Service detail · Day Training
Day Training.
Drop-off training across real environments. I pick your dog up in the morning, work them across multiple parks, sidewalks, and trails through the day, and bring them home tired and clearer than they left.
A day in the work
What a Day Training day looks like.
4-hour session
- Pickup and a short decompression drive (15 to 20 min)
- First training block in a low-distraction environment (45 to 60 min)
- Settle and crate decompression in the vehicle (15 to 20 min)
- Second training block in a higher-distraction environment (45 to 60 min)
- Brief proofing block in a real-world context (30 min)
- Dropoff with a verbal handoff and written recap (15 to 30 min)
6-hour session
The same structure with two additional blocks, allowing three to four environments in one day, longer durations at each, and more time for the dog to practice generalization across contexts.
The decompression and crate time isn’t a break from training. It’s part of the training. A dog who can’t settle in a vehicle between high-arousal environments will struggle to settle in other contexts that ask for the same skill: travel, hiking, busy public spaces. Working on that capacity is part of why a Day Training day is structured the way it is.
Two formats
Pick by the job, not the size.
4-hour: Focused intensive. One skill or scenario, worked hard, in one or two environments. Right answer when there’s a specific issue to work on: leash reactivity in your neighborhood, recall in a single park, settle in public, or targeted practice on a behavior we’ve been building.
6-hour: Full training day. Multi-environment, multi-skill, full curriculum across the day. Right answer when your dog needs more environmental practice than evenings can deliver, when we’re doing the kind of reactivity work that depends on varied exposure, or when a high-drive dog needs the full bandwidth.
Most clients pick one format and stick with it. Some rotate. We’ll decide together which fits your dog after the first session.
Where it fits
Where Day Training does its best work.
Dogs who pull on every walk. A Day Training day delivers many more focused leash repetitions, across more environments, than a typical week of evening walks. We work in real contexts where your dog has been pulling, at distances and difficulty levels matched to where they are. Progress depends on what gets practiced at home between sessions, but the day itself does work that a weeknight can’t.
Dogs going over threshold in public. Reactivity work depends on finding the distance where your dog can think, and getting reps at that distance. Day Training lets us work three or four different real environments in one day, at the distances your dog can actually handle. It’s a more efficient way to accumulate the kind of careful exposure that reactivity work needs.
Dogs with skills at home that fall apart in public. This is generalization, and it’s the most common reason owners feel stuck. The dog isn’t ignoring you; they haven’t yet learned that sit in the kitchen and sit at a brewery are the same behavior. Day Training is built for exactly this gap. We take the skill out into the environments where it has to hold up.
Working professionals with high-drive dogs. Your weekday schedule can’t deliver the volume of varied environmental practice that a high-drive dog needs to stay regulated. Day Training fills that gap, on days that work for your schedule, without you needing to extend your evenings.
Pricing
| Option | Price | Per session | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4-hour Day Training | $245 | — | Single 4-hour day. Pickup and drop-off included within 25 miles of South Snohomish. |
| 6-hour Day Training | $335 | — | Single 6-hour day. Three to four environments, longer durations, more generalization across contexts. |
| 4-Pack of 4-hour sessions Most chosen | $900 | $225 | Four 4-hour days at $225 each. For clients on a recurring schedule who want to lock in pricing. Expires 4 months from purchase. |
| Current client rate | 10% off | — | 10% off all Day Training rates for clients with an active Private Lesson package or who have completed one within the last 90 days. Applied automatically. |
How it compares
How Day Training compares to private lessons.
A 6-hour Day Training day gives your dog roughly six times the environmental practice of a single 60-minute private lesson, across three or four different environments, at $335. That works out to about $56 per hour of training time, versus $135 for a single private lesson hour.
Both formats have a place. Privates are how most foundation work gets built, because you’re in the room and learning the handling yourself. Day Training is where we do the generalization work to the real world at a pace evenings can’t match. Many clients use both: privates to build the skill, Day Training to lock it in.
Fit check
Day Training isn’t for every dog.
It’s a strong fit for dogs who already have some foundation work, who tolerate a vehicle crate, and whose owners want to accelerate the part of training that happens out in the world. We’ll figure out fit during the free intake call.
It’s the wrong choice for:
- Dogs with severe separation distress (the dropoff itself is the problem we’d be creating)
- Dogs who haven’t yet been worked with Steady Steps (we start with at least one private session so we know the dog before they’re in my vehicle for the day)
- Dogs with bite history toward handlers or significant resource guarding (these dogs need a different plan, and I’ll tell you so honestly)
What you get back
What you get back at the end of the day.
A verbal handoff at dropoff with what your dog worked on, what they did well, and where they were still figuring it out.
A written recap delivered the same evening with:
- Each environment we worked in and what we did there
- The specific skills practiced, with concrete observations on your dog’s responses
- The homework you’ll work on between now and our next session
- A short video or photo from at least one environment, where appropriate
The recap is what makes the day actionable. Without it, even a great Day Training day fades within a week, because you can’t reinforce what you don’t remember. With it, you’ve got something concrete to work from until our next session.
Ready to book?
New to Steady Steps? Get started below. Your first session is a private lesson; Day Training comes after.
Already a client? Book a session to schedule.
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Tell me about your dog.
Send a short message and I'll get back to you within one business day. From there we'll set up a 15-minute call to talk through your dog and what a first session would look like.