Daycare

No matter what your day looks like, you can rest assured knowing your energetic pup will be occupied all day long.

Are you exhausted at the end of the day but your pet greets you with eager eyes when you walk through the door and wants to play until bedtime? Does your pet have “Only Child” syndrome? Does your pet have what seems like endless energy even after the kids tuckered him or her out? Our Doggie Day Care sessions might be the answer!

Overview

Our doggie day care is offered Monday-Friday and your pet will be in heaven playing the entire day away. Our Day Care is very popular amongst working professionals who drop-off on the way to work and pick-up on the way home. All pets must pass a temperament test to play and once passed, your pet will be eligible for a daycare membership.

Our daycare program consists of a monthly membership that is charged by credit card on an automated recurring payment. You may choose from a Monday-Wednesday-Friday Membership – $325/month OR a Tuesday-Thursday Membership – $220/month. Providing beneficial social interactions and environmental enrichment is our goal for our Day Care program. To maintain this atmosphere, it is essential for us to render an environment that is conducive to positive play. With the continuous influx of new Day Care participants and the changing roles within the playgroup, our pack personality is constantly fluctuating. Separating our playgroups allows us to better tend to the transitions in pack dynamics and provide better social interactions for your pet.

We currently schedule daycare assessments for new patients the last week of each month. To be put on our new patient waiting list, please call us at 559-436-4444. We will call you when an assessment appointment becomes available.

Policies

We are a FLEA FREE facility! We require that all Day Care pets be on a current dose of veterinary flea control upon entrance. If your pet is not current on flea control, we will need to apply a dose at check-in to ensure our facility stays FLEA FREE. For your pet’s best protection, the protection of our staff and the protection of other pets in our care, we do require that the following vaccinations be current upon drop off or be updated with us upon check-in:

DAPP (Distemper & Parvo),
Rabies,
Bivalent Canine Influenza & Bordetella (given within the last six months).* *Proof of veterinary vaccines must be received at check-in to be admitted to the facility. If you would like our staff to retrieve this information from your veterinarian, please ask us and we would be happy to assist you. *Pets undergoing medical treatment for an illness or injury are not allowed in daycare until cleared by a veterinarian.

So that we may safely handle all pets within the daycare facility and that your pet is properly labeled while playing, we do require each daycare pet to have a clip collar with an ID tag to join the playgroup. For your convenience Pet Medical Center has a variety of collars for sale in our retail area and can print your pet’s ID tags onsite.

Play Times

Small Dogs (Under 30lbs)

10am - 12pm & 3-5pm

Big Dogs (30lbs & Up)

8-10 am & 1-3pm

Benefits of Doggie Daycare at PMC

Stimulates pet with mental and physical exercise.
Provides socialization for your dog to prevent boredom.
Great for dogs with behavior issues such as separation anxiety.
Fun for your dog!
Lots of individual attention.
All dogs will be assessed for their ability to play with a group of dogs before being admitted to group play area.
Nap time in individual cages with music playing in between sessions.
Bathing, grooming, veterinary services available while they are here.
Doggie Day Care area is indoors and climate controlled with an outdoor potty area
Ability to log on and watch your pet from the internet or smartphone
Constant supervision by loving staff.
We evaluate YOUR pet – we don’t doggy discriminate, we accept ALL breeds!

You can find our Daycare Agreement Form here.

Learn how to view your pet on our Pet Cam here.

Common Daycare Questions

What does Doggie Daycare consist of?

Daycare is a chance for your dog to run off some energy in our enclosed play area with different types of toys while having fun with other dog friends. The dogs in the group are always supervised and they have access to an attached outdoor enclosed potty area. Our daycare playroom can be viewed through one-way glass in our lobby and we even have web Pet Cams that can be seen online or by smartphone for clients who wish to watch their dogs at play.

What does my dog need to attend daycare?

Your pet must be healthy, current on all vaccines and be on veterinary approved flea prevention, be spayed or neutered if the animal is older than 6 months, must pass a daycare assessment and must be wearing a buckle collar with an ID tag.

What kind of collars are appropriate for daycare?

Cloth collars with quick release buckles are what we recommend. Leather collars with buckles are also acceptable. Choke, pinch, martingale and harnesses are not allowed in the daycare room. As part of normal play, dogs like to wrestle. While they may be appropriate for walking, certain types of collars, chains and harnesses in this play environment pose a safety hazard to either the pet wearing it or other pets playing with your pet. We require an ID tag on every pets collar so that they can be identified when they are out of their cage and playing in the daycare room.

My dog is a puppy; can puppies come to daycare even though he or she hasn’t completed all their vaccines?

Socialization from an early age is very important and playgroup is a perfect opportunity to learn doggie manners. However, young puppies that haven’t received a full series of vaccines are more susceptible to disease. We do accept puppies into playgroup, however pet parents need to weigh the risks of an unsocialized puppy with the risks of subjecting a puppy to increased risk of exposure to a multiple animal environment. Puppies are accepted with a signed waiver, confirming pet parents understand the extra risks of contracting disease and/or illness in a non-fully vaccinated puppy.

Can my pet get sick at daycare or contract any disease?

Our goal at Pet Medical Center is to provide a safe & hygienic environment for your pet. We rigorously disinfect all play areas, kennels, toys, bowls and even our outdoor potty area multiple times daily to minimize transmission of illness & disease. With that said however, anytime you have a group of dogs playing with the same toys, drinking from the same water bowls, and mouthing each other, it is possible to spread communicable diseases. Think of Doggie Daycare as a children’s pre-school or daycare. Children frequently pass around germs and your child can come home with a cold or a virus. The same holds true for pets. Daycare is a communal environment and there is always a chance that a visibly healthy pet is harboring an underlying, undiagnosed illness that could be transmissible to your pet. Pet Medical Center requires that all pets be up to date on Rabies, Distemper-Parvo and Bordetella vaccines and that pets be FLEA FREE. However even with these precautions, there are other dangers that lurk in communal dog environments (daycare, dog parks, dog training class, pet stores and even greeting another pet on a walk). Some things that “healthy” dogs can be harboring that are transmissible are giardia, intestinal parasites, papillomas, canine flu and even to the extreme of bordetella and parvo in fully vaccinated dogs. Requiring vaccines, keeping incoming pets FLEA FREE and an extreme disinfection regimen are what we do at PMC to provide a safe place for your pet. Unfortunately, there is no way for us to provide a playgroup in a bubble, so when enrolling your pet in doggie daycare or any pet activity, you should be aware that there is always risk. Please contact our veterinary staff if you would like more information on any of these transmissible illnesses.

What is a daycare assessment?

A daycare assessment is a way for us to evaluate your pet with our staff and the other dogs to see if your pet would be a good candidate for our playgroup. All playgroup members must be able to be handled by the daycare staff (by voice commands, by leash and by the collar), non-toy possessive and friendly to other dogs. You will need to be here 15 minutes before the start of your pet’s daycare session. We will let your pet out first alone to get familiar with the new surroundings and to sniff around the room and meet our daycare staff members. Then we will slowly let other dogs in, assessing the way your dog interacts with the other dogs. If your pet is nervous, that’s okay as long as your pet is not aggressive. Your pet’s assessment lasts for the duration of the daycare session. We watch your pet’s interactions with our staff, other pets, manners with toys and overall ability to become comfortable within the group. It may take a few sessions before your dog becomes comfortable within the pack. Everyday we have different dogs attend with varying play personalities, so the pack mentality is different day-to-day. After the session, we will send home a report at check-out telling you how your pet did and if we have additional recommendations they will be listed.

What if my dog doesn’t pass his or her daycare assessment?

Depending on the reason and severity of the failed assessment, your dog can likely be tried again after a few weeks. More socialization at dog parks or dog training classes, especially help with getting younger dogs more acquainted with playing in our daycare group. However, not all dogs are suitable to be re-tried, so pending the reason for the failed assessment, some dogs will not be allowed back if they were openly hostile to staff members or other dogs and/or attacked other dogs without provocation. Please do not take a failed assessment personally. Some dogs do not innately understand how to behave in a pack, and don’t have the doggie socialization mentality that goes well with indoor high energy playing situations. It does not mean that you have a bad dog or even poorly tempered, it just means that we may not be the best match for your pet. Some pets that fail assessments in our doggie daycare, do great in a larger play environment or even an outdoor environment. Some dogs love doggie daycare and some dogs do not like it. For those dogs who don’t like it, it can seem like a stressful environment and so they will not be failed, but perhaps suggested after repeated attempts to be more comfortable that maybe they shouldn’t come back because we want them to enjoy coming to see us! My dog has scratches and bite marks on them, are they allowed to fight in daycare? We do our best to identify potential problem behaviors and situations before an escalation occurs. We do not allow treats in our doggie daycare playgroup and discourage inappropriate behavior. In an effort to ensure an environment where there are no potential situations in which dogs would fight, however, this is doggie daycare and dogs can play rough and wrestle with no hint of aggression, just robust play. Lots of neck slobber is to be expected and an occasional nick, scratch or bite. If a fight does occur then we quickly stop the fight and check the animals involved to see if there are any injuries evident and that no serious wounds have been inflicted. If an injury has occurred, the pet is brought over to see our veterinary staff. Time outs are used intermittently, if needed, and periodic dismissals from daycare do occur for consistent and problematic behavior.

What does a “time-out” mean?

Our assessments help us ensure that dogs in the playgroup are friendly and amiable to all different types of dogs. However, just like people, sometimes their play personalities just don’t jive and time outs need to be given. If a dog is playing to rough, has temporarily lost his or her social manners or is just flat out acting inappropriately with the group, our staff will put them back in their kennel to give them some time to cool down and relax. Usually time-outs are a 10-20 minute break. Most times the pet can return to daycare after the time out, as long as the behavior does not continue.

What do the dogs do in between play sessions?

Each daycare dog has their own kennel with a name card (with the exception of family pets housed together) and fresh water during their downtime. Our dog kennels have music playing and plenty to watch as the kennel staff tends to their daily routine. After a busy playtime, your pet needs this personal time to rest, relax and refresh.

Do I need to call ahead for Doggie Daycare? When do you have daycare available?

We have drop-in daycare sessions Monday through Friday, but not on weekends. We do not have drop-in daycare the day before and the day after major holidays due to the lack of kennel space over busy holiday boarding times. You do not need to schedule ahead of time, however, it is recommended that you do call ahead in advance of your dog’s daycare assessment to make sure you have all of the necessary vaccines and paperwork before your first session.

Is Doggie Daycare a good way to socialize my dog?