Dog Day Afternoon. And Morning.

I've been going to Doggy Daycare.*

My human and I decided that it would be good for me to go there once a week or fortnight to play with other puppies, instead of being alone at home all the time. Also, we like the idea that I can have somewhere I'm familiar with to stay if my human needs to go away without me (of course, that would never happen!). If puppies need to do a sleep-over, then they go home with a staff member and join in with the family for the night.

We started with an Assessment Day. I got taken for lots of walks with different people, and they assessed my walking ability. We established very firmly that I can walk.

Then I got introduced to other puppies, to see how I play, and to decide which group I should be with. I showed them how well I play, and they were very pleased with how nicely I made friends.

I got to take a nap, with all the other puppies, listening to Nora Jones. I scored a good spot on a bean-bag!

In the afternoon I had a hydrobath to see how I like being handled. I confirmed that I like being handled, a lot! Especially the luxurious towel massage to dry off. I might ask them to teach my human how to do that, it was quite delightful.

Several times during the day I decided to entertain all my new human and puppy friends with my singing - I am such a thoughtful puppy! The humans said they had never heard singing at that pitch and volume before. My human and I decided that I should go to daycare a couple of times a week for the next few weeks, so the daycare humans can give me singing training, because I'm so talented. Finally I'm getting the recognition I deserve!

I've been a few times since my assessment. There are different puppies there every day, so I get to meet lots of new friends. Once there were so many puppies my size that the big dogs had to move to a different pen so we could take the biggest space - it was great fun. And once we got to play with a soccer ball, and another time with some football players from an AFL club. (AFL is a strange human sport that everyone in Melbourne makes a big fuss about. Except my human, so I've never even seen it on the TV. She says that's a good thing. The other humans are getting even more excited about it at the moment because there's a thing called a Grand Final happening soon, whatever that is.)

We start off every day with a 45-minute power-walk, and then we get to play. At midday we get to snooze on something comfy whilst listening to soothing music. Then we play again, and go for another walk. Depending on the weather we might go out to the dog park, or stay inside. And I get a written report at the end of every day, to prove to my human what a good puppy I was.

My friend Hercules, the extravagantly long sausage dog, also goes to the same daycare, but he's on holidays at the moment. I can't wait until he gets back, then we can play all day long!

The humans at daycare say that my singing training is coming along very nicely, so in a week or two I will only be going in once a week. My human would like me to go twice a week, but she says she can only give up buying her lunch once every day, not twice, to pay for it. I don't eat lunch, so I'm not sure why this is a problem. She should just have kibble for breakfast, like me, then she would be fine.


* Unfortunately the lady couldn't take any pictures of me playing with my friends, because then she would have needed to get permission from the other puppies' humans, because of the Privacy Laws.