22 Days of Caleb: Doggy Daycare Excitement

Today I took Caleb to Doggy Daycare so he could burn off some energy before our practice run of the AKC Good Canine Citizen Test later this evening. It's part of my grand plan: Caleb is a very good dog, but he does get excited sometimes when he sees other dogs (Although he's gotten so much better I've moved on to working more with him on his mouthiness. Yes, it's always something.). I've discovered the excitement is at it's peak when he hasn't had a chance to play with other dogs much; When we go on our evening walks after daycare, he's much less interested in any dogs we come across. So, I decided for the practice test and the actual test, he's going to get all his excitement out of his system with 8 hours of daycare beforehand.

Ok, back to the story.

We got there nice and early, I handed him off to Mary Lou, got back in the truck and it wouldn't start. Great, today officially achieved 'one of THOSE days' status well before 8:30 in the morning! Yippee! The lady who handled my call for Geico roadside assistance asked all the normal questions, but when I explained to her where I was, parked in front of Downtown Dogs, this led her completely off her script, "Oh you have a dog? What kind? I don't know what kind of dog a corgi is, what does it look like?"

ANY other day I could have talked to this woman for an hour about Caleb, but my truck, the only vehicle I have, has ceased functioning and I'd REALLY appreciate it if we could focus on the emergency at hand. Caleb's fine and chasing everything on four legs that moves at Daycare. His momma is having a conniption. FOCUS, please.

I managed to keep the snippiness to a minimum, she was just trying to be nice after all, and she dispatched a tow truck. It'll be there within the hour. Within the hour?!?!? Yes. So I go BACK into Downtown Dogs to wait.

I've been looking for silver linings, lately. Life has recently left me scrambling to look for the tiniest rays of hope to point out to various loved ones who are going through some tough times, and it's a difficult thing to do with someone with my tends-to-be-critical personality. But I try, and today I found it fairly quickly.

Being stranded at Downtown Dogs gave me the opportunity to observe other dogs, and their parents, as they came in to drop off their furry children for the day.

Oh. My. GOSH.

Caleb is sooooooo not as crazy as some of the other furry children who came in to Daycare. One of the employees actually warned me when she saw this one particular car pull up, "Ok these two are leash reactive, just to let you know." That's code for stand back. She and Mary Lou went out together so they could each get one. Wow.

Ok, now that I've said that I have to say this: Downtown Dogs is AWESOME. I will cry if I move far enough way one day that Caleb can't go there anymore. They temperament test all the dogs, refuse the ones that are too problematic (So you know they want what's best for the dogs, and aren't solely focused on the number of dogs they can cram in there to make a bigger profit), and make sure everyone plays well together. The vast majority of dogs are actually better around other dogs when they're off leash. I have no doubt that's how these two are once you get them off leash and in a pack environment. It just made me realize that if all Caleb does is try to pull my arm out of it's socket to get IN there to play, that's not so bad. There were other dogs who looked a little nervous, or unenthused about going to daycare. Again, I'm sure they have wonderful time once they get out there, but I think I'll take 'Ooh ooh ooh! Lemme in lemme in lemme in so I can play CHASE!', over 'Hmmm, I'm not sure about this', or 'Whatever.'

Maybe I'm selfish, but I would like to know the amount of money I drop on this dog for his mental stimulation and to satiate his herding instinct is appreciated. With Caleb, there is no doubt. He gets complete joy out of going to Downtown Dogs. Complete joy, and exhaustion; A good combo, really.

Oh, and my truck? Still at the mechanic, but so far it looks like it's just the battery. I can handle that. Complete Vehicle Disaster averted. This time.