Your Dogs Best Friend (YDBF) Daycare

Your Dog's Best Friends is a full-service dog daycare. Dogs thrive in our care because we give them attention, love, and leadership. Our state-of-the-art facility was built with careful attention to the safety, cleanliness, and comfort of your dog. Give us a call today and learn why Your Dog's Best Friends won Best Doggie Daycare in the DC City Paper and Best Pet Boarding in the Alexandria Times!

Your Dog's Best Friends is invested in the community in everything we do. We are proud to support organizations such as the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria, Friends of the Guest House, and the Del Ray Business Association. Keep an eye out, too, for events we sponsor such as the Alexandria Dog Swims, Art on the Avenue, the Del Ray Halloween parade, and the K9 Cruise and Cover the Cruiser events in conjunction with the Alexandria Police Department.

For our cageless overnight boarders and any of our daycare clientele who are early risers, our Positive Playcare day begins promptly at 7AM. (Please ask about arrangements for earlier daycare drops.)

As the dogs arrive for the day the energy level in the room soars and the romping, running and wrestling begins. As each dog enters the room, they are typically greeted with a rousing chorus of bays, howls and barks. Dogs greet their old friends and sniff out new ones. Even our older dogs make the social rounds, although a bit more sedately.

In the early hours, chase games, King or Queen of the Slide, wrestling piles and five-dog tug of wars abound. Clusters of dogs gather to see who can out yap whom. For the quieter souls in the bunch, there are plenty of places to stay out of the fray, but for most of the morning, the middle of the play floor is awash in dog energy.

During this early period of the day, great care is taken to reinforce the positive bond between each individual dog and each individual Playcare Manager. Our Playcare Managers also make the social rounds. They make sure they greet, praise and pet every arrival. Connecting with each and every dog one on one is an essential part of their job.

Safe, happy dogs are our first concern! This is where supervision by our Playcare Manager comes in. Our Playcare Managers are carefully trained to help the dogs play energetically but without getting out of control.

Our methods are neither complex nor are they trade secrets. It is the consistency of the Playcare Managers' positive behavior that makes this system work. Part of that consistency is that the positive treatment starts long before we need to correct a dog. It is using positive methods whenever it is necessary to break up a playing pair, slow down a game of chase or encourage a major instigator to settle down. With a strong positive obedience bond in place with a dog, often all we need to do to stop or redirect that dog's behavior is to just call the dog by name in a warm voice, tell it to come and then lavish a good petting on the dog when they do.

Exercise, socialization, play, and positive conditioning are all important things that enrich dogs' lives.

At Your Dog's Best Friends we believe that while your best friend is in our care getting lots of exercise, socialization, and romping fun, our staff can do more than just watch over him or her. We believe that we can help you develop your dog's behavioral potential and help you raise a dog that is healthier, happier and more fun to live with.

We call our approach to cageless daycare, Positive Playcare. Positive Playcare is the fusion of the science of positive conditioning with the service of dog daycare. It is also our commitment to you and your dog to earn and maintain a relationship based on positive interactions.

We believe that a dog's time in our daycare gives Your Dog's Best Friends a unique opportunity to create a positive bond with your dog. Our constant positive interactions with the dogs build trust and affection which lead to respect and control. We feel that creating such a positive bond helps us set each dog up for success in our daycare and in their interactions with other dogs and people in their life in general. This bond also enables us to let them play more energetically while still maintaining the control we need to keep them safe.