How to read a daycare report card

The Dogtown app, free on the App Store and Google Play, has a Pawgress Reports section for daily report cards and photos, so you can see what your dog did while you were at work. Daycare days include a report card and photos. A Dogtown Academy report card adds the trainer's notes: what your dog loved, what it found hard, and what to practice at home. The same app holds your bookings, your packages and a Messages tab that reaches the front desk.

Set it up before the first booked day. Sign in, switch on notifications, and save 978 491-5922 in your phone. Then start a simple log of your own, a line per daycare day about how your dog was that evening and the next morning. The report tells you about the day; your log tells you about the night after. Read together over a few weeks, they answer the question that matters: is this the right amount of daycare?

Tired is good news when it means a dog that sleeps through the evening and wakes bright. It is the expected result of hours in a group: play in bursts, constant reading of other dogs, new smells and sounds. The word turns into a question when it shows up with other signs, such as a dog still flat the next afternoon, limping, skipping meals, or unable to settle. Then the answer is usually shorter days, more space between them, or a quieter group.

Selective, often written as dog-selective, describes a dog that enjoys some dogs and not others. It is a description of preferences, and preferences can shift over time. It does not mean aggressive. It does mean the group your dog is placed in matters more, and that the handlers are watching who it plays with. If you see the word, ask which dogs and which situations, and whether a different group or a path such as Adventure Academy would suit your dog better.

Some lines are worth a call rather than a message. Call 978 491-5922 during opening hours, 6:30 AM to 6:30 PM on weekdays and 8 AM to 6 PM on Saturdays, if a report mentions a scrape, a limp, a cough, vomiting, loose stool, or a dog that would not eat or drink. Call if a photo shows something you did not expect, and call if your dog comes home different from the report: sore, lame, coughing or unusually quiet.

For everything else, the Messages tab in the app is the better route, because it leaves a written record and the reply reaches you at work. If the reports keep raising the same question, such as a selective note or a run of tired afternoons, ask to talk it through at pick-up. If the Pup Van brings your dog home in Rockport, Gloucester, Essex or Manchester-by-the-Sea, the report is your first news of the day, so read it before the van arrives. Dogs new to Dogtown start with the free evaluation at 210 Eastern Ave on a weekday between 6:30 and 9:30 AM.