Board & Train is a package of sessions where you board your dog at a kennel facility or a
trainer's home for a period of 2-6 weeks, and during this time they train your dog for you.
After completion of the training period, your dog is returned to you and you are then
required to meet with the trainer to learn how to use the trainer's techniques.  If you
don't meet with the trainer, then everything your dog has learned will fall apart within
days-to-weeks because you won't know how to communicate with your dog.  What a waste
of money, huh?

Some trainers who offer Board & Train use a shock collar on your dog, so they aren't
really teaching your dog what to do - they are teaching your dog what NOT to do and then
using the shock collar as punishment.  Naturally, a shock collar trainer will use words like
'stim' rather than shock, 'reminder' rather than correction, 'static' rather than pain.  In
the end, however, a shock collar is a shock collar - and they're outlawed in many parts of
the UK, Scotland, Belgium, Rome, Australia, and New Zealand.  Those countries outlaw
shock devices because they are painful, frightening and inhumane to dogs -- no matter
what a shock collar trainer will tell you.  I've worked with a shock collar - they are
inhumane and unnecessary.

Back to Board & Train classes!  The question you want to ask is does Board & Train really
work?  In a word, maybe.  The trainer can certainly teach your dog and the trainer can
teach you.  YOU, however, need to ask yourself if you are willing to meet with the trainer
after the sessions and then actually practice on a committed and consistent basis.  My
question to people is, "if you aren't committed enough to meet for in-home sessions, then
how can I trust that you are committed enough to meet after your dog and I have done
the work through Board & Train?"  You've got to meet at some point and you've got to
practice and you've got to be diligent, consistent and committed.  So I often wonder why
people don't do that from the get-go and choose In-Home sessions rather than Board &
Train?

Maybe you're taking a trip for several weeks and this is an ideal time for your dog to be
boarded and learning at the same time.  If so, then Board & Train makes great sense - as
long as you commit to your learning period after you return.  Immediately after you
return.  Because of the way Mother Nature equipped our dogs, dogs are not able to
generalize - they simply lack the ability to generalize, which is an ability that we humans
are born with.  So if you don't communicate with the same techniques that your trainer
used, your dog will not understand you.  If you leave a gap of even a couple of weeks after
you've returned from your trip, the dog's new skills will fall apart because they aren't
born with the ability to generalize what they learned from the trainer to doing it with you!
 And there goes all that learning along with your financial investment.  No matter how good
the trainer is, if you don't do the work after then it's all wasted.  Even with the shock
collar, if the owner doesn't know how to properly use the collar (and it's more complex
than just pushing a button that gives a shock; it requires understanding the behavior and
how to teach it with consistency so you use the button at the right time every time) then
not only are you being painful to your dog, you are being confusing and your dog will not
understand what you want.  I've worked with plenty of dogs who graduated from 6 week
Board & Train programs, costing thousands of dollars, who didn't know how to respond to
the owner's request.

Board & Train are great packages for the trainers.  They packages cost more money
because the trainer works multiple hours every day with your dog.  And you get charged
for sessions after the package has completed whether you actually make the session or
not.  From my experience, most people attend only the first session after completion, and
the rest they get too busy to schedule.  It's less expensive to do it right the first time
and enroll in In-Home sessions, where you get the one-on-one focus in your home.  While
I've never measured it, I'll bet that In-Home sessions are also quicker because both you
and your dog learn at the same time.  In spite of the illusion that Board & Train might be
better because it's a focused window of time with deep-dive learning, I believe you can
achieve more memorable and faster success with In-Home sessions.

I do offer Board & Train sessions on a very limited basis only to people I think will make
the long-term commitment so the learning can be successful.  I want to know that my
teaching makes a difference in contributing to a happier and more communicative
relationship between you and your dog.  If you'd like to learn more, please phone me at
248-232-3655.
DO BOARD & TRAIN CLASSES REALLY WORK?
THE PET TEACHER
In-YOUR-Home Dog Training
248-232-3655