High Energy Dogs

At Happy Hound Dog Resorts we have grown a lot since we opened in the spring of 2014. The dog owners of Jacksonville have welcomed us with their 4-legged loved ones. When you first start out, you become a solution for people who have all kinds of dogs. Our staff have learned a lot about different breeds, and their owners. We had a review made about us that featured a high energy dog and its owner. The owner was not being truthful, and responded. Here is more information about High Energy Dogs and why you need to be aware, and what we are doing about these types of dogs at Happy Hound Dog Resorts.

High energy dogs

Dog daycare is designed so that it provides an outlet for dogs that would otherwise stay at home and do nothing all day long. Dogs were not bred to sit at home and become part of the furniture. Dogs are animals and they want to engage with their owners and seek out anything that moves, protect their masters and their loved ones. They are unique creatures on this planet. We have seen our share of high energy dogs and have changed our policies. For instance, all dogs now should be fixed after 7 months of age, to enter our facility.

This means that all dogs should be spayed or neutered before they can enter our facility. This helps us control a high energy dog, especially the males. Those intact males that are 1, 2 or older have so much testosterone, their owners have no idea how to control them, other than buying pinch collars or chains. Its depressing. We hope that we can encourage our vet partners to understand that dogs that are intact after 7 months are too high energy for our facilities. We have modified our policy in 2018 to accept not fixed dogs on a case by case basis. A great article on Dog Daycare.

High energy dogs breed more high energy dogs

Why not fix your high energy dogs? If you are breeding dogs, don’t bring your dog to daycare. There is no need for this, because your dog will sit at home most of the time and simply be a dominant partner during the process of life. The only reason to bring an unfixed dog into daycare is to cause problems on the daycare floor. If a dog is, or was in heat (which will drive every male, even fixed, into a raging hormonal tear) there is no reason to bring into daycare. If the dog secretes blood on the daycare floor, these dogs will smell it and get very emotional.

Same goes for males who will look to dominate or hump other dogs on the floor. Too much testosterone is a bad thing in a daycare environment. The vets can disagree with us, but then again, they don’t have 20-30 raging dogs humping on camera for all to see at once. A High energy dog can change the entire dynamic of a daycare floor. One dog can make the difference between a great, quiet playgroup, and one that is worse than a daytime reality television series.

High energy dogs have a shorter leash in daycare

There are breedsthat are typically higher energy, labs, retrievers, rottys, terriers, shephers, corgis, poodles, and dobies. Staff  are watching them more frequently. We know that new dogs can and will try to push the envelope on the floor. But most owners have worked with them on training and understanding (their name for instance) commands. Most of the time, they are good dogs who will understand to “Stop” or “Wait” with regard to behavior on the daycare floor.

Those that do not listen, we put up and remove. Daycare is a privilege, its not a right. We do offer it free with Boarding, but there are some days that dogs do not want to follow our routine, they want to do it their way, of course. So we work with these dogs and assist them during their stay, but ultimately we are being paid to manage owner’s dogs and we need to make sure we have a safe work environment for our staff. So we will not hesitate to put up any dog for a timeout period. No matter the breed or the owner.

Training can help high energy dogs

A fixed dog with training go a long way to assisting in the dog learning how to behave. Your dog barking at the mailman, or at strangers, while you think its good, may actually be bad. If your dog barks at everyone that comes in without following a command this shows that you have no control of your high energy dog. Walking down the street and your high energy dog is barking at other dogs. This shows you need to get help training your dog.

One of our pet peeves is for owners to pull their dog off to the side of the sidewalk and let other dogs pass. Why? Because you are training your dog to sit off to the side. This is subservient to other dogs on the same path. This can later become a confidence problem for your dog. Dogs should be able to walk past each other without any issue. Dogs on a leash can be an issue, and high energy dogs can double that anxiety. With some training, you can work on these issues and have a good working dog.

So many good high energy dogs

We are blessed at Happy Hound Dog Resorts to have so many good high energy dogs that will listen to us. Our staff welcomes more good high energy dogs that fit this mold. This shows us that the owners really care about the health and safety of their dogs.

The staff appreciates it as well and want a safe environment. Staff safety is paramount to being able to have good people in our shop. Getting a dog fixed is not a difficult thing to do. Its simple and easy. We need less dogs on the streets, and need more responsible parents, and you can see what we mean daily at our facility, come see us at 4603 Shirley Avenue, Jax, FL 32210 or check out the dogs on our free live webcam.