@leafar Oh yeah, all the time. Every prospective owner needs to fill out a background info application; and every prospective dog needs to complete (and ofc pass) a behavior evaluation; in order to enroll in daycare. But the standards of the eval aren’t too steep- basically; as long as a dog doesn’t show overly aggressive, or overly fearful tendencies; they’re gonna make it in. This leaves us w/ a bunch of really bold, friendly, and outgoing, dogs- but not necessarily w/ a bunch of well-behaved dogs. The more energetic/ rowdy (i.e. naughty) dogs get their own group; w/ the most experienced handlers. They also generally get more “rest” time in the boarding suites throughout the day- essentially meaning that they get cool-down breaks.
Ofc it goes w/o saying that there are plenty of reasons (other than aggression & fearfulness) why a dog wouldn’t be a good fit for daycare; but it’s hard to assess them all in a one-day eval. If a dog starts showing bad behaviors (mouthiness, mountiness, herding, fence-fighting, gate-jumping, demand-barking, overcorrecting, poking, play-escalation, etc etc) they start to rack up warnings (which ofc are communicated to the owners; usually along w/ a recommendation that the dog see a professional trainer or behaviorist). We do actually have certain methods that we try; in order to solve the problem ourselves (for instance; if a dog is fence-fighting; we’ll try crating him every time someone has to go thru the fence; or if one dog is play-escalating too much w/ another; we’ll make a special note to keep them in separate groups going forward). But if these methods don’t work; and if the dog in question continues racking up enough warnings; they’ll be dismissed. In spite of all this; their owners are generally still quite shocked that A) we can’t just solve the problem for them; and B) that this means their dog can’t stay at our facility.
I try to address it gently but firmly w/ these customers who get overly confrontational & defensive over their dogs dismissal- I sort of have a form-letter response for them to the effect of “As we stated on our website, and in your onboarding paperwork, daycare is a privilege that a dog has to earn. Not every dog wants to do that; or is even capable of doing that; and that’s ok. But in order to maintain safety in our facility; and to preserve the health & happiness of the dogs & people who come through it; we reserve the right to dismiss those dogs who haven’t earned the privilege. If you’d like to take your dog to a professional trainer to address the problem they’re being dismissed for; and then re-apply in 60 days; you’re free to do so. Even if you don’t re-apply; I still highly recommend you seek out some form of training. But unfortunately we do not, and never have, offered our own in-house training for our dogs. We try to be as upfront about that as possible- one of our mottos is that daycare is a space for trained dogs; not for training dogs. Still, I’m very sorry if your expectations led you to believe otherwise.”
Little passive-aggressive as far as a response goes; so this is def one that I reserve for a very specific type of dog owner- the type I’m talking about in my OP- (the ignorant & belligerent type).
