she enjoys it so I take her occasionally.

[deadlywarbler]

A lot will depend on the individual dog. It's hard to anticipate how your six-month-old puppy will relate to other dogs when he grows up. Most Border collies I've met are OK playing with other Border collies, especially if the games involve "chase", but they may not appreciate the games other breeds want to play. My dogs are all fine with other dogs, not at all aggressive, but that doesn't mean they'd be at all happy in a daycare setting. The two adults really aren't interested in playing with other dogs, and they'd probably be mortally offended by labrador retrievers in their faces.

 

I use a dog walker instead of daycare if I'm out of town for the day. I'm lucky in that I can find people I can trust who will hike with them off-leash (and my dogs have great recall - they can be called off deer).

 

I'd vet most daycare places carefully. Are they savvy enough to know that simply throwing a ball all day long for a Border collie will engender obsessive behavior? I think I'd also worry lest they get injured, either from too much "fetch" on a hard surface, or by colliding with other dogs.

 

My 13-month-old dog would probably think he'd died and gone to heaven in a daycare setting, but he's still intact, so it isn't an option.

Ok, this raises an interesting side question. Perhaps it's better posed as a separate post, but I wanted to quote it here since it has been something i've been thinking about. The pup (6 mo. old BC) LOVES fetch. No surprise here, but I am curious what you would call "too much". I usually start the morning with a quick session, then a few throughout the day and again in the evening. They last about 10-15 minutes depending on my time or how hot it is out. I've trained her to recognize "last one" and "all done" at which point she usually goes for some water and then crashes out for a bit. However, if we are in the yard, she's looking at me constantly to throw the ball. She isn't pushy, but she's definitely aware. Does this sound like I'm on the right track?

 

I am starting to lessen the morning session, mainly so she doesn't grow up thinking the early morning is all about her all the time. But still, I do throw for a bit to get the nighttime energy out. Thanks for letting me steer this post in a different direction. =)

[Alchemist]

I'm coming to the opinion that "less is more" in terms of fetch. I allowed my older dog to play it as a puppy - he's totally obsessed with balls. I kept it to a minimum with the next puppy - only a tiny bit, and mostly as an aid in "impulse control" exercises (put the puppy on a "stay", toss the ball, make him "wait" before I allowed him to fetch it. It's much more sedate than allowing a dog instant gratification in chasing a ball).

 

The pup now enjoys balls but isn't obsessed with them. It's a fine distinction, but I'm pleased with the result. When he did "fetch" as a pup, it wasn't "hell bent for leather" - and this alone is worth while, as it's easier on growing joints. But mostly I appreciate the fact that he still retains his brain when there's a ball around. We can walk past kids playing some sort of ball - the older dog is totally "there's a BALL!!!", tries his hardest to let me know this is what HE should be engaged in, while the younger one listens to me better when I say "leave it!"

 

I think "fetch" is dangerous because it doesn't engage dogs' brains. I'd rather train something that forces them to think or to exert impulse control.

[alligande]

We have recently been watching how obssesed border collies can become. As our long slow process of moving out of our house has continued, we have had a lot of people come by as we divested ourselves of stuff we are not keeping (lots of stuff) and with every new person, Rievaulx has asked them to play with him, and 95% fall for it and with those that don't know better he just keeps going... Until I realize what is going on and send him the house. He basically became manically focused on the toy and would have kept going till he collapsed. This is obviously not the normal way we play with him.

[Nanda & Nelson]

Nelson LOVES daycare as a puppy. He went roughly twice a week from age 6 months to 1 year. He played all day long with all kinds of dogs. He would be exhausted after a day at daycare. After he turned a year, he didn't really like it anymore though. I tried different daycares but all they told me is that he would not be very interested in playing. So it was great while he was a young pup, but he was over it at 1 year. He still loves playing with other dogs but is just more selective and prefers to either be outside with other dogs or hang out by my side.

 

I would recommend a dog walker taking out your pup over the daycare. Daycare is inside all day long and I think it can be a bit stressful at times. Cost of dog walker here in Vancouver is the same or cheaper.