Policies & FAQ - Daycamp

We required 48 hours cancellation notice for reservations or you will be charged in full.

The following vaccinations are required. For puppies, their vaccines only need to be up to date for their age. For example, a 9 week old pup is only old enough to have had one round of vaccinations, so that is the requirement for a 9 week old pup.

• Rabies
• Distemper/Parvo
• Bordetella
• Negative Fecal Exam

Please contact us to schedule a Social Assessment after filling out our Online Registration Form.

Dogs are required to be spayed or neutered after 6 months of age.

A well-socialized puppy is the key to avoiding dog and people aggression, as well as fears and phobias, in the future. Pup-Camp is the perfect learning environment for learning pack behavior, bite inhibition, dog body language, and other canine-taught lessons.

Owners must sign up for a minimum of 6 Pup-Camp sessions because 1 or 2 “puppy play dates” is not enough to socialize your dog well, nor is it enough to learn any solid skills. It is also because we include one “train the owner session” with Pup-Camp, so that you can follow through at home and solidify their new manners.

Daycamp will be closed on the following holidays:

• Memorial Day
• July 4th
• Labor Day
• Thanksgiving
• Christmas Eve Day
• Christmas
• New Year's Eve Day
• New Year's

A day of Daycamp at Dogwoods Lodge is awesome! There is so much going on! Our Daycamp runs from approximately 7:15am to 6pm. This is almost 11 hours. As you can guess, that is WAY too much time to let dogs play full out. It is bad for their joints and their temperaments. So, we continually rotate dogs between rest and play. Each dog gets a total of 4-5 hours of activity per day (which is PLENTY). Each hour we have a different activity for them—fetch, tug, agility, trick-time, obedience, group play, large toy play and more!  We like to keep them physically AND mentally stimulated. This creates a MUCH SAFER environment because 1. the group sizes are kept small (5-8 dogs at a time), 2. arousal levels are kept down, and 3. the dogs learn to listen to the Counselor. When they are in their crates waiting their turn to do the activity, they are learning to be calm when there is chaos going on. (Such a valuable lesson!) We also have nap times mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and over the lunch hour. Our goal is to send them home mentally and physically better than they came.

Absolutely! Check out our webcams! But, please review the “What is a day of Daycamp like?” information above, or it can be concerning to not see your dog out. We always tell people to judge if their dog had a great time by how happy and tired they were when they went home, and how they act when they come back. (Are they pulling to get into the building? That’s a good sign.)

We recommend 1 time per week. Young puppies need a lot of rest, and excessive play is hard on their growing joints.

The answer is MAYBE. If he is over 6 months old and has never been socialized to more than a couple dogs, chances are he’s not going to like Daycamp. If he has met a lot of dogs and loves to play, then yes, Daycamp might be a good fit!  If your dog has any sort of human or dog aggression or reactivity, no, it’s not a good fit. But, we have other options for dogs like that. Just give us a call, and we can talk you through them.

PupCamp is essentially Daycamp, but for puppies under 5 months. The biggest difference between them is the puppy-specific training in PupCamp. The Camp Counselor focuses each shift on teaching them to come to their name, not mouth or jump, to wait at doors, to kennel-up (and be calm in their crate), to not potty inside, etc, etc. Pup-Camp socializes the puppies to other puppies and humans in a safe environment, so as an adult they have confidence with new places, people and dogs.

Every dog in Daycamp at Dogwoods Lodge has undergone a Social Assessment and a trial day to make sure they do not have aggression issues. They also are verified vaccinated and parasite-free at least once per year. At dog parks, you run a high risk of encountering dogs that shouldn’t be there, as well as large size and temperament differences that can cause major injuries.