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Play All Day Trainer, Jenny Lapke, is guest blogging this week. Here are her tips on how to achieve better loose-leash walking, for a less stressful and more enjoyable walk with your dog.
In addition to training classes and Day Training at Play All Day, Jenny offers in-home, private training through her business “The Good Dog Training Academy”.
Are you dreaming of your walks with your dog being “a walk in the park”? The calm, leisurely walk without pulling isn’t just something we see in movies, you can get there with your dog too! These training tips will help make your walk more enjoyable for you and your dog.
This is such a simple trick to make your walk more pleasant. Using a 6 foot leash is common, but it often doesn’t allow our dogs to have any room to explore or move around. By switching your leash to something a little longer, like 8 or 10 feet, your dog will be able to move and will reach the end of the leash less frequently, reducing the amount of pulling.
We often focus on what we don’t want our dog to do, but we often get better results when we let our dog know they are doing a good job. A walk is full of opportunities to give your dog a small tasty treat to reward them for doing what you would like them to. Stick some treats in your pocket as you head out the door and then reward your dog for walking close enough for the leash to have some slack in it or when they glance up at you. I often like to give treats by my side where I want my dog’s head to be. This will put your dog in a good starting and ending position, right where you want them! By letting your dog know you like the way he is walking, he will start to walk that way much more frequently. You might need to have really high value treats because there are many exciting distractions outside.
“But isn’t that what a walk is for?” I hear you, but walking in a straight line is not natural for dogs. As they are learning to walk politely, it can be hard for your dog to walk calmly if they have pent up energy. To make your walks easier, especially early on in the learning process, spend a little time playing with your dog before setting out on your walk. You can play tug, chase, fetch, or even just let your dog run around. This will get some of your pup’s energy out, so it is easier for them to walk next to us.
If we keep moving while the dog is pulling, we are actually reinforcing the pulling and your dog will pull more frequently. When your dog’s leash gets tight, stop moving and wait for your dog to glance back at you. Your dog might not look all the way back at you, but that is just fine. Any glance in your direction will be enough to reward with a treat by your side and then start to walk again.
Dogs love to sniff while on a walk, and it is actually good for them too! Sniffing will help provide your dog with mental stimulation that just as important and beneficial as physical exercise. In fact, your dog might be more tired if you allow them to sniff along their walk than if you go jogging with them.
You can always practice walking your dog inside! You don’t need a large space to start. Just take a step or two at a time, and reward your dog for being by your side as well as looking up at you, just like you would outside. By practicing inside, you allow your dog to learn what you would like him to do before asking for those behaviors in a more distracting environment. After you master walking inside, try walking someplace like your backyard before going to the park.
As most of you know, Kate added to her family twice this past year. Dutton and Wheeler, sweet and beautiful Labrador Retriever puppies, have filled her days with activity, a little insanity, big Vet bills, and a lot of joy. All of this puppy energy has had Kate thinking a lot about home enrichment activities. Her research and passion for this topic have benefited Play All Day as well. So I thought it would be a good time to pass some of this information along to you. Join us today as we delve into all things enriching to a dog’s world.
We will explore why licking, chewing, sniffing, problem-solving, searching, and social time can help your dog to live a more enriched life.
For most of our dogs, their lives revolve around our lives. Their schedule is dictated by us, down to when they eat, sleep, sniff, and toilet. Very little is really in their control. It is no wonder they are so happy to see us and get excited when our attention turns their way. Sleep occupies a large part of a dog’s schedule….most of it needed, but part of it just because there is nothing better to do. By considering an enrichment plan for your dog at home, you can not only add to your dog’s happiness, but you can add to their mental and physical health…and perhaps make their day a little less mundane. And I will wager that you will see some benefits as well.
Licking:
Most dogs love to lick. There are many reasons that dogs lick and one of them is because it feels good. It is suggested that when a dog licks, endorphins are released and bring pleasure. Whatever the reason, we know that dogs like to lick and this can be a target for some of your enrichment activities at home. We have used peanut butter stuffed Kongs in our boarding facility since we opened. We put peanut butter in them and freeze them. Our hotel guests get them at bedtime. We found that they are helpful in helping a dog to relax at a stressful time in their stay…a time when they are usually snuggling up to Mom and Dad at bedtime. The licking of the peanut butter distracts the dog and possibly releases endorphins and reduces the stress of being away from home. And most dogs love food, so the peanut butter is a nice treat in addition to the benefits of licking. You can provide licking for your dog in many ways. The stuffed Kong, lick mats, frozen treats, and special lick toys are a few.
I love licking enrichment activities for my dogs. It is Willow’s favorite activity by far. Not only does licking provide some enrichment to your dog’s life, but it is also a great distraction tool. Willow is notorious to all of our friends who visit our house. She demands to be the center of attention and makes a lot of noise when she is not. We have found that licking activities are a great distraction for her. So when company arrives, she gets a licking toy (love the Pupsicle for this) and she is happy and distracted.
Please note that not all licking is healthy. Obsessive licking can be a sign of a psychological issue or a medical issue. If you notice that your dog is licking everything or licking too much of the time, you should consult your Veterinarian or Behaviorist. Please feel free to discuss this with us if you need help determining just how much licking is too much licking.
Chewing:
Just like licking, chewing can be very pleasurable for a dog. A dog’s mouth and jaw are designed to chew. Dogs enjoy it and there are a lot of options out there. But providing safe chewing options does take a bit of thought and planning.
Sniffing:
If I were to offer you just one enrichment activity, this would be the one. I think all of them are important in developing a well-rounded program for your dog, but I think sniffing is the one that is most important to dogs and one that is so often restricted by parents (often innocently).
Not only is sniffing the most important enrichment activity for your dog, it is also the easiest for you to provide. Simply put, let your dog sniff. Awareness is half the battle here…knowing that your dog needs to use his nose. Our lives are often a rush. Get up, get ready for work, let the dog out, feed the dog, off to work. It can be hard to wait for your dog to get done sniffing, and we often rush them along, telling them to hurry up. If you can budget two extra minutes into your morning routine, just to let your dog sniff at will, it is beneficial.
When you go for a walk with your dog, share the time with them. If you are truly on your walk for the dog’s sake, incorporate sniffing into your plan. Physical exercise is important for your dog and walks are a great way to provide that. I would suggest that sniffing is every bit as important to your dog as physical exercise. The majority of your dog’s perception of the world is coming from his nose. Taking that away from our dogs is similar to us losing our sight. I recently saw a quote about us rushing our dogs through their sniffing (sorry, can’t remember where I saw it). It likened us yanking our dog away from a good sniff to a human only being given 30 seconds to view one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Perhaps that’s a little dramatic, but you get the point.
I wrote a blog on this topic several years ago and it is still true today. You can read it here. “Whose Walk is it Anyway?” In the post, I talk about sharing your walk with your dog, allotting time for sniffing and time for exercise. Since I wrote it, I have taken it one step further. Now I suggest incorporating entire walks to the dog for sniffing alone. Set a duration in your mind and then let your dog choose the route and let him sniff as much as he wants. You may not walk a block, but your dog will be thrilled with the walk. Two 20-minute sessions of this each week will do wonders.
Finding:
Finding is an extension of Sniffing, in my opinion. I’m giving it its own section here because it can be a great enrichment activity to use in your house or yard. Finding can be done with toys, food, or people.
It is my boy Cygnus’ favorite activity, right up there with swimming. Cygnus has a basket of “babies” which are all his stuffed toys. Cygnus adores his babies and tries to be fair in giving them all some playtime each week. Our “Find Your Baby” game consists of me asking Cygnus for a sit/stay and then hiding his baby somewhere in the house and then releasing him to find his baby. He uses a combination of memory and sniffing to find his baby. Memory is displayed when he goes to some of our more frequent hiding spots before using his nose. Once he realizes they are not there, he starts using his nose to track it down. We do not use a food reward for this game because the game itself and finding his baby is the reward. We’ve been playing this game his entire life and we did not start with a sit/stay and the hiding places were very simple. As his training skills increased and his finding abilities increased, I increased the difficulty level.
Start simple. If your dog does not sit/stay, use a closed door or have someone hold him while you hide the toy. Let your dog have success with simple hiding spots at first and then make them more difficult. You may be tempted to help your dog find the toy, but resist. If he is really struggling, just casually stand in the vicinity of the toy as a guide. If you constantly help, your dog will look to you and not his nose.
If your dog is not toy-motivated, use food treats to hide. You can hide a tasty treat somewhere in the house to find. I know some folks who will throw their dog’s entire meal into the grass and let the dog find each piece of kibble. Snuffle mats are a simple form of find it. Kibble is hidden within the mat for the dog to sniff out and eat. Family members are also great to “find” for your dog. This is such a great activity and can be played indoors during bad weather. When we go on hikes, my husband will hold Cygnus and I will hide in the woods. Great fun for all when he finds me. There are so many options for Finding games and your dog will love you for it.
Problem Solving:
I look at problem-solving as an exercise for the brain. And just like sniffing, it can tire a dog out as easily as exercise. I admit that I am guilty of helping my dog solve problems too often. Lately, I’ve been stepping back and letting him figure it out. So when a ball goes under a piece of furniture, I’m letting Cygnus figure out how to retrieve it. When something he wants is on the other side of a barrier, I’m not showing him the way to get beyond the barrier. It’s really cool to watch your dog’s problem-solving abilities. Look for ways that you can create “problems” for your dog to solve in everyday life.
For enrichment, you can help your dog use his brain by allowing him to solve everyday problems on his own. You can also offer puzzles. There are puzzles that you can purchase and puzzles that you can make at home. The key to puzzles is to make them easy at first so that your dog can succeed and then add complexity as he gets better at solving them.
One of the trendiest DIY puzzle toy in the past few years has been the folded towel. Take a peek at the YouTube video to make your own. If you are not interested in making your own, PAD will have an option (The Snuffle Knot) in our retail market soon. Kate has tried it out with her boys and it was a hit.
Socializing:
Being social is another form of enrichment. If your dog is attending daycare, he is getting socialization. But even if you attend daycare, different forms of socialization will broaden your dog’s world. If appropriate, meeting new dogs and new people will open your dog to new experiences and new scents.
And if a car ride is available, we all know how exciting and tiring a car ride can be. A trip to an outdoor café is very enriching. “Growing” your dog’s world is a wonderful variation of enrichment.
We love our dogs. And we want to do the best for them. A program of enriched activities throughout the week can benefit your dog. And never underestimate just being with your dog, truly being with your dog, not distracted by TV or social media. Lay on the floor with him and be present. Give a massage. Read from your book out loud. Listen to some music. Just yesterday, I made a big deal of preparing peanut butter sandwiches for my kiddos. I sat on the couch with a jar of peanut butter and a bag of their treats. I carefully applied peanut butter to the cookie (had to make a big show of it) and had a snack session. They loved it. Enrichment comes in many forms and doesn’t have to be difficult. You just have to remember to do it. Your dog will thank you.
Sample Enrichment Calendar:
Sunday:
Free sniffing for 3-5 minutes in the morning and before bed
A game of “Find It” for 10 minutes in the afternoon
A car ride to a new park for a walk
Monday:
Free sniffing for 3-5 minutes in the morning and before bed
A lick toy when you leave for work
A chew toy during TV time
Tuesday:
Free sniffing for 3-5 minutes in the morning and before bed
A lick toy when you leave for work
A sniff walk for 15 minutes with no rules
Wednesday:
Free sniffing for 3-5 minutes in the morning and before bed
A lick toy when you leave for work
A puzzle toy while you watch TV that night
Thursday:
Free sniffing for 3-5 minutes in the morning and before bed
A lick toy when you leave for work
Dinner served outside
A special chew while you watch TV that night
Friday:
Free sniffing for 3-5 minutes in the morning and before bed
A lick toy when you leave for work
A 10 minute sniff walk when you get home from work
A snuffle mat filled with treats when you leave to go out for date night
Saturday:
Free sniffing for 3-5 minutes in the morning and before bed
A 30 minute walk in a new place, with 15 minutes of walking and 15 of sniffing
Visit a family member or friend, or have friends visit. Give a lick toy to settle your dog when company first arrives to help him settle in.
We are all feeling the effects of an increased cost of living. I’ve really noticed it in the past year and based on what I’m hearing, you are all feeling it too. Some of the things I’ve caught myself saying in the past few months is “Did I really just spend that much money on a cup of coffee?” “Wasn’t this product 20% less the last time I bought it?” “Utility costs are crazy right now.” Why did my insurance costs double?” “Wow….going out to eat is getting really expensive!”. As a result, I have started looking at what is in my control to reduce spending and what is not? What things mean more to me than others? Everyone is different and we all have different priorities. And as we make decisions on where our discretionary dollars are spent, we focus on what is important to us and what value we are getting from our dollars spent.
What on earth does this have to do with choosing a daycare? Why are we discussing inflation instead of dog behavior, dog safety or staffing? Believe it or not, I do have a relevant point to make here. When we are in the financial situation that we are in today, there are choices to be made. Is daycare for my dog a priority? If so, should I choose the least expensive option? What am I getting for my money? These are questions you have probably asked yourself in the past year. So, in the spirit of our blog series on choosing the right daycare for your dog, I feel that it is important to address these questions.
Should Dog Daycare Be a Financial Priority?
Obviously, I am not the right person to answer this question for you. Just like you should not be the person to tell me if buying yarn for my knitting projects should be a financial priority for me. Although, I’m sure my husband would love for someone to tell me that it should not be a priority. So, this is a decision you must come to yourself. But I can point out and remind you of a few of the benefits of dog daycare, as you make this decision.
Assessing Dog Daycare Value
Pricing: Pricing is a common component that people look at when assessing value. But I would suggest that it can be a sneaky indicator of value. If you look deep enough, price can tell you a few things about the daycare (good and bad). Daycares typically have the same fixed costs of facilities, utilities, insurance, supplies, etc. When a daycare has a much lower price for daycare than others in the community, what does that mean? There are a few variables that give us information.
Services: The deceiving part of just looking at the daily cost of daycare is that it does not tell what is included in that daily fee. A daycare that costs $2.00 less per day may look like a value, but then you realize that there are hidden fees for some services and that some services aren’t available at all. And what is the quality of the services you are receiving?
Play All Day will never be the “cheapest” dog daycare in the area. We offer so much as a part of our daily experience, things that you will not get at other daycares. We are proud of that and we know that once people experience the Play All Day difference, a few extra dollars per week will seem like an excellent investment in their dog’s well-being.
Thank you for joining me for this 4-part series on evaluating a dog daycare. I hope you were able to learn a thing or two. And I sincerely hope that, if you are seeking dog daycare for your dog, you have a guide to help you in making a good decision. If you are seeking dog daycare in the Peoria IL area, I hope that this guide will point you in our direction and that you will become a part of the PAD family.
Welcome to part 3 in our blog series on how to evaluate and choose a dog daycare. In our first two posts, we discussed the features of a safe dog daycare and how important proper staffing is for a well-run facility. Without question, safety is the top priority when considering daycare for your dog. One of the things that really plays into a safe daycare is the programming that is provided.
Just what am I talking about when I bring up programming? Quite literally, it is the scheduled events of each daycare day. What is on the agenda for each dog when they attend Play All Day? Our programming has evolved over the past 13 years, and we really hit our stride in the past 5 years. I believe it is what separates us from other daycares in our area. It was that special ingredient that moved us from a good dog daycare to a great dog daycare. Prior to 2018, we did have programming. There were scheduled events throughout the day, but for things like training and enrichment, it was at the Dog Handler’s discretion as to whether or not their group participated. We paid attention and we saw that those groups receiving the extras in their day did better overall, in terms of arousal control, impulse control, and having a good time in playgroups. The dogs seemed more relaxed and there was much more focus from some of our overactive kiddos.
With the evidence before us, we saw an opportunity to really improve the experience of all the dogs under our care. So, we did. We set expectations with our team, implemented consistent programming across all our playgroups and watched all the positive changes that came along with it. This post will be structured a little differently than our past two. Rather than giving you questions to ask a potential daycare, I will be outlining Play All Day’s programming and what benefits it brings to the dogs.
Our programming falls under 5 major categories; Dog management, Training, Free-Play, Observation, and Rest.
Dog Management: This category pertains to the management of the dogs throughout the day to make sure things run smoothly and all the dogs are safe.
Training: Training occurs throughout the day in our playgroups. As mentioned above, it is a big part of group management. We also consider training a part of our enrichment program. It works the dogs’ brains and offers mental exercise. I believe that mental exercise is every bit as important as physical exercise in dogs.
Free Play: Daycare can’t be all about work and learning. We are called Play All Day after all! Our programming does allow for free-play and fun & games throughout the day.
Observation: While not as much fun as bubbles and dance parties, observation is a responsibility of our dog handlers. From the moment a dog walks in until they leave at the end of the day, our handlers are monitoring for physical issues, behavioral issues, and illness.
Rest Periods: I strongly believe that structured rest periods should be a part of all daycare programming.
PAD Extras: The components of good programming that I have mentioned so far focus on the dogs. Good programming should also include some fun stuff for the parents.
Safety will always be our number one priority at Play All Day. So many factors play into creating a safe environment. Good programming is one of those factors. In addition to creating a safer environment, it also allows for a better overall experience for the dogs in our care and helps us to fulfill our mission of providing a fun, safe, and enriching environment for the dogs in our care. Join us next week for our final post of this series. We will address value. What are you getting for your dollars spent at daycare? Until then…Woof!
Join us for Part 2 in our 4-part series on how to assess and choose a good dog daycare. In this post, we will discuss staffing. A dog daycare can only be as good as the team that supports it. From the person with the pooper scooper in hand to the person making policies, it is the people who create and maintain a good (or bad) experience for the dogs in their care. I will separate this post into several sections, with questions you can ask a prospective daycare about their staffing. In each section, I will give you my opinions on what makes for a good dog daycare team.
Longevity and Turnover:
Play All Day has 10 staff members with 3 years of experience or more. Left to right, top to bottom, we have: Tera: 9 years, Aly: 8 years, Kim: 9 years, Al: 5 years, Kate: 11 years, Mae: 5 years, Paige: 3 years, Noah: 5 years, Jade: 4 years, Kendall: 4 years. 63 years total of dog daycare experience in this picture, not including April’s 13 years of experience.
Employee Training:
Policies & Procedures:
Continuing Education:
Culture:
Staff In Action: What would a post on Staffing be without a little show-off time from our staff at Play All Day.
A well-trained, committed team of staff members is vital to the success of a dog daycare. If you are considering daycare for your dog or are evaluating your current daycare, a look into how the daycare is staffed is worth your effort. Managing dogs in a playgroup does not sound like a difficult job, but it is. It takes talent, skill, patience, and the right attitude. Not everyone is cut out for it. But those who are, and receive the right training and support, make a huge difference for the dogs in their care.
Welcome to part one in our four-part series on how to evaluate and choose a dog daycare. This week we will focus on safety. Safety is a top priority at Play All Day and in my opinion, should be a top priority in any dog daycare. Most daycares will say that this is a top priority for them, but how can you really know for sure? Never fear, some expert tips are coming your way. We will look at facility design, processes, programming, and discuss how they can affect your dog’s physical and mental safety. The post is organized by topic, with questions to ask a prospective daycare and tips on what a good answer might be.
Fencing: Fencing should be secure to keep dogs in and to keep dogs from other playgroups out. Questions to ask regarding fencing.
Escape Prevention: Question to ask.
Staff: This topic is so important to the safety and well-being of your dog; we will address it in its own blog post next week. But it is a key component of a safe daycare, so needs to be mentioned for this post. Next week, we will discuss the quantity and quality of the staff, but for today, we will address supervision only. Questions to ask.
Programming: This is another topic that is so important, it will also be its own post in a few weeks. But it plays a key role in safety so it must be mentioned here in those terms. In our post on programming, we will talk about the quality of programming and how it affects your dog’s experience. In this post, we will address the pertinent safety aspects of programming. I noted earlier, when discussing fencing, that managing arousal is important for a safe daycare. And just like good fencing can help to prevent over-arousal, so can good daycare programming. Having a program in place that manages over-arousal, manages barking, and inserts pauses and rest periods will decrease the chance of incidents that can lead to injury. Questions to ask.
Physical Space Per Dog: Question to ask.
Dog/Dog Introductions: Those who already use daycare know how excited your dog is to get to daycare in the morning. This is the highest arousal time in a dog daycare. How the dogs are managed from the moment they walk through the door until they enter the playgroup is an indicator of how safe a daycare is. Questions to ask.
New Dogs: Questions to ask.
Incident Tracking: You can’t evaluate what you don’t measure. You can’t improve if you don’t evaluate. Questions to ask:
You made it through this long post. It most likely means that you are serious about finding the best option for your dog. Play All Day’s mission is to provide a fun, safe, and enriching environment for the dogs in our care. Safety is our highest priority. I wrote this post based on my experience with creating a safe dog daycare. There are many ways to accomplish this, but there are a few non-negotiable items. Not taking your dog to daycare is a better option than taking them to a daycare that does not have 100% supervision, a thorough enrollment process, and a safe dog introduction process. If you can’t find these, just walk away. Your dog will thank you.
I welcome your questions. Email me at april@playalldaydoggiedaycare.com
Dog daycares have become increasingly popular over the past decade, and the options in the Peoria area have increased in the past five years. Play All Day opened in 2011 and was one of three options. Today, there are at least ten options. Daycares are popping up like Starbucks.
On the one hand, this makes me very happy. It means people are seeing the importance of socializing their dogs. It means that people are considering their dogs’ well-being in terms of exercise, mental health, and happiness. Overall, it validates my long-held belief that people love their dogs and want the best for them. Yay dog people! Well done.
On the other hand, it raises some concerns for me. Our lives are so busy and an active dog can really add to the stress of life (jobs, kids, family, social life). Getting the dog out of the house and wearing him out can become a high priority. Having more daycare options available to a Pet Parent is great, but are they good options? Just because a dog daycare has opened and is available doesn’t necessarily mean that it is a quality facility that will keep your dog safe and meet your dog’s mental and emotional needs. People want to do well by their dogs, but how to make a good decision when there are so many options. It is a challenge for the average dog person to tell the differences between one daycare and the other, especially in today’s world of heavy-handed marketing and social media. Practically anything can be made to look positive in this environment. So, how can you get to the truth and make good choices for your dog? That is the point of this blog series.
I’m often asked by clients when they are moving to a new community; “How can I find a new daycare that I can trust?”. At this point, I usually offer to do some searching for them. You can learn a lot from searching a website and social media posts. Most of us will type “dog daycare near me” into the search engine. But what then? There are green flags and there are red flags if you know what to look for. Once I narrow the search down, I provide a list of questions to the client and direct them to call the daycare prior to starting and to ask the questions then and throughout the enrollment process. Asking the right questions can set you up for success when selecting a dog daycare.
Over the next several weeks, I will detail the traits that I consider to be important to a quality dog daycare program. Some of the topics I will address are safety, staffing, and program details. And to wrap it up, I will address how to assess the value you are receiving based on what you are paying.
You may be wondering what makes me qualified to write this and why my opinion matters. Kudos to you. We need more critical thinking in our world today. Those who already know me and know Play All Day will understand that the opinions in this piece are legitimate and well-founded in research and experience. For those who do not know me, I invite you to read through each piece and determine for yourself if the things I am saying make sense. I ask you to question and consider. I invite you to read my daycare biography so that you can see who I am, and how we came to where we are today.
Join me over the next several weeks and get an insider’s look into what makes a quality daycare. Hopefully, the information will guide you as you search the results of “dog daycare near me”. Next week, we will jump right into what I consider to be the most important factor in choosing a dog daycare, Safety.
Unless you have been hiding out from the world, you’ve probably heard about the sensational “Mystery Illness” affecting dogs. In the past 48 hours, social media and news have put this front and center. It’s not actually new….it’s been going around since early summer. But for some reason, it is now the hot topic. Currently 5 states have seen cases, Illinois being one of the five.
I’m writing this post to give you Play All Day’s stance on the topic, as it stands today, with the knowledge that we have in hand.
Play All Day’s stance is that this appears to be another variation of Canine Cough. It has not hit our area yet. It may or may not. When it does, we will handle it as we normally handle Canine Cough. Dogs will not be permitted at daycare until their symptoms subside. If more information does come to the surface that suggests we should vary from our policies, we will do so. Our mission is to provide a fun, SAFE, and enriching environment for the dogs in our care and we will keep that mission at the forefront as we follow this and make decisions.
For now, it is business as usual at Play All Day.
For more information, please continue to read.
What is it and what does it mean for you and your dog?
What should you do?
As always, we appreciate the trust you place in us, in caring for your family member.
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