Home
Board and train
How to follow the go-home plan

The go-home plan

How to follow the go-home plan

The go-home lesson hands you a great deal in one sitting: words, signals, timing, gear and a list of places. This page is about the weeks after it, when the trainer is no longer standing beside you and you have to decide what to practice tonight and what can wait.

Enquire about training See pricing

Golden dog on a blue raised cot with a ball during place work

Last reviewed October 9, 2026 · by the Dogtown team · reviewed by Gabriella Pope, Director of Training & Canine Behaviorist

Before you start

Start by getting the plan onto one page, in the words your dog actually learned

Whatever form your notes take, the first job is to boil them down to a single sheet you can pin to the fridge. Whether Dogtown hands you written notes at the go-home lesson, and in what format, is something we confirm at the training consult, so ask about it then. If nothing is written down for you, write it yourself during the lesson, while the trainer is there to correct you. A plan that lives only in your memory drifts within days.

The page needs five things. The exact cue words, including the marker and the release word, spelled the way the trainer says them. The hand signal for each cue. The rewards your dog worked hardest for, in order. The management rules, such as a leash on at the front door or a gate across the kitchen. And the skills that are still emerging, with a note of where each one held by the end of the stay. Reread the daily updates to fill any gaps.

Cue words, marker and release word, spelled exactly
One hand signal for each cue
The top three rewards, best first
Management rules that stay in place for now
Skills still emerging, and where each one held

Priorities

Rank the skills by risk first, then by how often you use them

Not every skill on the page deserves equal attention in the first weeks. Put the ones that keep your dog safe at the top. The AKC points out that a dog who rushes through an opening door could run off or be hit by a car, and that a strong leave it means you, not your dog, decide what gets eaten, from a cooked bone to a dropped pill. Recall belongs in the same tier. On a busy Gloucester street those three matter far more than a tidy heel.

Next come the skills you use a dozen times a day: place while you cook, a loose leash on the morning walk, four paws on the floor when the door opens. They earn their place because frequent use builds habit quickly. Last come the skills that are good to have, such as a longer stay or a trick your dog enjoys. Park those for a few weeks. A short list practiced daily beats a long list practiced whenever someone remembers.

Tier	Typical skills	Why it ranks there
1, safety	Recall, leave it, waiting at house and car doors	A miss can cost a vet bill or worse
2, daily life	Place, loose-leash walking, calm greetings	Used many times a day, so habits form fast
3, polish	Longer stays, more distance, tricks	Worth having, and safe to postpone for a few weeks

Small white and tan terrier on a blue leash looking up at its handler on a gravel path

The steps

Work the plan in seven steps, starting the evening you get home

The steps turn the page into a routine the whole household can keep: a few minutes of practice, often, in the order the trainer gave you, with the hard places saved for later. They assume the go-home lesson is behind you and that everyone who handles the dog has seen the page. Pin it where the leash hangs, so whoever takes the dog out reads it on the way to the door.

Keep the rewards generous while you do it. The behavior your dog brings home was built on a great deal of payment, and cutting it off abruptly is a common reason a cue starts to fade. The AKC's three Ds apply at home as well: when you move to a harder setting, shorten the duration and the distance, and change only one thing at a time.

01
Read the page the evening of pick-up and circle no more than three priority skills
02
Put the management in place before the first walk: leash at the door, gates up, chews put away
03
Run two or three sessions a day of two to five minutes, each ending on a success
04
Practice each priority skill in the room where it is easiest, then in a second room
05
Take a skill outside only once it works the first time you ask indoors
06
Note every miss with the place, the time and what was going on
07
After two weeks, rewrite the page: promote what is solid and add the next skill from tier two or three

Mistakes we see

The mistakes we see most are new words, dropped management and testing too soon

Families change the words without meaning to. The trainer said place and someone at home says bed; the release was free and it slides into okay. To your dog those are different sounds, so the cue it learned at 210 Eastern Ave quietly stops appearing. The second slip is taking the gate down, or leaving the front door unmanaged, after one good week, which hands the old habit a free rehearsal.

The third is the weekend test. A dog home for four days is taken somewhere crowded to show off its new recall, misses, and the family decides the training did not work. Busy places come at the end of the order, not the start. Gloucester's beaches take dogs from October 1, Good Harbor on even-numbered days and Wingaersheek on odd ones at the time of writing, and a long line there is a fair test once the yard is solid.

The same words from every person in the house
Management stays until the skill holds without it
Hard places last, not first
Rewards stay generous through the first weeks

When to call us

Use the follow-up lesson for the two problems the plan could not solve

Advanced includes two scheduled coaching lessons, and the second is the natural checkpoint for the plan: bring the misses you noted and the trainer adjusts the order. Foundation ends with one go-home lesson, so follow-up after it is a private session, from $94, booked through the training form. How the two Advanced lessons are timed around pick-up is confirmed at the consult. Either way, pick the two problems that cost your household most and leave the rest for later.

Do not wait for a lesson if something is sliding backward quickly. Message the front desk through the Dogtown app, or call 978 491-5922 during opening hours. If the gap turns out to be a feeling rather than a skill, such as new fear of other dogs or distress when left, the next step may be a different program, like React Less, Relax More, rather than more repetitions of the same page.

At Dogtown

Coaching after the plan

Private sessions and Dogtown Academy days keep a trainer involved once you are running the plan at home.

Australian shepherd sitting attentively during training

Dog TrainingFrom $94 per session · Explore

Dogtown trainer playing with a small doodle on the outdoor turf

Dogtown AcademyNewFrom $69 · Explore

Every price on one page

Asked and answered

Questions people ask about this

Short, complete answers you can act on today. More in the full FAQ.

What if I did not get a written plan at the go-home lesson?

Write your own the same evening, while the lesson is fresh: the cue words, the hand signals, the rewards, the management rules and the skills still emerging. Then message the front desk through the Dogtown app with any gaps. Whether written notes come with the lesson is confirmed at the consult, so ask before the stay if it matters to you.

Which skill should I practice first?

Whichever one keeps your dog safest in your household, usually recall, leave it or waiting at the door. A family on a busy road might start with the door; a family near the woods might start with recall. Choose no more than three for the first fortnight and keep everything else exactly as it was at the lesson.

How long should I keep following the plan?

Treat the first two weeks as the core and the first month as the minimum. After that the page turns into ordinary life: a sit before the door opens, place while dinner cooks, a recall on every walk. The skills you keep using and rewarding are the ones that last, so the plan never really ends; it just gets shorter.

Does Foundation include a follow-up lesson?

Foundation includes one go-home lesson at the end of the week. If you want more coaching afterward, book a private session from $94 through the training form. Advanced, the two-week program, includes two scheduled coaching lessons, so its second lesson works as a built-in follow-up after some days at home.

My partner and I disagree about the rules. Which version wins?

The version from the lesson, word for word, until a trainer changes it. Mixed versions are the quickest way to lose a cue. If you genuinely want a different rule, such as allowing the dog on one sofa, raise it at the second Advanced lesson or a private session and write the change onto the page.