How do people afford daycare

[Freshstarts22]

All daycare is a minimum of £40 a day.

Can’t get a dog Walker as my dog is anxious and won’t walk near roads so has to be driven.

I also am not keen on daycare because of the overstimulation (not great for a highly strung dog) and although she loves playing with dogs does not like mouthy play. I’d worry it’d have a negative effect.

Are there any other options I’m not thinking of? My Mum has her but can’t rely on this forever.

Wow. My dog isn’t reactive.

So she's nervous without reacting? How do you know she's nervous?

That would be quite counterproductive and also impractical. I have kids.

A lot better for the god to be with me rather than in day care 5 days a week too. I would t do that even if I could afford it.

Body language. Inability to settle at
home if she’s been over threshold.

I get what you are trying to say but the way you worded your initial post was that she was reactive and unmanageable for a dog Walker and that’s not the case at all. It just wouldn’t be fair to put her through it.

Our daycare is a lot cheaper than £40 a day. It is still a significant additional expense and one we factored in before getting a puppy. At around the same time we stopped needing to pay for childcare, we started needing doggy daycare, so we switched one outgoing for another. Our doggy daycare is absolutely amazing. They take a small number of dogs and they have at least one off lead walk a day, lots of playtime and importantly nap time. She comes back tired and happy. We can usually get away with one or two days a week so it is affordable for us.

I meant you work on the reactivity/nervousness/whatever you want to call it for the dogs benefit, not the walkers. Then it can go happily with a walker. And probably make your day to day life easier too.

I do actually have a neighbour who loves her and vice Versa but don’t know him very well and not sure of his work pattern.

I’ve worked with a veterinary behaviourist and a trainer, we’ve done lots of counter conditioning and desensitisation. She’s better than she was but unlikely she’ll ever be able to deal with the busy roads here. I just take her to the park in the car.

I’ve been doing this for over a year.

In the area I live (north west city) daycare is £18 per day. My dog just does 2 days a week, a Tuesday and a Thursday as she is SO tired the next day she happily chills at home

Wow! £18 that’s amazing.

It used to be £16 but it was put up in 2020. Absolutely worth it and I know very cheap in comparison. My dog has been going 7 years now and I trust the owner with her 100%.

I think you really need to work with vet and dog training so that your dog is not so anxious. That will open up a lot more possibilities for you. In the meantime, I would find a neighbour who could drop in the middle of the day for £10-£15 and take your dog out for quick toilet outside rather than a walk. Put notes through the doors of say 20 houses on your street with your number to contact you if interested. I'm sure there would be someone who would want to do it. Dogs can be trained, mine has been trained to do it's business on command immediately outside my house (no garden) which makes it a lot easier when I don't have time for a proper walk and can do the walk at a different time.

It's like childcare really, you'll just have to pay

“Daycare” through an app like Rover which is just people having dogs (usually only one) at their place for the day. £20-45 depending on who/where. Loads in London.

Dog walkers near me do visits for dogs that aren’t up to walking for whatever reason, same price as they charge for a solo walk.

Can’t recommend one because I’m in Scotland, but, dog walkers are where I’d start looking.

Dog daycare in London is cheaper than where I live, so if I know I'm doing a long day in London I take mine with me and drop her off at a lady who's looked after her for years for £25 pd (rover app) she only books in my dog that day because mine gets stressed sharing the attention!

The issue here is that you have a dog who, according to you, can't cope with a lot of scenarios - unfortunately that's going to severely limit your options when it comes to finding care for her.

Finding solo, lunchtime care for a dog in London is never going to be cheap. That's a really bespoke service you're asking for. It costs £30 an hour because the dog walker is having to turn down group walks/work to come and see to your dog - it wouldn't be affordable for them to do it for less.

If she really can't go with a walker in groups or attend daycare at least some of the time, or be left home alone, it's just a cost you're going to have to suck up as part of owning a nervous dog.

I get that it sucks and probably not what you envisioned when you planned to get a dog but sometimes you just have to deal with the dog you have, even if that means throwing money at the problem.

Around here, daycare is £12 a day at the local kennels - so much much more affordable, but we live seven odd hours away from London!

Yeah I see your point. I’ve only found one person who offers that service and I’m not even sure she’ll cover my area. I also live in the congestion charge zone so that another issue.

I wish I could find anything as cheap as £25 round here

All you can do is ask but as a dog walker myself, I would turn down someone asking for solo lunchtime care - it just doesn't make financial sense for me to take on a job like that.

I think your best bet is to continue working on her nerves so that she can go out with a dog walker in a small group setting.

I think in situations like this you need to be prepared to try anything if you cannot afford the local advertised daycare or leave her at home.

I would phone around all the dog walkers you can find and see if they can offer any suggestions. Often they all know each other and typically pass on details of other walkers when they can't help. This is actually how I found my dog daycare person who I have been with for over 6 years. I was bounced around by about three walkers each giving me someone else to try to get a place when they didn't have any.

Is your vet practice approachable? Ask the receptionist if they know of anyone who might offer a drop in service or be willing to work with you. Again sometimes they might know someone suitable.

I don’t think she’ll ever be able to. As I said, she’s loads better but the road to the park is just so busy I don’t think it’s achievable.
Even the professionals have said it’s not likely that she’ll ever be completely fine.

But I understand why it isn’t financially feasible and this is why I can’t find anyone.

Possibly taking your dog to training school might help with anxiety which, in turn, might allow a greater variety of people to easily take her for a walk or play with her.

I also like the idea of hiring a neighbour who loves dogs or a teenager to play with her in your yard. Perhaps payment could be in kind.
Is there anything that you could trade? Do you bake well?
Could you take a teenager for driving lessons?

Do you mow lawns?

Could the dog be wheeled in a sheltered dog pram until she reaches the park?

@Freshstarts22 if the park is down the road as you say, why can't she go on a group walk with a walker who drives her there?

There are no walkers that drive. It’s central London, there’s no parking, congestion zone ect.