Dana and I both work from home so we have the luxury of a flexible schedule. This has allowed us to get Maya out daily for walks, both on-leash around the neighborhood and over to the off-leash open-space parks at two of the local reservoirs.
Now five months old it has been very necessary to get her out this much and burn up some of that puppy energy. It’s been a mild winter and we’ve been very fortunate with these outings. That all changed a few days ago when an arctic-front pushed down into Colorado and we dropped from 70 and sunny on Friday, to -21 by Tuesday morning. As a pack, we huddled indoors and barely opened the door. Poor Maya still had to visit the yard for bathroom breaks, but she definitely didn’t linger any longer than necessary.
So on Monday we stayed inside. And again on Tuesday. But by Wednesday it was obvious Maya was more than restless, and we looked for alternatives. We found a doggie-daycare just a mile down the road that allows 2-hour dropoffs, and we gave it a shot.
Maya loved it. As soon as we got there she knew friends were nearby and she was ready to play. She passed her behavior evaluation (called a temperment evaluation which isn’t a word) and didn’t even look back when the staff took her away to join the pack.
Two hours later we returned to pick her up and she whined the entire way home. She wasn’t even tired. We found out that she was too rambunctious for the puppy-group, but for some reason they didn’t put her with the ‘active’ group and instead stuck her with the ‘mild’ group. We guess it was a debate between her energy and her size/age. She’s five months old and 35 lbs. We only hope some of the older dogs shared with her some wisdom about behavior and training.
We’ll definitely return – next time for at least a half-day. It’s our goal to ensure she’ll always be comfortable with boarding options for when we have to travel for work or vacation.
