Grade Level 1 of 8

Pre-School

Manners, socialization, proper play, and confidence-building for puppies and reactive adults.

Pre-School is the first step in our 8-level curriculum. Dogs learn manners, socialization, and proper play while building confidence and desensitizing to sights and sounds that can trigger reactivity. These crucial skills develop the fundamental aspects of a well-rounded dog and prepare them for everything to come.

Pre-School runs as two tracks — Puppy (5-12 months) and Adult (12+ months) — so your dog learns alongside peers at a similar life stage. Most dogs graduating from our board-and-train Camps enter at Kindergarten, but outwardly reactive dogs start in Pre-School (Adult) for focused support before moving up.

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Who This Level Is For

Is Pre-School the Right Fit for Your Dog?

Puppies 5-12 months building their foundation, or adult dogs new to structured training. Also the right starting point for adult dogs with moderate reactivity who need confidence work before joining higher levels.

row.name ~ — What You'll Focus On

row.name ~ Syllabus

The

Every behavior, manner, trick, and tool introduced at this grade level — tracked individually in PD360 so you can see exactly where your dog stands.

Where This Level Sits

Your Progress at

Every behavior your dog learns is tracked in PD360 — our pet progress system. Watch how the curriculum builds level by level.

Total cumulative behaviors learned

Graduation Criteria

When Do Dogs Move From Pre-School to Kindergarten?

Dogs graduate to Kindergarten once they reliably respond to their name, settle in a crate, and can sit and lie down on cue in a moderately distracting environment. Reactive dogs must also demonstrate reduced reactivity to baseline sights and sounds.

PD360 Pet Progress

Every Skill at

Every behavior, milestone, and assessment lives in PD360 — our proprietary pet progress tracking system. The same record follows your dog across Group Classes, DaySchool, board-and-train Camps, private lessons, and grooming. One profile, one progress story, one team.

300+ Tracked variables per dog
8 Grade levels & curriculum tracks
120+ Behaviors across the journey
Years Of continuous progress data

Behavior-Level Detail

Every command, manner, and trick is tracked through Introduced → Reinforced → Proofed stages.
Programs Stay in Sync

Progress in Group Class flows into DaySchool, Camps, and private lessons. Trainers see the same record.
Honest Recommendations

Your dog moves up when the data says they're ready — not when a calendar says so.
Years of Continuity

Whether your dog is in Pre-School or Dogtorate, the full history travels with them.