About Best Friend’s Dog Training

Best Friend's Dog Training has been training dogs since 1999 and runs its Nassau work from Washington Avenue in Bellmore. Its published claim is about the hard end of the caseload: a reputation for handling, training and rehabilitating dogs other trainers will refuse, and being called in by other trainers to consult when their own clients are stuck.

Board and train, at three lengths

The residency comes in two, three and four week programs, with custom specialty programs available. The site is unusually honest about who chooses it and why: owners who do not have time to train consistently, owners going away, owners who are pregnant, and owners with a dog physically stronger than they are. The stated outcome is a dog that is reliable on or off leash, attentive on walks, and steady when the doorbell rings.

Two programs that are rare locally

The Therapy Dog and CGC program is a full certification path rather than a class: purpose-specific training, personalized feedback sessions, and coaching for the handler on visitor etiquette, reading the dog's stress signals and professionalism during visits. The Service Dog Training program is narrower and clearer than most – it is for PTSD and diagnosed anxiety, and the published task list is specific: interrupting panic attacks or flashbacks, deep pressure therapy to calm anxiety, and creating a buffer in public to increase personal space. Public-access obedience under distraction is trained alongside. The program is usually four to eight weeks.

In-home, and the scale behind it

In-home private training has run since 1999, and the site publishes that more than 12,000 dogs have been trained, including thousands of family pets. The argument for the in-home format is that some owners learn best where they are comfortable and can see how the work applies in their own setting.