{"id":2340,"date":"2016-03-22T14:07:03","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T18:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dogtopia.com\/mississauga-meadowvale\/?p=2340"},"modified":"2019-01-16T11:32:56","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T16:32:56","slug":"importance-of-daycare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dogtopia.com\/mississauga-meadowvale\/importance-of-daycare\/","title":{"rendered":"The importance of daycare"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever spent time and attention focusing on your dog\u2019s behaviour when it encounters other dogs?<\/p>\n

A leading dog trainer in Norway has identified over 30 body gestures that dogs make in social settings \u2013 whether with members of their own species or with humans. These have been widely interpreted as demonstrating an intent to \u201cget along\u201d with other \u201cpack members.\u201d Many people who study animal behavior are of the opinion that these communications are actually hardwired, automatic responses rather than deliberate ones, and take place with an end goal to affect the behavior of the other dog.<\/p>\n

Communicative behaviors help dogs maintain peaceful pack relationships without resorting to violence. Many experts suggest that nonthreatening canine behaviors are more important in keeping the peace in packs than are dominance behaviors. Further, it is suggested that relations are primarily maintained by deference exhibited by subordinates toward higher-ranking members, as opposed to dominance displays by the alpha member. There are many types of behaviours which dogs within packs (or playgroups) display, and can generally be divided into several categories \u2013 appeasement (active submission), deference (passive submission), displacement, stress signs and dominance displays.<\/p>\n

Understanding that there is an actual \u201cbehaviour code\u201d among dogs, and that dogs communicate with each other in methods which are not easily comprehensible by humans is the first step towards understanding why open play daycare offers a degree of depth, pleasure, and fulfilment to a dog\u2019s life that dog to human interaction simply cannot provide. This concept can be demonstrated to an extent by viewing human interaction within certain groups. For instance, consider a room full of musicians who are members of an orchestra. Each individual has an ability to communicate at a level which not every person possesses, yet this ability is manifest to a much more intense degree when musicians communicate with each other through their respective instruments. The actual sounds being created, and the instruments being used to create them can be individually appreciated by an outside observer, but it is really the collective results which underline this communication between members of the group. Each person in the room understands what is being conveyed \u2013 the tone, the feeling, and the mood \u2013 but these can only be partially described by words. The actual results transcend the ability of language to completely convey what is happening between each musician as they play their part in creating the overall result.<\/p>\n

Similarly, dogs in an open play daycare room collectively create and maintain an experience for each of them which cannot be easily put into words. To say that dogs have \u201cfun\u201d in daycare or that they \u201cinteract\u201d with other dogs only partially describes what is happening. In fact, what is taking place is that each dog is communicating at a basic, even primordial level with the other dogs in the room and using \u201clanguage\u201d which can only be properly utilized with others of the same species. Dogs derive pleasure from this experience in ways which can only be imagined by humans, but are nonetheless easy to observe. This enjoyment becomes readily apparent when dogs that have become acclimatized to a particular daycare facility and routine are viewed approaching their day of play. Their excitement levels \u2013 indicated by their tails wagging, straining at the leach, and enthusiastic barking are something many pet parents observe and comment upon regularly. Although dogs often take some time to become used to their surroundings and the routine of visiting the daycare facility, it usually does not take long before they will respond positively to terminology such as \u201cplay day\u201d or \u201cdaycare\u201d and exhibit a number of positive behaviours on their way to the facility which make it obvious that they remember their previous experience in open play and are looking forward to the next installment.<\/p>\n