Welcome to Alpha Boarding School For Dogs, Victoria’s premier dog boarding and training service with a difference. We run a 20-day course designed to teach practical behavioural skills that your dog can apply at home and in everyday life. Since 1996, we have trained over 10,000 dogs across Victoria, helping owners achieve calmer, more obedient, and confident pets.
So, if you’ve been looking for dog boarding and live in Geelong, this is just the place for you. Read all about our 20-day course here or contact us directly to get started!
The trainers here are working boarding school dogs within close proximity to their own dogs who are all in off lead drop stay. These boarding school dogs all began their courses with different behaviours issues & goals. Ranging from fear based aggression, anxiety around new people and dogs, aggressive behaviour towards other dogs on lead, to over excitement and uncontrollable behaviour when there was something more interesting to do than listen to their owners.
Dog Boarding for Geelong Pet Owners
For 25 years and counting, our dog boarding school has provided a structured training environment where genuine behavioural change is achieved. Dogs that visit us learn to focus, respond, and behave consistently even when distractions occur, and this is all thanks to methods such as:
- Pattern Learning Training Method: Reliable obedience commands
- Canine Good Behaviour Shaping: teaching dog manners that really matter in the prevention or rehabilitation of serious behavioural and antisocial problems
Your dog will participate in practical on-lead and off-lead training, interactive play sessions, and exercises designed to increase confidence and improve obedience under real-world distractions. Our purpose-built facility and full-time trainers ensure every dog receives maximum attention, higher training standards, and positive outcomes that lasts.
In our purpose built manners room – learning to wait for an invitation though a doorway
“Every interaction with your dog is important so the methods used to teach them must be practical, positive and relevant to all real-life scenarios”.
Access Training for Aggressive or Reactive Behaviours
Dogs displaying aggression, fear, or reactive tendencies can certainly be difficult to deal with. Fortunately, these are some of the exact behavioural patterns we aim to address at the Alpha Boarding School for Dogs.
If aggression is an issue, we’ll focus on:
- Identifying triggers and calming responses
- Controlled exposure to challenging situations
- Building trust and respect without fear or reliance on food rewards
We customise training for each dog’s behavioural history, ensuring that once your dog returns home and you start to apply the new learning and rules, the results will become more reliable, practical, and long-lasting.
These dogs are waiting to be invited through the gate. Once individually invited they come through on command.
What Makes Alpha Boarding School For Dogs Unique
Our 20-day dog boarding school for Geelong dogs delivers outcomes you won’t find in standard kennels:
We achieve this with MORE full-time trainers, MORE training, MORE FUN and play time, HIGHER standards, and finally, PROVEN, effective obedience and behaviour shaping techniques that equate to PRACTICAL and POSITIVE outcomes!
Notable Course Inclusions:
- Daily targeted training and behaviour shaping sessions
- Controlled socialisation opportunities with other dogs, people, cats, chickens and ponies
- Comfortable, secure boarding in a quiet and stress-free environment
- Basic grooming, hydrobath, and blow-dry before handover
- Australian-made Blackdog lead, training halter, and off-lead training collar
- Digital handback manual and framed photos
- Comprehensive 3-hour handover session for owners to learn skills and strategies
- Post-course phone support and optional discounted weekly training classes
During the handover, our trainers will demonstrate your dog’s new skills, teach real-world obedience and manners application, and provide practical strategies to reinforce training at home.
This dog is working on her off lead manners and obedience in our manners room – under the distraction of one of our resident Kitty Cats Jensen.
These dogs live in an apartment so their owner is using boundary training to assist with safely traveling in the elevator.
This dog is learning self control & overall manners around food on a coffee table.
Dogs of all ages can learn not to barge out an open gate – in this picture the Beagle is 3 months old, the Kelpie is 1 year old and the Rottweiler at 10 years old.
The trainers dogs are waiting at the gate for their turn to be invited through. They help the trainers throughout the day teach the other dogs to listen under distraction.
Dog Trainers Serving Geelong and Surrounding Areas
We always welcome newcomers and any owners looking for dog boarding and live in the Geelong area. At the Alpha Boarding School, you can expect:
- Experienced Trainers: Decades of hands-on experience with aggressive, anxious, fearful or over-excitable dogs
- Tailored Training Plans: courses customised for each dog’s specific needs and challenges
- Comprehensive Behaviour Work: Obedience, lead manners, socialisation, and behaviour shaping without relying on treats
- Owner Guidance: Clear instruction during the handover session, so you know exactly how to maintain and improve your dog’s new skills at home
Our course focuses on practical, real-life results. By teaching your dog to listen, respond, and behave reliably under distraction, we help you build a confident, well-mannered companion while strengthening the bond between owner and dog .
Enrol in Our Dog Boarding School – Geelong Dog Owners Welcome!
We offer dog boarding for Geelong pet owners, as well as anyone in Melbourne or regional Victoria. Our 20-day course provides a structured environment where your dog can thrive, learn, and master life skills that are directly applicable to home, social settings, and public spaces.
Booking Instructions:
- Call (03) 8756 8900 (option 2) or email enquiries@alphaboardingkennels.com.au
- Discuss your dog’s individual behavioural needs with a professional trainer
- Receive detailed information about the methods used and have all your questions answered.
- Schedule your dog’s 20-day course and handover session
This ensures a tailored, practical, and transparent training experience that maximises results for both dog and owner.
This dog is demonstrating calm controlled behaviour and manners under high distraction of both the cat wandering past and the child having a meal nearby.
She is also demonstrating a calm wait for permission to enter the lounge area (internal house boundary) without the need for a commonly used “baby gate” room divider.
This dog is also demonstrating calm controlled behaviour inside the home whilst the baby is playing nearby.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
We have trained well over 10,000 dogs over the last 25 years – we receive so many referrals from those who have already successfully used our methods. Our services are in high demand and we are inundated with enquiries, and we take the time to discuss everything in detail with each and every dog owner needing our help.
To that end, you will probably need to leave us a message when you call as we are on the phone helping owners all day long. We will generally have spaces to get your dogs in relatively quickly once we do talk, and will call you back as soon as we can.
Proudly Serving Dog Owners Across Victoria from Our Macclesfield Location
- Dog Trainers Bendigo
- Dog Trainers Geelong
- Dog Trainers Victoria
Other Service Available in Geelong
Frequently Asked Questions
Our signature course is 20 days, providing sufficient time to address behavioural issues and establish listening under distraction. .
Dogs must be at least 20 weeks old to attend.
No. Our methods, including Pattern Learning and Canine Good Behaviour Shaping, focus on teaching dogs to learn to learn and learn to listen.. This builds reliable obedience and manners that lasts under distraction.
Absolutely not. Dogs remember their owners and will be excited to see you. The boarding period allows them to focus fully on learning new behaviours in a consistent, professional environment.
The course concludes with a three-hour one-on-one handover, where trainers demonstrate your dog’s skills and teach you strategies to maintain and improve these behaviours at home. You’ll learn practical leadership techniques, real-world obedience application, and behaviour shaping strategies.
Yes. Dogs living together will be trained together and separately to ensure that they listen and behave on their own and when they’re together., The three hour handover session will include both dogs to ensure both personalities and the dynamics of their relationship are taken into account throughout the training and behaviour shaping exercises.