Need advice on new dog daycare...

I don't have any experience but just thinking about it, could you maybe do rubber mats that could be mopped/cleaned daily?  I think the smell would be the worst part, so really good air filtration would be handy!

Some other thougths I've had about indoor plumbing for dogs.  Gosh it'd be nice if they could learn to flush!  lol.. but what about putting a drain in the floor with the floor sloping to the drain?  Then just hose it down at the end of the day.

Good luck!

Thanks for the input.  I am really not worried about the clean up.  The products these days take care of all that.  The flooring (rubber matting) is designed to come clean of any pet excrement. 
 
What I am worried about is messing up the potty training.  It they get in the habit of going in the play area, I'm afraid they may head home and pee when they play in the house.

There's an indoors dog daycare where I'm at and they have what look like gigantic puzzle pieces as the flooring. I don't know what Astroturf is so maybe that's what they use. They mop up the mess and keep the windows open or the fans going. It doesn't ever smell bad, just smells like a bunch of dogs.

Are the puzzle pieces designated for the dogs to go the bathroom on. 
 
AstroTurf is just the fake grass the use on football fields.

The puzzle pieces are the actual floor. When you walk in, you're walking on gigantic puzzle pieces. Thick, foam type puzzle pieces. I wish I could descibe it better. The entire floor is covered with this stuff and the dogs can go potty anywhere, but it's always cleaned up right away and the place never seems to smell.

It feels similar to rubber when you walk on it, but looking at it you know that it's not rubber. They are literally puzzle pieces. It makes the placfe look cute too because there are paw prints painted all over it.

I understand.  It is similar to the foam that we use.  Have you had any issues with accidents at home?  I am afraid they are going to transfer the idea of going during playtime at daycare to going at home during playtime.

Mick,
I help out @ a daycare where we have indoor & outdoor facilities.  We try to keep the dogs outside more than inside.  The dogs seem to be MUCH happier outside.  That being said, what we do when the dogs are inside is basically once a dog pees/poos we're right there to pick it up/clean it up.  We've tried several different floorings.  What seems to work the best so far is painting the floor with floor paint.  Rubber mats tend to get chewed as would astro turf.  Dogs are dogs & will chew.  The rubber matting tends to get ripped up by their nails.  The ones that are multicolored & put together like puzzles are nice & colorful but...They tend to get all ripped up from the dogs's nails & if they happen to pee right at the joint, no matter how fast you are with the mop, pee will leak through the joints.  My suggestion is the painted floor with good drainage so you can mop up during the day when the dogs are there & they you can hose it down easily at night.
 
BTW: OT how's the kitty hotel coming?

The Kitty hotel is coming along nicely.  It is finished, and we are in the marketing stage of things. 
 
We currently have 5 dog daycares, and all of those have outdoor access (dogs regularly go outside, and almost never have accidents).  This new one will not have any out door space.  It is in the center of downtown. We use a rubber flooring specially designed for dogs.  So it's easy to clean, and durable.  I just hate forcing the dogs to go the bathroom inside.  I am afraid we may cause behavior problems.

You know what?  I'm not 100% sure but I'm pretty sure that there have been no behavior problems like that that have been reported to us.  I can poll our clients tomorrow.  Actually, I've seen more positives come out of my daycare than negatives.  My favorite is the girl who was quite shy when she first showed up.  She'd sit in the corner & cower whenever another dog came close to her.  She's now a confident dog.  She iniates play, walks around daycare with tons of confidence & is just a happier pup.  I call her the miracle pup.

Can you create a potty area within the the big room.... even if the flooring is the same... so the dogs still associate having an area to potty vs. not potty.  Maybe there could be a door to it and set it up as if it is outdoors... paint floor green, sky blue, put flowers or something.  You could even do a doggie door to it for dogs used to that.  Just an idea...

Hi Mic, those that I've been too have had a similar set up as an indoor dog show (think Westminster).  They have a designated elimation area, usually sectioned off with partial wire fencing (so it really feels like a separate area to the dogs, even though it's just in the corner).  Anyway, this area has shavings on the floor and a "marking" post or two.  It doesn't seem to take very long for the dogs to understand that this is the potty spot.   They seem to train each other, if you know what I mean.  The new ones see the others going there, so they follow suit.  Accidents are generally only made by those that are not potty trained to begin with.

Mic:
 
I have taken Pofi to Downtown Dogs in the heart of downtown Minneapolis.  They have a website - you can google them.  By they time I started using their services, they had gotten a variance from the city that allows them a very small enclosed (fenced) space in the parking lot off the dock entrance of the building, but they got along without it previously.  There is a dog door to this area and on nicer days there is a human sized door that is open to the space. But mostly, the dogs are in 7k square feet covered with that interlocking rubber type covering.  I assumed it was anti-microbial or resistant, but if you watch their web cams, there is constant mopping for the dogs who relieve indoors and then, during nap time when all are kenneled, they break out this mini Zamboni looking floor cleaner and do the whole space. 
 
And, even with dogs breaking from their routines and relieving indoors, it had no impact on Pofi's house training and has not on any of the other dogs I know who have gone for day care there (several).
 
Good luck!

Thanks for all the input.  You guys are great as always. 
 
We were planning on designing a separate in door potty area, and trying to make it look like the outside (at least to the owners). 
 
What kind of chips do they use on the floor around the marking post.  Is it just wood chips, or some kind of litter? 
 
Thanks again.