DaySchool Cleaning and Maintenance

Purpose

If you're new to DaySchool, this is the place to begin: the cleaning and safety-walk routine for our off-leash play yards and indoor daycare space. Dogs here are off leash and in groups, so the space has to stay sanitary, hazard-free, and fully accounted for at every shift change. A skipped walkthrough or a missed wipe-down is how flies, a piece of unplugged equipment, or a dog nobody checked out turns into a bigger problem later.

At a Glance

• Deep clean: at least once a week, ideally Sunday, including inside every individual run.
• Floors: sanitized with Triple Two before lunch and again at the end of the day; Degreaser is used instead during the weekly deep clean.
• Walkthrough: morning and evening, checking for snakes, toads, buckets, food, or equipment left out anywhere in the space.
• Waste: picked up outside immediately, and never left sitting in an outdoor trash can, since that's what draws flies.
• Coolers and misters: coolers stay filled and are turned off only when no one is in Daycare; misters go off before lunch and again before you leave.
• Shared equipment (walkie talkies, e-collars, iPads, and similar gear): checked that it's plugged in and charging on the same morning and evening pass.
• End of day: every item on the Daycare list is checked off, and every Daycare dog is checked out before anyone goes home.
• For the facility-wide cleaning cadence these products and areas fit into, see General Cleaning Considerations.

Steps

Morning

1. Walk every play yard and the indoor space before dogs go out. Confirm no snakes, toads, buckets, food, or equipment were left out overnight.
2. Confirm coolers are filled with water and misters are off until dogs are actually out in the yard.
3. Confirm shared equipment, walkie talkies, e-collars, iPads, and anything similar, is plugged in and charging where it belongs.

Midday, before lunch

4. Pick up any solid waste outside as soon as you see it. Don't let it sit, and don't leave the poop trash can outside.
5. Sanitize the indoor floors with Triple Two before lunch.
6. Turn off the misters before lunch while the dogs are on their break.

End of day

7. Sanitize the indoor floors with Triple Two again.
8. Turn off the misters, and turn off the coolers once everyone has left Daycare for the day.
9. Repeat the morning walkthrough: confirm no snakes, toads, buckets, food, or equipment were left out anywhere.
10. Check off every task on the Daycare list.
11. Confirm every Daycare dog has been checked out before you go home. Don't leave until this is done.

Weekly, ideally Sunday

12. Run the full deep clean, including inside every individual run.
13. Use Degreaser for this pass instead of the daily Triple Two sanitizing.

Edge Cases

• If the weekly deep clean can't happen on Sunday because of staffing or a schedule conflict, move it to another day that week rather than skipping it.
• If a piece of shared equipment isn't charged or plugged in, plug it in immediately. If it won't hold a charge or looks damaged, that's a repair, not a walkthrough fix, so follow Reporting Needed Repairs, Mail & Shipments.
• When a Daycare dog isn't checked out at end of day, don't clock out. Find the dog, confirm the checkout, and only then head home.

Who to Ask

If you're not sure, ask before you act.

What exactly am I looking for on the morning and evening walkthrough?

Snakes, toads, buckets, food, and equipment left out. The same list both times, morning and evening.

The Daycare list is the backstop for all of it. Check off every task on it, and confirm every Daycare dog has been checked out, before you go home.