Board and train success rates, honestly

A success rate is the number of dogs that met a stated goal, divided by every dog that started, counted at a stated point after the program ended. Each part can be bent without anyone lying. Success can mean a sit on the last day, a calm walk six months later or an owner who says they are happy. The count can include every dog, only those who finished, or only the families who answered a survey. Pick-up day, one month and one year give three different numbers.

Those choices can move a figure by a long way. A program that counts only the dogs it accepted, defines success as performing for the trainer and asks owners on pick-up day will report far more success than one that follows every dog home for a year. When a figure arrives with no definition beside it, treat it as an advertisement rather than a measurement, however precise the decimal point looks.

One careful example exists, for a very different kind of program. In 2022 Collins and colleagues at the ASPCA reported seven years of a rehabilitation program for extremely fearful shelter dogs: 441 dogs entered and 380 graduated, a rate of 86 percent. Graduation meant meeting written placement criteria, checked with standardized behavior evaluations every 21 days and run by handlers who barely knew the dog. Graduates averaged 96 days and about 78 treatment sessions.

Even that report is open about its limits. The authors note there was no untreated control group, for ethical and practical reasons, and their survey of adopters heard back from 46 percent of homes. That is what an honest rate costs: years of records, a fixed definition, outsiders doing the testing and a plain account of what was not measured. Nobody should borrow a number like that to sell a one- or two-week manners stay.

Dogtown publishes no success rate and will not quote one at the consult. What we do publish is the list for each program, an update every day of the stay and a go-home lesson where you handle your own dog: one lesson for Foundation, two scheduled coaching lessons for Advanced. Video in the updates is something we confirm when you book. Each stay is quoted after a short assessment with Gabriella Pope, and training sessions start from $94.

The assessment is also where a stay can be ruled out, which protects any measure you keep. A dog whose main problem is fear, reactivity or panic when left would be judged against a goal a manners stay cannot reach, so it is usually pointed toward an owner-present program such as React Less, Relax More, 8 weeks and 16 sessions. The free evaluation runs weekdays from 6:30 to 9:30 AM at 210 Eastern Ave in Gloucester.