Doggy Day Care
On several of the lists that I'm on,
debates often rage about how often one needs to keep their service
dog with them. The conventional wisdom, of course, is as much as
possible. However, some listmates tend to take this to extremes,
and seem to look down on those who don't equate "as much as
possible" to "always, no matter what."
To me, one of the oddest things about this attitude is that it
really doesn't take into account the needs of the dog. Granting
that a service dog has a job to do, and that the job involves
spending large amounts of time with the dog's partner, some dogs
nevertheless have needs of their own, above and beyond simply
spending time with their partners.
Glindy is a great example of this. She's strenuously motivated to
maximize her time with me. She suffers from separation anxiety when
she's away from me, and I've often made use of the fact that she
views time with me as a "life reward" to reinforce her during
training.
However, she's also a very energetic, active dog who needs more
exercise than I can give her. If it didn't mean being parted from
me, Glindy would happily run for miles every day: sniffing,
exploring, and pouncing on hapless people and dogs in over-friendly
greeting.
To deny her an outlet for this passion for romping seems
unrealistic at best, and would certainly be unkind. So, even though
she is now in training to become a full-fledged service dog, I try
to ensure that she gets frequent trips to the local canine hang-out
so she can run and play with all the other high-energy dogs.
For the past year or so, I've been taking the dogs to Pet Play
House in Reno. It's a terrific facility that offers some very
non-traditional services even by doggy day care standards: it's an
actual house, open seven days a week, that offers dogs free run of
the house and yard. They also offer non-traditional boarding, so
the dogs don't end up locked in a crate or kennel for days at a
time, which is an abominable practice that can't be good for a
dog's long-term mental health.
At any rate, while I originally began taking Glindy to day care to
manage her separation anxiety back when I travelled without her,
now that she's a service dog in training I still think it's
important to continue taking her there as often as possible. After
all, if I don't fulfill her as a dog, including her needs for
exercise, play, and canine socialization, then I can never expect
her to fulfill me as a loving companion or dedicated
service dog.
Be fair to your canine partner. Make sure you fulfill your dog as
best you can, and listen to what your dog is telling you
is most fulfilling. After all, partnerships work both ways!