Educational Daycare

Maintain your dog’s training

Educational Daycare challenges your dog’s mind, not just their body.

Each day provides physical exercise, enrichment activities, socialization, and maintenance of your dog’s manners training. Your dog will enjoy indoor play time, exploring a fenced-in outdoor space, crated nap time, and plenty of love and attention!

What does Educational Daycare include?

Structured & Consistent Play

Educational Daycare is designed to maintain your dog’s basic manners training while providing social time, mental stimulation, exercise, and enrichment for your dog on a regular basis.

Unlike many daycares that allow drop-ins, we keep our play groups stable by requiring dogs to attend at least 3 days per week. These consistent groups help your dog feel more confident, reduces stress, and let us safely add food rewards and toys into play. Your dog will build strong relationships with their dog friends and with our staff! 

If you want a safe alternative to dog park free-for-alls, more than a stroll around the block with a dog walker, and a way to maintain your dog’s good behavior, Educational Daycare is for you.

Exploring Inside & Out

Our 8000 square foot facility was designed for your dog’s comfort. It includes two fenced-in indoor play areas with rolled rubber flooring to provide great traction for playtime — no slick concrete!

We select different enrichment activities to enjoy each day, including climbing on platforms, running through tunnels, chasing bubbles, and playing in a ball pit. A variety of toys are available for your dog to play with so they can chase, chew, tug, and fetch!

We have a securely fenced outdoor yard for your dog to get fresh air throughout the day. Your dog will go outside individually and one-on-one with our staff to relieve themselves outdoors: our goal is no indoor potty accidents! This supports your dog’s potty training so they don’t learn to pee indoors.

Small groups & one-on-one attention

We maintain an industry-leading dog-to-staff ratio (no more than 10 dogs to 1 staff member), ensuring your dog gets plenty of attention from our team. Many daycares have groups as large as 35 or 40 dogs per staff member, which we don’t believe is safe.

We carry treats and will reward your dog throughout the day for good behavior, such as coming when called. Your dog will sit to earn treats, toys, petting, and permission to go through gates & doorways. This supports the great training foundation you’ve already taught your dog!

We don’t allow excessive barking or jumping up on staff or gates, and redirect dogs to appropriate behaviors instead. Other daycares allow dogs to practice these behaviors, which confuses your dog and erodes their training progress.

Additionally, dog trainers are on duty every day and are available for add-on training sessions. Your dog can enjoy one-on-one manners training sessions, neighborhood training walks, and agility training sessions – just select them from our add-on menu!

Each day includes…

  • Play time with a stable group of similarly-sized, friendly dogs that your dog will get to know well

  • LOTS of individual attention from us: 1 staff member for every 10 dogs in group

  • Regular outdoor potty breaks so your dog doesn’t learn to pee inside

  • Consistent reinforcement of polite behavior like door manners, leash walking, & coming when called

  • Crated nap time with a chew toy so your dog goes home tired — not wired!

  • Optional add-on training sessions to expand your dog’s horizons, like neighborhood walks or agility!

Educational Policies & FAQs

To join us in Educational Daycare, your dog must:

  • Be 6+ months old
    (Under 6 months old? Start in Puppy Day School!)
  • Be friendly with other dogs & other people, including being handled by strangers
  • Relax quietly in a crate during nap time
  • Already have good manners: they come when called, don’t jump up on people, and don’t bark or lunge at other dogs.
    (Need training first? Check out our Intensive Training Programs.)

We screen for these behaviors during the evaluation. (For more details, read our blog post What to Expect at Your Dog’s Educational Daycare Evaluation.)

We do not require dogs to be spayed or neutered to attend Educational Daycare and accept dogs based on their behavior, but will not assess intact males over 9 months old. Females in season cannot attend Educational Daycare.

Morning drop-off: 7AM to 9AM sharp
Daycare hours: 9AM to 3PM
Afternoon pick-up: 3PM to 6:30PM sharp

The first step is to read the FAQ here on our website. After you’ve done this, you can contact us if you have questions.

Then, fill out an online application. This tells us what we need to know about your dog. We will reach out to you when we have a spot open for your dog in one of our playgroups, and you will be able to schedule an in-person evaluation at that time.

The evaluation is $50 + tax, and is non-refundable after purchase. Shortly after booking, we contact your veterinarian to receive copies of your dog’s health records, and begin arranging for particular dogs to be available for your dog’s evaluation. If you need to reschedule, we need at least 48 hours notice. We thank you for respecting the time and effort our team puts into setting up a great evaluation experience for your dog!

Our receptionist team will reach out to your veterinarian to get your dog’s health records. Click here for a “Health Requirements” checklist PDF you can download and bring to your vet. We will reach out to you to either confirm that we have received everything, or let you know if anything is missing.

Next, read our blog post What to Expect at Your Dog’s Educational Daycare Evaluation. This will prepare you for your appointment!

We require vaccination for rabies, parvo, distemper, and bordetella (kennel cough) as well as a negative fecal test result from your veterinarian (not the rescue/breeder’s vet). Proof of all of these health requirements must be on file 48 hours before your evaluation. Click here for a “Health Requirements” checklist PDF you can download and bring to your vet.

New dogs must have lived in your home for at least 14 days prior to evaluation, have been examined by your veterinarian (not the breeder/shelter’s vet), and meet all of the above health requirements.

We do not require dogs to be spayed or neutered to attend Educational Daycare and accept dogs based on their behavior. Females in season cannot attend Educational Daycare.

To maintain a consistent, enjoyable environment for our team and canine guests, clients must commit to attending at least three times a week for four weeks. Rates are as follows:

3x/week for 4 weeks: $855*
4x/week for 4 weeks: $1060
5x/week for 4 weeks: $1240

*=3x/week is only available for low-energy, mellow dogs. The majority of dogs need to attend 4x/week or 5x/week.

We’ll evaluate your dog’s behavior in the lobby, with our team members, in one of our play areas, and finally with one or more of our dogs. We are looking for dogs who are neutral or friendly toward people, friendly toward other dogs, and are reasonably well behaved.

For more details, read our blog post What to Expect at Your Dog’s Educational Daycare Evaluation.

Examples of unacceptable behaviors in Educational Daycare: attempting to climb or jump our 4′ and 6′ fences, jumping up on people, resource guarding toys or food from other dogs, actively avoiding other dogs, excessive (more than a single instance) urine marking, any hesitation about being led by the collar, playing “keep away” when called or approached, excessive vocalization or pawing in the crate, or aggressive behavior such as snapping or biting.

Most of these behaviors can be resolved in an Intensive Training Program if your dog needs a little extra help becoming daycare ready. Your evaluator will discuss this option with you if your dog does not pass the Educational Daycare evaluation.

If you are going on vacation, we can arrange for your dog to skip a week or two during one of their 4-week Educational Daycare programs. Please let us know at the evaluation or when purchasing the renewal. We do need vacation/day off requests in writing, either via e-mail or on a printed/written note.

Yes! Crated nap time is an integral part of the Educational Daycare experience. We define “crate trained” as a dog who will go willingly into a crate when the door is open & they are led up to it and will then remain in the crate without barking, whining, pawing at the door, or chewing on the crate.

If your dog is not crate trained, we can help! Contact us for details about a private training program to address crate training.

If your dog is currently enrolled in Puppy Day School or an Intensive Training Program, they do not need an evaluation for Educational Daycare and can go straight from one program to the other if they meet the behavioral benchmarks for EDC.

If your dog has taken time off since attending one of these programs, or only attended classes/private lessons, your dog does need an Educational Daycare evaluation. Behavior is always changing, and the evaluation is an opportunity for us to determine not only your dog’s suitability for the program, but also what playgroups they fit into and who they will enjoy playing with.

Take the next step

Does Educational Daycare sound like the perfect fit? Fill out an application today!