Winnie has it pretty good. Between my boyfriend’s work schedule and mine, she’s home alone less than half the week. She is an 18-month old ball of crazy who cannot be left unsupervised** and is crate-trained to spend anywhere from 8-10 hours in her crate, three days a week.

Even though her crate time is minimal compared to most dogs with working owners, we still feel guilty. Winnie has an excess of energy and, like most collies, she needs near-constant stimulation to remain sane. You can only imagine how much fun this trait is when you want nothing more on a lazy weeknight than to take a relaxing walk, cook dinner and crash in front of the TV. Pretty hard to do with the Energizer bunny jumping in your face.

Guilt + our own sanity led us to Lucky Dog Seattle, which describes itself as a “day spa for your canine companion.” I like to call it heaven.

After spending the day playing with more than a dozen other dogs and a great staff of dog-lovers, Winnie returned home exhausted. She actually – wait for it – SLEPT while we ate dinner. She didn’t jump on the table, didn’t drop toys in our laps or bark at us, she SLEPT. In fact as I’m typing this, she’s snoozing on the couch next to me instead of chasing shadows around our living room. 

Doggie day care costs vary, but in Seattle it’ll typically run you anywhere from $22 – $30 per session. Lucky Dog is reasonably priced at $25 per session, for up to 12 hours at a time. It’s not cheap, but if one day a week we pay $25 to guarantee a happy dog and happy owners, it’s worth every penny.

Lucky Dog, we’ll be back. We’ll be the ones buying the 15-day package in advance.

**True story: she once broke out of a poorly-secured crate and chewed up a razor. Since then, we’ve added a padlock to the crate.