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Hellooo!!! Yahoooo!! Yippeeee!!! I am The Gabinator! But my leedle paws do not typ so good, so I wil now pass thys to peeeple to wryte!!!

And what a fine effort that was, Gabby. My name is Janice Larkin. I’ve owned Weimaraners all of my life, and due to my work schedule and also, ahem, my own aging, I decided that the time had come to begin using day care 2-3 afternoons per week, to help my dog get the play time that she needs and deserves.

So about a year ago, just after getting my current dog, Gabby, as a 5 year old, I decided to check out 2 daycares that were the closest geographically to my location. With each, I found just about what I expected – lots of dogs jumping on each other, lots of noise, joyful chaos interspersed with the sounds of some quick quarrels – so I wasn’t terribly surprised when my dog came home from her second visit with 2 puncture wounds in her neck, one of which eventually abscessed. Needless to say, I decided to broaden my search.

The first thing that I noticed that was different about The Big Backyard was a truly careful behavioral eval. I was able to watch, as Gabby was gradually introduced to first one dog, then two, then to a small dog, then to a more rambunctious dog, etc. As Gabby herself could be too rambunctious – perhaps a roller derby star in a former life – I suspected that she had played a role in her previous injuries. But within 15 minutes at BBY, the owner (Tracy) had her playing gently with the other dogs.

Since that first visit, to this day, I’ve never needed to worry about Gabby’s greeting behavior on walks or at parks. And to this day, I would never consider any other daycare. She comes back from BBY totally exhausted, but also wonderfully calm.

So ‘nuf said. I recommend The Big Backyard enthusiastically, and without reservation.