Your dog's first day at daycare: rules and the assessment

Your daycare may ask for three vaccination certificates, a vet’s note, proof of neutering and a “meet and greet” before you can book your dog’s first day. Check those requirements before you book, because some of them take days to satisfy.

At Dogtopia, a daycare chain with locations across the United States and Canada, three checks come first: the required vaccinations, its spay-neuter rule, and a temperament assessment in which an evaluator meets the dog without you and introduces other dogs one at a time. This guide uses Dogtopia’s published requirements as the example; check your own centre’s list.

What does a daycare require before the first day?

At Dogtopia: current vaccinations, its spay-neuter rule, and the owner’s written confirmation of good health. Its Meet and Greet page lists its conditions, and they are a useful template whether or not you use that chain: dogs must be at least 12 weeks old and fully vaccinated; dogs seven months or older must be spayed or neutered; owners must provide documentation of rabies, DHPP and Bordetella vaccination, with some locations also requiring canine influenza; and vaccinations “must be given by a vet 48 hours (preferably seven days) before attending daycare”. Owners certify that the dog is free of fleas and ticks; a communicable illness in the past 30 days needs a vet’s health certificate.

Check the vaccination timing rule in particular. A booster given the morning of the first day does not count, and the chain’s own advice is to make the vet appointment seven to ten days before attending so the dog has time to respond to the vaccine.

Keep the certificates together, because the daycare is one of several places that will ask for them. Our guide to vaccine records for travel and boarding covers how to keep them findable, and what a sitter, a kennel and a daycare each have to record explains, for England, which of them is licensed and keeps a register of its own.

What happens in the temperament assessment?

The evaluator takes the dog away from you and watches how it copes. Dogtopia describes a typical session: an overview of paperwork and health with the owner, a tour, then “your pup joins our team member in an evaluation room to observe how they react when away from their dog mom or dog dad”. The evaluator runs a nose-to-tail check for touch sensitivity, then brings “a few additional dogs into the controlled mini play area one at a time” to see how the dog interacts, and checks how it settles in a crate or suite, which the chain uses for rest and feeding. The evaluation takes about 20 to 30 minutes.

Two things to know going in. Dogtopia asks you to arrive with the dog on a lead and a collar or harness, and to keep the lead on in the lobby. A “not yet” comes with advice: the same page says a dog that is not ready for open play “is always welcome back once they are ready”, with recommendations for the owner in between.

Dogtopia accepts vaccination records uploaded before the visit and offers to contact your vet for them otherwise; ask your own centre whether it wants to see the originals.

What should you pack for the first day?

Ask first. Find out whether the centre feeds or gives medication during the day, and whether to bring a measured meal and labelled medication, or nothing at all. If your dog eats at home, you have less to pack.

Dogtopia also recommends at least one day of daycare, preferably three, before a dog boards overnight, so the dog “knows he/she is going home” and has met the staff. If you plan to board overnight, the daycare days are the rehearsal, and our guide to boarding your dog for the first time picks up from there; if the stay falls over the holidays, pet sitting over Christmas covers how early to book.

What should the household agree on?

Who drops off, who collects, and what each of them tells the desk. Different adults often handle drop-off and collection. Write down the feeding instructions, any medication, what the dog is nervous about and the names of everyone allowed to collect, and give the centre the complete sheet at drop-off.

Then agree what “went well” means. A report card that says the dog played all day may sound reassuring; a note that it hid under the bench for an hour helps the next person decide whether to book a second day. If the daycare is covering the workday gap, leaving a dog home alone while you work explains how to plan the rest of the week.

What goes wrong on a first day?

The vaccine that expired last month, the neuter certificate nobody can find, and a collection by someone the centre has never heard of. If three people share the handover, have one of them check the folder before the first day.

The other surprise is the nap. At Dogtopia, dogs rest in individual crates from 12 to 2 p.m. Ask whether your centre does the same, and if your dog has never been crated, ask whether some quiet practice at home would help before day one.

Where Dana fits

Dana keeps each dog’s vaccination dates and vet details in one health record that both adults in the house can open at the daycare desk, with a photo of the neuter certificate in Records Vault, part of Dana Pro. Drop-off and collection can be tasks assigned to a named person, so each handover has someone responsible for it. See Dana’s shared pet care app for the roles and the complete guide to sharing pet care for the care plan.