Each facility has a natural attrition rate. Dogs and their families move away, dogs get older and age out or pass on, etc. Bringing new dogs through the door on a regular and consistent basis is going to be critical in sustainability and continued growth.
New dogs should be brought in thoughtfully and safely.
When evaluating dogs for each of your services, it is important to reflect on your current ‘inventory.’
Reflecting on your current inventory may look like:
- Asking yourself about the challenging dogs you may have in your group prior to accepting a dog that may pose another challenge in groups. How often are they looking to come and on what days? Is the owner receptive to feedback? Does your facility offer any alternative services that may better fit that dog?
New dog evaluations should be held regularly.
What your facility defines as regularly is going to differ from others along with what your desired growth rate is.
- We should look for a consistent flow of new clients and measure what that looks like.
- Aim for new dogs weekly. This can be funneled into specific days of the week or be held each day with a cap on the number of new dogs each day.
Evaluations should be conducted at safe and effective times for both the new dog and your existing groups
- Avoid new dog evaluations first thing in the morning when your groups are at peak arousal and activity. Although the new dog will need to be able to handle the pressure, it does not set the existing group or the handler up for success.
- Late morning or mid-day evaluations can help us to get a baseline social assessment of the new dog and be able to pair up social scenarios effectively.
- If it is an all day evaluation, this allows the new dog some time to decompress and settle in the facility either in a crate or a kennel, allowing us to get an idea on the dogs ability to settle or to be a good boarding candidate.
Effective evaluations go hand in hand with dismissing dogs on a more regular basis
- When we consistently bring new dogs into the facility, this gives us the opportunity to be sure we are progressing our daycare groups as a whole.
- Any dogs that may be struggling skill wise should be kept on our radar. If we get a new dog that wants to come the same amount of time or more often and it has positive skills, that dog may replace an existing daycare dog that we have plateaued with.
Keeping inventory of the dogs under your care along with having a consistent flow of new clients helps to keep momentum and grow our facilities in skill and client base for long term success.
Last Updated on July 17, 2026