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Hosting season
Board and train before holiday guests arrive
Holiday hosting asks more of a dog in one afternoon than most weeks do: the bell rings again and again, coats and bags pile up, and a table full of food sits at nose height. Training for it works best in the quiet weeks before, so the dog meets the first guest as something it has already rehearsed.
The November window
The November window runs from the evaluation to about a week before the first guests
Work backward from the day the house fills. A stay that ends a week or more before Thanksgiving leaves you evenings to practice the door and the dinner settle with family members playing guests, before the real ones arrive. That puts a Thanksgiving stay in the first half of November, with the free evaluation, held only on weekday mornings between 6:30 and 9:30, ahead of it. For a Christmas gathering, Christmas Day falls on Friday, December 25, and the same logic points to the first days of December.
We do not publish holiday availability for board and train or a booking lead time; both are confirmed when you send the training form and meet Gabriella Pope at the consult. Unlimited daycare members hold priority for holiday overnight-stay reservations, a published benefit that applies to overnight stays. If no training dates fit before Thanksgiving, our holiday overnight-stay page covers care for the dinner itself, and the training can follow in January, when the house is quiet again.
- 01
October: send the training form with the date of your first gathering
- 02
Book the free evaluation for a weekday morning between 6:30 and 9:30
- 03
Agree the program and the lesson date with Gabriella Pope
- 04
Early November: the Foundation week
- 05
The week after: rehearse the door, the greeting and dinner, with family playing guests
- 06
Holiday itself: leash on at the door, the mat by the table, a quiet room ready
Door manners
Door manners mean a wait at the threshold and a mat to go to when the bell rings
Two skills cover the door. The first is a wait: the dog holds back while the door opens and goes through only on a release word, which the stay practices at thresholds throughout our building. The second turns the doorbell into a cue. The bell rings, a treat lands on a mat a few steps from the door, and over many repetitions the dog starts heading for the mat at the first chime instead of the handle. Both are built force-free, with the dog paid for the choice you want rather than corrected for the one you do not.
At home, management backs the training up through the season. A gate across the hall, or a leash clipped on before the door opens, means one excited arrival cannot undo a week of work. Put the mat where the dog can see the door but not reach it, and keep a jar of treats on a shelf nearby. Our door-dashing page covers the wait in detail; the version for guests adds coats, bags, cold air and sometimes a visiting dog, so rehearse with a friend in a winter coat before the holiday.
- A gate or a leash before the door opens
- A mat in sight of the door, out of reach of it
- Treats on a shelf by the door, not in a pocket upstairs
- One rehearsal with a friend in a winter coat
Greetings
Greetings happen one guest at a time, with four paws on the floor and a quick return to the mat
A holiday arrival is rarely one person. It is a family of five, a grandmother with a casserole and a toddler who runs straight in. The stay builds the dog's side of the greeting: a sit or four paws on the floor earns the hello, and a jump ends it. Your side is the order of events. Let guests come in, put down the food and take off their coats while the dog waits on its mat, then invite one person at a time to say hello to a calm dog on a leash.
Brief the guests. A short script by the door helps: wait for four paws on the floor, keep greetings low and calm, and turn away if the dog jumps. Older relatives and small children are the guests to protect, since an excited dog can knock either over. A guest who dislikes dogs should be free to skip the greeting entirely, while the dog stays on its mat. If your dog jumps on everyone, not only at the door, our page on jumping and polite greetings covers the full method.
- Guests settle in first while the dog waits on its mat
- One greeter at a time, with the dog on a leash
- Four paws down earns the hello; a jump ends it
- Older relatives and small children greet seated, if at all
Dinner settle
The dinner settle is place with a long chew, out of reach of the table and the plates
Place is on the Foundation list, and a holiday dinner is where it pays off. The mat goes against a wall, out of the path from kitchen to table, and the dog gets something that lasts: a stuffed food toy or a chew it only sees at mealtimes. The stay builds duration in small steps, so a long meal is a matter of more repetitions rather than a new skill. At the go-home lesson you practice releasing the dog properly, because a settle that ends whenever the dog decides is not yet a settle.
Holiday food is a real hazard, not only a manners problem. The ASPCA lists grapes and raisins, which can damage a dog's kidneys; onions, garlic and chives, which can damage red blood cells; chocolate; the sweetener xylitol; fatty nuts; and bones among the foods to keep away from pets. A dog settled on a mat cannot help itself to the stuffing, but a guest can still slip it a bite. Ask everyone not to feed the dog, and keep the ASPCA Animal Poison Control number handy: (888) 426-4435.
- The mat against a wall, away from the kitchen path
- A long chew that only appears at mealtimes
- No scraps from guests, however small
- Grapes, onions, chocolate and bones off low tables
Limits
A dog that fears strangers or guards food needs a different plan, and sometimes an overnight stay for the day itself
Board and train teaches skills to a dog that likes people and is simply excited by them. It does not fix a dog that hides from visitors, growls when someone reaches for it or guards food, and a house full of strangers and plates is a hard place to test either. Those dogs need a consult and work with you present, such as Calm & Connected for stranger concerns or Polished Pup for resource guarding. For this year's gathering, an overnight suite at $78 a night keeps the dog safe and the table calm while that work begins.
For the right dog, the daily updates are your rehearsal notes: how many people it greeted politely, how long place held near distractions and how it handled the door. Read them before the go-home lesson and bring your household's hardest guest scenario as a question. After the holiday, a Dogtown Academy day, $89 full or $69 half, keeps a training session in the week, and the Pup Van collects from Rockport, Gloucester, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea for $10 each way.
At Dogtown
Before the house fills
A training stay for the weeks ahead, an overnight suite for the busiest day and Academy days to keep the manners going.
Asked and answered
Questions people ask about this
Short, complete answers you can act on today. More in the full FAQ.
Is it too late to train before Thanksgiving?
Should the dog be at the holiday table at all?
Foundation or Advanced for holiday guests?
What should guests be told before they arrive?
Can the dog do a training stay and then an overnight for Thanksgiving Day?
More questions? Read the full FAQ
Sources
Rules and dates change. We re-check every beach, licensing and ordinance page each spring and fall; the source above is the current word.
Keep reading
Next step
Rehearse the doorbell before the guests ring it.
Send the training form with the date of your first gathering. We reply within one hour on business days and confirm what is open.
- 01Free evaluationWeekdays 6:30 – 9:30 AM
- 02Book a dayOnline, in the app or by phone
- 03Play, rest, repeatReport card at pick-up
