A Peek Inside Member Facilities: Daycare 2.0
An important benefit of your membership in The Dog Gurus Community is learning from the combined experience of others in this industry. Many center policies are the result of lessons learned from mistakes we’ve made or from the successes in things that have worked extremely well. In “A Peek Inside member Facilities” feature we are asking for your participation. We will select a topic and prompt members to share your policies and your experiences behind them.
It’s important that all members feel safe in sharing experiences good and bad so we are asking everyone to abide by a few guidelines for this feature:
- Limit posts to personal experiences from your own pet center off-leash dog play operations (e.g., dog park, back yard or third-party accounts are off-topic for this feature)
- Follow-up questions for clarification and understanding are welcome
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This peek inside member facilities is all about implementing Daycare 2.0. In this post we share an update from Debbie Oliver, the trail blazer that inspired our Daycare 2.0 implementation plans and a other members that have shared with us their experiences. We definitely believe in this model and want to hear from more of you. Have you implemented aspects of Daycare 2.0? What is your assessment for your business, the dogs and your staff? What obstacles did you find most challenging? If you have not ventured into the Daycare 2.0 model, what is your biggest concern or roadblock?
Update from Kim Vaughn – Ruff Housing Dog Daycare and Lodging
We have been offering Daycare 2.0 for about six months now and the program continues to grow. We decided to offer it as an additional option for our clients so that they still have traditional daycare available. We are only offering the program one day each week and typically have 5 – 10 dogs participate at each location. We are now discussing expanding the program and we think it has been a success.
Update from Charla Sells – Bayside Bed & Biscuit
We actually attempted to put the Daycare 2.0 into place but with an average of 70 dogs a day, and not enough indoor runs to rotate all of them through, we found it to be very difficult to implement. Instead, we created a program that works best for our needs and space called P.E.A.C.E.© (Pack Exercise and Canine Enrichment). So far it’s been very successful, but we have a lot of work ahead of us to continue to make it grow and be successful.
Update from Debbie Oliver – Miss Daisy’s Activity Center
Here’s a quick recap of my thoughts on the changes to our activity center, as you are calling Daycare 2.0
We 100% switched format for daycare from traditional to 2.0 formally on January 1st of 2015.
Pros-
More money less dogs – rate went from $28 per day to $40 per day. They also have to book specific days each month, minimum of 2. They pay for those specific days whether they use them or not. They must come minimum of once per month to keep their membership, unless there are illnesses or they go out of town and take the dog with them. In both cases, they still pay for their pre-reserved day.
Dogs enjoy more – with the smaller customized groups you can be much more active with the dogs which they definitely enjoy more. Dogs that had been coming here for years and just hanging out, are now much more active in the smaller groups.
Employees enjoy more – Supervising play groups is much less stressful and you can actually play with the dogs, run with the dogs and get down to their level and cuddle with some groups.
Can get employees up to speed much more quickly because all the training on body language and play styles is not near as important with some groups. We give newbies groups that they really can’t “mess up” almost immediately while we are teaching proper ways to handle larger dogs and more active groups.
Customers are noticing the extra time we have to put in on training. Waiting, recall, calm with other dogs in close proximity. We split time between 4 activities –active play time, supervised chill time, brain game time and naps.
Cons-
Hands down, the biggest con was the transition from the old to the new and all the discussions that I personally had with customers to ensure the smoothest transition. People don’t like change, and there were very significant price increases and policy changes. I think it would be tough for a new person to start out totally with this model, so if you were beginning, I would offer both options and phase out the more traditional approach as the room for the 2.0 model filled.
For larger facilities, I think it’s perfect to offer 2.0 as an option. I am really too small to do that, so just decided it was going to work or not. Mine filled up so quickly that owners that didn’t tell me they wanted to reserve days right away were then upset with me because there were no spots left. So, really the only con, went away after the full transition.
The only other slight con I see is that although potential employees tell you they want to play with dogs, it’s sometimes hard to find those that really know how to. But, with that being said we can tell quickly if that’s a skill that they will be able to learn. Playing with the dogs which is possible now, as opposed to “lifeguarding” them are two totally different things.
Things I would do differently-
I announced the changes in November of 2014, prices went up some as the changes were formally made in January of 2015, prices went to the full $40 March 1. I would have just gone to $40 effective January 1.
January of 2016 I offered a premium membership which guarantees a small number of members a guaranteed boarding spot. It does NOT guarantee any additional daycare days nor are any services discounted. I would have offered this the first year.
Not worry about if I was going to lose all of my customers (lol)
