About Smart Pups Nashville

Smart Pups Nashville is built around Raven Goller-Brown, a Nashville native whose background is unusual for a trainer: a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science from the University of Tennessee and more than seven years as a veterinary technician, alongside work on canine behavior at Mars Petcare. Services start at 12 weeks of age.

What you can book here

Private training lessons run 1 to 1.5 hours in your own home and must be bought as a package rather than singly – the site recommends a six-lesson basic obedience package for comprehensive puppy training. Board-and-train comes in two shapes: a day program Monday to Friday, 9:00-16:00, and an overnight program running two consecutive weeks, 12 days in total. Group lessons are 1.5 hours and are explicitly for intermediate to advanced dogs only, positioned as refinement plus controlled socialization rather than a beginner class. The stated first step is a $50 consultation.

The AKC titles track

Smart Pups runs a Canine Good Citizen test as a one-hour evaluation at a nearby park, and lists AKC STAR Puppy, Canine Good Citizen, Community Canine Good Citizen, Urban Canine Good Citizen and Trick Dog as titles it can prepare dogs for. If a title is your goal, that is a concrete offer rather than a vague one.

Added services, with conditions

Pet sitting, overnight boarding and 35-minute dog walks are offered, but both boarding and walking are stated to be available only to clients who are in, or have completed, the training program. Worth knowing before you plan around them.

Pricing note

The site states that all rates vary with the dog's breed, age, temperament, location, training format and level, and with holidays. Expect a quote rather than a fixed number.

Who this suits

Puppy and adolescent owners who want a trainer with a veterinary-technician background, and owners chasing an AKC title.