Have you considered boarding and training your dog? At first glance, the program seems like a win-win because of less hassle for you and an ideal structure for the pup. You can even go on vacation while your dog gets all the care and training it needs. However, that isn’t exactly what happens, and there’s a reason why we don’t offer a board and training program for our clients. For all the perceived convenience, board and training costs owners and their furry loved ones.

Here are just three things you can lose when you hand your dog over for boarding and training.
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1. Your Dog’s Trust

Reinforcement is by far one of the most important aspects of training a dog, and we firmly believe it’s also the most effective. However, a good training program takes stern patience, and a busy boarding business may not have time to use the best techniques in certain contexts.

Positive reinforcement and consequences alike can help to teach a dog the difference between right and wrong, but it requires knowing how each dog responds to both. Many, even those who train dogs in their own homes, utilize inconsistent methods that leave owners with confused, poorly trained pets. 

When you hand over your dog, especially when it’s young, to a trainer who doesn’t understand your relationship with your dog, the training may actually be more harmful than helpful. Having the benefit of the owner’s presence and knowledge of their dog’s typical behavior helps to establish better communication during training. Otherwise, inconsistent training can stain your relationship and lead to an unstable pet who can never quite relax the way they would in their typical environment. 

In the long term, damage from poor training in a boarding facility may create even worse habits at home. Dogs may believe they can ignore owners who don’t treat them like the boarding center staff, or the dogs may assume dominance in a home where the humans haven’t been trained alongside their furry friends. 

With The Right Training, Your Dog Can
​Become So Much more Than A Pet:
They Can Be ​A True Guardian!

2. Your Best Opportunities for Effective Training

Sending your dog to bootcamp isn’t the best way to develop basic obedience skills, and wasting a puppy’s early days on a training program that just isn’t going to stick is a waste of time and money. A board and train program is designed to get results quickly but not necessary results that last. The dog stays in a kennel most of the day, and it lives a very different life than it does at home. 

Whatever tricks and commands a dog learns in a boarding facility apply to that space and that lifestyle. Those skills don’t always transfer well to the dog’s home life, which may be very different, and any environmental problems triggering misbehavior are never addressed. This means, eventually, many dogs revert to bad habits once they’re comfortable again in their old spaces.

Private training sessions balance play time and learning in a practical, real-world setting. A dog that has behavioral issues at home learns how to address those issues where they happen, or at least with the people they have behavioral issues with. Professional dog trainers help the owner tweak things like feeding habits, treat-giving, and toy control for an environment that works with instead of against the dog’s lessons.

3. Your Bond with Your Dog

The greatest benefit of taking private lessons alongside your dog is spending time with your pet. This method is the polar opposite of the hands-off training style boarding facilities offer, and for good reason. Presumably, you got a dog because you want to be around it. Dogs make great companion animals, and many owners happily acknowledge their pets as family. Why give the best opportunity to bond with your dog to a complete stranger?

Private sessions improve the bond between dog and owner, equipping the human with skills and techniques our dog trainers use to instill obedience and to grow good habits. Since owners are present during our training sessions, their dogs see them as part of the learning process and can give them the respect and attention they would waste on a disinterested stranger in a boarding center. 

Dogs and humans grow closer and learn to communicate when they learn as a team. Since the owner will be spending the most time with the dog in the future, it just makes sense to focus on that bond. Your dog will learn all kinds of things during training. Going through the process with your pet and participating in the program ensures that you know what’s happening, that your dog respects you, and that you have the best chance of enjoying a thriving pup for years to come.

Contact Ancillary K9 today to learn more about dog training lessons and our available programs.

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