As your dog’s daytime carers, we have a responsibility to ensure we notify you of any issues that arise during that time. This includes all behaviour.

Behavioural changes can be caused by a variety of issues, from moving house, tension at home or even health problems. It is in your dog’s best interest that we inform you of these changes in daycare. If these issues persist, it is advised that you contact the vet for a check up.

Just like at school, the teachers inform parents of any concerns during the day. We will do the same for you. Sometimes it’s just a one off, but can be a major concern if it becomes a pattern.

As an example:

We had an old dog many years ago. The dog started behaving badly at daycare, being snappy and reactive towards other dogs. For personal reasons the owners needed to be able to bring him to daycare at least twice a week. The behavior was okay at home, however, becoming aggressive in daycare. We tried many solutions, but nothing helped. This meant a suspension was to be put in place until the behaviour improved.

Distraught, the owners thought euthanasia would be something they would need to consider due to his actions and age. They decided to seek a vet’s advice beforehand; only to find out the dog had a terrible tooth abscess that would’ve been causing immense pain, triggering these out of character traits.

One course of antibiotics and a tooth extraction later he was back to being the lovable, old dog we knew and loved.

This is just one of many examples we can give.

Other examples include the dog who’s life we saved from a paralysis tick, or the dog’s who we’ve determined had ear infections, or degenerative issues like hip dysplasia and lupus.

So you can see, many issues can be triggers for changes in behavior, so it’s important for us top keep you informed. Having open communication with owners about their pets is very important to us.

We are also upping our in house tracking to give you better clarity on what’s going on. We now have a “Weekly Behaviour Board” to keep track of any dogs that seem to act out of character. This will be uploaded onto our system and monitored weekly. A member of our team will be in contact with owners to discuss our concerns.

This is important, in case your dog is experiencing something they can’t tell us about.