Thank you for visiting, please take the time to read all the information on this site, it is part of the overall process of openness that we use to educate owners as to how and why our service can help you with your dog’s specific problems.

This site contains important things you want/need to know, it provides you with genuine information about pricing and an overview of our proven prevention and rehabilitation strategies that use proven methods to help with all manner of canine behaviour. There is a lot of information here, but that’s because for over twenty-five years we have always gone way beyond simplistic or minimal/vague descriptions that are common in our industry and made the genuine effort to explain in detail what we can do to help you. From there you can make a valued judgement to take the next step and call us and talk directly to one of our trainers who can answer any of your questions – we’d love to hear from you if you’d like to know more.

Since 1996 we have trained over 10,000 dogs through our boarding school courses. To this day we are inundated with enquiries from owners who have been referred by friends, family, workmates, vets or other satisfied owners out on walks or at the beach/park who have successfully used the Alpha Boarding School for Dogs service.
(10 day course option mentioned in this video is no longer available)

From the beginning we have been industry pioneers of exciting new standards for reliable obedience and “good behaviour” shaping (manners that really matter), continuing to develop effective methods that we can demonstrate hands-on to be relevant to your dog’s behavioural needs. And most importantly – All without the need for impractical food bribes that simply do not work in real life situations!

The Canine

Alpha Boarding School For Dogs goes way beyond simplistic and problem-causing food reward methods to provide realistic, relevant and practical dog training methods that can be targeted to either prevent or rehabilitate common and serious canine behavioural problems afflicting far too many dogs in our modern society.

Aggression  

Fear

Anxiety

Uncontrollable over-excitability

The Canine Leadership System has been developed to address all your dog’s learning and behavioural issues, from bad manners around the home, pushy and demanding behaviour, fearful behaviour and driven behaviour, to the more serious antisocial and aggressive behaviour. We will clearly explain what we do and how we do it, and how it will be relevant to you and your dog’s specific issues should you decide to give us a call.

When we speak to you on the phone, we can give you a very clear understanding of how previous attempts at training your dog, particularly with food rewards, has created learned irrelevance and taught your dog to actively ignore you.  This is the cause of many, many behavioural issues that often develop as the untrained dog matures.

We will also clearly explain our methods and learning principles:

  • The Pattern Learning Training Method
  • Canine Good Behaviour Shaping
  • Reinforcement Contrast Effect
  • Canine Cognitive Tonal Conditioning
  • Reset Learning
  • Precedntial Learning Principle

You can actively counter these food reward issues to create reliable, consistent and positive learning and rehabilitation outcomes in your specific, real-life scenarios!

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Even very young puppies like Tessa (12 weeks old) can learn to control their impulse to barge inside uninvited (please note: puppies need to be a minimum of 20 weeks to attend boarding school) 

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This dog is learning to hold a sit whilst being distracted  by our confident resident chickens. 

Boarding school for dog work

At home learning to wait for invitation to enter the house – even though the door is wide open.

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This dog is displaying calm behaviour and manners.  

The obedience and ‘good behaviour’ skills learned at AlphaBoarding School For Dogs form a great foundation for developing a new relationship between you and your dog. It is not uncommon these days to find that despite all the best intentions, training the family dog has taken on a less than serious approach due to other pressing commitments. Unfortunately, this is often why undesirable behaviours start to become a part of your dog’s repertoire and before long you could be experiencing problems ranging from digging holes to barking all day/night long. Other problems that are commonly experienced by dog owners are various forms of aggression, over excitability (on walks, around the kids etc.), poor responses to previous training approaches, destructive behaviour or even just finding that your dog lacks confidence in different situations.

Over the years we have had great success in helping many, many dog owners with the myriad of canine behavioural challenges that come our way. The reason for our great results is that we focus on training the dogs in a way that teaches them to “listen” and to understand the values of reinforcements and rewards. This is because the training is not only practical, but more importantly, it is based on sound learning and behavioural principles and good old fashioned common sense.

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Owners never cease to be amazed at how their dogs are able to demonstrate such a clear understanding of what is being asked of them under distraction in the home environment after a boarding school course has been completed.

This understanding is not just in relation to the obedience commands that have been taught, but also to the behavioural modification techniques that we clearly demonstrate in the 3hr hand-back session at the end of the course. This way you really get to see how your dog is capable of changing its ways for some of the most stubborn behaviours… right before your eyes. It’s not uncommon for dogs on their return home to maintain stays whilst surrounded by distractions that once sent them crazy, such as: screaming kids, other dogs and even a yard full of chooks coming up to see what’s wrong with the dog that once used to chase them. And guess what? “Good boy / girl” will be the main driving force behind your dog’s new behaviour. You will see exactly how this good behaviour ties in precisely with the new obedience and manners skills that your dog has just learned.

It is this display of canine intelligence that we rely on to prove to the owners that their dogs are in fact capable of better behaviour. It is also our intention at this stage to teach you how to control your dog with these new skills. This truly is an excellent starting point for a great new relationship, and it is our goal to ensure that you understand your role in both the maintenance and improvement of your dog’s obedience and overall behaviour. It is vital that you realise that good dogs come from owners who understand them and that the reason your dog may have been wayward to some degree or another is because there was previously no effective guidance and leadership for your pet to follow (particularly from your dog’s point-of-view). Unfortunately for you both, your dog was not sold or given to you with any sort of responsible guidelines as to how you should bring them up. More often than not, many owners find out that their pup is all-of-a-sudden grown up and out of control, or perhaps the dog they adopted has more behavioural baggage than expected.

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On receiving your newly “trained” dog from us, we will teach you how to take the lead (both literally and metaphorically) in this new relationship. It is actually quite easy for us to teach you how to handle your newly trained dog and you will notice the difference right away. This is why even new dog owners can have such success with this type of training solution. Once your dog knows and understands the exercises it is not that hard for you to learn the new handling techniques and behavioural modification strategies needed to help your dog improve around the home and elsewhere (the two go hand-in-hand).

Your dog will try you out to one degree or another when they come home again!

There is also one other thing that we openly state to all our customers: Your dog will try you out to one degree or another when it comes home again! BUT, don’t let this worry you. There is now a major difference in how you will respond to this situation. You will now know how to address these behaviours and how to recognise your dog’s responses, reinforcing and rewarding them accordingly. It is this “try out” period that really makes the difference and results are often noticed straight away and then steadily improve as you adjust to the new dog ownership ideals that we teach you. It’s not hard and all you have to be is… consistent.

If you are realistic and enthusiastic about your role in helping your dog to understand the new rules around the home and elsewhere (as the majority of people are) then you will join the many satisfied boarding school customers (well over 10,000) who have benefited from this great new starting point. Remember, your dog needs your guidance. With all the new knowledge and training skills now at your disposal, this leadership will be much, much easier for you to achieve. It won’t be long at all before your dog is more attentive and responsive to your commands.

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