St Mary's Canine Creche

We are St.Mary’s Canine Creche (now part of the award winning Canine Creche model).

We have a massive two play rooms, plus another separate room for temperament testing, two playgrounds, and simply oodles of toys!

We are trained to ensure that your pooches receive the correct level of interaction, care, engagement and we vary everything to suit all dogs, sizes and ages, more sedate games such as brain games for the golden oldies, and some fun agility or action games for those youngsters!

Late afternoon, we all relax into story time, lets dim the lights, chill out and get some zzzzz’s.

We are part of Canine Creche UK, we emulate the Mother ship “Suffolk Canine Creche”, and follow all their processes, we mirror their award winning business model and we have with the best staff to dog ratio of any facility.

We have a bespoke facility designed to be cage free (unkennelled) with only your dog in mind. Everything is here, we do not take your dog off site or travel to another location, your dogs are safe and secure at all times.

Filled with ballpits, climbing frames, playhouses and tons of toys! We play lots of organised games, play here is interesting, safe and stimulating. Bubble machines, ball games, treasure hunts, and dancing with the dogs are all weekly activities.

We have lots of chill out area’s with sofa’s and lots of beds for the older dogs that just want to have company and plenty of comfort breaks, as well as a quick power nap before the next game.

A Puppy Intro area, with safe toys that will allow your playful pupster to integrate slowly at their own pace into the bigger pack! Puppies are able to see the older dogs but are safe, and when they are ready they can start to integrate into the mainstream pack.

We have an extensive schedule of themed weeks throughout the year, ranging from Howl-O-Ween, where the dogs have apple bobbing, Mothers & Fathers Day where each dogs make their own paw painted cards, as well as Maypole Dancing, Royal Ascot, Waterworld Week and our very own Sports Day! It’s never a dull moment!

There really is no typical day, however most days start with bouncing and some energetic games to burn off some energy, or maybe a game for the not so active ones that makes them think. Tuggies, ball games, puzzles, “Find It!”, “Bury It!” and “Bubbles” are all regular games. Some might have some lunch or a burst outside, or maybe an individual walk.

We mellow out slightly, have a break, some classical music and dim the lights for a quick nap. Maybe an afternoon film for the Oldies, Lassie proving to be a firm favourite. More playing into the afternoon, or maybe some one-2-one training, perhaps the agility equipment will come out, sausage racing or paw painting for the more sedate among us! We normally finish up with story time, old style fairy tales being very popular…

PRICES FOR DAY CARE (inclusive of VAT) From 1st April 2019

Half Day £18.50 (the crossover period is between 12 noon and 1pm – we will advise at registration whether we can take your dog during the morning or afternoon, if your dog has high energy levels you will only be able to send them in the morning, as the afternoon does command a slower pace)

Full Day £27.50 (open for ten hours!)

Packages

20 x days Prepaid In Advance £467.50 take your prepaid days whenever you like

We have many packages and payment plans available that reduce your cost per day.

Our Puppy Parties are normally held bi-monthly on Saturday mornings for two hours, where both puppies and owners can attend a delightful two hours of fun and frolics!

A wonderful two hours from 10am – 12noon with lots of off-lead safe play, interaction, education and of course a puppy party pack to take home!

Demo on nail trimming – Top Secret Industry Method Demo’d!

Overview on some great products (not sold on site, but used at crèche!)

Lots of helpful advice including general health check

Wonderful Puppy Party Bag to take away worth over £50.00

Meet other new puppy owners

Recall Advice!

Puppy Biting Advice!

Tour of the Creche

The Activity Room is all set up (just like in the photo) to create a fun and interesting room for the puppies and to make the humans feel like they are at a great party!

Meet Kieran Moore & Charlie Brownlee

We own St Marys Canine Creche jointly and we are partners in and out of the business. Kieran has the day to day running of the business, able assisted by Charlie who also holds down a corporate full time job.

With solid commercial skill sets they bring a high degree of awe inspiring service levels gained in retail and the corporate world, skills that transfer easily.

A lifetime of dog ownership has resulted in their own pooches, Luna the Weimaraner and Nova the Jack Russel, starting a habit of short names that end in ‘a’…

Luna gets to attend gundog training with Kieran and whether that translates to the

professional gundog arena only time will tell.

This active couple also own a dance franchise, and they teach dance, host and organise events for over 800 people so all the hobbies are very active ones, dog walking and activities of course, dance, bike riding, their levels of physical fitness mean only the most fun for your pooches, these two can keep going all day!

After working in the canine world for a few months, they realised it could be so much better, and set about making St Marys Canine Creche into a top class facility offering dog day care and puppy paw-ties.

How do I register?

A: You make an appointment to register, you will be with us for about half an hour and you will be required to complete a detailed form and we will temperament test your dog, we also need a copy of the vaccine card.

Will you accept a Titre Test?

A: Yes, but we must have a copy of the scores and a letter from your vet stating that their levels are providing an adequate protection.

Do dogs fight?

A: No, they are all temperament tested, sadly we are not able to pass all dogs, our fail rate is high as safety will always be placed first.

How safe is it?

A: We are a very unique facility, no other in the UK (to our knowledge) operates under this American model with dogs running freely together (we do not cage, kennel or separate) to this scale. We have up to 60 dogs playing freely together, hence we apply more rules and policies than most canine facilities. We collate national insurance statistics that record insurance claims made for dog on dog injuries and we do not accept the highest causing breeds.

We also look at rescue centres and monitor the breeds that are commonly placed in rescue centres (not necessarily for any fault of their own), though this indicates that we will not be able to formulate a thorough knowledge of history for these dogs. We look at all statistics and apply regular scoring to all breeds sadly those breeds cannot come to creche.

We do not personally have breed preferences, we just have to follow “Safety First” and do all we can to ensure any potential risk is eradicated, seeing 60 dogs playing freely together is a wonderful sight, however extreme measures must be taken in order to ensure we remain at 100% safety and 100% fight free.

We appreciate for the breeds concerned that this is very frustrating, however we have a Duty of Care to all the dogs on site and we are committed to doing all we can to eradicating potential risk.

So what breeds don’t you accept?

A: This changes regularly based on the information we compile from our insurance companies.

What about other safety aspects?

A: Well, we cannot accept your dog if he/she has cleared a 6ft fence (we have 6ft fences!) Any vehicle used to transport your dog (emergency vet or whatever reason) is crated and your dog will be securely contained, though it should be mentioned that we do not transport dogs to other facilities as we have everything on site, to date we have only ever had to take a dog in a vehicle for an emergency trip to the vet when staying in our hotel (dog had a suspected pyometra) and we have taken a couple of dogs to their owners weddings (requested more frequently than you would think!)

Finally, the percentage of dogs not passing their temperament test is very high, we are uber choosey, and if we have the slightest doubt, then that dog will not be able to attend creche. We can recommend rehab and training with our in-house Training Dog-Cademy to remedy any issues and we will work with owners to reach a “pass” level, but we never accept a dog until we are 100% content that they are suitable.

How many incidents have occurred?

A: Our vet can verify that we have NEVER had to take a dog to the vet because of any altercation between dogs and we are very proud to say so. We would also be obliged to report any incidents to Environmental Health and again our records with them for safety and compliance are at 100%. We are also claim free with our insurers and hold a 100% clear track record with them, no dogs hurt and no dogs lost!

Can I be shown around when I visit?

A: Yes, of course, we always offer a “tour”. We have a viewing panel with one way glass into our Activity Room’s, We having nothing to hide which is we do try to be as transparent as possible and we want you to be completely comfortable with us and our facilities. Check out our Facebook page, we post hundreds of photos of your dogs!

Is the Creche open every day?

A: No – Mon – Fri and occasional Saturdays for events.

What are the opening hours?

A: 8am – 6pm Mon –Fri with early drop offs, by arrangement only.

Is there an expiry on pre-paid days?

A: No, take as long as you like

Is there an outside area?

A: Yes, fully secure