Behavioral boarding
An overnight boarding program designed to reduce stress and increase safety while you are away!
Have you ever felt like you cannot leave your companion with a sitter or another kennel due to behavioral sensitivities? With Behavioral Boarding, your companion will be kept safe and enriched by certified, professional trainers while you are away. Behavioral Boarding is ideal for fearful dogs, shy dogs, dogs that generally cannot thrive in busy kennel environments, or dogs that cannot attend regular boarding programs due to past bite histories.
While this is a boarding program and does not include structured training, every effort will be made to provide enrichment that is safe for your companion. Since we are a fear-free facility, we will work hard to help your companion transition and associate the presence of our trainers with positivity, which includes counter conditioning training methods to keep everyone safe. If any behaviors observed are a safety concern for our staff, we will work to modify those behaviors in companions that are deemed appropriate to work with in free contact. The main focus of our boarding program is minimizing emotional distress and prioritizing your companion’s behavioral health through low-stress handling and when needed, working in protected contact to empower your dog to make the right choices while staying with us.
Our facility is located on over an acre of land to explore and is situated rurally and privately, cutting down on visual access to triggers and allowing your companion to have a relaxing experience during their stay.
While this is a boarding program and does not include structured training, every effort will be made to provide enrichment that is safe for your companion. Since we are a fear-free facility, we will work hard to help your companion transition and associate the presence of our trainers with positivity, which includes counter conditioning training methods to keep everyone safe. If any behaviors observed are a safety concern for our staff, we will work to modify those behaviors in companions that are deemed appropriate to work with in free contact. The main focus of our boarding program is minimizing emotional distress and prioritizing your companion’s behavioral health through low-stress handling and when needed, working in protected contact to empower your dog to make the right choices while staying with us.
Our facility is located on over an acre of land to explore and is situated rurally and privately, cutting down on visual access to triggers and allowing your companion to have a relaxing experience during their stay.
How it works
All Behavioral Boarding includes:
- On-site supervision
- Clean, private indoor-outdoor kennel runs with no more than six companions at a time
- In-kennel enrichment, calming music, and visual barriers to promote a stress-free environment
- Individual potty breaks
- Administration of daily medication and supplements that your companion is currently taking
- Behavior and health observations sent through our Gingr client software along with photos and videos of your companion during their stay
- Daily play, exercise, and enrichment designed to fulfill your companion's needs emotionally, as well as what is appropriate for their breed. Activities will be offered at the sole discretion of our trainers and at a pace that is comfortable for your companion. Activities may include the following:
- Small playgroups that are appropriately matched by size and play style for social dogs with no history of aggression
- Doggy Parkour using natural environmental elements and/or agility equipment designed to increase confidence and offer your companion choices that empower them
- Digging, scavenging, and foraging games
- Shredding and tearing activities
- Structured playtime with toys
- Relaxation exercises
- Chasing, hunting, and tugging games
- Solo and/or tandem walks
- Free time on over an acre of property to explore and sniff
The finer details
- Drop-off: available 7 days per week between 8 AM - 12 PM
- Pick-up: available 7 days per week by 6 PM
- $125 per day with no minimum requirement
- Your first and last day count toward your overall total of days booked
- If we have never met your companion before, then each initial booking will include a 30-minute meet and greet to be scheduled ahead of your stay
All companions must be up-to-date on all age-appropriate vaccines. You will be required to submit proof of rabies, distemper, bordetella, and have a negative fecal result dated within the last year for any dogs 4-months-of-age or older.
Learning Day add-ons
Due to the high-volume of requests from Behavioral Boarding clients, we now allow "Learning Days" as an add-on to Behavioral Boarding packages. Learning Days are available for $50 each and have some general guidelines:
- Great for clients who would like their companions to graduate into a learning program but are unsure whether or not their companion can thrive in one for an extended period of time.
- Only available as an add-on on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
- Logistics of the Learning Day add-ons will be discussed during the meet and greet with the trainer.
- Learning Days cannot be added until after the decompression period, which is roughly 3 days. Thus, the length of the stay will determine how many or how often they can be added. This allows the staff time to establish trust with your companion before attempting to train in less protected contact.
- It is at the staff's discretion what can be covered. We will not focus on specific goals - this is just to see your companion's strengths and what they are capable of learning in the new environment.
- The staff will coordinate directly during the stay about scheduling those to ensure you stay within budget.
- Learning Days are not guaranteed based on the behavioral history of the dog and/or the behavior we witness during the stay.
- If a Learning Day is attempted and cannot be completed because your companion was not ready, then you will not be charged.
- If your companion is successful, then graduating into a learning program and focusing on goals can be discussed further.
considerations
- Behavioral Boarding services book quickly, so please contact us as far in advance of your needed dates, as possible.
- We have found that it can take an average of three days for companions to get comfortable enough to take treats while in our care, so we encourage guardians to be mindful of that when requesting Behavioral Boarding services.
- Additionally, your companion may be hesitant to eat and/or drink and may experience GI upset during transition.
- None of our programs were designed to assist companions with separation anxiety. Furthermore, we do not recommend any drop-off programs with other facilities who promise to address separation anxiety. We recommend pursuing private, in-home training with a CSAT certified trainer to reduce emotional stress on your companion during the learning process. Please click the link below to learn more about our stance.
