Our canine companions offer us unconditional love in our busy lives, yet we are challenged to find time to exercise them and give them a full, active and interactive experience. Instead, we go off to work leaving them at home alone, and then we feel guilty.

To compound the guilt, we learn quickly that bored or lonely dogs suffer separation anxiety and develop undesirable behaviors like incessant barking and destructive chewing. (Whoops! Don’t forget to put away your Jimmy Choos!) We’ve all seen that  dogs who are left too long cannot “contain themselves”, so we come home to wet spots on the floor.

We love our dogs, so we do our best. We get home after a long day, and if we’re able to summon up some reserved energy, and if it’s not too wet outside, we drag ourselves off the sofa to harness up our pooches and take them outside for a run, maybe to the local off-leash park.

Dogs are pack animals. They thrive when given a chance to interact within a pack, so when they reach the off-leash park, they practically explode with enthusiasm. Yay! Time to play!

But who are those other dogs romping freely around the park? How can you be sure they are fully immunized, flea-free and friendly?

Contrary to popular belief, a pooch who’s wagging his tail at you isn’t saying, “I’m friendly; come play with me.” He’s saying, “Sure, I’ll engage.” “Engage in what?” is an important question. If he’s stiff and staring directly at your dog, you should know it’s probably not his intention to play nice. And what happens when a dog becomes so aroused he slips into his limbic brain where he is so consumed by his instincts he is incapable of hearing his owner call him? Even the gentlest of dogs can suddenly launch into a deadly dogfight with very little warning.

(Useful tidbits: In the dog world, it’s rude to look directly into a dog’s eyes before you’ve gotten to know him; it’s disrespectful to pat him on the head, and bending over him to do so is considered aggressive.)

Doggy Daycare offers dogs a fun environment where supervised safe socialization and exercise fill their days, and free play and free napping – alongside dogs who have been screened for both personality and health – provide a realistic pack experience while taking the guilt, chewed Jimmy Choos, and wet spots on the carpet out of their owners’ lives.