The Benefits of Doggie Day Care

There are many, many benefits to doggie daycare, statistically. Animal experts will say that it's good to socialize an animal, it helps to feed the "pack" mentality, and it gives a dog or puppy stimulation. All of these things are true for Miles, and more.

We started sending him to doggie day care yesterday. I went to a visit there (there being Lakes Region Lucky Paws) on Thursday of last week and absolutely fell in love with the place. The owner, Christine, is very nice and professional, and had answers to every one of my thousand questions. She introduced me to all of the dogs in the dog area, as well as Miles and me to the puppies in the puppy area. Miles was very nervous at first, but it only took him about five minutes to feel himself around the other puppies there. He is never crated while there, huge plus, and he is stimulated for the absolute entire day while he is there. I know this because he comes home totally beat, which is exactly what I wanted.

This was a good alternative for us because it is a big challenge to bring him to work for the day, being that he needs to go out very often (puppies, as it turns out, have very small bladders...just kidding, I knew that already) and he's a very energetic little guy, which makes it very, very hard to concentrate on, you know, working.

This has turned out to be a great arrangement for Miles too, because he is not only more socialized and stimulated, but I have already noticed a marked difference in his obedience. He listens, DEFINITELY knows his name now, and has even learned a couple of new tricks in the past couple of days!

More than any of these things though, and I say most importantly, he's more confident already. He is no longer scared of other animals, and he's becoming more and more confident the more that we expose him to other dogs in particular (but it's turning out to hold true with people also). The cats, that's another story. I fear that Ella and Bernie may have already scarred him for life when it comes to cats. But that's a story for another day.

Starting this past weekend and over the coming weeks, it is going to be a priority for us to expose Miles to as many new things as possible. This past weekend was a GREAT start, with going to Portland to visit my sister and brother-in-law, and for Miles to have some really great facetime with their 10-month old Boxer-Pointer mix, Yogi. It was totally priceless, and we have some great pics from that weekend that we will be sure to share as time goes on. He had his first experience at the dog park, as well as his first experience...um...well, humping another animal. One would not think that a mere 11-week old puppy would have the know-how to do that, but apparently Miles is ahead of his time.

Anywho, here is my favorite picture of the weekend. There were opportunities for lots of them, but this one is my favorite because they were just so passed out and cute. :)