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day Camp
The Summit K9 Day Camp program is a great alternative to traditional daycare services! This program reflects our values and philosophy as dog trainers and caregivers, and is designed with the dog’s needs and drives in mind. Day Camp programming is offered Monday through Friday from 7:30am to 6:00pm, and is offered in a variety of custom packages. Please visit the Registration, Rates, & Levels page for more information about scheduling, prices, and signing your pup up for camp!
Training and care of the dogs enrolled in day camp will be conducted by dog behavior professionals who have been extensively educated and trained in canine behavior and learning. We operate with a small but highly skilled and dedicated staff who are constantly continuing their education in animal behavior in order to create the best experience possible for all enrolled clients. Handlers in our day camp program are not merely canine enthusiasts, but professionals who are ever pushing the boundaries of their own skills and expertise. This ensures that we are able to provide the safest and most enjoyable experience possible for every dog and owner who walks through our doors!
Rather than providing a traditional, free play version of daycare, the Summit K9 Day Camp program subscribes to a more structured, training-based model that ensures the highest level of safety, comfort, and enrichment for enrolled dogs. Dogs in this program will receive far more than a few play sessions with other dogs throughout the day. During their time at camp, dogs will rotate through sessions that focus on:
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Training & Skill Building
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Conditioned Relaxation & Rest
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Socialization & Play
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Enrichment & Mental/Physical Exercise
By combining these elements in our Day Camp program, we are able to provide a deeper level of fulfillment in the enrolled dogs while creating an excellent training foundation that can be applied to the dog and owner’s day to day lives in endless ways.
All training and socialization work will be customized to meet the needs
of individual dogs, but will place special focus on the following:
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Attention to the handler
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Motivation and play
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Leash skills (loose leash walking)
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Basic functional obedience
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Socialization and neutrality to other dogs and new people
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Desensitization to common distractions
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Conditioned relaxation & calmness
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Coming when called and other foundations of off-leash obedience
Though this program is open to all dogs, and would provide excellent enrichment and training work for stable, outgoing dogs, this is also an ideal program for dogs that may otherwise fail to thrive in a more traditional daycare setting.
This program has been a fantastic match for many dogs who are:
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Mildly anxious, fearful, or low confidence
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Easily overwhelmed by other dogs
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Reactive to dogs or strangers
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Easily overstimulated or overexcited
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“Too much” for traditional daycare settings
Due to the highly individualized nature of this program, we are able to accommodate dogs that need specialized handling by experienced professionals. Dogs enrolled in our programs will be integrated into group work slowly and methodically to ensure that it is a safe, productive, and pleasant experience for all participants.
How does it work?
Dogs enrolled in day camp are dropped off at the Summit K9 facility in the morning during the specified drop off window. While at camp, dogs are worked individually and in groups throughout the day, building key training skills, enjoying physical and mental outlets, and learning effective interdog socialization skills. Between sessions, dogs rest in kennels to allow them to relax and reset!
The number and length of activity sessions will depend on the target skills/activities set for the individual day and dog, and will vary. For example, dogs building motivation and confidence will receive a higher number of sessions, but sessions will be shorter in order to set them up for success and prevent them from being overwhelmed. On days where dogs receive more structured obedience work in the early portion of the day, we will provide more unstructured play or enrichment time to create an enjoyable, balanced, and well-rounded experience for the dog. Occasionally, Level 3 and 4 dogs may be taken on off-site field trips to local parts or dog friendly shops, such as a cafe or hardware store, for real world practice.
At the end of the day, dogs will be picked up by their owners during the specified pick up time window, and will receive a brief update on how the day went!
