A Day In The Life of a DDC Owner

I'm sorry it has been so long since we posted. You guys are keeping us sooooo busy! So to make up for it I am going to post twice today. First, I thought I would give you a day in the life of dog daycare owner. So the day starts at 6am since I have 6 furry kids of my own to care for...oh ah the elderly cat that needs special food, attention, meds the works. She's more work than the dogs. I arrive at Wags at 7am to help with the non-socialites. That is our code name for the dogs that are here for the Ruff Love Program that need extra time and care to be incorporated into the play group. These are not aggressive dogs just undersocialized/fearful and need a smaller play group in the morning to get adjusted. Katie is organizing the 30 or so food bowls for breakfast for the boarders. Oliver helps at the back door usher each dog into their kennel to be fed separate. Kyle arrives to clean each kennel and helps hand feed if necessary. Every kennel is cleaned top to bottom every day even if the dogs were perfectly clean. Wouldn't you want a freshly laundered bed each night in your doggie suite? Amy & Tracy are taking dogs back to the play area as they arrive (usually at least 65 of them in the first hour....whew!) so we all jump in to help if a crowd arrives.

Julia and Ranaye arrive to organize the dayschools and other training dogs. Today will be hectic. With 9 board/trains dogs and 11 dayschool lessons it takes a lot of planning to make sure each dog gets its appropriate lesson and time. We list each dogs, what skill is to be worked and which trainer is in charge of that dog for the day. Jenny arrives to start the transports for the day. She gets the van ready and jets off to local homes to pickup eager daycare dogs. She arrives back just in time to help Lysa with her Wed classes. About this time I finish my yard duties and arrive to help "test" the board/train dogs. They get weekly tests to ensure they are on the right track. I start with Bonnie & Clyde whose jumping problem was night and day better from the previous week, Molly the hound now actually comes when called, and Princess the rat terrier is barking much less at new people. Test day was a success. Then Julia loads up some dogs and the training apprentices (Cradele & Lisa M) and heads off to RSM lake to meet with some training clients and get go home videos taped. Each board/train dogs gets a training dvd of their time with us.

Back in the front office, Amy & Tracy are doing the 100 or so daycare charts marking daily notes from clients and relaying the information to the floor supervisors in back. (Didgery has epilespy now, Molly is recovering from a torn ligament, Bailey had an upset tummy this morning from eating too much grass at home, and Sydney has small boo boo on her nose that we are supposed to keep an eye on.) Tracy gets ready for her 3 new dog interviews this morning while Amy heads to the play area for her daily meeting with the Floor Supervisors. Rachel and Tim discuss the two new daycare dogs and how well they are doing. Jillian heads off to start the daily baths (Connor gets an extra bath since she decided to roll in something icky). At noon, more employees arrive to start the afternoon shift. Lori gets the incoming boarders setup and checked in. We have a couple new staffers as we added some shifts and I get some pics of them as they walk in the door to update the website. I then give Chris my order for some new daycare toys and answer some training questions at the front counter.

So I head to my office realizing that almost half the day is gone. I check my voicemail (5 messages) and my email (38 emails since last night). I return all the inquires and questions as I wolf down some lunch my hubby brought me. I do some bday updates on the website and get my notes together to do my blog. I take a few minutes to do some agility training with my own dogs and then it is back next door to process some class registrations. My hubby then helps me get setup up for my night classes (Mondays and Tuesdays are incredibly long with working 7am-5pm at the daycare and then teaching from 5-8 at night). However it's all worth it when I hear every day how I make the lives of my human and doggie clients better.