Board and train
Board and train for a dog that has never been away from home
Some dogs have never spent a night anywhere but home. They follow you from room to room, sleep against the bedroom door and treat a trip to the mailbox as a small crisis. Handing that dog over for two or more weeks feels like a big ask, and it is. This page covers what a stay with us is made of, how to prepare, and the questions worth raising before you book.
Last reviewed September 28, 2026
The first separation
The stay is built from a structured routine and individual care.
What a home-bound dog leaves behind is the whole predictable shape of its day, not only the people in it. What we put in its place is another shape. Every board and train includes daily one-on-one training, a structured routine, socialization, enrichment and individual care, and the dog sleeps in clean, comfortable accommodations with fresh water and daily exercise. How any one dog takes to that is not something we can promise from a web page, and we do not try to.
You are not out of the loop while the dog is with us. We post social-media updates and make personal check-ins by phone or email, and we gently discourage visits, since they interrupt that routine. For the owner of a first-timer, a check-in is the natural place to ask how the dog is doing with the separation and to mention anything that has changed at home. A handover lesson and free follow-up sessions round out every program.
- Daily one-on-one training
- Structured routine, socialization, enrichment
- Individual care, fresh water, daily exercise
- Updates and check-ins throughout
Getting ready
Preparation you can do, and the option that keeps the dog home at night.
The welcome package includes a crate-training guide, and crate comfort is a reasonable skill to work on before any stay away from home. How much it helps an individual dog varies, so it counts as preparation rather than a fix. If being left alone brings on signs of separation distress in your dog, a vet is the right first call, ahead of any training decision, and it is worth telling us about at the consultation.
If a live-in program still sits badly with you, the consultation is where to say so. Day Training runs differently: Monday to Friday, drop-off between 8 and 10 am, pick-up between 5 and 7 pm, $650 + GST per week, with the dog home every night. Whether it or a board and train suits your dog is a consultation question, not a question of which is shorter. We recommend the program there, and the smaller one whenever it is enough.
The programs
Programs and prices
NE · 2-week board & train
On-Leash Foundations
If every walk is a wrestling match, pulling, barking, zig-zagging, this two-week program rebuilds the walk from the ground up with foundational on-leash obedience..
Includes handover lesson, follow-up session, lifetime support, slip lead + collar
N · 3-week board & train
Puppy Fundamentals
Your puppy's first months decide the habits of a lifetime.
Includes handover lesson, follow-up session, slip lead + collar
E · 3-week board & train
Functional Off-Leash
Everything in the on-leash program, then the next level: reliable off-leash recall even around distractions.
Includes handover lesson, follow-ups, Educator remote collar
Asked and answered
The questions people ask us.
Can a dog who has never been away from home do board and train?
Sometimes, and the consultation is how we find out rather than a rule of thumb. The stay itself is a structured routine with daily one-on-one training and individual care, and how a particular dog takes to it is exactly what the consultation is for.
Does a dog need to have been boarded before a training program?
No, nothing we publish requires it. The welcome package includes a crate-training guide, which is the one piece of preparation we do publish. If your dog struggles when left alone, that is worth a conversation with your vet and a mention at the consultation.
Is board and train a good idea for a clingy dog?
It depends on the dog, and the word clingy on its own does not decide it. If being alone tips your dog into real distress, a vet conversation comes before any training decision. Either way, the consultation is where fit gets decided, not this page.
Would day training be a gentler first step than board and train?
Day Training runs Monday to Friday with the dog home every night, at $650 + GST per week, with a one-hour go-home lesson each week. Whether that suits a particular dog better than a live-in program is a consultation question, since shorter does not automatically mean gentler for every dog.
Keep reading
First time away? Tell us
Book a consultation and let us know your dog has never been away from home. The recommendation will take that into account.
From real owners
Rated 5.0 on Google.
Real Northline dogs