There is no building to drive to on a Tuesday night, no rented hall with rubber mats and a circle of folding chairs waiting for you and eleven other people. That's on purpose. Obedience that only works in a training hall is not obedience - it's a trick your dog performs in one building.
We train where the trouble lives. Your kitchen. Your front door. The stretch of sidewalk where the beagle two houses down loses his mind every single morning. That's where your dog is failing you, and that's where the work belongs.
At Best Buddy Dog Training, we offer two training program options: private in-home sessions at your address, or a four-to-six week board-and-train where your dog lives in my home and learns from me and other dogs. The training is done without e-collars or food lures.
Your house, your street, your Saturday errands
Private in-home training starts the moment I walk through your door - and the greeting at that door is the first lesson, not a warm-up before it. How your dog handles a stranger crossing his threshold tells me most of what I need to know in a few seconds.
From there we work through the issues as they normally occur. Four sessions, up to five dogs in the same household, and lifetime follow-up after we're done. The places and routes we train in are up to you:
- The front door and entryway - the doorbell, the guest, the delivery driver, the dog who thinks the threshold is his to defend.
- The kitchen and dining room - counters, the table, the food bowl, the child holding a sandwich at dog height.
- Stairs, hallways and the couch - who goes first, who gets invited up, who moves when you need to get by.
- The yard and the property line - the fence, the mailbox, the boundary your dog currently patrols on his own terms.
- Your street and sidewalk - loose-leash walking on the actual route you walk, past the actual dogs you pass.
- The car - in, out, and settled, because half of you can't take the dog anywhere without a fight in the driveway first.
- Wherever else it goes wrong - the park, the school pickup line, the trailhead, your mother's house at Thanksgiving.
You're in every session. That's the point. I'm not there to get your dog to only listen to me; I'm there so he listens to you on a Wednesday in February when I'm eighty miles away.
My house, my pack, and wherever there's a problem
Board-and-train dogs don't go into a kennel run and come out four weeks later with a diploma. Your dog lives in my home for four to six weeks. He sleeps in the house. He eats with, walks with, and learns from the dogs already in residence - dogs learn quickly from other dogs.
Over the next weeks, he'll gradually work in the environments he'll actually have to handle for the rest of his life: busy parks, pet-friendly stores, neighborhood sidewalks, parking lots, public spaces full of people who don't ask before they reach out. A dog who sits in a quiet living room has learned one room. A dog who holds a down-stay on a store aisle while a cart squeaks past has learned the command.
We practice (as necessary) in the places that are often challenging for dog obedience: Neighborhood sidewalks, downtown blocks, trails and bike paths, stores, lobbies, stairwells, elevators, parks, parking lots, beaches, and more. The exact places we train and practice vary according to the dog and the issues that need addressing.
Where we go
All five counties, statewide.
Serving: Barrington • Bristol • Cranston • Cumberland • East Greenwich • Middletown • Narragansett • Newport • Pawtucket • Providence • Smithfield • South Kingstown • Warwick • Westerly • Woonsocket
Fairfield County, Greater Hartford and the river valley, the New Haven shoreline, southeastern Connecticut from New London through Mystic and Stonington, the Quiet Corner, the Litchfield Hills and the Naugatuck Valley.
Serving: Bridgeport • Danbury • Greenwich • Groton • Hartford • Litchfield • Middletown • Mystic • New Canaan • New Haven • New London • Norwalk • Norwich • Stamford • Torrington • Waterbury • Westport • Windsor
Greater Boston and the suburbs west of it, the South Coast and the towns along the Rhode Island line, and out into central and western Massachusetts.
Serving: Attleboro • Beverly • Boston • Burlington • Cambridge • Framingham • Gardner • Groton • Hingham • Natick • New Bedford • Newton • North Andover • Quincy • Salem • Shrewsbury • Somerville • Tewksbury • Worcester • Wrentham
Southern and central New Hampshire, where a lot of the work is a dog with too much yard and no recall to go with it.
Serving: Bedford • Concord • Derry • Dover • Durham • Exeter • Hampton • Hanover • Keene • Laconia • Lebanon • Londonderry • Manchester • Nashua • Portsmouth • Rochester • Salem • Wolfeboro
The New York City metro area and eastern New York. City dogs get the hardest classroom in the five states and, handled right, end up the most reliable dogs I work with.
Serving: Beacon • Bronxville • Brooklyn • Chappaqua • Cold Spring • Kingston • Mount Kisco • New Rochelle • New York City • Newburgh • Nyack • Poughkeepsie • Queens • Rye • Scarsdale • White Plains • Yonkers
Don't see your town? It probably isn't a problem. Call or send a message and I'll tell you straight whether I can get to you.
Questions people ask before they book
- No. Board-and-train dogs live in my home rather than a kennel, and in-home clients never leave their own address. Everything you'd want to see happens in a house, on a sidewalk or in a store - which is why the videos page is the best look you'll get at how the work actually goes.
- Yes. If the problem happens at the park, the brewery patio, your office or your in-laws' place, that's where we should be. Tell me where it goes wrong and we can schedule a session there.
- In my home. All trainees sleep in crates overnight.
- Board-and-train travels further than in-home work does, for obvious reasons - the dog comes to me once instead of me driving to you four times. If you're outside Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York or Rhode Island, it's worth a phone call.
- No. There's no travel fee, no mileage and no zone pricing anywhere in the five states I cover - the price is the price whether you're ten minutes from Warwick or three hours out. Ask me about it on the consultation call if you want it confirmed before you book.
- In-home is four sessions covering up to five dogs in one household, with lifetime follow-up. Board-and-train is four to six weeks, plus three optional reintegration sessions at your home and the same lifetime support. Full details are on the in-home and board-and-train pages.
Start With a Phone Call
Every dog starts the same way: a consultation, on the phone, with me - not a scheduler and not a form that emails you back in three days. Tell me what your dog is doing, where he's doing it, and who he's doing it to. I'll tell you which program fits and what it'll take.
(401) 536-7982
Mon–Fri 8am–6pm · Sat 9am–5pm · Sun closed
Off-hours calls please leave a voice message.
Prefer to write it out? Send a message here. Read what other owners said on the success stories page.
Who you are to your dog is EVERYTHING
Shawn Hines
Dog Trainer, Best Buddy Dog Training
No charge, no obligation.