What is your staff-to-dog ratio?

The Ollie's Law advisory committee spent several meetings on this distinction. In December 2025 a member put it simply: supervision means direct supervision, so a group of 45 dogs would need three people in the area, while a building-wide ratio only applies when dogs are kept apart. A kennel can truthfully quote one staff member per fifteen dogs for the whole building while one person stands alone in a yard full of them. The figure that matters is the one in your dog's room.

A board and train adds a third count, because training is usually one person working with one dog. A member's draft shared in August 2025 proposed one person to four dogs for trainings, a reminder that training time and play time are staffed differently. So ask for three figures rather than one: who is with your dog in training blocks, how many people stand with its playgroup, and who is in the building at night. Each answer should come with a reason.

Here is what is fixed. Training in every Dogtown program is led by Gabriella Pope, our Director of Training & Canine Behaviorist, and board and train dogs spend their days on short training blocks, rest and enrichment, joining a playgroup of 7 to 10 when ready. Groups are matched by size, play style and temperament at the free evaluation, with rest breaks and water stations through the day, and nights are spent in an overnight suite with 24/7 monitoring.

The headcount for your dates is a conversation rather than a printed figure, because it shifts with the group, the hour and the season, and a July week on Cape Ann is not a quiet Tuesday in February. Ask at the consult how many people will be with your dog's group, who runs its training blocks and who is on site overnight, and we will answer for the days you want. Our page on staff ratios and supervision covers each setting in more depth.