Holiday hours
What are Dogtown's holiday hours?
Thanksgiving, Christmas week, New Year's Day, Memorial Day, the Fourth, Labor Day: the questions arrive in the same order every year, usually from someone with a train to catch or a flight out of Logan. Here is where the answer is published, what stays the same whatever the date, and how to plan around it.
The short version
The hours are announced in the app and at the desk; the overnight care never pauses
Holiday hours at Dogtown are set for each holiday and published where customers already look: a notice in the Dogtown app and the team at the front desk, in person or on 978 491-5922. A fixed calendar on a web page would go stale the first time a holiday fell on a weekend, so this page gives you the baseline and tells you where the current notice lives.
One thing does not move. Dogs in the overnight suites are looked after on every holiday, with the same 24/7 monitoring as any other night and meals and medication as booked. Whether the front desk is open its full hours, shorter hours or closed to daycare on a given holiday changes what you can do at the door, not what happens inside for the dogs already staying.
- No fixed holiday calendar here: the notice lives in the app and at the front desk
- Regular hours: Monday to Friday 6:30 AM to 6:30 PM, Saturday 8 AM to 6 PM
- Sunday is overnight-stay pick-up and drop-off only, 8 to 10 AM and 4 to 6 PM
- Unlimited daycare members get priority on holiday overnight-stay reservations
How it works at Dogtown
Ask when you book, watch the app, and confirm your window the week before
The reliable method has three parts. When you book a holiday-week stay or a run of daycare days, ask the front desk what the hours will be on the holiday and the days either side; they will tell you what has been decided and when the rest will be announced. In the days before, watch the app, because that is where the notice appears. Then, the day before, confirm your own drop-off or pick-up time in a message so it is written down.
Windows matter more than opening hours on a holiday. On a regular weekday you can drop off 6:30 to 9:30 AM, 12 to 1 PM or 4 to 6:30 PM, and on Saturday 8 to 10 AM, 12 to 1 PM or 4 to 6 PM. On Sunday only overnight guests move, at 8 to 10 AM and 4 to 6 PM. Read a holiday notice with those windows in mind, because your window is the thing it changes.
- 01
Book the holiday stay or daycare days early; suites go first in holiday weeks
- 02
Ask the front desk at booking what the hours will be on the holiday and around it
- 03
Watch the Dogtown app the week before for the holiday notice
- 04
Message the front desk the day before to confirm your own drop-off or pick-up time
- 05
Keep 978 491-5922 in your phone for the morning itself
What it means for your dog
An overnight guest has the same night on Christmas as on a Tuesday; a daycare dog needs a plan B
For a dog staying over the holiday, nothing about the stay itself depends on the desk hours. The suite, 24/7 monitoring, the pre-portioned meals you packed and the medication schedule on the booking all run as booked, and if the holiday falls mid-stay your dog does not notice it. What you plan is the drop-off before and the pick-up after: a stay that begins the Wednesday before Thanksgiving needs a window that day, and a return that falls on a Sunday has only the 8 to 10 AM and 4 to 6 PM windows.
For a daycare dog the question is whether the building is open to daycare on the holiday at all, which is exactly what the notice tells you. If not, the alternatives are an overnight stay booked early, $78 a night with playgroups by day, or a home day with a long walk in it; Gloucester's beaches allow dogs from October 1 to April 30, Good Harbor on even-numbered days, so the winter holidays are beach season. Seniors and anxious dogs should not make the holiday stay the first stay: book a one-night rehearsal in October and read the report card.
The Cape Ann calendar
The holidays that fill Dogtown are not only the ones on the federal list
Gloucester's year has its own peaks. St. Peter's Fiesta in late June fills downtown and the harbor; the fireworks are July 3, not the Fourth, and the AVMA's advice for a noise-sensitive dog is a quiet, secure room away from the display, which for many families means a daycare day or a night in a suite. The Schooner Festival over Labor Day weekend does the same to the waterfront.
Then the winter holidays. Thanksgiving week and the stretch from Christmas to New Year's are the weeks to book furthest ahead, and when the priority given to unlimited daycare members, a listed benefit of the $700 a month membership, is worth having. Whatever the desk hours turn out to be, the suites are occupied and monitored around the clock; the pressure is on the booking, not the care.
- St. Peter's Fiesta, late June: downtown Gloucester and the harbor are full
- Gloucester fireworks are July 3; noise-sensitive dogs do better away from the harbor
- Schooner Festival, Labor Day weekend: book the stay before the schedule fills
- Thanksgiving to New Year's: unlimited members get priority on overnight reservations
Booking the holidays
Reserve the nights first, then confirm the hours; the order matters
People often wait to book until they know the hours, which is backwards. Suites are a fixed number and the holiday nights go first; the hours are announced later and only affect the edges of the stay. So reserve the nights as soon as your travel is fixed, complete the free evaluation if your dog is new, on a weekday between 6:30 and 9:30 AM, and add the Pup Van at $10 each way in Rockport, Gloucester, Essex or Manchester-by-the-Sea if a travel-day window will be tight.
Then, closer to the date, do the confirming: the app notice for the hours, a message about your window, a note on the booking about meals and medication. If you commute on the Rockport line, remember the MBTA bars dogs from trains at peak times, 7 to 10 AM and 4 to 7 PM, so a holiday-eve drop-off on the way to a Boston train is a car or Pup Van job.
At Dogtown
The holiday services
Overnight suites with playgroups by day, daycare for the working days around a holiday, and the Pup Van for tight travel mornings.
Pick-up & drop-off
The Pup Van comes to you.
Pup Van pick-up and drop-off is available for $10 each way in the Rockport, Gloucester, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea area. Not in the area? Ask us for pricing.
- Rockport
- Gloucester
- Essex
- Manchester-by-the-Sea
Asked and answered
Questions people ask about this
Short, complete answers you can act on today. More in the full FAQ.
Is Dogtown open on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day?
Can I drop off or pick up on a holiday?
Do overnight stays cost more over the holidays?
How will I know if the hours change?
More questions? Read the full FAQ
Sources
Rules and dates change. We re-check every beach, licensing and ordinance page each spring and fall; the source above is the current word.
Keep reading
Next step
Hold the holiday nights early.
Reserve the suite as soon as your travel is fixed, finish the free weekday-morning evaluation if your dog is new, and check the app for the holiday notice the week before.
- 01Free evaluationWeekdays 6:30 – 9:30 AM
- 02Book a dayOnline, in the app or by phone
- 03Play, rest, repeatReport card at pick-up
