The mark of an Amazing Business and an article on Predatory Drift

Readers, I had a very stressful morning.

Let me preface with the fact that two weeks ago, give or take, I read this article.

This morning, it all started when I brought Miles to daycare. I dropped him off, and someone was waiting outside, and they had a beautiful dog. I said hi to the dog in my little "you're-so-stinkin'-cute" voice, and started to make my way toward the dog without asking. If I were being responsible, and had I thought it through, I should have asked.

I started to make my way toward him to pet him, and and without warning, the dog bared his teeth, started growling and barking, and it was at this point that I stopped. He then lunged toward me (luckily, he was leashed, otherwise I'm pretty sure I'd be in the hospital right now...he was about a 70-pound dog), ready to attack. His owner was yelling "DOWN!" at him, to no avail. He was ready to turn on her as well when the owner's husband came out and made him lay down right on the pavement. I rushed to my car just as the dog started to lunge, and sat there until it was safe to go. I felt terrible, and continued to on my way into work.

My terrible feelings were both that the situation was my fault, and also worry that Miles might be in danger. I know that the owner of his daycare exercises common sense, but I didn't assume that she didn't admit him for the day. I figured she would isolate him until he calmed down, and have him play with the dogs when she was absolutely sure he was ok. I figured it was something about me that made him afraid, and he would be fine once I left and was able to take a minute.

Not able to let it go, I texted the owner of the daycare to apologize, and she said to me to not worry about it one bit, and that he would not be admitted back into the daycare until his behavior was addressed and she could be sure that that would never happen again.

This tells me two things about this daycare:

1. Safety of her clients, both of the human and canine persuasions, is paramount to her.

2. Safety is so paramount, she is willing to lose clients in order to ensure the safety of everyone.

Truth be told, she was in danger too. I was not even anywhere near this dog when he started to come after me, and what if she had done that to her, in a place that not only is a dog not regularly leashed, but also not even collared? Either her or someone in her family could have been seriously, seriously hurt by this dog. But there are many business owners that would put the Almighty Dollar over anything else in this situation, and when I think about how she didn't, it makes me even more sure (as if I needed to be) that we picked the right place to send Miles when we need someone to take care of him during the day.

I checked out three other places for daycare before landing on Lucky Paws, and the owner, Christine, was the only one that offered to have me come in and take a look around with Miles. She introduced me to the other dogs, and let Miles play when we came - she was interviewing us as we were interviewing her. She really works hard to make sure that all dogs are safe in her care, and today, it showed. She kept a cool head (at least in front of me), and handled the situation as any responsible business owner would or should. I read that article a couple of weeks ago, and as someone who's neurotic, I worried that something like that would happen at daycare to Miles. However, she has two separate areas - one for small dogs and one for large dogs. All of the dogs that Miles plays with are his size or very close to it in either direction, and after today, I no longer worry one bit about Miles' safety from things like predatory drift while he's there. I know, without a doubt, that she would never put Miles in a situation where something like that could happen. Not that I didn't know that he was safe before, but sometimes I just get that affirmation, ya know?

So, while this morning was scary to be sure, by the time I had resolved it in my own brain, I felt even more confident about many things related to Miles. For that, I am thankful.

With that, I will go pick up Miles, and leave you with this picture. We had him for two weeks, and I am pretty sure that we were on our way for him to meet his cousin Yogi for the first time. Look at his little face. He's such a good boy.