In short
DaySchool is dog daycare with training built into every day, not open play with a bark break. Dogs move through a trainer-led flow of skill blocks, real-world socialization, and rest at a 10:1 dog-to-trainer ratio, while an eight-level grade curriculum tracks 130+ behaviors through our PD360 system across our Scottsdale and Cave Creek campuses. Your dog comes home having worked specific skills tied to their grade level that day.
On this page
Walk onto the floor at either campus on any weekday morning and the shape of the day is already set, because DaySchool runs on the same structure every day. Here is what that day looks like from drop-off to pickup, and the curriculum quietly running underneath it.
It is a rotation of training, socialization, and rest that repeats every day your dog attends, at both the Scottsdale and Cave Creek campuses. Drop-off and pickup have no set windows, so the day fits your work schedule, but once your dog is on the floor, the flow is the same one every day:
Play happens between training blocks, rest, and manners practice, with the same trainers running all of it. That daily repetition, run by the same trainers, is what changes behavior over weeks of attendance.
Most dog daycare runs the same way across the industry: dogs get grouped into a room, an attendant watches for fights, and the day is largely improvised until pickup. DaySchool plans differently. Every block on the schedule above connects back to a single curriculum, so a dog's day is set before it starts.
What changes a dog's behavior is the structure wrapped around the play: dedicated skill blocks, temperament-matched groups, and trainers actively coaching each rep. Your dog works through the same grade-level curriculum taught in Group Classes, learning to settle, hold focus, and greet politely around real distractions. Between those blocks, dogs burn energy with others who match their size, play style, and temperament. That structure only works at a staffing ratio most daycares do not run: one trainer for every 10 dogs at DaySchool, against the 20 to 50 dogs per attendant common at warehouse-style facilities. You drop off a dog who runs the house. You pick up one who is learning to live in it.
The training blocks are not improvised either. Every DaySchool day pulls from a single, cumulative curriculum with eight grade levels, run through school-year names so progress is easy to talk about at home: Pre-School Puppy, Kindergarten, Elementary, Middle School, High School, College, Masters, and Dogtorate. More than 130 individual behaviors are logged inside that structure, and each one is tracked through PD360, our progress system, as it moves through four stages of learning: Teaching, Reinforcing, Proofing, and Maintenance.
That staged tracking is the part open-play daycare has no equivalent for. A dog is not just "doing okay at daycare." A specific behavior, say a solid down-stay around distraction, moves through the stages on its own timeline: Teaching in week one, Reinforcing by week three, Proofing once the dog holds it with other dogs moving around it. Dogs who graduate Foundation Camp keep working the same curriculum on their regular DaySchool days afterward, so the behaviors that camp installed do not fade for lack of repetition.
No dog walks onto the DaySchool floor without a starting point already set. Before enrollment, your dog spends a PD360 Assessment Day: a 4+ hour evaluation where trainers gauge play style, obedience, and temperament. They recommend the right grade level and program at pickup. Current assessment pricing is on the pricing page, and the fee credits toward same-day enrollment, so the evaluation is not a sunk cost if your dog is ready to start.
Before that day, we send Pet Parent Portal access so you can confirm vaccinations and build a dog profile. That is also how we verify every dog on the floor is current on Bordetella, Rabies, and Distemper or Parvo before they join a group. The assessment is the gate, not a formality. It places a dog at the grade level that fits before day one.
"We took our 5 month old lab puppy to Partners for the 360 evaluation, before signing up for DaySchool. She had a great day! Staff is knowledgeable and very nice. Facility is amazing. We did sign up for a package!"
Andrea K., Scottsdale
Pricing and hours
Day rates, membership pricing, and hours for both campuses are on the DaySchool page. If you would rather talk it through first, our team can walk you through fit before you book anything.
DaySchool is not the right room for every dog on day one, and that is by design. It works best for:
Reactive, fearful, or newly adopted dogs start in DayCamp instead of DaySchool. DayCamp is our structured, behavior-focused day program, and dogs graduate into DaySchool once they can handle the thresholds off-leash group play demands.
None of this works at scale without staffing to match. One trainer works with every 10 dogs at DaySchool, the best ratio we know of in Arizona, compared with the 20 to 50 dogs per person common at bigger, cheaper daycares. That ratio is why a trainer can run a training block, watch a play group for early tension, and flag the one behavior that needs another rep, all inside the same hour.
It is backed by the same health and safety standards across both campuses: vaccinations verified for every dog before they join a group, hospital-grade cleaning protocols run daily, and every staff member trained in Pet CPR and in reading dog body language for early stress signs. Groups are matched by temperament, size, and play style, and a dog who needs more support before joining group play gets that recommendation instead of being placed anyway.
"The staff really gets to know your dog and it helps that their dog to staff ratio is lower than most other doggie day care facilities."
Mindy, Cave Creek
You do not have to take the curriculum on faith. Every DaySchool day ends with a Pupdate: what your dog worked on, what to reinforce at home, and which friends they played with, backed by photos and video in the Pet Parent Portal's Adventure Album. Instead of live cameras, you get a same-day Pupdate and a direct message from the team if anything specific comes up, without needing to watch a feed all day to make sense of it.
"The staff are great, enthusiastic and take lots of pics and send me a report card with notes about Zains activities and emotional state during his stay-like playful, friendly, mischievous, shy etc. 😊 I love the video's especially, witnessing him having fun!"
Cheryl B., Cave Creek
That kind of day-to-day detail is typical of our 4.8 stars across 2,000+ reviews. Weekly check-ins re-set goals and keep you confident about what is happening at home, and as your dog masters the behaviors at their current grade level and holds them under distraction, they graduate to the next one, from Pre-School Puppy on up toward Dogtorate. Members also get a weekly Pet Parenting class included, which is where the training your dog does on the floor turns into training you can run at home. DaySchool runs Monday to Friday 7am to 6pm and Saturday 8am to 4pm, closed Sunday, at both the Scottsdale and Cave Creek campuses.
Dogs who are reactive, fearful, or newly adopted often are not ready for the off-leash setting DaySchool runs on day one. They build foundational skills first in DayCamp, our structured, behavior-focused day program, then move into DaySchool once they can handle those thresholds.
Eight, running through school-year names: Pre-School Puppy, Kindergarten, Elementary, Middle School, High School, College, Masters, and Dogtorate. More than 130 tracked behaviors move through Teaching, Reinforcing, Proofing, and Maintenance before a dog graduates to the next level.
One trainer for every 10 dogs at both the Scottsdale and Cave Creek campuses, compared with the 20 to 50 dogs per attendant common at warehouse-style daycares. Every staff member is trained in Pet CPR and reading dog behavior.
Yes. A PD360 Assessment Day is a 4+ hour evaluation of play style, obedience, and temperament that sets the grade level your dog starts at. Current pricing is on the pricing page, and the fee credits toward same-day enrollment.
A Pupdate covering what your dog worked on, what to reinforce at home, and who they played with, along with photos and video in the Pet Parent Portal's Adventure Album. Members also get a weekly Pet Parenting class.
For many dogs, yes. DaySchool works the same curriculum taught in Foundation Camp, spread across the days you drop off, and your dog sleeps at home every night. Dogs with more serious behavior needs get faster change starting in Foundation Camp, then use DaySchool days afterward to keep the training current.
Book your dog's spot
Every DaySchool day starts with the same PD360 Assessment that sets your dog's grade level, program fit, and a written plan for Scottsdale or Cave Creek.