by Megan Federico, CPACO & Melissa Peterson of Tallahassee Dog Behavior & Training
To answer this question, first we must understand what a dog needs to be fulfilled, balanced, and happy. All dogs have the same basic needs:
Structure: a job, rules, boundaries, and expectations
Meeting all these needs equally creates balance.
In the past, jobs designed for dogs by humans fulfilled all these basic needs. We domesticated dogs with specific intent: to work and to assist humans. Different breeds had very specific jobs: hunting, retrieving, pulling sleds, rescuing, guarding flocks, herding, protecting homes, chasing pests, and, of course, being faithful and loving companions.
As recently as one generation ago, dogs were still expected to work and they spent a great deal of their time outdoors. This lifestyle provided constant stimulation in the form of sights, smells, things to chase and hunt, food to forage, and plenty of exercise. It also provided a very structured and social day for the dogs, therefore, meeting their three basic needs.
These days, most humans have one expectation of their dogs: to bring companionship and joy into the family. While we are very good at meeting our dogs’ needs for affection, we are not always good at meeting our dogs’ needs for work, structure, and exercise. A typical modern dog’s day is spent sitting in a house waiting for their family to get home from work and school. Too often, the family spends much of the remaining day attending to chores, errands, homework, work and social commitments, and life in general. As a result, families don’t have an abundance of time to give their dogs that needed work, structure, and exercise.
Dog daycares were created to meet that need for exercise. For several decades, dog daycares were thought to provide what was missing from our dogs’ lives. Many people thought because their dogs were so excited to go to daycare, their dogs must be happy. Likewise, we thought because our dogs were exhausted when they got home, their need for exercise was met. Now, we understand we sometimes misread “overexcited” as “happy,” and “over-stimulated” as “exercised.” By overlooking one of their basic needs, structure, these environments were often inadvertently creating exhausted, imbalanced, and sometimes frustrated dogs.
As responsible dog lovers, we owe it to our dogs to review their basic needs once again. Most dog daycares still lack two things dogs need for wellbeing and balance: structure and a job. When sending our dogs to daycare, we need to examine if they are receiving true physical and mental exercise and not just overwhelming stimulation. We now have a chance to bring back purpose, calm, and balance to our dogs’ lives by respecting and honoring their instincts and the traits that were bred into domestic dogs so long ago.
A great way to cultivate purpose and balance is to choose a structured dog daycare that puts an emphasis on enrichment. Proper enrichment should focus on providing activities that encourage good social skills, stimulate a dog’s natural instincts to use his nose, use his mind to expend energy, ask him to perform old tasks and learn new ones, let him work for food, provide physical exercise, and create a sense of fun and adventure.
An enrichment-based dog daycare will provide balance for your dog by focusing on:
Social skills through group play and human interaction
Physical exercise through play, agility, and other physical activities
Mental stimulation through teaching new skills, asking dogs to problem solve, and encouraging them to make good choices
Structure through maintaining routines, communicating expectations, and being consistent throughout the day
Allowing dogs to be dogs by acknowledging and encouraging instinctual behaviors through games: foraging, digging, tugging, retrieving, and seeking
Intentional rest to prevent overstimulation, to facilitate learning, and to promote calm and balance
Strengthening your bond by encouraging good manners, rewarding wanted behaviors, and presenting you with a happy, tired, and fulfilled companion at the end of the day
Ask your potential dog daycare:
What is your philosophy on dog behavior?
What is your philosophy about a dog’s basic needs?
How are you fulfilling those needs for the dogs in your care?
How do you create an environment of calm and balance for the dogs in your care?
What training and education has your staff received?
The biggest benefit of choosing an enrichment-based dog daycare will be how your dog starts to behave at home. Problem behaviors may diminish or disappear. Your dog may become calmer. And you will be fulfilled knowing that you are truly meeting all your companion’s needs.
