Daycare on the way to TYS, the Air Guard base, and downtown Alcoa — drop off coming up Alcoa Hwy or Hall Road, $25/day
212 Five-Star Reviews | NePoPo® Graduate | Woman & Veteran Owned
Small groups, big fun — $25 per day
Most of our Alcoa daycare clients fit one of three patterns: (1) McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS) employees — TSA, ground crew, terminal services, FBO operations — whose shifts start before any other daycare opens; (2) 134th Air Refueling Wing personnel and DoD civilians on the base; (3) Alcoa professionals commuting north up Alcoa Hwy to Knoxville or south to Maryville offices. The schedules are different but the need is the same: somewhere to drop the dog that's actually on the way, with a real structured day, not parking-lot chaos.
We're 10 minutes from downtown Alcoa via Alcoa Hwy and Hall Road. We cap at 15 dogs total. Owners live on-site. Our head trainer David Van Fleet is a NePoPo® Graduate (one of the only in East TN). Daycare runs $25/day with multi-day packages for clients who use us 2–5 days a week — common for shift-work families.
Pet taxi service ($20 round-trip) available from any Alcoa zip if the drive doesn't fit your shift.
If you work 0500–1500 at TYS, traditional 7-AM daycare doesn't open in time. We start drop-off at 7 AM and accommodate earlier with notice ($10 outside-hours fee). If you're a 134th ARW maintainer on a non-standard week, you can prepay daycare days and use them as needed across the month — no "use it or lose it" pressure. If you're an Alcoa professional commuting up Alcoa Hwy to Knoxville every morning, you can hit Tomotley Rd in 10 minutes, drop the dog, and be back on US-129 northbound in under 15.
The big chain daycares between Alcoa and Knoxville run on a "more dogs = more revenue" model. That works financially. It doesn't work for the dogs. High-volume daycare creates three problems: (1) over-stimulation (your dog comes home wired instead of tired), (2) noise-induced reactivity (concrete buildings + 50 dogs barking = behavior regression), and (3) staff turnover (the same person rarely sees your dog twice). Our 15-dog cap, scheduled rest periods, and trainer-led structure specifically address all three. Most "high-energy disaster" dogs settle into our rhythm by day 3.
"I work TSA at TYS, my husband's at the Air Guard base. Daycare schedules at the bigger places near Knoxville never matched our shifts. Paws & Applause opens early enough, lets us prepay days and use them flexibly when our weeks shuffle, and our boxer mix actually sleeps at home now after daycare days instead of bouncing off the walls. That's not luck — that's structure."
— J. Hartwell, Alcoa (TYS / 134th ARW family)We're located just 10 minutes from downtown Alcoa via US-129 (Alcoa Highway). It's a straight shot north, making drop-off convenient for Alcoa residents heading to work.
Yes! We offer 10-day and 20-day packages with significant savings. Perfect for Alcoa professionals who need regular daycare.
We serve all of Alcoa including Springbrook, South Hall, downtown, and the airport area. Many McGhee Tyson Airport employees use our services.
Absolutely! We encourage Alcoa pet parents to visit and see why we're different. Tours available by appointment.
Join other Alcoa pet parents who trust their dogs to our professional care.
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