Doggy daycare – yes or no?

My 4‑month‑old pup had a meet & greet at a home‑based (which is common in the UK) doggy daycare. My gut is telling me it’s not a good fit, he’s too young and not ready, but I’m not sure if it’s justified. I might just be overprotective and looking for issues.

He’s a confident pup, so after a few minutes of nervousness he got along well with all the other dogs. There are 7 in total so far, and he would be the 8th (and the last, as that’s the maximum they are willing to look after). The daycare has decent reviews online.

The owners were honest and set clear boundaries about what can be reasonably expected of them. They kept blowing their own trumpet about their experience.

However, I had zero confidence that they were able to control the other dogs or that they could resolve a conflict amongst the dogs should it arise. The basic corrections they performed seemed just for show because I was there — the dogs paid no attention to them (they responded to my corrections without a problem!). They were also a bit too keen to fill up the last spot, and since they don’t have live cameras I’d have to trust what they say about my pup’s behaviour.

I’m not an expert, but I’ve noticed some signs of resource guarding and dominance in the other dogs that rubbed me the wrong way. Most of them had a terrible jumping habit which I don’t want my pup picking up.

There’s also no space to separate the dogs aside from inside/outside separation. My pup still needs the occasional enforced nap, and I just worry he will not sleep in such a highly exciting environment. We were there for an hour; he played basically the whole time without a sign of switching off. He then slept for the rest of the day (aside from toilet breaks). If he’s there for 9 hours, I worry that will be too much for him.

And to top it off, our trainer advised caution about putting him into daycare as he’s developing reactivity issues, and it could make matters worse and potentially hinder our progress.

I don’t need to put him into daycare. I wanted to because I think he’d have fun, as I don’t have regular access to any other dogs he could play with. He gets to run around with other dogsled bump into on walks occasionally, but I obviously can’t control the frequency.

My gut is telling me to try again when he’s 6 months old. There’s, of course, no guarantee that the spot will still be open.

I’d appreciate a second opinion and perspective, as I’m properly spiralling and overthinking.