FAQs: Dog Boarding and Daycare

Yes. Every dog completes an assessment before being accepted for any service. It starts with a 30-45 minute Q&A with our staff, followed by a brief rooming, handling, and social evaluation. If there are no initial concerns, your dog stays for a trial daycare visit of about five hours so we can see how they do with the team and other dogs. At pickup, we share our evaluation and the program that fits your dog best. The assessment costs the half-day rate for the program your dog is assessed into, even if we find they aren’t ready for group play.

Absolutely. Seeing the spaces your dog will be in can be reassuring. Tours are for people only, so please leave your dog at home. We offer them on Sundays from 4-5 PM on non-holiday weekends. Email info@metrodog.com to sign up in advance and confirm the tour is happening that Sunday, since tours are occasionally canceled and are always canceled on holiday weekends.

Our lobby hours are 7am-7:30pm on weekdays, 8am-7:30pm on weekends. Our main entrance and all doors are locked after hours. After-hours service is $26 and available by reservation from 4am-opening, and closing-midnight. When you arrive, we recommend staying in your car and calling 510-524-3647. The overnight staff will greet you at the employee entrance, the red door to the right of the main entrance gate.

We require Rabies, DHLPP (Distemper, Hepatitis, Parvovirus, Leptospirosis, Parainfluenza), Bordetella, and Canine Influenza (H3N2 & H3N8). We accept annual titer test results for Rabies, Distemper, Hepatitis, Leptospirosis, and Parvovirus. Please see our Vaccine Policy to learn more about these vaccines. Waivers for required vaccines will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and must be supported with a veterinarian letter explaining the need for the waiver. Client assumes all risks should they waiver any of the required vaccines.

Yes. All dogs must be spayed or neutered by 6 months of age to use services at Metro Dog. Because dogs are in social company throughout the day, our main concerns are behavior changes linked to hormones after 6 months and accidental pregnancy.

We prefer it if you do. It’s what’s healthiest for your dog. Owner-provided breakfast and dinner are included with boarding. Daycare dogs can also have owner-provided breakfast, lunch, or dinner for a meal service fee, since it takes time and staffing to pull dogs from their scheduled activities (see our Rates page for current fees).

This is not a kennel. We allow dogs to be social while in daycare and boarding. Dogs in our social program are in social company 24 hours a day. Your dog will have play times and rest times with other dogs and be housed with other dogs at bedtime. Boarding is like sleep-away camp when you were a child. Daycare is like day camp you attended when school was out.

Metro Dog does not have on-site veterinary services. If a medical concern comes up, we contact you first, then your emergency contact if we can’t reach you. For non-urgent concerns, we’ll seek your input before proceeding. If your dog needs veterinary care, we take them to the hospital listed on your application, or the nearest available one. Owners are responsible for veterinary costs, transport time, and any medication or rooming changes required. See our House Rules page for the full health and veterinary policy.

Yes. Dogs staying for daycare or boarding can add training sessions, which is a great option for families with little time. Sessions are an add-on, billed per session. Our training is science-based, positive reinforcement with a focus on consent, and we follow LIMA standards with a gentle, loving approach. Dogs love to learn here! For longer programs like Play and Train or Stay and Train, see our Training page.

Daycare packages expire 180 days from date of purchase. If you request a package day be applied to a previously fully charged day, the 180 day package expiration date begins from that date. We will offer you a one-time courtesy extension by reinstating any expired daycare visits if you purchase a new daycare package within 2 weeks of the expiration date of the expired daycare package. The old credits will be reinstated to have the same expiration date as the new package (180 days from purchase).

Signed into law by Gov. Newsom in 2022, and implemented in 2023, AB 1901 is CA’s first law attempting to regulate dog training. It requires any company providing dog training to disclose if they have ever had a judgment against them for animal cruelty. Be assured that Metro Dog has never had a judgement of any kind, least of all animal cruelty. We take our values-driven mission to heart. Our welfare-based daycare, boarding, and training programs use only kind management and training techniques to build positive associations for the dogs in our care. We use science-proven methods to humanely teach behaviors and desensitize dogs to stimuli they have made negative associations to, such as noises, cars, bikes, etc. We follow the principles of LIMA, least intrusive, minimally aversive, when developing our handlers’ skills and our behavior programs. Thank you for trusting us for the past 18 years to care for your dog in every season of their life.

Newly neutered males need to wait a full month after surgery, so testosterone has time to drop, before returning to daycare. Please also follow your vet’s post-surgery instructions. Between 6 and 7 months, hormone levels rise dramatically and can change a puppy’s behavior. If we see that change in an unneutered puppy, he’ll need to pause attending until the neuter is complete and his testosterone has dropped. Neutered males may also stop tolerating unneutered males as puppies, responding with harsher corrections, mounting, or general intolerance.

Metro Dog can never have a female in heat in the center, because of the risk of accidental pregnancy and the behavior changes the scent causes in other dogs. That’s why all females must be spayed by 6 months. If an early heat cycle happens, owners agree that we can’t continue care and must immediately arrange alternate care and pick her up. If that doesn’t happen, Metro Dog will transfer her to an alternate care program off our premises, and the owner pays the charges incurred.