Being a Doggy Mama - Doggy Day Care
Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 12:42PM 
This week, Fluffy Bear was away on a business trip, so I had to take the pups to Doggy Day Care.
Day 1:
We park outside Doggy Day Care and I slowly, slowly open the back of the SUV, sticking my hand in and saying "Wait. Waaaaaait.... WAIT!"
Yeah, not so much.
Puppy Girl wriggled out of the car and jumped down, running into the road.
This is a five lane road, a major road, and it was full of morning rush hour traffic.
I have a mental picture in my mind of the moment she reached the second lane, her leash dragging behind her and my realization that she was going to die. I heard someone scream her name, and it was me.
A thought that Fluffy Bear is going to hate me if she dies flashed through my head.
And my next thought changed the situation.
"Don't chase her," my brain said, "take a tip from Victoria Stilwell and make her chase you."
And so I turned, ran to the door of the Doggy Day Care and, thank God, Puppy Girl followed me.
I left the SUV open, my purse in the front seat - I just didn't care - and got the two dogs inside.
It was only when I got back to the car that I started shaking, and burst into tears.
Day 2:
This time I was prepared. I parked in parking lot on the side of Doggy Day Care, slightly away from the street.
Why didn't I do this the first time? Because it belongs to another business and we aren't supposed to use it. But, I figured, fuck it.
When I opened the back of the SUV, I had chicken snacks in my hand. I managed to keep both dogs in the car till I had their leashes.
I get dragged into Doggy Day Care - this time Puppy Girl knows where we are going and, like her older brother, she wants to get there as fast as possible.
I managed to control them relatively well, until the young lady who takes the dogs into the back came out. Wanting to get to play with his friends NOW, Puppy Dog pulled on the leash, going around the back of the desk. Everything was caught on the leashes, and went flying, including this poor young lady's coffee.
Two staff jumped at me, grabbed the leashes out of my hands and took the two dogs back to their different play areas (because Puppy Girl is young, she goes in with the puppies).
It was so embarrassing!
I offered to replace the coffee, but was told no, it's OK.
I left as soon as I could.
Day 3:
I managed to get the dogs in OK, but when I collected them, one of the staff decided he would make Puppy Girl sit before he handed the leash to me. She knows how to sit - we've been to training class. But all training goes out of the window inside the doors of Doggy Day Care.
He signaled at her, he said sit, he gently pushed her butt down. She sat for a millisecond.
He did it again. She barely sat again.
And he wouldn't give up.
On and on and on and on.
Eventually, she won.
I grabbed her leash, pulled Puppy Dog with me and we practically ran out of there.
Thank God we start our second training class this week...
Reader Comments (4)
Three words: seatbelt, cage, tether. We use a seatbelt harness with our Cardi. It's slightly modified because he needed extra length. With a carabiner on the harness loop and a swivel snap on the seatbelt, he is never "loose". I open the door, snap the leash on the carabiner, then unsnap the swivel snap. We travel a lot and on the interstates and rest areas it's really comforting to know that he can't jump out when the door opens. This has worked so well that we have never used the folding wire cage although we carry it with us. I suspect that if you have an SUV, there are some metal tie downs in the back. Harnesses on the dogs with tethers to the tiedowns will again give you the control. You were so smart to run to the day care door. I know you were terrified and sick to your stomach over the "what if's". These are just suggestions, they aren't criticisms. Our dog is ten years old, still gets into a waste basket occasionally, ate a hearing aid once (with battery) right in front of us and we didn't know he was doing it. Noticed him one day chewing and found a razor blade in his mouth (talk about frantic - absolutely no damage done though). Even if you only harness Puppy Girl, it would mostly solve this problem. Good luck, they are two adorable dogs and your writing about them is a total hoot.
Thank you for the suggestion. We tried a seatbelt harness for Puppy Dog when we had a compact car and he chewed through it and both seatbelts. But a tether is a good idea. I'll look that up online right now!!!
Our first harness also suffered some chew damage so I think it's just a maturity/puppy thing. The second one has lasted a long time and I had a local company that makes nylon horse halters fix the damaged one as a backup. Our dog is put on the passenger second row seat. He's long and the seats are captains chairs so we had to make a bed adaption. Bought a plastic concrete mixing tub at Home Depot, drilled holes through one long side, and tied it to the seat back. You can level it with some telephone books and towels underneath it on the seat. It has pillows and a towel over it, he sits in it and the extra flat area fits his body length and the 8" sides give him places to plant his paws in a sudden stop. Plus, when we stop and get him out, we are always on the off side of the car, away from traffic. Can't say enough about how well this system has worked. One of the nice things is that in an accident, we don't have a 40# dog breaking our necks and flying through the windshield. I have no illusions about the dog's likelihood of surviving a severe crash, whether in a cage or harness. With sudden braking though, the harness does keep him behind the front seats and out of the driver's way. And don't listen to the whining about mean Mama. Get a squirt bottle or a penny can and remind yourself that they can choose to be good and you deserve them choosing that since you see to their every need. Because we do long trips with ours, we've got all the "gotta pee", "hey, where's my lunch", etc sounds down so we don't punish for good communication skills.
@jerseygirl
Thanks for these great tips! I'll discuss with Fluffy Bear.