About Proformance K9

Proformance K9 trains out of a 40-acre property on Cauwels Road in Marion, at the northern edge of the Finger Lakes catchment, and describes itself as veteran owned. The site is unusually specific about what a program costs and what it includes, which makes it one of the easier places in this region to price a decision.

The board-and-train program

The headline offering is Structured Immersion Training, a two-week board and train. The published goal is core commands – sit, down, come, place and heel – plus leash etiquette and calmness around people, dogs, vehicles and other distractions. During the stay the school takes dogs on field trips to parks, stores and the vet office so the training is proved somewhere other than the training room. The two-week program includes one 90-minute private lesson at the facility and one 90-minute in-home lesson, and is priced at $1,900 plus New York sales tax, with a $500 deposit credited toward the fee.

Aggression cases

Aggression work is priced separately and honestly. The site says an aggressive dog can be enrolled in the immersion program at $2,400 plus tax, with one stated exclusion: the dog must not be showing aggression toward its owners or anyone living in the house. The reasoning given is that repairing the dog-owner relationship is the harder half of the problem and the harder one to trust afterwards. If a dog needs longer than the standard block, the site says there is no additional charge.

In-home version and travel

For owners who do not want to leave a dog in a kennel environment, the same two-week regime is offered as an in-home Structured Immersion program. Separately, the school runs a pick-up and drop-off service for board-and-train clients living within 90 minutes, aimed explicitly at reaching Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse; the returning drop-off includes a 90-minute lesson in the owner's home. The site notes that transport is only for dogs without aggression toward people.

Sport and detection

Alongside pet work the school runs sport obedience, naming AKC, Schutzhund and IPO, plus tracking and scent detection. The site describes the head trainer as a national competitor, founding member and judge for American Schutzhund. Boarding runs alongside the training: eight kennel runs, heated floors, exercise on the 40 acres and playtime in the training room.