A New Take on Dog Play

There are not many dog daycares that will be celebrating their 20th anniversary in 2015 and we would wager only one that is starting the year with a brand new format for dog play. Debbie Oliver, founder of Miss Daisy’s Dog Camp, is a very early pioneer in dog daycare and as you learned this month our Queen of fun!

Debbie’s decisions are always based on what is best for each dog so she made a bold decision in 2014 to change her business model and operating format. Keep reading to find out why Debbie has decided to eliminate large dog playgroups in her center and instead focus on “play with a purpose”.

Miss Daisy’s Dog Camp is very successful in their niche of small dog daycare. Debbie has not had to advertise and could be very selective in the dogs she accepted into her center.  She knew that changing her operational format was a risk and expected to lose some clients, but for the dogs she knew it was the right call for her business.

In the video below you’ll find out howDebbie came to her decision and the new format of “play with purpose” in her Canine Activity Center.

Debbie expected to lose clients with the transition to the Canine Activity Center and related rate increase, however, at last report she had only lost one! That is a testament to the relationship and trust Debbie has with her clients.  They spent over 3 months preparing for the transition and showed clients that their dogs love the shorter play sessions more and were still tired at end of the day.

We are grateful for Debbie’s openness to share her newest pioneer adventure with “play with purpose” and happy to report she has agreed to share lessons learned on their transition to a Canine Activity Center. We can’t wait to visit her again so watch for updates here in 2015 from Miss Daisy’s Dog Camp.

Want to get started with Daycare 2.0?  Check out our Daycare 2.0 Toolkit.