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Owner guide · Days 1 to 7
Your first week home after board and train
A day-by-day plan for the first week home after board and train: short daily sessions, one new place at a time, and what to tell your trainer at the follow-up.
The principle: same cues, slightly harder each day
The trainer spent the stay building a set of cues to a certain level of reliability in a certain setting. Your job this week is to show your dog that the same cues work in your house and your street, and then nudge the difficulty up. Trainers talk about the three Ds: duration (how long), distance (how far you are) and distraction (how much is going on). Change only one of them at a time.
Short sessions work better than long ones because your dog stays keen and you stop before mistakes pile up. End every session on a success, even if that means asking for an easy sit after a hard place.
A seven-day plan you can adapt
Treat the table as a template, not a schedule to obey. If your dog breezes through a day, move on; if it struggles, repeat the day. Whatever the go-home lesson stressed most should get the most reps.
| Day | Where | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indoors only | Rest, a short potty walk, two or three easy cues |
| 2 | House and yard | Place for a few minutes, waits at doors, name response |
| 3 | Front of the house | Loose-leash steps past the driveway, sits at the curb |
| 4 | A quiet residential block | Walking skills, check-ins, a short place on a portable mat |
| 5 | Same block, longer route | Add duration: longer stays, a longer walk |
| 6 | One busier spot at a quiet hour | Neutrality: watching people or dogs at a distance and getting paid for calm |
| 7 | Back home | A lighter day, then review your notes and list questions |
Rewards: how generous to be in week one
Be more generous than feels necessary. Your dog is learning that the rules hold with a new handler, and a high rate of reward makes that lesson quick. Use food for new or hard situations, and start mixing in life rewards (the door opening, the leash clipping on, a chance to sniff) for easy cues. Our guide to rewarding without treats shows how to thin out food later without losing the behavior.
Do not fade food in week one. Cutting rewards at the same moment the environment gets harder is the fastest way to make cues fall apart.
What a normal first week looks like
Expect some wobble around day three to five. The novelty of being home wears off, your dog feels settled enough to try old strategies, and you may see a pull on the leash or a jump at a visitor you thought was gone. That is a normal test of the new rules, not proof that the training failed.
Respond by making the setting easier and rewarding the right choice, rather than by repeating a cue. If something old comes back strongly and stays for days, read our guide to handling regression, which covers why it happens and how to reset.
- Normal: slower responses on day one or two, a test of house rules midweek, tiredness after outings
- Worth noting: a cue that worked at the go-home lesson but never works at home
- Call the trainer: new fear, growling, snapping or anything that worries you
Getting ready for the follow-up
If you chose the two-week Advanced program, your second coaching lesson lands after you have had time to practice, so this week is your raw material. If you chose Foundation, you still leave the go-home lesson with questions that only show up at home. Either way, arrive with notes and a couple of short phone videos rather than impressions.
Our page on planning a follow-up lesson explains what to bring and how to rank the problems so the time goes on what matters most to you.
How to do it
Step by step
- 01
Copy the handover into a daily list
Write the cues, exact words, marker and rewards from the go-home lesson on one page and stick it on the fridge for everyone.
- 02
Schedule three short sessions a day
Attach them to things that already happen, such as before breakfast, after the midday walk and before dinner.
- 03
Raise one D at a time
Each day, make a single cue a little harder in one way only: longer, further from you, or with more going on.
- 04
Add one new place, not five
Pick a single busier spot for the end of the week and visit at a quiet hour so your dog can succeed there.
- 05
Log every session in one line
Note the cue, the place, how many tries worked and anything odd, so patterns are visible by the weekend.
- 06
Review on day seven
Mark each skill as solid, shaky or missing and decide what next week’s practice should focus on.
The two programs
FAQs
Related questions
How much exercise should my dog get in the first week?
Can my dog go back to daycare in the first week?
What if I can only practice on weekends?
Should every family member practice in week one?
More questions? Read the full board & train FAQ
Next step
Tell us about your dog.
Send the enquiry and we reply within one hour on business days to set up a short assessment with Gabby. The evaluation is free.
- 01Send the enquiryReply within the hour on business days
- 02Assessment & evaluationPick Foundation or Advanced
- 03Train & go homeDaily updates, go-home coaching
