Dog daycare vs a pet sitter: which suits your dog

The two options are priced in different units, which is why they are hard to compare at a glance. Daycare at Dogtown is sold by the day: $42 for a full day, $33 for a half day, and 10-packs that bring a full day down to $38. Your dog spends that day in a playgroup of 7 to 10 dogs matched by size and temperament, with handlers on the floor, rest breaks and a report card at pick-up. A pet sitter sells time at your house, usually by the visit or by the hour, at a rate each sitter sets.

We do not quote other businesses, so ask any sitter for a written price covering the visits you actually need, including weekends and any second pet. Then line the two up on what matters to the dog: how many hours of company it gets, where it spends them, and what happens if the person caring for it falls ill. The table puts those differences side by side.

Daycare is the better answer for a dog who enjoys other dogs and has more energy than a quiet house can absorb: the young retriever who greets every dog on the street, the adolescent who has chewed the stair rail by noon, the doodle who naps best after a morning of play. For that dog, two sitter visits are pleasant breaks in a long, dull day, while a daycare day is the day itself. The free evaluation, a temperament test and a few supervised hours in a group, tells you whether you have that dog.

A sitter is the better answer for several kinds of dog, and we would rather say so than sell a pack. The senior who sleeps most of the day and stiffens on hard floors. The dog who is wary of other dogs and would spend a playgroup day coping instead of playing. The very young puppy who needs a potty trip every couple of hours and a nap in its own pen. The dog whose medication is timed to meals at home. And any house where a cat, a rabbit or a flock of hens needs feeding as well.

Daycare runs on windows: weekdays 6:30 to 9:30 AM, 12 to 1 PM and 4 to 6:30 PM, and Saturdays 8 to 10 AM, 12 to 1 PM and 4 to 6 PM. For a household whose commute starts before the morning window opens, the real question is who gets the dog to Eastern Ave. The Pup Van collects and returns dogs for $10 each way in Rockport, Gloucester, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea; ask the front desk which pick-up times fit your street, or use a sitter for one end of the day.

A sitter who walks your dog walks under local rules too. Gloucester expects every dog to stay under the control of its owner or keeper, and at the time of writing the city closes Good Harbor to dogs from April 1 and Wingaersheek, Plum Cove and Cressy's from May 1, all until September 30. From October 1 Good Harbor allows dogs off leash on even-numbered days and Wingaersheek on odd ones, with $300 fines for breaking the rules, so brief any sitter on the dates before a beach morning.