Doggy daycare separates dogs by this one personality trait, and it works wonders
Is your dog a Side A or Side B?

Dogs having fun at the dog park.
When you take your dog to a dog park or a doggy care, they are often divided by size. It makes sense; we don’t want our little chihuahua to defend itself if a giant Bull Mastiff gets angry at them. The rule of thumb is usually that dogs that are 35 pounds and under go to one side of the park, and those 36 and over head to the other. This helps to ease the friction between animals and owners as well.
However, Red Rover doggy daycare in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, takes a different approach to dividing the pooches at its facility, where pets can spend the day at doggy day care, spend a few nights in the boarding rooms, or get the "spaw" treatment. At Red Rover, they divide the dogs by energy levels so that the chill dogs don’t have to deal with a yappy pup hopping all over them or trying to get them to play. Its website says that Red Rover offers a “Temperament assessment of all dogs; small-sized play groups are assigned daily and contain only dogs of similar age, size and/or energy.”
The temperament assessment is working, evidenced by a recent TikTok post juxtaposing Side A, where the low-energy dogs chill, and Side B, where the high-energy pups play until they are entirely zonked. The video was a massive hit on TikTok, receiving over 1.1 million views.
@redroverhhi Can you tell the difference 😂? #dogsoftiktok #doggydaycare #dog #dogtok copied @Barkcollective
As you can see, the experiment has worked with both sides becoming a place to relax after the high-energy dogs completely wear themselves out."One group will usually be much higher energy with lots of various play going on, and the other will be pretty quiet and slow," Paige Grisette, the owner of Red Rover, told Newsweek. "The group sizes will vary widely, but it's also important to have a good person-to-dog ratio, which keeps groups (and management) safe."
"So A side it's actually B side after a few hours," Dani wrote in the comments, to which Grisette responded, "Yes." Another commenter wasn’t sure where her dog would fit. “My wee chihuahua cross is energy level B but would get flattened," Charlotte wrote. "We have a different group we call the “littles” for xsmall dogs that are hyper!" Grisette responded.
@redroverhhi some more good fur babies ❤️ #doggydaycare #dogsoftiktok #dog #dogtok #gooddog #fyp #fypシ
"Introverts vs extroverts," Damian wrote.
"Side A is for the dogs that made their owners think getting a second dog was a good idea, side B is full of the second dogs," Robert wrote.
"My dog is definitely a side B. Unfortunately, I am a side A," Miss Leonard wrote.
"This is honestly looking like the most effective sorting I've ever seen," Smart Idiot wrote.
"If daycares did that, my kids would be side B. So if i learnt anything is to never accept job offer for side B, it's exhausting," Serli wrote.
A happy dog.via Canva/Photos
Ultimately, the heartwarming takeaway from this story is that every dog, like every human, has their place in the world, and we will all feel and do our best when in the right environment to thrive. For some, that means hanging in the shade with the chill folks; for others, it means mixing it up and going hard with the fast crowd. But, in the end, we all eventually need to hang back and relax in the shade.
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