Florida is in the rainy season now. When the season changes from dry to wet, the garden comes alive. Trees, plants, grass, weeds…suddenly wake up and sprouting new growth in earnest. The place is buzzing with flying insects, crawling bugs, snakes, furry creatures… before I knew it, Poppy was bitten by a bug on her butt. It happened last year and like last year Poppy made the little area worse by licking it and turned it into a sore patch.One Monday morning 7:30am I dropped Poppy off at the Doggie Day Camp, they sent us home. They refused Poppy because of the hot spot on her butt. I had to take a sick day and stay home with her. Luckily my husband was working from home the rest of that week, so Poppy was able to stay home with daddy.
My husband and I know the drill now. We gave Poppy a summer hair cut, shaved and applied medication on the sore area, put an e-collar on Poppy and she healed quickly. So a week later off to Doggie Day Camp she went.
My husband was travelling this time, so I was relying on Doggie Day Camp to care for Poppy while I was at work. All was well until mid-week. When I collected Poppy in the evening, they told me that Poppy bitted an assistant. Not deep. She nipped the skin and drew blood. Poppy was expelled. I can’t believe it: Poppy got kick out from Doggie Day Care the second time.
I have no friends or families live nearby who could help. Luckily someone we met a few times who does dog walking as a hobby came to my rescue.
Over the weekend we went to see Doggie Day Camp and found out what happened. Poppy didn’t want to play with the other dogs in the big play room and she didn’t want to go back to her own cubicle. She was in a smaller relief room and when staff wanted to move her, Poppy told them no by going for the hand.
Their in-house dog trainer came to speak with us. She asked all sorts of questions…any changes in routines, food, medication, how we interact with Poppy, dog personalities…at the end she concluded that we should not use her crate as a punishment. Poppy is a commend dog. Staffs have to tell Poppy what they want her to do. They cannot man-handle her and should use treat to reward Poppy when she goes to her room. She gave Poppy a reprieve.
My husband said to Poppy, “Come on girl. You’ve been given a second chance, don’t blow it, ok?”
