Board and train while you travel

Start with what your dog needs, not the length of the trip. Foundation, one week, suits puppies, young dogs and missing manners. Advanced, two weeks, suits adolescents who know their cues at home and lose them outdoors. If your dog needs Advanced and your trip lasts a week, it is usually better to drop off a few days before you leave or collect a few days after you return than to squeeze two weeks of work into one.

Then put the go-home lesson where you can give it your full attention. A lesson on the evening you land, tired from a long flight, wastes the most important part of the program. Leave a day between your return and the lesson if you can. For Advanced, the two scheduled coaching lessons need planning too, so ask Gabby at the consult how they sit around pick-up before you book anything you cannot change.

A drop-off on the morning of a flight is the most stressful version for everyone, the dog included. Drop off the day before if you can, inside a window: weekdays 6:30 to 9:30 AM, 12 to 1 PM or 4 to 6:30 PM, Saturdays 8 to 10 AM, 12 to 1 PM or 4 to 6 PM. Sunday is reserved for overnight guests, 8 to 10 AM and 4 to 6 PM, and whether a board and train can start or finish then is confirmed at the consult.

From Rockport, Gloucester, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea, ask whether the Pup Van, $10 each way, can bring your dog in, which leaves your morning free for packing; outside those towns, ask us about pick-up. If you plan to take the Rockport line toward the airport, remember that the MBTA keeps larger dogs off trains at weekday peak hours, so bring your dog to us by car or van before you set off.

Board and train is the right use of a trip when your dog needs manners or reliability and you can attend the lesson soon after you return. It is the wrong one when the problem is fear, reactivity or separation panic, which change best with you present, or when the trip runs well past two weeks and the lesson would be a long way off. In those cases an overnight stay covers the trip, and the training can follow once you are home.

An overnight suite is $78 a night, with daytime playgroups and 24/7 monitoring. The Dogtown Classic adds $10 a night for a daily pupsicle or puppy cup and 10 percent off grooming; the Dogtown Deluxe adds $15 for a stuffed Kong or Toppl, daily treadmill or enrichment play, the orthopedic memory-foam bed and 15 percent off grooming. After you return, Canine Campus offers 2, 4 or 6 weeks of day training with nights at home. Both stays are laid out on the board and train page.