‘Five times a week’: Sydneysiders’ addiction exposed after the pandemic

Inner city Aussies are spending big money on an unlikely service that has boomed post-pandemic.

Sydneysiders enjoy spending money on their pets and the doggie daycare industry has exploded post-pandemic. Picture: Gaye Gerard/NCA Newswire

For plenty of paw-parents, living in the city means sending your children to daycare and your pets too!

In the height of the pandemic when Aussies were navigating lockdowns and exclusively working from home, pet ownership increased by 10 per cent. However, now people are back in offices, they don’t want to leave their pets lonely.

Doggie day cares have become an essential service and a weekly cost that plenty of city people are fronting on a weekly basis.

Sydneysiders aren’t afraid to spend money on their dogs. Picture: Gaye Gerard/NewsWire

Amanda Hewson, who owns a doggie daycare in Sydney’s Surry Hills called Dogs@Play, opened her business in 2004 because she saw a need, although – at the time – people did think she was crazy.

“Originally, when I told people I was opening a daycare, people assumed it was for kids, but no, I meant dogs,” she told news.com.au.

Her idea was on the money when you consider that 69 per cent of households across metropolitan, regional and remote Australia now have pets. People love their pets and are prepared to spend big on them.

Ms Hewson finds the typical customer sends their dog to daycare about twice a week. She charges $69 for a full day for your dog to be in care, so the regular customer would be forking out $138 to keep their pooch happy.

My own pup Frank, who is worth spending money on. Picture: Supplied

Ms Hewson doesn’t recommend sending your dog more than 3 times a week, but she does make exceptions for people in unusual circumstances – such as people that are in the middle of renovations or have high-need dogs with disabilities.

One of Hewson’s high-need customers is Pearl, a purebred staffy that is also deaf. She’s a gorgeous white girl with black and white spots on her ears and she is a frequent flyer at Dogs@Play.

Pearl’s owner Annette typically sends her five times a week, so she can get the interaction, socialisation and attention that she needs.

Pearl is a high flyer at doggie daycare. Picture: Supplied

Annette told news.com.au that she purposefully sought out a dog with special needs, “We bought her from a breeder because we wanted a dog with a disability because we have a daughter with a disability.”

Because of Pearl’s high needs, Annette feels strongly about Pearl’s education: “I feel like our fur babies are just like our human children and daycare and schooling is very important to them.”

A full day at Dogs@Play is $69, but you can buy a five-day pass for $320. This means Annette would typically spend about $1387 a month, which equals $16,640 a year, on having Pearl in daycare.

Annette has no qualms about the cost: “I feel the cost is completely worth it. I’ve got five children of my own; they all went to preschool and daycare because it’s part of the responsibility. You wouldn’t leave a human child sitting home by itself all the time. It’s the same financial responsibility as having a child.”

At the very least it is cheaper then sending your child to daycare. Currently, it costs anywhere from $70 to $188 a day to send a little human to childcare.

While Annette’s situation might be an extreme example even people that are sending their dogs less to doggie daycare are still spending a substantial amount.

Erin Green is what you’d describe as a typical doggie daycare customer.

She works in marketing and sends her dog to a daycare in Sydney’s inner west once a week.

The daily cost is $75. If you want to crunch the numbers, that means Ms Green spends about $3600 a year on her pooch Raff.

Raff goes about once a week to daycare. Picture: Supplied

Chompy has a personal dog walker. Picture: Supplied

Ms Green explained that she sends him partly from mum guilt: “As a single dog mum, I just want him to have fun, when I’m at work.” she explained.

Doggie daycare also isn’t the only way city slickers are spending money on their dogs. Romy, who works as an events planner spends on average $96 a week on a dog walker for her dog Chompy.

It’s also an amount that Romy has no regrets about paying, “I like to invest in my dog’s wellbeing.”

One thing is certain – people are prepared to pay money for their pooches to have the best lives possible and even if you find that barking mad!