COVID - 19 Safety Plan

All businesses in Nova Scotia are required to have a COVID 19 Safety Plan in place by June 5th. Because we have been open, serving front line workers from the beginning of the State of Emergency, we are staying with what has worked. 

DROP OFF:

We are not allowing anyone inside the daycare at all. What we’ve implemented is a curbside drop-off and pick-up service, which for the most part is going well. We do have some dogs so far that aren’t accepting to this approach, so we have created a work around solution. We have installed a 48” X 48” X 72" dog kennel where the dog’s owner will put the dog. We have a dog door cut into the fence so all we do is open it and the dog can then come right into the run. Please insure that you communicate how you wish to have your dog brought into the daycare so we can respond appropriately.

• Call or text 15 minutes before you arrive. No Facebook Messenger please.
• Please wait in your car, with your dog in the back seat or in the case of an           SUV in the rear of the vehicle.
• Lower your rear window when I approach, only enough for me to place the slip lead over your dog’s  head. Once I have your dog secure, I’ll open the door and remove him/her.
• **In the case of 2 door cars, I’ll ask you to lower the passenger side rear window so I can place the slip lead over your dog’s head. Once I have your dog secure, I’ll open the passenger side door and remove him/her.
• I’ll then take your dog into the daycare where it will be wiped down with a pet friendly sanitizer.

We are not allowing anyone inside the daycare at all. What we’ve implemented is a curbside drop-off and pick-up service, which for the most part is going well. We do have some dogs so far that aren’t accepting to this approach, so we have created a work around solution. We have installed a 48” X 48” X 72" dog kennel where the dog’s owner will put the dog. We have a dog door cut into the fence so all we do is open it and the dog can then come right into the run. Please insure that you communicate how you wish to have your dog brought into the daycare so we can respond appropriately.

PICK UP:
• Call or text 15 minutes before you arrive. No Facebook Messenger please.
• Please wait in your car. I’ll bring your dog out and place them in the rear seat or in the case of an SUV in the rear of the vehicle.
• At this point we can talk about your dog’s day with us at an acceptable distance.
If you feel more comfortable wearing a mask during your interactions with me, feel free as it’s our goal to insure everyone is as safe as possible.  

CLEANING AND SANITIZING OF DAYCARE:
As most of you already know we are very diligent regarding cleaning and sanitizing. Having said that we will be keeping a cleaning log that is available for any of our clients who wish to review it. Because our situation is unique, where we have restricted entry into the daycare building , we wanted to make sure that this information is available to anyone wishing to see it. I can supply you a sample copy of the cleaning log if you wish. Also we have available for review any of the Safety Data Sheets for all of our cleaning supplies upon your request.

DOG FOOD, SHAMPOO, TREATS AND SUPPLEMENT PICK UP:
We have established a drop off and pick up area for these items to the left of our entrance door. Small items will be placed in the cooler and larger items will be placed on top of the cooler or beside it. Hand sanitizer is located on the railing for your use, as well a bucket with a washcloth with sanitizer to wipe down the product should you wish. ***Please note every item is sanitized when it is placed outside, but we want you to be as safe as possible, so we have offered you these means to insure for yourself that all items for pick up are sanitized.

PAYMENT METHOD:
All payments will be by way of e-transfers to: information@redwoofinn.ca

Your patience is appreciated as things start to get busy again. The only way this plan can work is with your cooperation and understanding.
Again we want to thank all of you for trusting Red Woof Inn with the care of your dogs and we hope to continue to earn that trust during these turbulent times.

As we get ready to reopen “fully” to our clients tomorrow, we must put an emphasis on what the term " fully" now means. It means we are open to having your dog come to daycare or for boarding just like always. That part really hasn’t changed, other than we no longer allow boarding dogs to bring a blanket or towel like we used to. No, the real change for those of you who we’ve not seen since March is related to how we interact. I’ve sent out emails, posted on Facebook as well but we thought we'd share  how we got to where we are with regards to our current protocols, along with what products we are using to insure you and your pets are as safe as they ever were, maybe even safer.

Curbside drop-off and pick-up service: 

We are not allowing anyone inside the daycare at all. What we’ve implemented is a curbside drop-off and pick-up service, which for the most part is going well. We do have some dogs so far that aren’t accepting to this approach, so we have created a work around solution. We have installed a 48” X 48” X 72" dog kennel where the dog’s owner will put the dog. We have a dog door cut into the fence so all we do is open it and the dog can then come right into the run. Please insure that you communicate how you wish to have your dog brought into the daycare so we can respond appropriately. 

Communication: 

Please call or text us regarding when you are dropping off or picking up your dog. Facebook Messenger just isn't an effective means to communicate with us as there is no notification feature, so we don't know if you are on your way unless I'm sitting at the computer. We've asked time and again for people to call or text and we still have people sending us Facebook messages they are on the way. In the future these will be ignored  

Sanitization: 

We’ve always taken pride on how clean we keep our place and now we’ve even up our game further. 

We’ve added a treatment called Microban 24. I first became aware of this product in my previous life as an OHS coordinator for Housing Services during H1N1. Microban 24, once sprayed on a surface, hard or soft, offers 24 hours of protection to pretty much all bacteria and viruses, including the Coronavirus. We also do all our hard surfaces, dog beds and leads daily with this product, so if I ask you to remove the lead from your dog’s neck you can do so knowing it’s been treated. We are also treating all our retail products with Microban 24 before they are placed in the pick-up area by our doorway. Our floors are washed at least daily with our new Bissell Crosswave floor machine with PREempt hydrogen peroxide disinfectant. All the daycare walls are sanitized on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday or as needed with PREempt and rinsed. Also note our slip leads are soaked every night in PREempt. 

Our new Sanuvox UV air filtration machine has arrived and is set up and running. The UV light is just another layer of protection, as it kills 99% of viruses it comes in contact with. The new machine is much larger than our previous UV system, so we are assured of more air changes within the daycare per hour, which equates to cleaner air. 

We are continuing to wipe down the dogs with our Chlorhexidine pads, which has been one of our protocols since day one of our “new normal”. This only takes a few seconds and we cannot communicate how remotely the chances of a dog carrying the virus on their coats is, but we feel it’s not a bad thing to continue with, even with known cases down to almost zero in the province We are proud to use Raging Crow hand sanitizer. If you haven’t tried this yet, it’s amazing, plus it’s made right here in North River. We’ll have a spray sanitizer system set up outside hopefully by the end of next week if our order comes in as expected, but for now we have a pump system with their hand sanitizer. We encourage you to sanitize your hands when making pickups and as well when you do the dog drop off hen the kennel is set up.  We'll also have a poop bag dispenser and a food drop box for those of you who bring food for your daycare dogs. 

Payment: 

We’ve had a few glitches regarding payments. Some of our clients are still using our old email address for payments and since that email and the website attached to it no longer exist, it won’t work at all. So please use this email address: information@redwoofinn.ca . Also go into your mail account and add this email address as a safe account so emails, I send out don’t end up in your junk folder. Going forward and beyond the pandemic, because all our clients will be using this as their established form of payment, we’ll leave it as it is. There are a couple of reasons for this. No need for petty cash, and no cash on site at all, which makes it a safer for us. Second, no bank fees. Our bank account allows for unlimited e-transfer deposits. This keeps our costs down, which is always nice especially with our numbers being much lower since the pandemic.  

So that about sums up where we are regarding reopening fully tomorrow. To our frontline clients, we can’t thank you enough for supporting us since March. Your patronage allowed us to do some good within our community during these very trying times plus it allowed up to maintain as close to a normal life as we had previously, which we can’t thank you enough for. We hope you all remain staying safe.