pet care
Room for Improvement
In the third part of this four-part article addressing the lack of regulation in the pet care and
services industry, Frania Shelley-Grielen details her experiences of day cares and groomers
I
when scouting for intern sites for pet care technician students n the second part of this article (see Understanding Animals, BARKS from the Guild, November 2018, pp.50-51), I discussed education for pet care technician students and will now report directly on my observations and experiences of corresponding internship sites in New York City, specifically doggy day cares and grooming facilities. According to my field visits, the dogs in the day cares that I saw is typically kept there all day. Some facilities kennel the dogs for a portion of the day to give them a break from being on the communal floor or to feed them. The dogs are often not walked unless the owner has requested it and paid for the additional service and if the staff can provide it. For the dog that is house trained, not being walked may be highly stressful given that they have been trained not to relieve themselves indoors. Add to that the stress of, when a dog does break down and relieves himself, it may only be cleaned up when a worker realizes. With a lot of dogs in a room, this is not as easy as you might think. This is where I would see all those instances of coprophagia I mentioned in Part Two of this article. I also saw staff, especially if they had an audience, react with something akin to disgust and chide the dog who had no choice but to go on the floor. I also observed that cleaning was not always appropriate (see Health and Hygiene, BARKS from the Guild, November 2018, pp.52-53). Undiluted bleach was often poured full strength (in the mistaken belief that this would dissuade the dogs from eliminating), resulting in irritation of breathing passages for humans and pets and even burns for the dogs, who had no protection from direct contact with the floor. The music I heard in many of the pet care sites I visited was for the benefit of workers who seemed to prefer rap, hip hop or hard rock. Studies, however, show that classical music played around animals can be soothing and enriching and that the discordant tones of rap, hip hop or heavy metal can be highly stressful. According to Graham, Wells and Hepper (2002), dogs spent more time “resting and less time standing when classical music was played than when any of the other stimuli were played. Exposure to heavy metal music encouraged dogs to spend significantly more of their time barking than did other types of auditory stimulation.” And results of a study by Kogan, Schoenfeld-Tacher and Simon (2012) suggest that “classical music leads to kenneled dogs spending more time sleeping and less time vocalizing than when exposed to other music types or no music. Heavy metal music, compared with other music types, appears to increase body shaking, a behavior suggestive of nervousness.” On one of my visits I did hear classical music at a day care and re-
According to Graham, Wells and Hepper (2002), dogs spent more time “resting and less time standing when classical music was played than when any of the other stimuli were played. Exposure to heavy metal music encouraged dogs to spend significantly more of their time barking than did other types of auditory stimulation.” 40
BARKS from the Guild/January 2019
© Can Stock Photo/andykazie
Dog parks and day cares usually offer two separate areas for dogs, one for big dogs and one for small dogs, but partitioning open areas according to both size and play style might be more appropriate
marked on it to the manager in charge. He told me that he liked the music, and yes, he did notice the dogs were calmer with it on.
Stressful Environment
Dog parks and day cares usually offer two separate areas for dogs, one for big dogs and one for small dogs. The best use of space, although not often seen, is, in my opinion, to partition the open area both according to size and play style. To accomplish this would mean four distinct spaces for: 1) Big dogs that play hard, 2) Big dogs that play soft, 3) Small dogs that play hard, and 4) Small dogs that play soft. Four spaces may be an ideal but two is most typical with the space for small dogs the more seriously compressed space of the two. Not having enough space for different dogs in a closed environment over an extended period introduces a unique set of pressures, many of which the dogs themselves may not be able to cope with, especially when people try to get involved. When dogs are resolving arguments in too small spaces or are being reprimanded repeatedly, it can be problematic. The layouts of many of the urban day cares I saw are compressed indoor spaces with corners and no exits to offer retreat. For the hopefully well-meaning, but not always informed worker (who has been taught on site to tell a dog what not to do and not what they would like the dog to do instead), overcorrection and punishment after the fact are common interventions — if they can see them at all to intervene. Workers simply cannot watch every dog in their care. Day cares operate with multiple dogs and minimal staff and it was not unusual to see one individual working with up to 30 dogs. I witnessed dogs being yelled at, sprayed with water bottles, scruffed, rolled over, tied to walls or placed in extended isolation (“time