Frequently Asked Questions
What does a daily schedule look like for a Day Train or Board & Train dog?
Board & Train:
Unlike many other training programs, dogs enrolled in our board & train programs live in their trainer’s home. This means they experience the comfort and variability of a normal daily home life. Overnight, they sleep in their crates. They wake up between 6-7am, and go to bed around 10pm. While each day looks different, Mondays through Fridays they come to the facility where they spend their day time hours training, exercising, learning and playing. On weekends they do these activities at their trainer’s home or out in the community. Every day incorporates structured, active training sessions where we teach new skills, passive training sessions like tethered place time or chew sessions or other forms of settling in the presence of distractions, one on one and/or group play, and a rotation of field trips like trail walks, nature hikes, patio outings, and other public experiences as their training progresses. We generalize their training to a wide variety of activities and experiences to support real world success and inclusion at home. In between learning and activity, dogs get down time in their crate during the day to promote healthy rest, extrapolation and retention of new skills.
Day Train:
Dogs enrolled in our day train programs experience the same daily activities Monday through Friday at our facility as the board & train dogs, but they go home with you at night and on the weekends! Day Train dogs participate in more training on site, which still includes trail walks, patio outings and urban exposures within our plaza. Advanced Day Train dogs will further their off leash training and generalization of skills with more field trips within a longer length program.
Do you offer a training guarantee?
While we work diligently to ensure each dog’s learning progress, it’s important to understand that dog training is not a magic wand. Dogs are living, sentient beings and not computers we can program. What we can guarantee is that if you follow our training recommendations and put in the work to maintain your dog’s training at home, you will see positive results. We can also guarantee that we will provide you with thorough owner education to help you become the best handler for your dog, with clear instruction on how to use your training and set up your environment to promote success.
We can never guarantee a “cure” for behavior problems, as behaviors can be rooted in various things from genetics to early experiences to lack of exposure and more. Some behaviors can be truly modified while others may need lifelong management, and this is entirely dependent on the individual dog and their makeup. What we can do is help figure out what will best support your dog’s individual growth, and help you learn how to make life with them the happiest and easiest via training, management strategies and behavior modification techniques.
We aim for off leash reliability in all of our Board & Train and Advanced Day Train programs, while recognizing that some dogs may not be appropriate candidates for off leash experiences. This may include dogs with extreme levels of fear or aggression. We will always provide honest assessment and feedback for realistic expectations for your individual dog.
How do I learn to maintain my dog’s training at home after graduation?
All of our training programs include owner education! We will teach you how to access all of your dog’s new skills and integrate them into your life together. You will receive written training resources in your client portal, one on one lessons with your trainer, and access to drop in group classes exclusive for our training graduates as an opportunity to practice your dog’s training in a controlled environment. You will have detailed instruction on how to successfully adjust your dog to life at home post-training.
Can I visit my dog during a Board and Train?
You will get to see your dog during your halfway lesson, and at the end of their program during their graduation lessons. We do not offer visits outside of lesson times as this is counterproductive for your dog’s progress. Dogs do not experience time the way humans do; they live in the moment, and while they do understand change, they do not perceive time elapsed. This is why they are just as happy to see you whether you have been gone for 3 hours, 3 days or 3 weeks! While your dog is with us, they immerse fully into the experience, which to them feels like summer camp! We do not want to create confusion for them with unstructured visits that get them excited and disrupt their adjustment with us, only to have you leave again. This benefits the humans far more than the dogs. Your halfway lesson, however, serves as purposeful time spent beginning the process of transferring skills, and allow us assessment of how your dog will respond to your handling so that we may address gaps in their learning during the remainder of their program. You will get to experience the joy of being with them during their time away during this time without disrupting their training process.
How do e collars work?
E collars allow communication with dogs through a language they naturally understand: touch. They are muscle stimulators, utilizing the same technology as a TENS unit, which pulses the muscle with electrical stimulation. This technology is NOT the same as an antiquated shock collar, which uses static “hot” electricity, causing pain. The e collars we use have 100 levels, ranging from a barely perceptible tickle to a more intense, startling pulse at high levels.
From a scientific standpoint, the e collar uses negative reinforcement, which can be a powerful part of the learning process, and can actually build a dog’s confidence and resilience. Negative reinforcement requires an aversive stimulus to be present, which a dog learns it can remove by engaging in a certain behavior, thus motivating the dog to repeat that behavior. This is one of the most natural ways all species learn, and dogs learn by negative reinforcement with other dogs and in nature all the time. For example, a puppy wants to jump at an adult dog’s face and the adult dog does not enjoy this. The adult dog might hard stare at or stiffly move forward towards the puppy, maybe even give a warning growl, applying an aversive stimulus, or pressure, until the puppy gets the hint and backs off or engages in a different way. The puppy learns to approach the adult more respectfully. Another relatable example is the beep in your car that goes off if you don’t put your seatbelt on. The aversive stimulus of the beep motivates you to put your seatbelt on, and increases the likelihood that you will do that behavior more readily in the future. For negative reinforcement to work effectively in the learning process, the aversive stimulus needs to be mild, easily escapable and released at the proper time. The dog learns it can succeed in removing an aversive feeling, which aids in building confidence.
We can condition the stimulation from the e collar to have a positive association for the dog, just like how Pavlov made the sound of a bell a positive cue for hungry dogs. The stimulation of the e collar isn’t inherently perceived that way, though, just like a bell without the association to food isn’t inherently perceived positively. When we teach dogs the e collar, we start by showing them how to turn off the very low pressure of the stimulus by coming to their human, which we then reward with a treat! Soon, the dog learns the stimulation as a prompt to do a behavior, and that they will be rewarded for following through. Imagine if the beep in your car went off, you put your seatbelt on, and then got paid $10 every time you did it; that’s how we train your dogs to the e collar!
Before your dog ever feels the stimulation of the e collar, we teach all new behaviors and marker words through positive reinforcement. Only after they have a clear understanding of their new commands do we begin conditioning them to the e collar. We look at e collar training as the “icing on the cake” of a great training foundation. An e collar does not inherently solve behavioral problems nor provide a quick fix; it simply enhances communication. E collars provide reliability on and off leash, as well as at a distance, by creating non-negotiable boundaries you are able to enforce in a non-confrontational or emotional way. We believe all dogs deserve more freedom in their everyday lives, and the fulfillment that comes from unrestricted off-leash movement in nature is the peak of happiness for our canine companions. E collar training creates this reality in the safest way possible.
Where do the dogs sleep during a board & train program?
The dogs enrolled in our board & train programs sleep in a dedicated “rest room” in their dog trainer’s home. They are in appropriately sized crates with room to stretch out comfortably, and are provided bedding safe for their individual needs. We take limited board & train dogs at a time, so they are only ever kenneled with a couple other dogs in a bedroom-like environment. We keep our kennel rooms peaceful, calm and safe via temperature control and monitoring, 24/7 camera monitoring, and supportive tools like soft music and sound machines to promote relaxation. Training dogs are never housed in noisy, kennel type environments or off-site buildings.
Why is Enrichment Day School better than day care?
Our Enrichment Day School programs are exclusively offered to graduates of our Day Train and Board & Train programs, cultivating a unique experience with trained, stable dogs with whom we have developed in depth relationships. Unlike traditional daycare, where dogs may spend hours in free play that is unregulated, monitored by staff without behavior training, and promotes high arousal, unhealthy habits, our Enrichment Day School provides social opportunities embedded with maintenance of training skills, biological fulfillment and mental stimulation. Dogs enrolled in this program experience varied activities on a day to day basis including:
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Small group play sessions for social dogs, monitored by trainers to promote safe, positive interactions.
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Training practice and skill building
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Public outings such as off leash hikes in natures, patio trips, trail walks/runs and more
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Rest periods and down time both around distractions and in quiet spaces
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Enrichment and play games that promote confidence and physical and mental fulfillment
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Maintenance of grooming & handling skills including complimentary nail care as needed
