About Highland Canine Training – Hickory

Highland Canine Training's Hickory branch is run by a named local trainer rather than as a shopfront, and its own page carries a Hickory-specific program list and price sheet separate from the rest of the company. The branch describes its clients as owners in Hickory who need "the dog training solutions they require to effectively deal with every type of issue, covering everything from simple obedience training, to more troublesome aggression and behavioral problems," and says it specializes in dogs other trainers consider hard to train.

What you can book here

The branch publishes three routes. Private lessons are the main one, delivered as weekly hour-long appointments at the owner's home, quoted at $799 for the basic program and $1,249 for the advanced. Group classes run as a ladder – Basic Obedience at $229, Intermediate and Advanced Obedience at $299 each, a Puppy Class at $229 and a Therapy Dog class at $299, with a $50 deposit. Board and train programs are also offered to Hickory clients. Two behavior-specific programs are priced separately: Behavior Modification at $1,099 and a Reactive Dog program at $579.

The trainer

Magdalena Szymanska is named on the branch page as the Hickory trainer. The page says she was born and raised in Szczecin, Poland and graduated from the University of Szczecin with a BA in Sociology before moving into dog training professionally.

What the pricing tells you

This is one of the few businesses in the Catawba Valley that publishes a full price list rather than quoting after a call, which makes it a useful reference point even for owners who end up elsewhere. Note that the programs are priced as programs, not per hour, and the company states that all of its training includes free follow-up training for the life of the dog.