Day school or stay
Canine Campus vs board and train: home at night, or not
The two programs teach with the same hands and the same fear- and force-free method. The difference is where your dog sleeps and how much of the learning you get to watch. That turns out to matter more than the calendar.
Side by side
Canine Campus runs 2, 4 or 6 weeks of day training; board and train is a 1- or 2-week stay
Canine Campus mixes training and adventure days with pick-up and drop-off, enrichment, walks, real-world exposure, daycare integration when appropriate, daily reports, homework and a lesson at the end. Freshman, the Foundations level, is a 2-week hybrid of roughly 10 training and adventure days for young dogs and new arrivals. Dean's List, Advanced Skills, is 4 weeks and about 20 sessions covering leash skills, impulse control, obedience, confidence, neutrality, household manners and mild-to-moderate reactivity. Graduate, Advanced Resilience, is 6 weeks and about 30 sessions for complex cases: reactivity, serious leash struggles and generalization.
Board and train is residential. Foundation is one week for puppies, young dogs and basic manners, with obedience, leash skills, place, stay, recall, impulse control, crate and household manners, daycare integration, enrichment, daily updates and a go-home lesson. Advanced is two weeks for adolescents needing real-world reliability, adding distraction proofing, outings, neutrality, confidence building and structured socialization, with two go-home coaching lessons. Sessions in both programs start from $94, plans vary with the intensity and complexity of the dog's needs, and we confirm the investment after an assessment.
| Canine Campus | Board and train | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Day training; home every night | Residential stay |
| Lengths | Freshman 2 weeks, Dean's List 4 weeks, Graduate 6 weeks | Foundation 1 week, Advanced 2 weeks |
| Sessions | About 10, 20 or 30 training and adventure days | Daily training across 7 or 14 days |
| Your part | Daily reports and homework; end-of-program lesson | Daily updates; 1 or 2 go-home lessons |
| Transport | Pick-up and drop-off written into the program | Drop off and collect; Pup Van $10 each way |
| Best for | Households home in the evenings; reactivity that needs real-world reps over weeks | Travel weeks; manners and reliability fast |
| Price | From $94 per session; confirmed after assessment | From $94 per session; confirmed after assessment |
What changes the cost
Weeks and complexity set the Campus plan; the one- or two-week choice sets board and train's
Canine Campus is priced by the plan, and the plan varies with intensity and complexity. A Freshman fortnight for a well-adjusted eight-month-old is one thing; a Graduate block for a dog that lunges at bicycles on Stacy Boulevard is another, because the outings, the number of handlers and the pace of exposure all differ. Our trainer writes the plan at the assessment and confirms the investment then. Pick-up and drop-off are written into the program, so the daily commute is not a separate decision.
Board and train has two lengths and the assessment picks one. Foundation is the right week for a puppy or a young dog who needs manners; Advanced is the right fortnight for an adolescent who is fine at home and unreliable in the world. Because the stay is built in, the free daycare evaluation comes first, and Rabies, DHPP and Bordetella must be on file with a current city dog license. If you would like the Pup Van to do the drop-off and collection, it is $10 each way in Rockport, Gloucester, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea.
- Campus: 2, 4 or 6 weeks; the plan reflects intensity and complexity
- Board and train: 1 or 2 weeks, chosen at the assessment
- Both: from $94 per session, and the free daycare evaluation first
Which to choose
Choose Canine Campus if you are home at night and can practice; choose board and train if you are away or need it fast
Canine Campus is the stronger program for most behavior problems, and the reason is repetition in the real setting. A reactive dog learns to pass another dog on Eastern Ave with a trainer during the day and then practices the same skill with you on the evening walk, thirty times over six weeks. The daily report tells you exactly what to do that evening. For leash reactivity, neutrality and household manners, that daily loop between trainer and owner beats two weeks away, and the dog never has to cope with a strange bed on top of hard work.
Board and train is the right choice in three situations: you are travelling anyway and would rather the dog come home better than it left; the household is about to change, a baby, a move to a new house in Rockport, a second dog, and you need the manners in place before the date; or you have tried to practice and honestly cannot, because of shift work, a long commute on the Rockport line or small children. Puppies under about five months and dogs with serious fear are Campus or private-lesson dogs, not board and train dogs, because a frightened dog away from home has less capacity to learn. The assessment exists to match the format to the dog, not to sell the longer program.
- Campus: reactivity, neutrality, leash work, manners, when you can practice each evening
- Board and train: travel weeks, a household deadline, or no capacity to practice daily
- Neither: serious fear, which needs private lessons with you present
The path
How each program runs, from the training form to the last lesson
Both start the same way: the training form on the contact page, a reply inside an hour on business days, and an assessment with Gabriella Pope or one of our trainers to pick the level and confirm the plan. Both include daycare integration, so the free evaluation on a weekday morning between 6:30 and 9:30 comes next, with the vaccination records and the city license. From there the paths split, and so does your part in them.
A Canine Campus dog is collected on program days, trains and adventures, and comes home with a daily report and homework; the block ends with a lesson where you demonstrate the skills. A board and train dog moves into a suite, trains daily, joins a matched playgroup where appropriate, and you read daily updates; Foundation ends with a go-home lesson at pick-up and Advanced with two scheduled coaching lessons. Either way, plan the weeks after the program before it starts.
- 01
Send the training form with the dog's age, the behavior and your evening availability
- 02
Attend the assessment and choose Campus (2, 4 or 6 weeks) or board and train (1 or 2 weeks)
- 03
Complete the free daycare evaluation and hand in the paperwork
- 04
Campus: read each daily report and do the homework that evening
- 05
Board and train: read the daily update and practice the cues it names
- 06
Attend the end-of-program lesson or the go-home coaching lessons
Cape Ann
How Cape Ann shapes both: the beach calendar, Ollie's Law and the trails
Both programs use Cape Ann as the classroom. From October 1 to April 30 Gloucester's beaches take dogs, Good Harbor on even-numbered days and Wingaersheek on odd, which gives Campus adventure days and Advanced outings distance, wind and other dogs at a controllable range. From June 1 to September 15 Rockport's beaches are closed to dogs, and the work moves to the trails at Ravenswood Park in West Gloucester, which welcomes dogs, and to downtown sidewalks, where a July crowd is the best neutrality drill there is.
Because board and train includes a stay, it falls under the same state framework as our overnight stays: Ollie's Law, signed September 20, 2024, and in effect since December 19, 2024, with MDAR's daycare and boarding regulations due in 2026. Canine Campus dogs go home each night, so for them the relevant rules are the evening walk's: a leash where the trail requires it, and a settle on the mat when a nor'easter forecast keeps everyone in. Read the MDAR page for the current version of the law.
- October to April: beach work for both programs
- Summer: Ravenswood trails and downtown crowds
- Board and train sits under Ollie's Law as a stay; Campus dogs sleep at home
At Dogtown
Training with or without the stay
Canine Campus day training and board and train, both led by Gabriella Pope from $94 per session, plus the overnight suites the stay uses.
Asked and answered
Questions people ask about this
Short, complete answers you can act on today. More in the full FAQ.
Is Canine Campus the same as Dogtown Academy?
How many days a week does my dog come in for Canine Campus?
Which is better for a reactive dog?
Can I add a board and train week after Canine Campus, or the reverse?
More questions? Read the full FAQ
Sources
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
Home at night, or not.
Send the training form and tell us your evenings. Our trainer will assess your dog and recommend Canine Campus, board and train or a sequence of both. Replies come within an hour on business days.
- 01Free evaluationWeekdays 6:30 – 9:30 AM
- 02Book a dayOnline, in the app or by phone
- 03Play, rest, repeatReport card at pick-up
