Madison Southeast
Enrichment Dog Day Care
Dog Day Care. Reimagined.
There’s no bond like the one you share with your furry best friend. But our human lifestyles can make it challenging to fulfill all of our dogs’ needs to stay healthy and happy. This can lead to issues at home, from loneliness and boredom to weight gain, anxiety, and undesirable behaviors.
Central Bark® Madison Southeast Enrichment Dog Day Care gives your dog a place to play and learn in a safe and loving environment. With socialization, mental stimulation, and physical exercise, their minds and bodies need to stay healthy and happy for a lifetime.
Our focus on canine enrichment aims to enhance your dog’s overall quality of life. Through fun and rewarding activities that encourage them to use their senses to problem solve, learn new skills, and gain confidence. You can have peace of mind knowing that your dog is having a great day with all of their friends. Enrichment Dog Day Care is our specialty, and nobody does it quite like us.
Central Bark
Madison Southeast
2530 Advance Rd,
Madison, WI 53718Get Directions
Open Today 6:30 AM – 6:30 PM
Request Appointment
A Healthy Balanced Day
Enrichment Dog Day Care provides a healthy balance of play, exercise, socialization, learning, rest, and TLC. We tailor each day to your dog’s individual needs and preferences. To nurture their bodies, minds, and senses so that you can enjoy a healthy, happy, calm, and well-rounded dog at home.
- Play, Exercise, and Socialization – Exercise helps your dog maintain a healthy weight and muscle tone. It helps to improve their mood and provide a healthy outlet for their physical and mental energy. This means they can be more relaxed at home. Positive experiences with new humans, new dogs, and new environments help create happy dogs who are well-rounded and well-socialized. We offer both small and large playgroups in indoor and outdoor play areas where your dog can enjoy the social environment that’s right for their age, personality, and comfort level.
- Rest – When dogs play and socialize, the opportunity to rest, relax, and recharge is vital for their physical, mental, and emotional health. Our daily schedule aims to help dogs avoid unhealthy overstimulation and achieve the right balance of rest, play, and learning.
- Learning – Dogs learn from humans and other dogs – along with our guidance, dogs are always teaching each other what is and isn’t appropriate social behavior. Our highly trained staff use positive training techniques to promote safe play and help your dog practice healthy social behaviors while at day care.
- Love – Your dog will become part of our family and get all the love and attention they need while you’re away. We develop a bond with your dog to help them feel comfortable and confident. With regular attendance, we get to know your dog’s personality, needs, and preferences. We are better able to recognize things that might otherwise go unnoticed, like moods, behavioral changes, or even health issues.
Commitment to Safety
Our #1 priority is the safety and well-being of our guests. As dog parents ourselves, we take great pride in treating every dog as our own. And we are committed to providing a healthy and safe environment for everyone that enters our facility.
Central Bark® Enrichment Dog Day Care Features:
Flexible Group Play
Flexible playgroups allow us to match your dog with the social atmosphere and play schedule they can enjoy and benefit from most. This helps give them a healthy balance of play, rest, and learning and creates a safer social environment with a better quality of play. And our lower dog-to-staff ratios offer more individual attention, education, and love.
Group Play Skills
Interactive group activities and positive reinforcement help dogs practice important skills like name recall, and behaviors like group sit and calmly going in and out of doors and gates. These activities are fun and rewarding for your dog and help improve behavior and impulse control, prevent overstimulation, and create a safer social environment.
Rest Period Enrichment
Your dog gets to relax and recharge in their own private space with calming interactive toys and healthy food pairings tailored to their preferences and diet. It promotes physical and mental relaxation which can help them achieve a healthy balance of play, learning, and rest. It can also help them become more comfortable in crates by building positive associations.
One-on-One Enrichment
Personalized One-on-One Enrichment sessions give your dog the extra attention they love and the freedom to use their senses and safely explore their instincts through interactive toys, puzzles, and games. It’s fun and rewarding and exercise their bodies and minds and engage their senses. Add complexity with fitness and agility equipment.
Central Bark is easily the best daycare/boarding facility in Madison. They have been attentive and very hands on through my dog’s entire life!! He has been going for 4+ years on a variety of schedules and I have never had a single instance where I couldn’t book a day of daycare or boarding.
Flick is particular, to say the least. To start, he’s very suspicious of strangers and every single employee over the years has taken the time to get familiar with him instead of forcing him along on a leash.
He’s also a reactive dog and has a hard time on lead around strangers and other dogs. This can get difficult dropping off and picking up. However, the team knows him and knows he needs space, so every time multiple people come in behind me, they confirm with me that they’re going to help other pet parents and bring Flick out when it’s cleared out. It sounds simple, but that consideration is such a huge stress relief for me and for him.
When Flick first started daycare, he was rubbing his nose raw on the top of his crate during downtime. Once I noticed it, I called the same day. Ever since then, they’ve put Flick in one of the boarding areas so he doesn’t do it again. A quick fix was much appreciated.
Speaking of boarding, every boarding experience we’ve had at Central Bark has been wonderful. I’m always able to get in, even on short notice. Most times, we’ll even get a Report Card!
Flick has a chicken allergy, lactose intolerance, and IBS. This lead to a lot of diet trialing, medications, and supplements. Central Bark offers an enrichment toy for your pup during downtime, but they have yogurt in them, so Flick could not partake. I make our own frozen Kong’s at home and bring one in each week. Flick has it and CB is nice enough to even clean the Kong. Flick is on a medication where he can’t eat anything, even treats, after 4pm. I called CB and they had no issue accommodating. When we board, I send pre-measured food baggies with his supplements, his medications, and sticky note with his schedule. They’re able to get him taken care of without a problem! He also has separate treats for group because at the time they were using cheese based treats (not sure if that is still the case), so I bring a Tupperware full of ours and they let me know when they need a refill.
The staff are absolutely amazing. I have yet to come across someone who isn’t thrilled each Wednesday when we walk in the door. I don’t know a lot of staff names (unfortunately) but they all deserve recognition! He drags me to the door each Wednesday morning and gets the wiggles no matter who he sees!
Flick is signed up on a monthly package to get his nails done. It’s definitely worth it to me, and much easier than trying to do them ourselves.
However, I have to speak specifically of Alyssa. She LOVES Flick truly beyond measure. She spends so much time with him, shows me extra pics, and always makes sure he’s having a good day. I want to preface with saying Flick is not a cuddler. I picked him up from boarding one day and Alyssa told me she went into his boarding suite and he crawled into her lap!!!!! He has never done that with me or my partner, and I am truly jealous. He loves her just as much as she loves him.
Lastly, I want to talk about the play groups. Flick has gone through at least 2 groups over the last few years. When he was younger, he was always playing so hard that he would come home tired for 2+ days after. Over the last year or so, that has evolved. He’s an Australian Cattle Dog and has definitely grown into the “herding/supervising” role that the breed is known for. He might even look a little grouchy. I believe he now spends his days with the puppies or the older crowd, keeping his eye on them. He’s more into panhandling for his treats and getting some pets than he is into playing these days. He’ll hang out with the other dogs a bit for a photo op, but you’ll probably catch him on a bed in the sun!!
Frequently Asked Questions
Rest periods can be paired with fun and interactive food toys (like a frozen peanut butter Kong) to create a rest period enrichment activity for your dog.
Not only are rest period enrichments fun and mentally stimulating for your dog, but they also help build positive associations and crating skills. Hence, dogs are calmer, quieter, and more relaxed. For dogs, being comfortable in a crate is a life skill that is incredibly useful for them and their owners.
Did you know? Scientific studies have shown that licking and chewing behaviors (especially those that involve food rewards!) are self-soothing, decrease heart and respiratory rates, and even release dopamine in a dog’s brain.
Absolutely! We strongly encourage all prospective clients to see our facilities firsthand. We believe a tour is the best way to understand what to look for in a dog day care. You can schedule a visit to tour our complete indoor and outdoor play areas and private rest spaces. We want you to feel completely confident and comfortable with our secure environment. You can also explore our facility and get a feel for what a day at Central Bark looks like by viewing the photos and virtual tours on our website.
As part of joining the Central Bark® family, our expert staff conducts a thorough behavior assessment at your local Central Bark store. These assessments help ensure that your dog is placed with a playgroup they’re comfortable with so they can play safely every day they’re with us.
This four-day evaluation, while your dog participates in our Enrichment Day Care, assesses your dog’s:
- Comfort and social skills with people
- Social skills and playstyle with other dogs to help determine the playgroup and play schedule they can benefit from the most
- Comfort in both indoor and outdoor play spaces
- Comfort in rest areas and a crate
- Ability to share resources like water and toys in social settings
- Level of comfort taking treats in social settings
This process gives us a chance to get to know you and your dog while your dog gets acquainted with their new favorite place away from home. Through the entire four days, your dog’s comfort and safety is our top priority.
Once your pup passes all the behavior assessment elements, you are welcome to sign up for any of our daycare services or a sleepover!
To schedule a Behavior Assessment for your dog, please contact your local store.
NOTE: Please bring all required signed forms, vaccination proof, and a collar and leash for your behavior assessment.
Our dog socialization day care is built on a unique system of “flexible playgroups” to ensure a safe and positive social environment for every dog. We carefully match your dog with friends based on their age, personality, size, and play style, creating a balanced and stress-free environment. This is especially beneficial for day care for dogs with anxiety or shy puppies, as it provides a low-pressure way for them to build confidence and have a great time.
Central Bark® Whole Dog Care
Our whole dog care approach offers a full range of fun and personalized products and services. To promote your dog’s physical, mental, and emotional health and happiness throughout their entire life.
