Summer camp for dogs: the kids are home all day

Two weeks into summer break, the house has changed. The kids are home from breakfast to bedtime, the pool gate opens and closes all afternoon, friends come and go through the garage, and the dog that had a quiet house from eight to three now has a full time job it never applied for. Our team gets the same call every June: the dog is nipping at the kids, barking at the door, stealing food off the patio and will not settle. Nothing is wrong with the dog. Its routine disappeared.

What the dog lost

A school year dog has a schedule. Walk, crate or nap, kids home, dinner, place, bed. Summer removes the middle of it and replaces it with noise. Herding breeds start herding children around the pool. Retrievers start stealing pool toys. Anxious dogs start following one person from room to room. And every dog stops sleeping in the day, which is where a lot of the trouble comes from. A dog that does not rest becomes a dog that reacts.

The summer rotation

• Morning: a fifteen minute structured walk at first light, before the heat and before the kids are up. An older child can do this with you.
• Mid morning: the dog is on place in the main room while the kids eat and play. Thirty minutes, then released.
• Early afternoon: crate rest in a cool room, door closed, for two hours. This is not punishment. It is the nap the dog used to take in an empty house.
• Pool time: the dog is inside, on place or in the crate, unless an adult is holding its leash on the deck. Wet kids running are a chase trigger for almost every breed.
• Evening: a second short walk after sunset, dinner in the crate, place through the family's dinner, bed.

Two weeks of that and most June dogs are back to normal. The rotation is the same one we use in the training home, where the kids are other dogs.

Kids and the dog, the rules

One adult owns the dog's commands. The kids can walk it on the structured walk with an adult beside them, and they can send it to place, but nobody under twelve corrects it and nobody chases it or lets it chase them. Meals, treats and greetings go through the adult. Kids who want to help get a job: filling the water bowl, running the doorbell drill, holding the leash on the deck. A dog that learns the kids are part of the household rather than playmates stops treating them like puppies.

Camp, for the dog

If the house is too loud to fix the routine in, the training home in Cypress is quiet. Two weeks of Gold is $2,500, and three weeks of Platinum is $3,750 with behavior modification for the dog that has started nipping or guarding. The dog trains in the cool hours, rests through the heat, and comes home with place, the crate, the walk and the door already built, so the rotation above is just a matter of keeping it. Families who book in June usually time the go-home session for the week before the next school year, which is the second time the routine changes.

Written by

Best Dog University Team

Board and train trainers in Cypress, Houston. 16+ years, 900+ dogs. About our team