[Closed] Doggy Day Care (no, not dogging)

We use a doggy day care for our dog.

Service provided is he is picked up at 9am, dropped off at 5pm. They have an old stables out in the country with a couple of acres of land to run around in so has a great day out.

Ours is generally good, but advice on a couple of improvements we would like to see are

1. on a wet day, the dogs are wiped down before being dropped off back at the house
2. better communication on booking, ours uses an adhoc text service and you sometimes question whether the dog is booked in correctly!
3. being able to book regular days for months in advance rather than having to do it on a weekly basis.

hope that helps.

We use a couple

http://www.wizardofpaws.com/sections/homepage/homepage.asp

and

http://www.craufurdland.co.uk/canine-castle/canine-castle-pet-info/

Thanks.

We used [url= http://www.witneydogcare.co.uk/ ]Witney Dog Care[/url] occasionally when both my wife and me had to be out all day and the dog was a pup, it was pretty expensive, but meant the dog wasn't alone in the house too long and gave us peace of mind. I tried to book him in the other day and they were fully booked all week so must be doing pretty well!! We now just use a dog walker if we're out all day (which isn't very often), but he still goes to them for overnight stays and was there for a week in Aug.

It's a good business model if you can set-up well.

Ours charges £20 a day, takes 20 dogs a day, 5 days a week = £2000 a week.

One thing I really like about the Canine Castle place we use, they video the dogs every day on their walk and post it on youtube so it's really reassuring to see the dogs having fun and are getting plenty of proper exercise.

I looked into one near me (central Scotland), but didn't actually use them.

The set up there was that you dropped the dog off and picked them up yourself. They had an old indoor (riding) school, with kennels along each side and a couple of acres of high fenced land that was split into two.

They were generally allowed to run as a pack for a couple of hours morning and afternoon, but this could be split into two groups depending on the dogs. The kennels were used at lunch time to kennel the regular dogs while they lead walked / trained others.

Cost was £10 per day if you just wanted them to run in the fields and be kennelled over lunch, an extra £10 if you specified one on one time with the handler (lead walks or training). Seemed like a good deal, but we ended up getting a second dog and crating a big out door run at home.

Thanks to all for your responses. Really given us a bit of food for thought.

I use this one: http://www.k9express.com/

have also used someone who picked up and dropped off the dog.

£12 a day, open 7am to 7pm; so long days for the people as they pick up from 7am so its a 6am start for them and a 8pm finish after cleaning etc.

Dog comes back knackered and happy.

Our one collects 8.15ish, drops 5.30ish. It's £18 for the day I think.

Dog's not coming back as pooped as he was so I'm starting to think he's being kept inside (apart from walk) now the weather has turned cold.

He used to be able to run around the yard with the other dogs.

We wouldn't use it if they didn't collect and drop off tbh, but we only do one day a week anyway.