How well do you want your dog’s daycare counselor trained?

At many daycares, staff is barely trained before they lead play groups (sometimes with up to 60 dogs), conduct training sessions, or do enrichment with your dog.

 

(How do we know this?

We hire staff from other daycares who complement our training and onboarding system, and tell us that they were thrown in with big dog groups with very little training at other facilities.)

 

At The Bark Yard, we believe that a well trained staff is KEY to the safety and well being of your dog (and of our staff!).

 

We have a full week of training shifts where brand new staff:

 

completes a dog body language training course (with quizzes!)…

learns how to safely handle dogs: including working with our trainers on how to take dogs out of cabins, put them back, get leashes and harnesses on, walk them, lead them to and from group…

follows senior staff to understand the flow of the day and why we do what we do in the ways that we do it…

and learns to provide enrichment, play games, and even learning very light basic training exercises to do with your pup.

 

THEN, they come back for a second week where they JUST shadow our senior staff, learn by doing, apprentice alongside our trainers and counselors, and finish the week with our staff shadowing them while THEY lead enrichment sessions, walk dogs, and get them in and out of cabins.

 

Only after that do we decide if they’re a good fit, if they’re safe and approved to work without shadowing, and if they’re going to begin their probationary period as a new team member.

 

Even once they’re out of the probationary period, each raise they get is tied to further continuing education, more shadowing and apprenticing with our trainers, and acquiring more skills and experience.

 

We take the safety and well being of your pups SO seriously- it’s our job!