Working at a Doggie Daycare

I think a good way to learn some basics of dog behavior, especially in a pack situation, is to work at a doggie daycare. Dogs are in a room or rooms together for a good part of the day playing and interacting.

Each day I would spend about 3 hours in the playrooms with about 10-15 dogs. Let me tell you, it is a sweaty, dirty, tiring job...I don't know how anyone could do it full-time. I worked about 20 hours a week in the mornings.

The morning shift was the most challenging, because the dogs were energized and ready to PLAY!

As far as the pack behavior, most dogs were well-behaved and played with each other well. When the toys (mostly tennis balls and Kongs) came into play, I got a glimpse of which dogs were more dominant, which were posessive, and which were submissive.

One critical thing is that the human in the room has to be in control at all times. I witnessed the dogs going nuts, barking & jumping, when a new employee would come in (new employees were always paired with experienced employees the first week or so). Until I gained the control and appearance of dominance in the group, it was very very tough.

I also got to see how crtitical training is. The dogs that had never had obedience training or were allowed to rule the roost at home were often difficult to control - they needed extra attention and effort from the human monitor to keep the rest of the playroom calm.

When a dog starts misbehaving in the pack, it ripples and causes the rest of the dogs in the pack to start acting up, either trying to "discipline" the offender or emulating the offender's behavior.

More one specific doggies and doggie stories from the daycare to come....