Board & train
Does board and train help with humping?
Dominance is the explanation people reach for, and in our experience it is rarely the useful one. Humping tends to come from a dog who is over the top: a greeting that went too fast, play that tipped over, an evening with nothing to do. That matters for the program question, because a live-in routine is good at lowering the temperature and teaching impulse control, and no good at rearranging your living room.
Last reviewed October 4, 2026
Arousal, not rank
Impulse control is in every curriculum; the cushion is not.
Look down the published curricula and humping is on none of them, which is honest: it is a symptom, and the programs work on the dog underneath it. Puppy Fundamentals, three weeks at $2,775 + GST, works on sit and stay, down and stay, place, and meeting new sights and sounds calmly. On-Leash Foundations ($1,865 + GST for two weeks) covers stay, place and working around everyday distractions. Those are impulse control skills, and an over-aroused dog is short of them.
What a live-in program can change is the dog's baseline. Daily one-on-one training, a structured routine, exercise and enrichment tend to take the edge off a dog who arrives wound up, and structured socialization means greetings are arranged rather than left to run. What it cannot change is the setup at home: the guest who laughs, the cushion on the floor, the wrestling match before bed. New or persistent humping is a vet question too, and no program replaces that call.
- Excitement first, dominance rarely
- Place and stay under distraction
- Greetings arranged, not improvised
- Your living room stays your job
Back on the couch
Guests, greetings and the questions for the consultation.
The handover lesson sends you home with the dog's new skills and a job: run the same structure the dog has been living. Guests sit down, the dog goes to place. Play gets a pause before it tips over. Arrivals at the door get slowed down. None of that is complicated, and all of it has to happen in your house, not ours. For the step-by-step method, our guide How to stop a dog humping is the place to go.
Day Training, $650 + GST per week, runs Monday to Friday, drop-off 8 to 10 am and pick-up 5 to 7 pm, so the dog is home every evening to practise the couch, with a weekly one-hour go-home lesson to adjust the plan. At the consultation, bring the when: greetings, play, guests, or a quiet evening, and ask which skills the recommended program works on for that moment. The consultation decides the program, and a smaller format is put forward when it is enough.
Asked and answered
The questions people ask us.
Does board and train fix humping?
It works on the dog underneath the humping: impulse control, place and stay around distractions, and calmer, arranged greetings. Whether that holds at home depends on the household running the same structure, which is what the handover lesson is for. If the humping is new, persistent or looks distressed, a vet visit comes before any program.
Is humping a dominance problem that board and train corrects?
In our experience humping is far more often arousal and excitement than a bid for rank, so we do not treat it as something to be dominated out of a dog. The programs work on self-control and settled manners, and no one here will tell you to punish it.
Which humping training program fits a dog who humps other dogs at the park?
Park humping is often a play-arousal problem, and the skills that matter are a recall and a reliable interruption. Functional Off-Leash, three weeks at $3,030 + GST, works on reliable recall around distractions and off-leash manners; the consultation looks at your dog, and if a smaller program covers it, that is the one we name.
Can board and train help a dog who humps guests?
It can build the skills a dog needs when the doorbell goes: a place command with duration, a sit that holds while people arrive, and steadier manners from a structured routine. What it cannot do is coach your guests, so the handover lesson is where you learn to run arrivals yourself. Our guide How to stop a dog humping covers that method in detail.
Keep reading
Lower the temperature first
Book a consultation and tell us when the humping happens. We will say which program works on it, or whether a smaller format does.
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