comparing doggie daycare

So, I think the whole idea of doggie daycare is pretty interesting.  Like the business can try to make an environment that the dogs feel more comfortable with, or one that the parents feel more comfortable with, or hopefully something in between.

So, good ole Rudy is making the tour.   He's been to 3 different doggie daycares to date, and I don't necessarily want to take him to many more, but because of location and hours, we've had to try these different ones.

So, the first one is the one in Fort Lauderdale, which is on the way to work.  Camp Canine.  He went there 3 days in a row, and he loved it.  This one smelled like dog pee and deodorizer.  We didn't get to see the outside area because you would have to go through the big dog room to go out, but, you know, it had these fancy kennel areas and these rooms with lots o dogs playing with the "camp counselors."  There was also a cat room where they would let cats roam out of the kennel one at a time.

The one in Hollywood, he's been to once.  Camp Canine Hollywood.  So, this one smells cleaner.  The kennel area seems more.. SPCAish.  Old SPCAish, not like the fancy ones that have doggie and kitty condos with cool furniture, more like cages.  This one was smaller, but less dogs go here.

So, the new place that we took him to today was called Petropolis.  It is off of Dixie Highway, which is a more shady area.  So it's in this nondescript building with no windows.  When you walk in, you are hit with the smell of dog and piss and more piss.  The small dog enclosure is right there in the front room and they are all really barky and there is like used dog beds and stuff.

The outside area though, was better than the Camp Canine outside area that we saw in Hollywood.  The Camp Canine had astroturf and it wasn't very big.  The Petropolis outside area was fairly big.  It was like a dog park in the backyard.  It had lots of grass, chairs and enrichment structures and a fire hydrant on the top of a little hill.  It was... earthy.  The owner is this shaggy hippie looking soft spoken guy.  When we brought Rudy in to see how he would fare, it was like an episode of the Dog Whisperer.  We took him to the outside area, and then the owner introduced one dog, then another, then a few more, then some more.  Pretty soon, there were a bunch of big dogs all chasing him and smelling him.  He definitely got a little overwhelmed.  One big dog started getting a little rough with him, and the owner had to pull him off and put him back in.  He didn't look like he was going to actually hurt Rudy, I don't think, he just was trying to show him that he was boss, I think.

Anyway, we took him back today for the longest daycare ever.  from 7 am to 5:20 pm.  He was in with the little dogs.  When the counselor opened the gate, he ran out.  I don't know if he actually knew we were there or he was ready to get out of dodge.  There were still a lot of dogs there - I don't know if they were staying for the weekend or if they were rescue dogs, but there seemed to be a lot of them from the day before.  And they were all so rambunctious.

So, Petropolis seems a little weird, but he seems just as happy (from what we see) at that one as at the others.  Although, I don't think we will be taking him here unless we need to on Sundays, because they open earlier.  This place is the most inconvenient because of it's location, and we already bought several day passes for the other two places as well...

I never thought I would necessarily be one of those people who brought their dogs to daycare.  I mean, it's not cheap, and tons of people have dogs that they just leave at home all day to roam free.

I can't ever imagine this guy being trustworthy enough to be able to stay home out of the crate alone!