Outdoor VS Indoor Doggy Daycare

Many of our staff have experienced working in an indoor day-care facility. While they aren’t always terrible, its safe to say that there is only so much a business can do to make their indoor day-care comfortable for dogs. Due to them usually being in warehouse and industrial buildings, there are often no windows or proper ventilation – creating a stuffy, stinky, very artificial environment. Dogs are more likely to feel stressed in an indoor day-care due to there being no open space for them to flee to, should there be a confrontation. In turn, this exacerbates any confrontations and heightens stress levels among the dogs. Stress is contagious, so its hard for dogs to avoid stress due to the pressured nature of the environment. While we understand that many indoor day-cares see success,  and care well for their dogs, many of the variables that contribute to an unpleasant environment for dogs are unavoidable in an indoor setting. Bad habits such as excessive barking can develop due to the loud echoing and contained noise in these warehouses. Furthermore, have you ever considered where your dog might go to the loo in these places? Indoors! This will reinforce the idea that toileting inside is normal for your dog.

And then, there’s us. We don’t compare ourselves to other day-cares, and mostly refrain from using the term ‘day-care’ at all, because we simply aren’t the same! Our huge open field acts as a great support for nervous dogs especially. When a dog feels threatened, it will go into a ‘fight or flight’ state. We don’t take on aggressive dogs, although most will choose flight if they can anyway. Without getting too technical, this is why we commonly see dogs that are perfectly fine with other dogs becoming ‘aggressive’ when on a lead. They see a stressor and they know they are unable to use their ‘flight’ option, so will turn to ‘fight’ instead – lunging and barking on their lead. As mentioned earlier, this is often replicated in an indoor setting. Due to the nature of our outdoor Adventure Field, we often see nervous dogs finding comfort in the fact that they can run away from a situation if they need to (peace of mind!). So our field is amazing for developing confidence in these dogs, as well as obviously accommodating the crazed zoomers which wouldn’t be able to hare around should they be confined to a warehouse building. We are all natural

Our true outdoor experience allows dogs to do what they love, and the stress we have seen in indoor facilities just melts away. Dogs socialise in a natural and stress-free manner, which not only reinforces socialised dogs’ skills but lets the more nervous dogs really spread their wings and learn to play.