Monitoring After the Evaluation
Your dog evaluation process is an important safety tool. However, the information provided is based on the dog’s behavior in a short snapshot of time. Since your pet center is probably an unfamiliar environment for the dog you may have yet to see their true personality. That is one of the reasons we recommend not using pass or fail language with your clients. Instead share how the session went and explain your ongoing monitoring system for all dogs in group play. The goal is for all dogs to enjoy their day of play and exhibit appropriate dog social behaviors at every visit.
This means you need to have a system in place to observe all dogs after the evaluation. For new dogs monitor closely their first few visits to your playgroups. As they become comfortable in the environment you may see behaviors that differ from the initial evaluation process. This is when your list of acceptable and unacceptable behaviors comes in handy.
It’s good to communicate behavior specifics of new dogs to owners for a few visits to build rapport and trust. One approach is a first visit report card and verbally sharing observations at departure for the next 2-3 visits. For dogs that scored green in your evaluation with no significant changes during the initial visits they transition to your ongoing green dog monitoring system.
For dogs that scored yellow during the evaluation you will want to plan a formal written follow-up evaluation. The timing for that will depend on the primary reason the dog scored yellow, but we suggest a 30-90 day window. You will want to objectively measure if their behavior is improving or deteriorating. This is also a great prompt for a follow-up conversation with the owner. You provide a formal update on how the dog is adjusting to your playgroups and share any recommendations or concerns.
As dogs mature you will likely observe behavior changes. Some may stop playing, but still enjoy the daily interactions with staff and other dogs. Others will stop playing and have less tolerance for high energy play in their space. This is when a formal annual ongoing evaluation process is beneficial. It helps your team take an objective view of the current behavior of each dog and prompts communicating updates to dog owners. (The Dog Gurus Existing Dog Off-Leash Play Assessment which is one of the many forms you can find in our Dog Management Tools pdf was designed for this process).
As pet professionals your responsibility is to ensure all dogs are enjoying group play and not just tolerating it. Open and honest communication with dog owners throughout the process builds trust. It also challenges your business to offer a mix of services that a variety of dogs enjoy. This prepares you to recommend alternatives to traditional dog daycare for dogs that grow out of playgroup or exhibit inappropriate behaviors. Your business keeps clients and all dogs enjoy their day.
