About Nashville Family Dogs

Nashville Family Dogs is built around Emily, and it is one of the few local practices that publishes every program with a price and a plain description of what the owner has to do.

What you can book here, with prices

7 Weeks At Home Training (adult dogs only) is $1,700: a first session of around 90 minutes, then weekly sessions of about 50 minutes, with a curriculum customized and built week by week. The site is blunt about the condition attached – "It's imperative that if you choose this option you are available to commit to daily at-homework" – and says seven weeks is a starting point that can be extended. 5 Weeks At Home Training (puppy only) is $1,200, establishing potty and feeding schedules and a training calendar, introducing the puppy to varied stimuli, and finishing with sit, down, place, come, heel and an "off" correction command. Boarding and training comes in three blocks: 7 days $1,925, 14 days $3,500 and 21 days $5,775. The 14-day program adds the option of layering in "a positively-associated ECOLLAR Communication Tool" over the drills.

What happens at handover

Every board-and-train ends with a 90-minute take-home lesson plus a week of at-home drills, which the site describes as pivotal for showing the dog that the new rules apply at home. The trainer then returns to the house afterwards to fine-tune. Graduates become eligible for Nashville Family Dogs training classes for the dog's entire life, used for structured socialization and refreshers.

Method

Stated as balanced: rewarding good behavior as the primary approach, correcting unwanted behavior as the secondary. The specialisms named are impulse control, reactivity, excessive barking, lack of recall and anxiety, with behavioral therapy described as the particular strength – "transforming anxious, reactive, and timid dogs into confident, happy companions" – plus socialization and leash reactivity.

Background

Emily is described as having over 3.5 years of professional experience and a lifetime with dogs, originally from Gainesville, Georgia, with volunteering at humane associations in both Nashville and her hometown behind her. Her boxer, Tony, works as a co-trainer.