Board & train
Does board and train help with jumping on children?
Children are at face height, they squeal, and they run, which often makes them the most exciting thing in a dog's day. A board and train works on a dog going to place when the door opens and keeping four on the floor for a greeting. It cannot teach an eight-year-old to stop sprinting past the dog. Here is what the curricula work on, what transfers home, and who does the work.
Last reviewed October 4, 2026
What transfers
Place and four on the floor are the dog's half of the deal.
Puppy Fundamentals, three weeks at $2,775 plus GST, lists place command, sit and stay, down and stay, and meeting new sights and sounds calmly, which for a puppy includes small people who move unpredictably. On-Leash Foundations, two weeks at $1,865 plus GST, lists place, sit, stay and down, and working around everyday distractions. Children are not named on either list. What they work on is a dog who knows a spot to go to and a position to hold while something exciting happens nearby.
What a live-in stay cannot change is the other half. A dog learns place in a structured routine with an adult handler, then comes home to a kitchen where a toddler drops cheese and a ten-year-old shrieks at a video game. Those are the real distractions, and they cannot be staged for a dog in training. The program sends home a dog with the skills; your household decides whether place gets asked for every time the door opens or only when someone remembers.
- Place on both skill lists
- Sit and down hold the floor
- Everyday distractions, not children
- Adults hold the standard
Who does what
Adults run the greeting; children get rules, not jobs.
Children never train or test the dog. Before the door opens, an adult has the leash in hand or the dog on place behind a gate, and the dog is released to greet only once it is calm. Children get three rules: walk past the dog, never run; do not call it off place; no chasing games until it has settled. If a child gets knocked over or the dog mouths, that is a conversation with us, not a job for a kid.
Day Training, $650 plus GST per week, Monday to Friday, is worth asking about: the dog is home every evening when the children are, and the weekly one-hour go-home lesson can be spent on that greeting. At the consultation, ask what place looks like by handover and whether the handover lesson can rehearse a door greeting. We recommend the program there, and a smaller one whenever it covers your house. The door routine is in our how-to guide on stopping a dog jumping on children.
Asked and answered
The questions people ask us.
Does board and train fix jumping on children?
It works on place, sit and down, the skills a dog needs in order to greet a child without jumping. It cannot fix the household side: who opens the door, whether the dog is secured first, whether the kids run. A program plus adults who hold the rule is the honest version of the answer.
Which board and train program is for jumping on children?
Puppy Fundamentals, three weeks at $2,775 plus GST, and On-Leash Foundations, two weeks at $1,865 plus GST, both list place, sit and down; Day Training at $650 plus GST per week keeps the dog home each evening with the kids. We make the recommendation at the consultation, and go smaller when smaller is enough.
Can my kids help with a jumping on children training program?
No. Children do not hold the leash, give commands as training, or run at the dog to see whether it holds place. Their part is to follow a few rules an adult sets, and the adult runs every greeting.
What if the dog still jumps on the kids after board and train?
Treat it as information. Go back to securing the dog before the door opens, ask for place, and release only to a calm greeting; then use a follow-up session to go over what the door looks like. If the jumping comes with mouthing or a child is being knocked down, stop the greetings entirely and call us sooner.
Keep reading
Calm greetings for small people
Tell us the ages at home and what the door looks like after school. Book a consultation and we will recommend a program.
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