Doggie Daycare - Top 3 Getting Started Tips

1. Business Plan: Put together a business plan of course!
2. Demand: Make sure that there is a demand for a dog daycare service in the area you are looking at
3. Location: The third most important thing (which kind of sounds the same as the first but isn't) - is location, location, location!

Getting Started Tip #3: Location, location, location!

As with any business where your clientele has to come to you, the facility needs to be located in a place that is easy to access. Somewhere that is either near a large population of dog owners, or even en route to an area where people will be going to work/shop. You will find that people tend to speed in on their way to work or an appointment and they will act like they don’t have enough time to come in and have a chat, or wait while someone else’s dog checks in. This kind of thing needs to be discouraged from the get-go. In my experience it only leads to problems in the future with clients behaving like their time is more important than yours. It also leads to pressure from clients in pushing their dogs on to you even if you are already at capacity. To minimise these problems and lower stress levels, an accessible location and speedy check-in system is paramount.

The key thing to remember is that before your daycare existed, these people did something else with their dogs during the day.

Getting Started Tip #2: Demand

Make sure that there is a demand for a dog daycare service in the area you are looking at.

You can measure demand by putting together a survey and actively going out in to the community and talking to dog owners. You can also try posting an advertisement in the local paper or on notice boards with details of your proposal to gauge interest levels. Make sure to do some research too in case someone else has tried to start a dog daycare there before and has failed due to a lack of demand.

Getting Started Tip #1: Business Plan

Before you get started you need to be able to see that your business can make money, or at the very least break even. Most daycares in areas where they have regular clientele (as opposed to tourist areas) take about 2 years to make money. Make sure you are prepared for this! Figure out your base line for renting space, retail supplies, cleaning supplies, what you will charge for daycare, grooming, walking and any other services you offer.

Raw Feeding & Tom Lonsdale

I went to a very interesting talk on Raw Feeding for Cats & Dogs the other night. It now makes a lot more sense to me. After learning more about anatomy and the stomach & bowel functions of these animals, I can see why it is so important that they eat the food that is right for them. It's like the difference between us eating fried food all the time or eating healthy food. Your little Benji might love the taste of his chicken & liver kibble, but it's just not good for him.

Most commercial cat & dog food is bulked up primarily with soy or wheat. Dogs & cats are carnivores, they are not supposed to eat plant matter all the time. In the wild, they will only eat plant matter if they cannot find a meat source. Not to mention their jaws & teeth are built to rip & tear their food apart & this just is not possible with commercial foods. Over 80% of dogs in New Zealand have tooth and gum disease. This leads to large amounts of bacteria & an immune system that is constantly fighting to stay balanced. This is generally because they are not using their teeth in the way they should be used. When dogs rip & tear their food they clean their teeth at the same time. Dog's do not chew their food in the wild; it's just rip, tear & swallow. When they just eat kibble and wet food, they don't even get to use their jaw muscles, they just swallow their food. This food then sits in the stomach, unable to be broken down and very sluggishly moves through the intestines and out the other end...eventually. But along the way it can be the cause of all sorts of skin problems, stomach problems, an inefficient bowel & even worms.. So that's just a quick round-up of some persuasive reasonings on why we should all be moving our dogs and cats on to the kind of food they should eat.

For info on Tom Lonsdale's Raw Food ideas, research & more persuasive arguments to switch, go to http://www.rawmeatybones.com/

Rayden

A dog that has made a lasting impression on me in the past few years is an 85% timber/arctic wolf X husky by the name of Rayden.. He is a stunningly elegant dog that can leap with grace out of any situation - no matter how high the fence! His owner has put a lot of time in to making sure he had consistent training from the beginning as you have to when you have a dog that's a little more 'wild' than the rest. That's not to say he's without his behavioural quirks, but in general, he is the wolf/dog you want beside you when there's tension in the air between other dogs. With just a lift of his upper lip he reveals his sparkly, white, HUGE fangs & that usually settles any dispute without a noise...

Not long ago I had the pleasure of listening to Geoff Bowers share his vast knowledge of wolf behaviour, how it relates to your dog (a.k.a wolf) & how to use this knowledge in training. His talk was so interesting and relevant that I feel it should get a mention. Bowers is from the U.K but now lives in New Zealand where he has developed his own dog food brand K9 Natural Dog Food with the catch phrase "Feed Your Dog's Inner Wolf". Check out his website http://www.k9natural.co.nz/ for product information, some very useful dog training & care tips, and some fascinating reading sources for those who want to learn more about the wolfiness of our dogs.