The Times-Picayune / Living

Advice
Tails Are Wagging Over Doggy Day Care

Can't adopt a dog because you work? The antidote to an evening with an empty lap - day care for the doggy set - is cropping up all over California as well as in Washington, D.C., Vancouver, B.C., and other cities.

Not Surprisingly, Studio City, Calif., center owner Barbra Waldare, of Doggie View Day Care Center, speaks as a parent would about her own dog, a Welsh Corgi. "Keaton's my kid" she said while on vacation in Seattle with Keaton.

Waldare is looking to franchise Doggie View, which uses a Web camera to project video of its dogs at play onto the center's Internet site, so owners can keep tabs on their pets.

"I started the prototype center to see if people wanted (the service) and if it would work," Waldare said. It did work, and some of the owners who come sniffing around surprised her.

"I have this one guy who would come into the shop and bring his dog. Here's this guy, a (former) New Yorker, seems like a tough guy, and you wouldn't expect to hear him say, 'Daddy loves, go to school. Say goodbye and go with Aunt Barbra.' But he did.