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Dog Board and Train in the DFW Metroplex
No Shock Collars, Prong Collars, Choke Chains, Slip Leads. Ever.
Board and train means your dog lives with us and works with our certified trainers, then comes home with skills your family knows how to keep. We take puppies, adolescent and adult dogs who need manners, and the fearful, reactive or aggressive dogs most programs turn away. Every program is force-free: no shock collars, prong collars, choke chains or slip leads, for any dog, for any reason.
You'll see the work as it happens. We post daily notes and video updates to our app, send learning material for your family during the stay, welcome you to visit and join a session, and come to your home afterward (location permitting) so the training transfers to where your dog actually lives. We work with families across Dallas–Fort Worth, including Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Allen, Dallas and Fort Worth.
Why Us?
Board & Train programs have traditionally used tools like shock, e-collars, prong collars, choke chains and slip leads to teach compliance. We don't.
Our programs teach dogs to coexist happily - they choose to do what we ask because they want to, not because they have to "or else." Humans predict great things, not fear or pain, when working with Wiggle Butt Academy.
We commit to providing the highest quality learning without the nasty side effects of force.
Our Board & Train Programs
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Goal setting session at your home or by Zoom before your dog starts.
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Approved program posted for the Wiggle Butt team & family.
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Daily updates including videos posted to your app.
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Learning for the family posted throughout the program - we get you ready for dog's return home!
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Interim visits: you're welcome to visit and join a session.
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Go-home prep: nothing will be a surprise, because you've had updates every day.
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At home visit: program includes a follow up visit at your home (location permitting) to check in and ensure learning is transferred.
The Program
Puppy Board and Train
Puppies have a socialization window that closes around sixteen weeks, and what happens inside it shapes how they handle the world for the rest of their lives. That window doesn't wait for your schedule.
Our puppy program focuses on the right education at the right time — critical-period socialization done carefully rather than indiscriminately, early manners, healthy play skills with other dogs, and the handling and body-work practice that makes vet visits and grooming easy later instead of traumatic. We carry that through adolescence, which is when most families find the puppy they raised suddenly stops listening.
No corrections, no leash pops, no aversives. Puppies learn fastest when nothing about learning is frightening.Not sure your puppy needs to stay with us? See all of our puppy programs, including private lessons and group classes.
Puppy board and train runs two weeks and costs $2,550, or $1,275 per week.
Manners Board and Train for Adolescent and Adult Dogs
For families who want training but need a serious jump start. Jumping on guests, counter surfing, pulling on lead, ignoring a recall in the yard — the everyday things that make living with your dog harder than it should be.
Two weeks of structured daily work, then we hand it back to you. Plans run from general manners through Canine Good Citizen preparation depending on what your family actually needs, and we set those goals with you before your dog arrives rather than applying a template.
The two-week program is $2,550, or $1,275 per week.
Board and Train for Aggressive Dogs
Most board and train programs won't take an aggressive dog. The ones that will usually rely on e-collars, prong collars or slip leads to produce fast compliance — which suppresses the behavior you can see while leaving the fear underneath it exactly where it was. The most common result is a dog who stops warning before they bite.
We take these cases, and we take them without pain. Our behavior consultants hold advanced certification — CDBC and CBCC-KA — and have worked bite cases in private practice and in municipal animal sheltering. That covers fear of strangers, dog-to-dog aggression, resource guarding, and dogs with a bite history.
Behavior cases usually run longer than the standard two weeks, and we quote them after a goal-setting session rather than before. Not sure board and train is the right format? Most aggression cases start in your home. Read how our aggressive dog training works.
Board and Train for Reactive Dogs
We also take fearful and reactive dogs, though board and train for reactive dogs isn't always the right call — leash reactivity is tied to the specific places your dog struggles, and some cases transfer better from in-home work. We'll tell you which yours is.
Inclusions
NUISANCE
BEHAVIORS
SOCIAL
SKILLS
STRUCTURED SCHEDULE
MANNERS
WALKS
HUMAN PLAY
DOG PLAY
LIFE SKILLS
ENRICHMENT
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The Process
Let's Talk Let's have a chat to decide if our board and train is right for your family. Cost: free Call Us!
Initial Consultation We spend an hour at your home or on Zoom to get on the same page about your goals. Included for manners programs. Specialty behavior programs may carry an additional fee.
Program Design This is included in the Initial Consultation. We will draft a program for you to approve.
Your dog's stay Your dog stays at one of our facilities or in a trainer's home and gets ten or more training sessions, plus walks, play, enrichment and rest on a structured schedule. You get pictures, video and notes every day in the Wiggle Butt Academy app, and you're welcome to visit and join a session.
Family learning While your dog is with us, we post lessons for your family so you're building the same skills at the same pace.
Go-home day We walk you through everything your dog has learned and how to keep it going. Nothing should be a surprise, because you've been watching daily.
Follow-up visit at your home After the program we come to you, location permitting, to make sure the learning has transferred to the place your dog actually lives.
Prices
Our board and train programs require 2 weeks for manners cases. Behavior cases may require more time depending on goals and severity of concerns.
A full 2 week stay is $2,550 - $1,275 per week. All board and trains require a session to review goals for the program.
If you are working with a trainer or behavior consultant in a private session setting, ask your trainer about custom variations that allow for shorter stays if they align with your goals.
Here is what is included:
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A training plan
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During the program, your dog will get 10+ sessions
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Wiggle Butt Academy app to follow progress
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Daily pictures, videos, notes and updates
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Play group experience if dog friendly
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Field trips, if this is part of your goals
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Daily enrichment (Kongs, lickimats, puzzles, cuddles)
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A happy dog!
Here is what is not included:
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Surprises
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Tools that cause fear, force or pain
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Methods that scare your dog
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Physical punishment like alpha rolls, helicoptering, choking
Service Areas
Families bring their dogs to us from across the Metroplex: Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Allen, Prosper, Celina, Richardson, Dallas and Fort Worth. Your dog stays at one of our facilities or in a trainer's home, and you're welcome to tour before you decide.
Goal-setting sessions happen at your home or by Zoom, so distance doesn't stop you getting started.
FAQs
Is this a dog boot camp?
People use “dog boot camp,” “doggy boot camp” and “dog boarding and training” to mean the same thing as board and train: your dog stays with a trainer and learns while you're apart. In that sense, yes.
What we aren't is a boot camp in the drill-sergeant sense. Traditional dog boot camps get use e-collars, prong collars and leash corrections. Ours runs on positive reinforcement, a structured daily schedule, play, enrichment and rest. Your dog should come home more confident than when they left, not more anxious or shut down.
Is board and train worth it?
It depends on what you need, and we'll tell you honestly on the free call. Board and train is worth it when you're short on time and want a serious head start, when a puppy's socialization window is closing, or when a behavior case isn't safe to work slowly at home.
It's a poor fit if you're hoping to skip the learning yourself. Dogs don't automatically apply what they learned with us to your house, so you'll still practice. That's why we teach your family during the stay and come to your home afterward. For some dogs, especially leash-reactive ones, private sessions in your home do more for less money. If that's your dog, we'll say so.
Where does my dog stay?
Your dog will stay at one of our facilities or in one of our trainer's homes depending on what best fits your dog's needs. You are welcome to tour before you decide.
Can I visit while my dog is with you?
Yes, and we'd encourage it. You're welcome to come and join a session — seeing the work happen tells you far more than a report ever will, and it means you're already practicing before your dog comes home. You'll also get daily updates including video posted to the Wiggle Butt Academy app, so you're not waiting two weeks to find out how it's going.
Do you take aggressive dogs, or dogs with a bite history?
Yes. Our behavior consultants hold advanced certification — CDBC and CBCC-KA — and have worked bite cases in private practice and in municipal animal sheltering. That includes fear of strangers, dog-to-dog aggression, resource guarding and dogs who have bitten.
We'll want the detail of what happened before we take the case: what preceded it, whether your dog gave a warning, and the level of injury. That's what tells us whether board and train is the right format for you, and we'll say so if it isn't.
How is this different from a board and train that uses e-collars?
Board and train has traditionally relied on shock collars, e-collars, prong collars, choke chains and slip leads to teach compliance. We don't use any of them, ever.
The distinction isn't only ethical. Aversive tools produce fast, visible results because the dog learns to avoid pain — but the underlying emotion doesn't change. With a fearful or aggressive dog, that means suppressing the warning signs while the fear stays exactly where it was. Our dogs do what we ask because they want to, not because of what happens if they don't.
It's slower. It holds. A question to ask yourself, "if my dog requires a tool, is it really trained?" We teach to verbal cues and hand signals.
How long does a board and train program take?
Two weeks for manners cases. Behavior cases often need longer, depending on your goals and the severity of what we're working with — we quote those after a goal-setting session rather than before.
If you're already working with a trainer or behavior consultant in private sessions, ask them about custom variations. Shorter stays sometimes work when they're aligned to a specific goal.
What does it cost?
A full two-week stay is $2,550, which is $1,275 per week. That includes a training plan, ten or more sessions with your dog, daily video updates, app access for your family, and a follow-up visit at your home after the program (location permitting).
The initial consultation is included for manners programs. Specialty behavior programs may carry an additional fee. Every board and train starts with a free call to work out whether it's the right fit at all.
What happens when my dog comes home?
This is the part most programs get wrong, and it's why we build the handover into the program rather than treating it as an afterthought.
Throughout the stay we post learning material for your family, so you're building the skills alongside your dog rather than receiving a trained dog you don't know how to handle. By go-home day nothing should be a surprise — you've been watching daily. Then we come to you: the program includes a follow-up visit at your home to make sure the learning actually transferred to the environment your dog lives in.
What if it doesn't work?
If you're asking whether your dog might come home and still have the same problem, that's a fair question and it deserves a straight answer.
For manners cases, what usually happens isn't failure — it's generalization. Your dog learned it here and hasn't yet learned that it applies there too. That's normal, it's expected, and it's why the program includes a follow-up visit at your home. We'll show you how to bridge it.
For behavior cases, we're honest up front: fear and aggression get better, they don't get erased. Two weeks is a start, not a finish.
We can't guarantee behavior outcomes — our certifications don't permit it. That isn't a loophole, it's written into the codes of ethics behind CBCC-KA and CDBC, because no honest practitioner can promise how a living animal will respond. A trainer offering you a behavior guarantee is telling you something about their credentials.
What we do commit to is telling you what's realistic for your dog before you book, and telling you if board and train isn't the right format for your case, even though that costs us the booking.