Behavior Camp (Board & Train)

Quick Answer

Behavior Camp is Partners Dogs' 21-night board-and-train program for dogs with significant behavior concerns such as leash reactivity, resource guarding, or anxiety. The price is $6,244, suite accommodation included, and covers 4.5 hours of private lessons, 16 days of DayCamp, and 8 Pet Parenting Classes that transfer the work home. A PD360 assessment confirms fit first.

What Behavior Camp Is

Behavior Camp interrupts an established behavior pattern by changing the environment first. Twenty-one nights inside a structured setting give a dog consistent handling, predictable routines, and controlled exposure to the exact situations that used to set off a reaction, with none of the household variables that dilute the work at home. A camp day is a full day of guided structure: focused sessions on the behaviors in your dog's plan, plus immersive learning alongside dogs already further along in their own programs. That density is the point. A dog collects more structured learning hours in a day than a weekly lesson delivers in months. A PD360 assessment maps your dog's triggers, history, daily routine, and medical context before camp begins, so the plan is built around your dog and not a generic protocol.

Why Reactivity and Guarding Get Harder at Home

Reactivity, resource guarding, and anxiety rarely start as a single incident. They build because the reaction worked for the dog at some point. Lunging at another dog on the sidewalk created distance. Freezing over a food bowl ended a challenge. Pacing and destruction through a long afternoon alone burned off tension that had nowhere else to go. Every time the pattern repeats and pays off, it fires faster and takes less to set off. Home is the hardest place to interrupt it, because the environment, your routine, and your own instinct to soothe or scold are all working against a clean reset.

That is why the fix has to work at the level of a dog's learning, and not only its environment. The Partners Dogs methodology incorporates most forms of feedback for a dog and is phased by behavior and technique depending on the dog's capabilities and learning models. In practice that means desensitization, conditioning, and pattern building layered through the four stages below. Teaching comes first and it is reward-forward; structure and fair accountability enter only once a dog understands what is being asked. No single tool or technique carries the whole program, and what a given dog gets is decided by that dog.

Who Behavior Camp Is For

Behavior Camp is built for dogs with significant behavior concerns: reactivity toward people or other dogs, anxiety that shows up as destruction or an inability to settle when alone, resource guarding over food or space, or a bite history. If your dog's needs are closer to everyday manners and obedience than a safety concern, Foundation Camp is usually the better starting point, and if you are not sure which fits, a PD360 assessment will clarify it.

What Behavior Camp aims for is not a different dog with a new personality. It is a dog whose default response to a familiar trigger has shifted: a glance at another dog on the trail where there used to be a lunge, a settled down-stay by the front door in place of frantic pacing, a dog who keeps eating while you walk past the bowl. Those new defaults hold up because they are built the same way the old ones were, through repetition in real conditions, not because something flips overnight.

What's Included, and What It Costs

Behavior Camp is $6,244, suite accommodation included. That covers 21 nights of behavior-focused boarding; 4.5 hours of private lessons (a one-hour intro, a one-hour working demo, the 1.5-hour Transition Lesson at pickup, and a one-hour follow-up around week four); 16 days of post-camp DayCamp; 8 Pet Parenting Classes; the Pet Parent Guide with 8 or more hours of on-demand video; and daily Pupdates while your dog is with us. End to end, plan on roughly 12 weeks: 21 nights in camp, then the practice days and classes that follow.

Payment happens in three steps:

To reserve dates: a $100 deposit. The deposit is never refunded as cash. With 48 or more hours' cancellation notice, it converts to store credit you can use toward any other program, class, or service. Inside 48 hours, it may be forfeited because it blocks trainer time set aside for your dog.
At check-in: 50% is due.
At pickup: your balance must be $0.

Financing is available through third-party lenders for families who want to spread the cost across monthly payments. Approvals, rates, and terms are set by the lender, so ask your enrollment coordinator about current options or read Financing Options for the step-by-step process. Financed services are not refundable.

The PD360 Assessment Comes First

A PD360 assessment is required before booking Behavior Camp. It reviews your dog's history, triggers, daily routine, and medical context so we can confirm fit and build the plan around your dog specifically. The assessment is $199 for the first dog and $149 for a second dog, and that cost is applied to your account as store credit when you enroll in a recommended camp or membership.

On assessment day, your dog spends the day being evaluated across environments and around other dogs. The trainer breaks down what they saw at pickup, your PD360 score updates afterward, and you get a program recommendation with the timeline, inclusions, and cost laid out before you book.

How the 21 Nights Are Structured

Every day in camp follows a rhythm: engagement and structure in the morning, controlled behavior work around midday, real-life scenarios like door greetings and handler swaps in the afternoon, then a decompression walk and a wind-down in the evening. Trainers track stress signals, appetite, stool, energy, and sleep, and the plan moves at your dog's pace. Across the 21 nights, that daily rhythm builds through four stages.

Teaching

Camp opens by installing daily structure: crate and place routines, clear leash handling, and a reward marker your dog learns to trust. Trainers identify your dog's specific triggers and thresholds, the distance or intensity at which your dog can still think, and use that reading to set a safe starting point. Nobody starts at the hardest version of the trigger. The early goal is lower arousal, more handler focus, and a routine your dog can predict.

Reinforcing

Once a dog is settled into the routine, training moves into controlled exposure: a dog or person at a safe distance, a doorway, handling, or a resource, repeated in a setup a trainer controls. Every exposure is paired with a specific alternative the dog can actually do. Hold a watch. Settle on place. Move through a heel pattern. Disengage on cue. The alternative is what gets rewarded, and the old reaction stops paying.

Proofing

As the new response gets reliable, trainers add distraction, duration, and distance, and vary the surfaces, spaces, and contexts where your dog practices. Public manners get rehearsed directly: approaches, thresholds, polite passing, and the recovery that follows a startle, since a dog who cannot come back down stays primed for the next one. The target is a dog who responds to a cue on the first or second ask even as the challenge increases, not only in the setup where the behavior was first taught.

Maintenance

The Transition Lesson at pickup hands the plan to you directly: cues, leash mechanics, how rewards are scheduled, and the house rules that keep the new behavior valuable at home. You leave with a 30-day home plan. The 16 days of DayCamp and 8 Pet Parenting Classes built into the program give your dog supervised reps through the weeks after camp, so a new default has time to become the normal one before the structure that built it goes away.

While Your Dog Is in Camp

Most of your job while your dog is with us is to stay reachable and start setting the house up the way the plan will expect it: the crate where it will live, the feeding routine, the door your dog will be practicing at.

If your dog needs safety equipment such as a muzzle for a specific handling situation, we condition it positively so it becomes predictable, and we show you how to fit and use it at home if you will need it there too.

If your dog goes off food, needs a slower ramp on a trigger, or anything else needs your attention, we call you directly. For a health concern, we coordinate with your veterinarian as appropriate.

You will hear from us daily through Pupdates: photos and video with a short note in your dog's voice describing what they worked on, plus periodic trainer context on progress, sticking points, and what is coming next. At the Transition Lesson you will see the skills live and practice the handoff yourself before you take your dog home.

How to Enroll, Step by Step

Enrollment runs as one sequence, from your first call to your last Pet Parenting Class:

Complete a PD360 assessment to confirm fit and get your program recommendation, timeline, and cost.
Reserve your dates with the $100 deposit.
Verify vaccinations, complete your Parent Portal profile, and pack for check-in.
Check in. Review the safety plan, your dog's triggers, and the home rules you want reinforced. 50% is due that day.
Camp runs 21 nights, with daily Pupdates so you can follow along.
Pick up your dog at the Transition Lesson, settle the balance to $0, and take home your 30-day plan.
Spend the following weeks on your 16 DayCamp days, your 8 Pet Parenting Classes, and the week-four follow-up lesson.

Before check-in, confirm your dog is at least 20 weeks old and has been fully vaccinated for at least one week. We require rabies, DHPP/DAPP, and Bordetella; canine influenza and leptospirosis are not required. See our Vaccination Policy for the full list. Pack labeled food, any medications with written instructions, a flat or buckle collar, and a non-retractable leash.

After Pickup: Keeping It at Home

Hold the cues and house rules from your Transition Lesson even on the days your dog seems not to need them. Consistency is what keeps a new default valuable, because a dog is always sampling whether the old behavior still pays. Use your week-four follow-up lesson while something is still a small slip, before it has rebuilt itself into the old pattern. Spread the 16 DayCamp days across the weeks after camp so your dog keeps getting supervised reps while the new behavior is still setting. And bring the whole household to at least one Pet Parenting Class. A rule your dog hears from one person and not another is a rule that will not hold.

A little backsliding once your dog is back in its own environment is normal and does not mean the work didn't take. Treat a slip as information, not failure: keep sessions short and frequent, and bring it to your follow-up lesson, a DayCamp day, or a Pet Parenting Class early, before the old pattern has a chance to settle back in.

When Behavior Camp Is Not the Right Program

For most families managing reactivity, resource guarding, or anxiety, Behavior Camp is the professional-help step. No training program can guarantee a specific outcome or timeline; results depend on your dog's history, health, and follow-through at home.

Severity by itself does not disqualify a dog. If the concerns are broader or deeper than 21 nights can address, for example several overlapping behavior problems or a complex bite history that needs a longer runway, Transform Camp runs the same approach over 28 nights. If your dog has bitten and you are managing daily risk right now, separate and manage first, and tell us when you book so the safety plan is built around it. And if a behavior changed suddenly, tracks with pain, or has a possible medical or neurological cause, that is a veterinary question first; we coordinate with your veterinarian directly before treating it as a training problem.

Frequently Asked Questions

What problems is Behavior Camp best for?

Reactivity (barking or lunging at dogs or people), anxiety (can't settle, destructive when left alone), resource guarding (growling or freezing over food, toys, or space), and similar safety concerns. If you're not sure whether your dog's needs fit here or with Foundation Camp, the PD360 assessment will clarify the right starting point.

Do I need a PD360 assessment first, and what does it cost?

Yes. Behavior Camp is not bookable without one, because the plan, the trigger list, and the safety setup all come out of it. The assessment is $199 for the first dog and $149 for a second dog, and that cost is applied to your account as store credit when you enroll in a recommended camp or membership.

How is Behavior Camp different from Foundation Camp?

Foundation Camp targets everyday manners and obedience for dogs whose behavior is not a safety concern. Behavior Camp adds behavior-specific protocols and controlled exposure work to turn a rehearsed reaction into a calmer default. It runs 21 nights against Foundation Camp's 14, and includes 4.5 hours of private lessons against 3.5. Both carry 16 post-camp day-program days plus 8 Pet Parenting Classes; Behavior Camp uses DayCamp days and Foundation Camp uses DaySchool days.

Do I have to pay upfront, and can I finance Behavior Camp?

Reserving a date requires a $100 deposit. It is never refunded as cash; with 48 or more hours' cancellation notice it converts to store credit toward any other program, class, or service. At check-in, 50% is due, and your balance must reach $0 before pickup. Financing is available through third-party lenders, with approvals, rates, and terms set by the lender. Financed services are not refundable.

Is training guaranteed?

No training program can guarantee outcomes. Results depend on your dog's history, health, and how consistently the plan is followed at home. Behavior Camp gives you a clear, individualized plan, direct coaching, and structured practice time afterward so progress has real support behind it.

What if my dog regresses after coming home?

Some regression is normal as the environment changes. Stick with your 30-day home plan, keep sessions short and frequent, and use your follow-up lesson, DayCamp days, and Pet Parenting Classes to troubleshoot early, before the old pattern settles back in.

See Foundation Camp if your dog's needs are closer to everyday manners than a safety concern, and Transform Camp for dogs whose behavior needs extend beyond a 21-night program. The private lessons built into Behavior Camp are the same lessons described in Private Lessons, and our Financing Options guide covers current payment plans in detail.

Explore Behavior Camp to book a PD360 assessment and get your dog's plan started.