One day I had a conference with my son’s preschool teacher (this was a couple years ago). She told me surprise after surprise about my son, luckily all good! She said that he was her “right hand man”, she could always look to him to explain something to a child that didn’t understand, or help one of his classmates if they needed it. She also said that he was the first one to start to cleanup when it was time, and that he was a great cleaner-upper!! What, MY son? The one that I constantly have to remind to clean his room and pick up his toys (of course, it’s a lot easier to get a child to clean up their toys when you have a puppy in the house.. It only takes one chewed up toy and they’re pretty quick to make sure all of their OWN stuff is out of reach!)…
It then occurred to me how surprised our doggie mom’s and dad’s must be when we tell them their dog does a behavior at daycare that they have never seen before.
Not that dogs that go to daycare act different, but it is easy to understand how they may be different than they are at home, or even at the dog park. At home they are often the only dog, or there may be a couple dogs in the family (what? Not all families have 4 dogs and sometimes a foster here and there like mine?), which means the dog-person ratio is much different than at daycare. At daycare the “pack mentality” often kicks in and the dogs act as a pack, rather than on their own. I don’t want to say we’ve heard it all, but we’ve sure heard a lot! There have been times where we have had a dog that barks excessively at daycare (non-stop!!), when we tell their owners they must think we’re crazy because their reply has been – Gee, I’ve NEVER heard him bark at home! Or vise-versa, we’ve had owners ask if their dog barks at daycare because it barks constantly at home – and we’ve never heard a peep!!. Dogs can act much differently in different environments, just like children.
We will often hear owners assume that their dog will act the same at daycare as they do when they are at the dog park. But, dog daycare is also quite different than a dog park environment. At a dog park there is wide open space, at daycare the dogs are in a building (inside and out) with the same dogs throughout the day that they get to know very well. We always encourage owners to bring their dogs to daycare the same day each week. It may sound silly to some, but anyone that has spent time with a dog understands that they are absolutely able to develop relationships. Daycare is not any different! Dogs that come on regular days each week almost seem to do better than dogs that come randomly. Yes, it’s because they come on days when their friends are there! Imaging a kindergartener going to school on the first day. They don’t know anyone, they don’t know the teacher, the building is new, the schedule is unfamiliar to them… But, after they have been going for a while they know their teacher, their routine, they develop friendships and ‘clicks”… Daycare dogs are no different!!
At the park they have the ability to run away from a dog if they want to, but may also meet many dogs they don’t know at all. It’s a much different situation.
I was thinking about this recently because we have a super-cute Samoyed puppy named Denali coming to daycare. Denali is a little ham – literally so cute he looks like a floppy stuffed animal!! Denali’s Dad came to pick him up the other day and Ryan told him how he was playing in the pools outside. Denali’s Dad had the response of – What? Samoyeds don’t like the water.. Guess what – we’ve got proof!!! He LOVES to play in the pools with his friends!!
http://thedogden.com/fun_in_the_water.html
I love watching them play
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