Your dog is most likely to be successful boarding with us if

• They are social with other dogs

• They are comfortable being behind a barrier like a baby gate or fence

• They are welcome on your couch at home

• They are accustomed to hearing typical neighborhood sounds like car doors, other dogs, kids, etc..

• They are able to relax in a crate during the daytime
  
  (there is potential flexibility here if the dog is uncomfortable in a crate but content behind a baby gate).
  
  Comfort in confinement is really important for ensuring that everyone gets enough rest throughout the day!

• They have a level of comfortability with barky dogs behind a barrier. Our home is in a populous neighborhood with lots of other dogs and families - if your dog is easily stressed by hearing other dogs bark, or seeing people and dogs walk by windows, we might not be a good fit for boarding.

• Ideally, they have some level of comfort with seeing stimuli out of a window. We don't get a ton of cars on our street, but our street leads to a park so we get LOTS of human and dog traffic. My dogs are very comfortable watching quietly out the window but this is a tough one for many dogs!

Your dog is not a good fit if:

• They are an intact female dog (intact males are fine).
  We have a small house and in the event that the female goes into season (estrus/heat cycle), it would be challenging to accommodate a thorough separation protocol from other intact male dogs.
  
  (exceptions can be made at an increased rate and with plenty of advance notice - feel free to ask!)

• Your dog has a history of resource guarding from other dogs, as my house is too small to manage this appropriately.

Our home includes:

• Two humans
  (Kira and their partner Matt Langel, who is also an awesome dog trainer!)

• Two dogs

  (Boone is a 7 year old neutered male Border Collie mix and Eno is an 19 month old intact male Australian Shepherd).

• Plenty of cameras so we can supervise dogs even if we aren’t home or if we’re in the other room

• Several baby gates that separate different parts of the house

• Fenced front and back yard, and a whole lot of toys and comfy places to lay! Although the property is fenced, it is not completely escape proof - if your dog has a history of digging out of your property or scaling fences we would not be a good fit.

• Matt (Kira’s partner and also a great trainer!) takes their resident dogs out of the house during the time that the new boarder is coming over for the first time. Clients can take time to look around the house if they'd like to do so (aside from my bedroom/bathroom and office, out of respect for privacy - these are not areas that boarders are typically exposed to anyway unless they're sleeping in our bed at night), and time to ask me any last minute questions. This step is usually about 15 minutes, unless of course you have lots of questions - in which case, emailing first is helpful! 🙂

• Once the dog's human leaves, I let the dog sniff around the house and the yard as much as they want. I do treat scatters and engage the dog more if they seem stressed, but otherwise I like to allow them to take this time to get to know the new environment without any social pressure from dogs or people (including me). This also gives me a great opportunity to just focus on observing them and their body language and what kinds of things they're drawn to. This step can take anywhere from 15 mins - an hour.

• Once the boarder seems satisfied and has stopped sniffing and engaging with the environment, I leash them up and we take a walk to one of our neighborhood parks, where we meet up with Matt and our two resident dogs, Eno and Boone and let all the dogs get to know each other on neutral ground. There are several small quiet parks nearby so it's easy to make this happen. This step takes anywhere from 20 mins - an hour.

• Once we're feeling satisfied with the dynamic with all three dogs, we all go home together. We work on some basic training with all three together.
  
  I text several times throughout this intro process to let you know how it's going.

That depends 100% on the individual boarder!! It is impossible to say what exactly your dog would do each day, as we’re always adjusting to respond to the needs of the individual dog (and any other animals in the home)!

Here’s some examples of activities we might do:

• play and train in the front or back yard

• go on a hike

• go to a park

• have a playdate with a known dog

• participate in one of my private training sessions

• go on a leashed walk

• have a training session in a novel environment like a hardware store

• go to a bar or restaurant

• cuddle on the couch

• play and train with toys

• have a structured training session around the house

• work on grooming procedures