We have turned dogs away from our programs. We have removed dogs who were already part of our community. And we have received angry messages, difficult conversations, and the occasional bad review because of it.
We are writing this post not to defend those decisions. We are writing it to explain them clearly, honestly, and without apology. Because we believe that transparency about how and why we make these calls is one of the most important things we can offer the families who trust us with their dogs.
And because we will keep making them.
It’s Rarely a No. It’s Almost Always a Redirect.
The first thing to understand is that when we tell a family their dog isn’t the right fit for day school, whether at assessment or after time in the program, we are almost never saying no to the dog or to the family. We are saying: this particular program, at this particular moment, is not what this dog needs right now.
Dogma offers a full range of programs through private training, group classes, behaviour consultations, KinderPups, and more. When we identify that day school isn’t serving a dog well, we don’t simply close a door. We have a conversation about which door would be better. We look at what the dog actually needs, what the family’s goals are, and which of our programs, or which combination of support, would give that dog the best possible outcome.
That is not rejection. That is advocacy. And it is only possible because we know our programs, we know our dogs, and we have the expertise to match the two.
Saying not yet, or not this, is one of the most caring things we can do.
Why Our Environment is Different and Why That Matters
Dogma Day School is not daycare. We say this often, and we mean it.
We do not have free play. Dogs are not put into large groups and left to interact without structure or guidance. Every interaction is managed, every dog is tracked, every session has a goal. Our certified trainers are working throughout the day and not just supervising or managing groups but actively training.
For dogs who have come from traditional daycare environments or are already struggling with regulating their emotions, this is a significant adjustment. A dog who has spent months or years in free play settings has been practicing a very specific set of behaviours like high arousal, dog-to-dog focus, tuning out humans, and operating in a state of near-constant stimulation. These patterns become deeply ingrained.
When those dogs come into our structured environment, they are being asked to do something difficult: slow down, engage with their handler, tolerate boredom, regulate their emotions, and learn in a setting that looks nothing like what they’re used to. For some dogs, particularly adult dogs whose habits are well established, that transition is hard. Really hard. And sometimes, the honest answer is that the gap between where they are and what our environment requires is too wide to bridge without a different kind of support first.
This is not the dog’s fault. It is not the family’s fault. It is a real and significant difference between what traditional daycare teaches and what we ask of the dogs in our care. And it is one of the most important reasons why starting with us as puppies makes such a difference.
Why Starting as a Puppy Changes Everything
Dogs who come to us as puppies, through KinderPups and into our day school programs, learn from the very beginning what our environment looks and feels like. They grow up understanding that structure is normal. That working with a human is rewarding. That calm, focused engagement is what this place is about.
They don’t have years of free play patterns to unlearn. They don’t have a deeply ingrained expectation that daycare means chaos and constant dog interaction. They arrive knowing the structure because the structure all they’ve ever known.
We see the difference all of the time. Puppies who come through KinderPups and stay with us tend to be more regulated, more handler-focused, and more adaptable as they grow. They still have challenges as they go through adolescence, which is normal, but the strong foundation enables them to move through them with more ease. Adult dogs transitioning from traditional daycare, or who have struggled with regulating emotions, often need significantly more time and support to reach the same place, if they can get there in a group setting at all.
We are not a standard daycare. We never have been. And families who come to us expecting the same thing often need time to understand what that actually means in practice, for better and, occasionally, for harder.
The foundation we build in puppyhood is the reason our adult dogs thrive.
Transparency Around the Revenue Question
When we remove a dog from day school or decline to enroll one, we are turning away revenue. Real, meaningful revenue. A spot in our program has value, and choosing not to fill it, or to empty it, has a direct financial impact on our business.
We know that. We make these decisions anyway.
We name this directly because we know it gets said that decisions like these are really about money, about protecting the business, about not wanting difficult dogs. We want to be completely clear: the opposite is true. These decisions cost us. We make them because a dog’s well-being is not something we are willing to compromise for a booking.
A facility that keeps taking money for a dog who isn’t thriving is not doing the dog or their family any favours. We have operated since day one on the principle that the dog’s welfare comes first - before revenue, before convenience, before avoiding a difficult conversation. That has not changed and it will not change.
We want to be direct about something else while we’re here.
We charge more than a typical daycare. We are aware of that. And we want to explain exactly why because the answer matters.
Hiring certified trainers and investing in their careers costs more than hiring unskilled staff. Running a maximum of 8 dogs per trainer costs more than running 20 or more with one worker. Having a strict building capacity impacts our bottom line. Not filling spaces just to fill them costs more than operating at maximum capacity regardless of fit. The expertise, ongoing education, and a team that truly understands animal behaviour and welfare, that costs more.
And here is the part that is rarely said out loud: because of the way we operate, our profit margin is smaller than a standard daycare, not larger. We bring in less revenue per trainer, per day, per dog. We choose to operate this way because it is the right way to care for dogs. Not because it is the most profitable.
We could double the number of dogs we take in tomorrow. We could fill every space, accept every dog, and charge the same rates we charge now. The revenue would be significantly higher. We choose not to. Every single day, we intentionally operate below the capacity we could fill because the number of dogs in our care is determined by what we can do well, not by what we could get away with.
This is why more facilities don’t operate the way we do. It costs more to do it right. We believe it is worth it. The dogs in our care and their families deserve nothing less.
That is not a business decision driven by money. It is a values decision driven by the dogs.
We would rather lose a booking than compromise a dog.
Why People Get Angry and Why We Understand
We understand why these decisions land hard. A family whose dog has been coming to us is being told that something has changed. In many cases, we will have been sharing our concerns along the way, and these conversations never come without warning. That same dog may be excelling with their foundation skills, but struggle to settle, or are becoming less tolerant with other dogs, etc. But hearing that the program is no longer the right fit is still difficult, or that something was always more complicated than they realized. That is difficult to hear. The trainers put a lot of work into helping the dog through this so it is difficult for them as well.
Sometimes the behaviour we are seeing at day school is behaviour the family has never witnessed at home. Dogs can present very differently in different environments, and what emerges in our structured setting can be surprising. It can feel like we are telling them something is wrong with their dog. We are not. We are telling them something about their dog that they didn’t have the opportunity to see before.
We also understand that these conversations can feel like a judgment on the guardian or dog. It is not. The families who end up in these conversations are almost always the most engaged, most caring, most attentive dog guardians we work with. Their dog’s needs have simply outgrown what a group environment can provide, and recognizing that is something to be proud of, not ashamed of.
Not everyone receives this kind of honesty with immediate gratitude. We have had difficult conversations that ended in frustration, in upset, in reviews that don’t reflect what we were trying to do. We grieve those outcomes. And we still believe the conversation was right.
What We’re Actually Saying When We Say No
When we tell a family that day school isn’t right for their dog right now, here is what we are actually saying:
- We see your dog clearly enough to know this environment isn’t serving them
- We respect your dog enough to tell you the truth rather than keep taking your money
- We care about this relationship enough to have a hard conversation
- We have a path forward for you - this is a redirect, not a rejection
- We believe your dog deserves an environment where they can thrive and we are committed to helping you find it
Saying no, when it is the right call, is one of the most loving things we can do. For the dog in front of us. For the other dogs in our care. And for the integrity of everything we have built here.
We Will Keep Making These Decisions
We will keep assessing carefully. We will keep tracking continuously. We will keep having honest conversations with families even when those conversations are uncomfortable. We will keep choosing dogs over bookings, well-being over revenue, and truth over comfort.
And we will keep being unapologetic about it, not because we don’t care about the families who find these decisions hard, but because we care too much about the dogs to do anything else.
This is who we are. It is who we have been since the very beginning. And it is who we will continue to be, regardless of the reviews.
If you have questions about our programs, our assessment process, or whether Dogma is the right fit for your dog, we’d love to talk. Just call or email us anytime.
We will always choose the dog. Even when it costs us. That’s not a policy. It’s who we are.
