About Doggie Academy

Doggie Academy is owned and run by Sarah Westcott, CPDT-KSA, from a training studio at 10 Whitwell Pl in Park Slope, serving Brooklyn and Manhattan. The three ways in are the same three the site leads with: the trainer comes to your home, you visit the Brooklyn studio, or you connect online.

What is on the menu

Private lessons in three formats – in-home, in-studio and live online – plus day training and group classes. The class side covers puppy manners and agility, and the wider services list adds pet selection and pre-pet planning, clicker training, behavior modification, the Canine Good Citizen program, dog agility and rally obedience. Trick and agility work is framed as enrichment that improves dog-human communication rather than as competition prep, though the site also runs a rally obedience seminar.

How they describe the approach

The stated difference is toolbox breadth: trainers are described as educated in a wide variety of techniques and drawing on an extensive toolbox rather than offering by-the-book solutions. Sarah is described as crafting a unique lesson plan for each client from her own toolbox, working across pre-pet planning, puppy manners, basic and advanced obedience, agility and behavioral issues. The site states that Doggie Academy trainers are recommended by several area veterinarians.

Its own curriculum

The academy publishes a method of its own, BKLN Manners, alongside a book, 'Play Your Way to Good Manners' – a training program written for the specific problem of teaching manners in a dense city rather than a generic obedience syllabus.

The studio

The Whitwell Place address is a dedicated indoor training space rather than a room borrowed for classes, which is what makes the graded class calendar – puppy fundamentals through the advanced levels – possible. One review on the site is from an owner who travels from Astoria for the classes.