Advanced Dog TrainingPhD Pups
Pet Dog Prep graduates
Already finished Pet Dog Prep? PhD Pups is the advanced degree. Three focused virtual sessions build on your foundation with goal-specific training and expert socialization feedback — then it's cap, gown and graduation for your very good scholar.
Is this your dog?
- You've completed Pet Dog Prep and want to keep the momentum
- Your dog is good — and you've realized they could be great
- You have a new goal: advanced manners, trick titles, sport foundations
- You want expert eyes on your socialization work as it matures
Sound familiar? You’re in the right classroom.
What’s Included
- 3 virtual 1:1 sessions
- Socialization feedback from your trainer
- Goal-specific advanced training
- Graduation (tail wags encouraged)
Tuition
$500 for the full program.
The Curriculum
What you’ll actually learn
Goal-specific advanced training
You set the target — off-leash reliability, advanced stays, trick work, therapy dog prep — and we build the three sessions around it.
Proofing under pressure
Skills that held in the living room get tested and strengthened around real-world distractions.
Socialization feedback
Your trainer reviews how your dog reads and responds to the world, and fine-tunes your approach.
Graduation
Cap, gown, tail wags. Your very good scholar earns post-graduate honors — and a spot on the honor roll.
The Lesson Plan
How PhD Pups works
- 1
Pick your goal
Alumni only: PhD Pups builds on your Pet Dog Prep foundation, so your teacher already knows your dog.
- 2
Three focused sessions
Live 1:1 virtual lessons aimed squarely at your goal — $500 for the full program, no surprises.
- 3
Graduate with honors
Leave with sharpened skills, a plan for maintaining them, and bragging rights.
Required Reading
What "advanced" actually means in dog training
Here's a truth most training programs don't advertise: teaching a dog to sit takes minutes. Teaching a dog to sit the first time you ask, thirty feet away, while a squirrel commits crimes nearby — that's training. The difference is what trainers call the three Ds: duration, distance and distraction, and layering them onto known skills is the entire craft of advanced work.
PhD Pups is three focused sessions of exactly that. Your dog already knows the vocabulary from Pet Dog Prep; now we teach fluency. Skills get longer, farther and harder. Reliability stops being a good day and starts being a fair expectation.
Because the program is goal-specific, "advanced" means whatever advanced looks like for your team — there's no fixed syllabus to march through. Your three sessions chase your target.
Popular PhD tracks
A few of the directions our post-grads take:
Off-leash reliability
Recall and stays solid enough for safe off-leash freedom in appropriate places — the single most requested graduate goal.
CGC and CGCA polish
Targeted preparation for the AKC's Canine Good Citizen and Community Canine evaluations, item by item.
Therapy dog preparation
Building the calm, handler-focused neutrality that therapy organizations screen for.
Trick titles and enrichment
AKC trick titles, scent games and brain work — because a dog with a job is a joy to live with.
Real-world hard mode
Patio dining, busy trails, downtown sidewalks: your dog's existing skills, proofed where you actually want to take them.
Why continuing education matters for dogs too
Training isn't a vaccine — it doesn't confer lifetime immunity after one course. Skills that stop being practiced fade, and dogs, like people, keep learning whether anyone is steering or not. A structured tune-up at the right moment protects everything you built in Pet Dog Prep and usually costs a fraction of re-training a problem after it re-roots.
There's also a relationship dividend. Learning together is genuinely bonding for dogs and their people — it's the shared language that makes everything else easier. Our PhD families don't come back because something broke. They come back because training became the best part of the week.
Office Hours
PhD Pups questions
Do I need to finish Pet Dog Prep first?
Yes — PhD Pups is our post-graduate program, and the advanced work assumes the foundation skills are in place. If you're not sure where your dog stands, book a free mini session and we'll point you to the right starting line.
What kinds of goals can we work on?
Almost anything three focused sessions can move: off-leash reliability, advanced stay work, trick titles, loose-leash walking in hard environments, therapy dog preparation, or polishing for a CGC or CGCA test.
What does $500 include?
Three virtual 1:1 sessions with your trainer, socialization feedback, a goal-specific training plan and graduation. It's the simplest pricing we offer — one number, everything included.
How quickly do we complete the three sessions?
Most families space them one to two weeks apart, finishing in about a month — enough time between sessions for homework to do its work. If your goal needs a different rhythm, we'll set the schedule around it.
Can we enroll in PhD Pups more than once?
Absolutely. Each enrollment is built around one goal, so plenty of graduates come back with a new target — off-leash work one season, therapy prep the next. Your trainer keeps your dog's file, so every round starts from where you actually are.
It's been a year since Pet Dog Prep. Are we still eligible?
Yes. Skills may be dusty, but foundations don't vanish. If your first session shows the basics need a refresh before advanced work makes sense, your trainer will tell you straight and adjust the plan — that honesty is the whole point of having a teacher.
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