Day care caters to dogs

Tails wag for socialization, spoiling as pooches enjoy time with the pack

By KATIE PESZNECKER
Anchorage Daily News

(Published: August 19, 2005)
The Blombergs wanted little Suzy to shed her shyness and learn to play nice, and hoped a lively day care would do the trick.

The staff there says Suzy has made friends but is still somewhat timid. When her dad came to pick her up on a recent workday, she cowered under a stairway until an employee grabbed her and delivered her squirming into Tim Blomberg's arms.

Suzy perked up when she saw him.

She licked him all over his face.

"I missed you too, Suzy Q," Blomberg gushed.

Suzy, a miniature schnauzer, is one of dozens of pups in doggie day care at Arctic Tails in South Anchorage. We're not talking about an overnight kennel here. This is strictly daytime canine caretaking.

It's a growing service in big cities, where yuppie puppy owners often live in yardless high-rises and need places to put their pooches while at work.

The trend is catching on in provincial Anchorage, perhaps not surprisingly: From dog park campaigns to deep-rooted mushing traditions to wintertime skijoring, people here clearly love their dogs. Arctic Tails opened two years ago and is one of half-a-dozen doggie day cares in town -- enough now to warrant their own section in the Yellow Pages.

"Going into the business, I wasn't sure what my market was," said Vickie Young, Arctic Tails owner. "But 19- and 20-year-old single women and guys are bringing their dogs here. Society has gone from chaining dogs up in yards to having pampered pets that are part of the family."

People pay $360 for 30 day-care sessions at Arctic Tails, and have plenty of reasons for dishing out the cash.

For some, it beats leaving their dog home alone, cooped up for hours.

Some pooches have medical problems and need full-time care.

Others, like Suzy, come from families that simply want friendly, well-mannered dogs.

"When we're at work, we bring her here so she can be social with other animals, so when we walk her on the trails, she doesn't freak out," Blomberg said. "We had some behavior problems with the other schnauzer we had, and we didn't want to go through that again."

Arctic Tails averages between 35 and 50 dogs a day, all in an airy, high-ceilinged back room with spacious pens sectioned off by chest-high walls that have sliding doors so staff members can herd dogs between areas. The foam floor is easy to clean and soft under pooch paws.

Everything in the room is for the dogs' comfort. There are couches, countless dog pillows and child-sized beds where canines nap and burrow beneath soft quilts.

It smells sweet and musky, like a closet of old sweaters. Tufts of fur float in the air. Toys litter the floor -- squeaky ones, squishy stuffed animals, braided chunks of rope.

The dogs come in all shapes and sizes. They are sleek, curly or shaggy, teacup-tiny, stout or massive. There are pugs, poodles and dachshunds, huskies, Labradors and mutts, beagles, golden retrievers and terriers.

Young and her friend and co-worker Jennifer Brown claim to know each dog by its bark, just like a baby sitter knows an infant by its wail.

And there's a lot of barking going on. Most of the dogs are between 5 months and 3 years old and have energy to burn. They swirl in a noisy sea of flying fur and swishing tails and jingling collars, wrestling, leaping over each other, running into the back yard to investigate when one barks.

"They all have their own personalities," Young said. "They all have their own friends. Some dogs don't like each other and avoid each other. But we don't allow them to misbehave. They have to get along."

That's an admission rule: Dogs can't be mean.

Arctic Tails staff members evaluate dogs before letting them join, and can usually weed out ones who won't fit in, Young said. In three years, having served more than 200 dogs, Young has only had to expel three.

Sure, they get cranky sometimes, maybe snarl a little too seriously or nip at a playmate. But most problems can be fixed by firm scolding or a time-out -- banishment to a kennel crate in the corner.

Elizabeth Bailey said the frenetic energy the dogs share at the day care is teaching her Skeeter to remain cool and calm in any situation. That's key: The curly-coated retriever is a show dog.

"And I'm beginning to compete with him in obedience and other things, and it was important to me he'd be well socialized and be able to get along well with anybody any time under any circumstances," said Bailey, a geochemist.

Day care has a second benefit too: Bailey and her husband both work and have a challenging time making sure Skeeter gets enough exercise. Now he comes home nice and worn out, just like his parents.

"And a tired dog is a good dog," Bailey said. "That became my mantra my first week there. He's too tired when he gets home to get in trouble. And I firmly believe half the reason he has such a wonderful temperament is because he goes there."

Some dogs, older or just more mellow, pass the time napping.

Deedee was one. The black and white Newfoundland was almost 9 when she died, suffering a heart attack in her sleep.

She had lost a leg to cancer and gone through chemo, said her owner, Gillian King, who is out of the house all day working at Arctic Slope Regional Corp.

"If it weren't for Vicki and Jennifer, I never would have gotten through that whole experience," King said. "They set a place aside for her where she could just lie and be comfortable without being jostled. I could not have done it without them. It would have meant taking weeks off. They were so supportive of us."

And being around other dogs at day care kept DeeDee happy, King said. In an interview just before Deedee's death, King described their morning arrival at Arctic Tails as a bright spot in DeeDee's day:

"Her head goes up," King said, "and she's like 'Oh, I'm at day care!' And she trots right in."



Daily News reporter Katie Pesznecker can be reached at kpesznecker@adn.com.

Copyright © 2005 The Anchorage Daily News (www.adn.com)

Arctic Tails doggie day care owner Vickie Young with one of her seven dogs, Valentine. (Photo by BILL ROTH / Anchorage Daily News)

Dogs of all types and sizes get along with one another while at Arctic Tails doggie day care. (Photo by BILL ROTH / Anchorage Daily News)