dog day care socialization in commerce twp mi

As we get closer and closer to our opening date at our newest dog day care location in Commerce, we’ll be sharing more information with the community about the reasons Dogtopia should be a big part of every dog owners life. Today, we’re examining the importance and benefit of our dog day care program, which will allow pups in Commerce MI a structured environment to meeting, greeting, and playing with each other.

Dogs are social animals. They crave companionship, and social experiences, and when companionship & socialization is limited it has a direct impact on your dogs well-being. It has been shown that dogs who are exposed to different environments, animals, and people are more mentally and emotionally mature, confident, and resilient.  Dogs with a thorough history of socialization don’t become agitated as easily as dogs who haven’t been exposed to new situations. These calm, confident dogs are a pleasure to take out into public, to accompany you through life, and are at far less of a risk of ‘bad behavior’ due to fear or reactivity.  A socialized dog is a happy dog, and often has a better life because they are so easy to take around to various events.

Socialization with other dogs at dog daycare can teach both puppies and adult dogs proper ‘dog etiquette’ when interacting with other dogs. The earlier the socialization occurs, the better- it makes your dog more comfortable approaching other receptive dogs, and in turn limits their risk of getting into a dog fight. Think of dog daycare as prep school for dogs.  It helps your pup figure out the nuances in dog body language, making them much more ready to engage in the ‘real world’ with dogs and people outside of dog day care.

It’s important to also consider socialization at dog day care because it’s such a structured, supervised environment. Taking an unsocialized dog to a dog park can be a recipe for disaster – they don’t know healthy, proper ‘dog etiquette’ ways of engaging in play with other dogs.  Even if your dog is friends with everyone they meet, an unsupervised, unstructured dog park is potentially hazardous, since you simply can’t know if the dogs that come in with your dog are all going to be friendly and of the same play style.  Here are some examples of situations that are avoided when you use dog day care at Dogtopia rather than an unstructured play session at a dog park:

1.) Your low energy senior dog is harassed by a young, high energy dog until he snaps out of frustration

2.) Your toy dog is playing and gets bowled over by a large dog who wants to play and doesn’t seem to know his size

At Dogtopia, our dog daycare is structured so that dogs with different play styles and needs are grouped with similar dogs.  Your toy breed dog will likely benefit more from playing with other toy breed dogs, and your senior dog has a different play style than puppies.  By socializing them in this manner, they’ll get more out of their experience and be safer all around.

If you’re a dog owner in Commerce, we urge you to secure your spot for a tour when we first open!  Dog daycare fills up fast, and those who come in early to check us out will have first dibs on one of our first-time buyers packages (a discounted package of dog day care sessions).  Contact us today!