Course Title: Dog Daycare 218
Instructor: Vernessa Wysocki, Dip.D.D.
Course Description:
Dog Daycare 218 is an exploration of topics relevant to operating a dog daycare. The course covers both administrative and dog behavior aspects in a well rounded program. Working in dog daycare involves understanding and managing the social behavior of dogs as well as how to provide safe and fun mental and physical stimulation. This course will be of value to anyone working in the dog daycare field presently or who may want to. Students can expect to do a lot of studying and writing in this course.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completing this course, the student will be able to:
- Compare the differences between leasing and buying property for a dog daycare facility
- Develop a marketing strategy for a new or existing dog daycare
- Develop promotional material to encourage consumer awareness
- Develop a functional floor plan for a dog daycare facility
- Define a action plan in the event of an injury
- Define an emergency evacuation plan
- Prepare information to assist clients to safely manage their dog coming and going from daycare
- Define safe toys and describe how to introduce toys and how to avoid possessiveness in a daycare environment
- Describe some common health conditions and ways to avoid the spreading of these conditions
- Describe how to effectively maintain cleanliness in a dog daycare
- Describe how to evaluate a new dog for daycare
- Describe how to introduce a new dog to the daycare
- Describe polite greeting behaviors and rude greeting behaviors
- Define characteristics of some common breeds
- Describe how to be an effective leader and encourage calmness in a group of dogs
- Describe what factors can contribute to the development of aggression in a dog daycare
- Describe methods to break up a dog fight
- Define how to determine when to dismiss a dog from daycare
- Identify signs of stress and why dogs can become stressed in daycare
- Describe common inappropriate behavior that occurs in dog daycare
- Identify and describe varies examples of canine behavior and body language
Texts:
- Off- Leash Dog Play – A Complete Guide to Safety & Fun by Robin Bennett & Susan Briggs
- All About Dog Daycare…a Blueprint for Success by Robin K. Bennett
- Doggie Daycare, Owning and Operating Your Own Doggie Daycare Business by Bill and Kellyann Conway
- The Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson
- Avoiding Liability When you Train, Shelter or Adopt-out Seminar and essential legal documents DVD by Kenneth Phillips (available through www.dogbitelaw.com)
- On Talking Terms With Dogs: Calming Signals by Turid Rugaas
- The Language of Dogs: Understanding Canine Body Language and Other Communication Signals: DVD Sarah Kalnajs
- Any first aid for dogs book or video
- Course Notes
Course Evaluation:
This course will be evaluated by short essay assignments that will reflect and demonstrate mastery of the course topics and achievement of the learning objectives. The final grade will be the mean average of the assignment grades.
Prerequisites:
- Principles of Behavior 104