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Red flags in the board and train industry
When a board and train goes wrong, the owner is usually the last to know, because the dog cannot report and the program controls what the family sees. This page covers how loosely the market is regulated, what two cases that reached the news have in common, and which protections actually work.
The definition
A red flag is anything that stops you checking what happens to your dog while you are away
A red flag in board and train is a practice, promise or gap that leaves you unable to verify how your dog is housed, handled and trained during the stay. The format makes this the central risk. Your dog is out of sight for one or more weeks, it cannot describe its days, and nearly everything you learn arrives through the program's own reports. A careful program narrows that gap on purpose; a careless one leaves it wide.
The market does little to narrow it for you. The Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers describes dog training and behavior work as a largely unregulated industry in the United States, and warns that consumers risk hiring people with little or no legitimate education, training or experience. In Massachusetts the licensing that does exist attaches to the kennel, the premises where dogs are boarded or trained for pay, not to the trainer as a professional.
- Your only view of the dog is the program's own clips
- Tools named vaguely, or never in writing
- Results promised by a fixed date
- No clear answer on which town issued the kennel license
- Talk of dominance, alpha status or being the pack leader
Why it matters
Two cases that reached the news share one pattern: owners saw only what they were sent
Massachusetts has its own. The MSPCA tells the story of Ollie, a 7-month-old Labradoodle hurt in a dog fight at a daycare and spa in 2020. When his owner arrived to collect him he had wounds across his body; he spent two months in the hospital and died of his injuries, and she never received answers about how it happened. His case drove Ollie's Law, signed on September 20, 2024 and in force since December 19, 2024.
In California, the Orange County District Attorney prosecuted a trainer who sold boarded training of one to four weeks with daily videos sent to owners. Investigators found that 11 dogs died in June 2025 after being kept in small crates in a hot van; necropsies on nine found heat stroke in eight. Owners were told by text that their dogs had died in their sleep and been cremated. The trainer was convicted of 11 felony counts of animal cruelty and, in July 2026, sentenced to eleven years and ten months in state prison.
Neither case is typical of the industry. Both are reasons to check every program, ours included, rather than trust it. The detail that matters most for you is that the California families received daily videos the whole time. A feed of chosen clips is reassurance, not oversight, and what protects a dog is a set of checks the program does not control.
What protects you
Kennel licensing and honest updates protect you, each within limits worth knowing
Licensing is the outside check. Cities and towns issue kennel licenses after an animal control officer has inspected the premises, the MSPCA explains, and under chapter 140, section 137C, the local authority must inspect every licensed kennel at least once a year; a kennel that refuses an inspector entry can lose its license. The MSPCA adds that when an injury investigation leads to enforcement under Ollie's Law, the outcome will be posted on a state website. None of this watches a training session.
Updates are the inside check, and they are only as good as their honesty. A useful update says what was trained, what went badly, how the dog ate and slept, and arrives at a regular time; a clip is most useful when it runs long enough to show the dog's body, not only the cue. Add the checks a program cannot curate: a visit or a live look, a call to former clients, and a written agreement that names the tools and who decides on a vet visit.
| Protection | What it checks | What it cannot show you |
|---|---|---|
| Kennel license | That an animal control officer passed the premises before licensing | Which tools or methods a trainer uses |
| Yearly inspection | Conditions on the day of the visit | What happens on the other days of the year |
| Daily updates | How the day went, in the program's own words | Anything the program chose to leave out |
| Unedited video, a visit or a live call | Your dog's body language through a whole session | Nights and hours outside what you saw |
| A written agreement | The tools, the terms and who decides on a vet visit | Whether the program keeps to it |
| Trainer certification | That a person passed an exam and signed a code of conduct | How your dog was handled this week |
At Dogtown
We publish what is fixed and say plainly what we confirm at the consult
Some answers are already on our site. Dogtown's training is fear- and force-free and built on positive reinforcement, so a Foundation or Advanced stay involves no prong, choke or shock collars. Every day of a stay ends with an update, and every stay ends with coaching: one go-home lesson after Foundation, two scheduled coaching lessons after Advanced. Gabriella Pope, Director of Training & Canine Behaviorist, leads the programs, and each stay is quoted after a short assessment, with sessions from $94. Our board and train page sets out Foundation and Advanced side by side, with what each includes.
Other answers we give in person rather than in print: whether updates carry photos, video or both, whether you can visit during the stay, how nights are staffed and the kennel license details. Ask every one of them at the consult and hold us to the standard you would hold anyone else to. The free evaluation, on a weekday between 6:30 and 9:30 AM, comes before any nights are booked, and families in Rockport, Gloucester, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea can have the Pup Van do the drop-off for $10 each way.
- Published: force-free methods, an update every day, one or two coaching lessons
- Ask at the consult: update format, visits and night staffing
- Ask at the consult: the kennel license details and the issuing town
- Quoted after the assessment: the price of each stay
If something worries you
If a stay worries you, act the same day, and in this order
Most worries during a stay have an innocent answer: a dog that ate little on the first night, an update that arrived late, a photo of a dog flat out after play. Ask about them straight away rather than waiting for pick-up. A good program answers quickly and specifically. When an answer does not come, or does not match what you can see, the steps below protect your dog first and the facts second.
Before you book, the checks are different, and our how-to page on spotting board and train red flags walks through them. One more yardstick comes from AVSAB's 2021 position statement: if a trainer explains behavior through dominance, leader-of-the-pack or alpha ideas, the statement advises against hiring them, and it holds that methods relying on force, pain or discomfort should not be used at all.
- 01
Ask for a phone call or a live look at your dog the same day
- 02
Put specific questions in writing: where the dog is, what happened and who saw it
- 03
Collect your dog early if the answers do not satisfy you
- 04
Have your own vet examine the dog, and photograph any injury
- 05
Report concerns about conditions to the city or town that licensed the kennel
- 06
Keep every update, message and receipt, with its date
At Dogtown
A stay you can check
Board and train sits within Dogtown's training programs, and every stay uses an overnight suite with 24/7 monitoring.
Asked and answered
Questions people ask about this
Short, complete answers you can act on today. More in the full FAQ.
Is dog training regulated in Massachusetts?
Are daily videos proof that my dog is safe?
Who was Ollie?
Can I visit my dog during a Dogtown board and train?
Does a kennel license mean a program is safe?
More questions? Read the full FAQ
Sources
- CCPDT position statement on mandating certification
- Orange County District Attorney: dog trainer sentenced (July 2026)
- MSPCA on Ollie's Law
- Massachusetts General Laws c. 140, s. 137C (kennel inspections)
- AVSAB position statement on humane dog training (2021)
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
Ask us the hard questions first
Send the training form and bring this page to the consult. We answer what is fixed on the spot and tell you plainly what we confirm at booking.
- 01Free evaluationWeekdays 6:30 – 9:30 AM
- 02Book a dayOnline, in the app or by phone
- 03Play, rest, repeatReport card at pick-up
