5.0

🐾 Previous clients of mine can attest that I send TONS of videos and pictures while their pups are in my care. I only do this when safe to do so - for example, if there is a lot of high energy playing going on between two dogs who have just met, it's best for my attention to be on the dogs and not on my phone. I do my best to balance providing updates while also respecting your time. This usually results in about two updates via text per day, accompanied by lots of photos and videos. If you ever wanted to hop on a video call to see your pups live, I am happy to oblige! 🐾 For dogs attending daycare in my home (especially the high energy pups or pups that are accident-prone), I have set up half of my unfinished basement to be a doggy play area. The floor is concrete, and I have a futon for the dogs to hang out on if they wish. I like to use this area to let dogs play with one another, or sometimes, I toss a ball for them to chase around. This area is gated off from other parts of the basement. I do not leave dogs in the basement play area unsupervised. I provide plenty of fresh water in clean bowls. I love letting the dogs play in this area because they can just be dogs! No worries about ruining floors or furniture, and the floor is super easy to clean in case of an accident. 🐾 Low-energy doggies (and high-energy dogs that have exhausted themselves playing!) are welcome to hang out on the first floor of our house with the humans, usually in the form of watching TV and being couch potatoes with us at the end of the day 🐾 I have multiple gates set up around the first floor of my house. There is a gate that keeps dogs out of the kitchen - this ensures that dogs can't come in and look for crumbs, and it also serves as an added measure to prevent dogs from escaping my house when I have the kitchen door open. I have two other gates that prevent dogs from going up or downstairs. I live in a Lawrenceville row house, and the stairs are quite steep. 🐾 I do watch dogs that come from different homes at the same time, but I try to let owners know if a dog from another family will be in my home the same time as theirs. I am VERY thorough in asking questions during meet & greets to mitigate the risk of dogs not getting along with each other. When watching dogs from different homes, I do doggy introductions outside of the house - this is more successful than having the dogs meet inside since they are meeting on neutral ground (no territorial issues). Dogs from different homes are never left unsupervised together in my home. I am also very mindful of pairing dogs accordingly. For example, if I have senior dogs on my calendar already, then I might not be able to accept puppies at the same time, and vice versa. I always do my best to ensure dogs from different families are a good pairing before accepting the request. 🐾 While not as frequent, I do accept unneutered male dogs and unspayed female dogs, but NOT at the same time! So, if I am already scheduled to watch an unneutered male on a certain day, then I would decline any requests that come in for an unspayed female on the same day, and vice versa. 🐾 Dogs are ALWAYS separated in my house for feeding time. I use either the gates in my house (described above) or crates to separate the dogs, depending on the dog. 🐾 Toys are generally removed from the environment if we are hosting dogs from different homes. Dogs are never allowed to play with toys unsupervised to ensure they don't swallow anything or hurt themselves. Extreme chewers will not have access to any soft toys. I recommend that owners do NOT bring toys with their dog during their stay. 🐾 Generally, we spend as much time as possible with your pups during their stay, and try not to leave them alone. That being said, we may leave the house infrequently during your dog's stay. Rest assured, any time we leave the house, dogs from different homes are separated via crate or gate. Since we have a dog of our own, we generally do not leave our house for longer than 4 hours at a time - depending on the needs of dogs we are watching, we are willing to shorten that window to 2 hours; however, we are social people and we love date night! Dogs always get a walk before we leave the house, and we make sure they are well hydrated and fed. We also do our best to ensure they won't have access to any spaces or objects that could be a danger to them. 🐾 My husband, Dave, occasionally assists me in walking dogs and supervising play time. He may also watch the dogs if I leave the house. Rest assured, he is a great dog dad and has many years of experience handling dogs. 🐾 If your dog ever needs to go on a car ride while in my care, I have a dedicated space for dogs in the backseat of my car. There is a hard-bottom, waterproof dog seat cover, a comfy dog bed that is attached to the seat, and seatbelt buckles that attach to pups harnesses to ensure dogs cannot jump on the driver (me) while in-transit.

🐾 Dogs that are very social or have high energy will attend daycare in my unfinished basement, which has been set up as a full-time doggy play area. Dogs that have lower energy or are settling down for the evening will hang out on the first floor of the house with the humans. 🐾 I am happy to feed your dog throughout the day per your instructions. Dogs are ALWAYS separated in my house for feeding time. I use either the gates in my house (described above) or crates to separate the dogs, depending on the dog. 🐾 We prefer to have dogs sleep in their crates, in our living room, or on our basement futon. We like getting to know the dogs to see which of these options will suit them best! We generally settle down around 9pm and wake up around 6am. 🐾 I love taking dogs for walks around Lawrenceville, so if the weather is nice, there is a good chance they will get a good walk in! If the mood strikes, we may even go for a hike, if you're okay with it! 🐾 Once I get to know a large dog (>40 pounds) better and am comfortable that I can control them, I may take them to a dog park that is a few minutes away (with your permission). I have found this is a great way to exhaust large, high-energy dogs, whether it's playing with other dogs or playing fetch. I generally do NOT take smaller dogs (<40 pounds) to dog parks unless there is a small dog play area.