21
2009
The Bonds That Develop in Day Care
We talk lots about the dogs and how they have grown and developed during their time in day care but there are others that are growing and developing too, the humans that care for the dogs! We grow huge bonds and attachments to the dogs we care for. They are an extension to our own canine family and we love them all dearly. Every day I look forward to seeing who is coming in to play with us for the day.
Along with their owners, we’ve nurtured many dogs from puppyhood to the start of their adulthood. We shared many exciting and happy memories with the day care babies and we often fondly recount the babies that grew up with us. Little Charlie Power for one, who started as a tiny baby and has now turned into a great, young man, he always keeps us smiling and laughing with his antics! And now we get to share these great memories with his baby sister Millie and many other puppies that are growing and have grown up with us.
We remember the nervous and shy dogs that started out with us. And the feelings of happiness and pride to see them become happy and confidence, it can sometimes be quite overwhelming. Shep, the tri-colour collie, always sticks in my mind, I remember his first day. I picked him up and gave him a kiss. I promised him he would be well looked after, and of course he was, he’s now a super confident young man, who loves day care so much. Even now, months on, when I come in to start my shift, he runs to me to get his mandatory kiss and cuddle! There are many more just like Shep who we’ve had the pleasure to work with in day care.
When the dogs or owners go on their holidays, we miss them dearly and we have a huge void waiting on their return. It’s always great to get huge hugs and kisses from them when they come home (to day care that is). Zach, the day care character, always shows us how much he misses us when he is away, he runs in to tell us all about his adventures and we are delighted to listen!
When a dog is unwell, we’ve shared tears with each other and with their owners, and wait anxiously for news that all is fine. Of course, it always has been, but that doesn’t stop us worrying. The day care dogs feel like our babies too, and we all know what it’s like when our babies are not well! Every day we carefully monitor each dog and always know when the dog is feeling off. We know them so well, it’s very easy to spot!
When a dog moves away or their owner’s circumstance change, it’s very, very difficult to say goodbye. Over the years, I imagine it will only get harder and harder, it will never get easier. The emotional bond and attachment to each and every dog we care for is very strong. We’ve shared fun, laughter, pride, joy, worry, tears, love, happiness and every single emotion in between. We are lucky to have such great dogs to care for and to enrich our lives.
Creedons Doggie Daycare run training classes
http://www.creedonsdoggiedaycare.com/
We offer a variety of dog training classes here at Creedons Doggie Daycare, both in the evenings and weekends. Classes will vary from basic beginners puppy classes, to advanced agility and everything in between.
We put information about our classes on our home pages as they become available, so please check back there constantly. In the meantime, if there are any training classes that you would like us to hold, please email your request to info@creedonsdoggiedaycare.com and we will do our best to facilitate you!!
Please contact Creedons directly for more info.
We have been blessed with wonderful staff at Dog Training Ireland (DTI). People who really know dogs, what they need, those who notice little changes such as a lump on a dog or that they are feeling off or tired. Staff who have the dogs interest at heart. Not only do they have to be good with the dogs but also great with people, they have to be able to explain things in a variety of ways, deal with difficult clients or clients who may be harsh on their dogs or help to console owners when things do not work out or a dog passes.
How do you locate your staff? Do you advertise or do people gravitate towards your company? When you do find the people you like how do you train them? How do you portray your company values so they will also value them? What do you think is an important trait in someone who is going to work with dogs and people?
We do have one DTI person who is very important and who works away in the background developing the website, updating it, thinking up new ideas and making sure everything is ticking over nicely technology wise!
Carroll Reid is our webmaster, programmer and all round techie! Carroll is Lisas husband and not only knows dogs, is a fab website developer but he is also a drummer for the group FROCK, oh and he can ski too. Talk about multitalented.
We are delighted to have such a great group of people around us. Without them DTI wouldn’t function. Who’s who in your organisation? And have you said “thanks” recently?!
To all our people THANK YOU!
Frequently we hear that if your dog doesn’t know that you are boss he will walk all over you, try to take over the household, control food or things. It is also frequently advised that if there are children in the home that the dog should be “beneath them”. The idea is that if your dog knows that you are the “leader” and “in charge” then he will not challenge you and the dog will never rule your life…
In order to show your dog who is the boss we are told to do the following things:
- Eat before your dog by pretending to eat from their bowl
- Walk through doorways before your dog to show them that you are more important than them
- Don’t let your dog pull you on your walks as you should lead the hunt
- Show your dog that ALL items are yours by frequently removing toys and putting your hand into the food bowl
- Stand in your dogs bed
- Scruff your dog
- Stare your dog down
- Hold your dog down and only release when he “submits”
- Never let your dog in your bed, on the sofa or somewhere higher up than you may be
I should say at this stage NEVER DO ANY OF THE ABOVE
We hear that owners should be “calm and assertive” and all dogs should “submit” to their owners in all situations. This is all so wrong in my opinion and a distorted view of how dogs should be and how the should behave. This kind of attitude towards dogs can cause many problems. I firmly believe that thinking in this way will create a block between you and your dog or puppy. Thinking in this way can stunt the development of a puppy because the owner is so hung up on not giving the puppy an inch that they forget about the need for the puppy to develop coping skills, self control and important life skills.
The contradictions surrounding dominance theories are just too many for me. Firstly we are advised not to let the dog rule your life and in order to do this we are supposed to arrrange meal times around the dog, get crackers to eat in front of the dog, run through doorways in front of the dog, frantically keep the dog behind us on walks and so on. Now surely adhering to the latter means that your life is being controlled by owning a dog?
Personally I like for my dogs to walk on a loose lead, this can be in front off, beside or behind me. As long as the lead is loose the walk continues. I like to be able to feed my dogs when I am ready and this is frequently before I eat. I like my dogs to sit up on the couch with me, this is why I have dogs, for the company and to share my movie treats with them from time to time. Most of all I like when my dogs stay calm even when I may be loosing my marbles! They are independent and able to cope themselves.
So I for one won’t be eating out of my dogs bowl, I won’t be trying to project any calm assertive energy onto them. I like them just the way they are and they are testiment to the fact that canine submission is not a requirement for a happy successful human to dog relationship.
When we decided to start up our Daycare service we thought long and hard about how best to do it. We researched other daycare facilities, spoke to daycare owners, thought about the procedures, equipment, types of dogs, activities and it took us a whole year to locate a suitable facility. Actually we never stopped thinking about it once we started on this adventure.
Lisa and I were almost divorced by our husbands because we planned everything from how many KONG’s to what kind of KONG’s, to KONG recipes right up to getting everyone certified in Canine First Aid, safety and the daily plan for the dogs. In fact we were so excited about the idea that even after we had done the research, made the business plans and found the location we were planning and talking about Daycare while on the plane to our holiday, while on the chair lifts at the ski resort, we spoke in the evenings when dining and on the plane home again! So we can safely say that we thought and planned a lot!
Since January 2009 we have grown and worked together to build what we feel is a great Daycare facility. We are a one of a kind in this country.
I think it is vital that the dogs get the care they need everyday and that they have opportunity to be a dog with other dogs. This means giving them lots of feedback when they play nice or get something right. Activities include whistle recalls, sits for for treats, sit to get in and out of doorways, walking on loose lead outside and of course how to settle and relax.
So what makes us different from other daycares? Well if you log onto the internet and put in the phrase “daycare webcam” you will see webcams of daycares all over the world, mostly the USA and care attendants with water spray cans. The dogs are sprayed for getting too over excited, humping, barking etc. We have a different stance on this. We like to interact with the dogs, play tug, play fetch, sit and rub the dogs, use opportunities to create good feeling and nice place for the dogs to be. We have tunnels and throw toys. We do collar touches with food. We reward dogs when they are called off other dogs or toys.
We do not integrate aggressive dogs into our daycare as this would be too dangerous but we do allow shy, fearful or dogs lacking socialisation into daycare post assessment. This is where it gets VERY rewarding. We have had a number of dogs who have successfully been introduced to daycare who were afraid, shy or had other issues. Their owners report improvements on a daily basis and both the dogs lives and owners lives at home are so much easier. This is really what it is all about. And we are careful not to fix one problem only to create other problems. We take a holisitic approach to Daycare.
We have 2-3 hours sleep and rest time during the day. This is so that the dogs can learn to settle and they don’t simply get fitter and fitter and addicted to daycare as this would be unfair to the dogs and the owners. We do not tolerate bully behaviour and punishment is always in the form of loss of reward or a “too bad” and into bed. Some dogs can be resourcers and we work with them always swapping and lowering the value of items making it worth their while to give them up.
The dogs that come to us fall into several categories:
Home Alone Dogs: Dogs who would be alone in a garden or home during the day for more than 8 hours at a time. Many were stone eaters or destructive before they came here.
Puppies: Speaks for itself.
Shy Dogs: Shy of people or other dogs. Controlled interactions, confidence building and increasing coping ability are focused on.
Just to play: Dogs come just to play and be dogs with other dogs. It’s great for them and during play they learn a lot.
We love our jobs and enjoy the time spent with each dog. There are some characters here like little Charlie Power who is a Dachshund x Jack Russell, Bailey the Labrador who has gone from overweight to healthy weight range from his Daycare activities, Jake the GSP who was so afraid at the start and who can now walk out with his owners and he has learnt to play, Toby the little Cavalier cross who was very afraid and difficult to walk and the puppies who need all the cuddles they can get!
If your dog comes to Daycare with us please send us a little note explaining what you feel were the benefits and we will post it to our website.
I often wonder if dogs could rehome their owners would they? I can see the “new home needed” ads now.
Veronica a light haired female human loves attention, pulls on the lead and needs training in this area, sleeps all night, house trained but can get a little stressed around other humans. Needs a lap dog.
Harrold, an entire male human. Black hair, has a bad habit of popping at the collar, doesn’t like other human company. Needs an independent large confident dog to help him meet other humans and socialise.
Becky and Bobbie twins aged 6, high energy needs a lot of attention and a dog who is really fit and healthy to keep up with them. You shouldn’t mind being woken in the middle of the night as these are not house trained and only sleep around 5 hours a night. Advantages are lots of treats and many toys.
Clive This human needs a cat, no dogs, no humans!
Anne Rogers AABP, APDT(US), IPDTA, TDF
7 Bord na Mona
Ballivor
Co. Meath
Tel: 0469567482/
Mobile: 0868765267
Email: info@petcentral.ie
Web: http://www.petcentral.ie
blog: http://petcentraldogtraining.blogspot.com/
Maureen Byrne Ph.D., Cert. Dog Psychology
Clogherhead, Co. Louth, Ireland.
Tel: 086 8200010.
Email: mobyrne@utvinternet.com
www.dogsbehavingbadly.ie
http://current.com/items/90123387_bsl-breed-specific-legislation-is-your-dog-safe.htm
Please view and send to all appropriate parties – county councils etc
Successful group 2 Interns are:
Joe Kelly
Emma Heely
Edel O’ Meara
Nadine Fiebich
Shaun Quinn
