How a new daycare in Gurugram is redefining dog happiness

Each time a new dog arrives at The Good Dog Company, the first one to greet them is Azy, founder Monisha Bhatia’s five-and-a-half-month old black Labrador, who has been assigned the much-coveted post of the CFO or the Chief Fun Officer of the boarding-cum-training centre in Gurugram. “At times, it is her body language that helps me understand the new dog – if it is friendly, fearful or aggressive. She helps new dogs get accustomed to this place,” says Bhatia, who holds a degree in Assistance Dog Education from Bergin University and an MA in Human-Animal Interactions from the University of Stirling.

With more than six years of experience as a trainer, Monisha felt that the instinctual needs of our four-legged companions were not being met, prompting her to open the centre which focusses on providing enrichment to the dog – both physically and mentally. “The gap became clearer when I noticed that even after training, many dogs still struggled with boredom and unwanted behaviour because their natural instincts had nowhere to go,” she says.