Luna's Daycare Adventure – Finding Her Confidence

After looking at a few different daycares in our area, we found one that was close to home and had an enrichment daycare program. It focuses on dogs that have confidence issues, can be a little shy, and those that just need to burn off excess energy. Luna checked off all those boxes. I contacted the daycare and set up a meet and greet.

As soon as we arrived, she wasn't sure about the new place and people, but she warmed up to the greeter pretty quickly. We talked for a bit about Luna's personality, how she has been since we adopted her and what we hoped to gain from her visits to daycare.

I can only describe the next few hours as what I can only imagine as the parent of a child dropping their baby off at pre-school or kindergarten for the first time. I was nervous about how she would behave. I was nervous about how she would feel being in a kennel setting again, even if it was just for an hour or so. Turns out, I had nothing to worry about. She did amazing.

Remember how I mentioned a couple weeks ago that she could be more fearful of men? Yeah, that isn't a thing anymore. When I went to pick her up after her half day meeting, one of the managers or shift leads, both male, brought her out and explained how well she did. Yes, she was still nervous, but they told us that they would love to have her come back.

Morning drop offs did not start out smoothly. If someone came out to get her that she didn't know, she wasn't happy. We always took it slow with new faces and eventually, she went in without any barks, growls or hackles.

Throughout the next few months, I stopped being nervous about drop off time. If there are other clients doing drop off at the same time, she will react a little bit, but nowhere close to how she used to. The staff is always excited to see her, and she is excited to see them.

As time went on, I started to wonder how she would be with other dogs. I knew that she got along with other dogs during play time at the shelter. But it had been over a year since she had been able to play with other dogs. When I asked the enrichment staff about this, she mentioned that she had the perfect dog to introduce Luna to, her own dog. Let me tell you that the rest, as they say, is history. When I saw the first video of them playing together, I got emotional. Now we can't even say his name without her ears perking up, thinking she is going to go see her friend.

Come back next week to find out how many friends she has now!