Beyond the Dog Sarasota’s Board and Train Retreat is a personalized training program that focuses on your dog’s unique needs. Training focuses on high-level obedience training, good manners, and addressing behavioral challenges. During their stay, your dog will live as part of the family with Dr. Echterling-Savage and Sean Savage at their Tampa Bay home.
Training occurs both inside their home and throughout Tampa Bay, providing a variety of environments for your dog to handle any situation or distraction. Your dog will enjoy playtime and structured training, with outings to dog-friendly beaches, shops, parks, hiking trails, and farmers’ markets. With over 20 years of experience, Dr. Echterling-Savage and Sean Savage use science-based training methods, including positive reinforcement and operant conditioning, to ensure long-lasting results. At the end of the retreat, your dog will return home confident, highly trained, and ready to explore the best of Sarasota with you.
Your personalized training program will cover various goals, that can include but aren’t limited to:
When living at Dr. Echterling-Savage and Sean Savage’s home, your dog will learn new skills and reinforce positive behaviors in a real home environment. This approach helps ensure that these new skills and behaviors transition smoothly into your own home. Training will also occur throughout the Tampa Bay area, with a variety of training environments supporting socialization, confidence building, and ensuring your dog develops high-level training in any environment, not just where it was first taught.
Behavioral research demonstrates that dogs learn more effectively when taught in various settings. As Dr. Kristyn Echterling-Savage explains, “Training across different environments helps dogs generalize skills, so they respond consistently in any situation, both in and out of the home. This science-based approach creates lasting, positive results”.
Living as part of the family in their Tampa Bay home, your dog will receive daily training from two leading experts.
Dr. Kristyn Echterling-Savage is a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB) and Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) with a Ph.D. in Behavioral Psychology, specializing in animal behavior. As co-founder of Beyond the Dog, she has more than two decades of hands-on training experience. She also trains and mentors every trainer across Beyond the Dog, ensuring a consistently high level of care and expertise at all our locations.
Sean Savage is a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC), Certified Professional Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA). Sean has trained dogs with high-level obedience, manners and addressing complex behavioral challenges for over 20 years.
The Board and Train Retreat begins with the submission of your completed “Indirect Assessment of Canine Behavior,” which provides us with information on your dog’s behavioral history. Dr. Kristyn Echterling-Savage will then meet with you for a consultation to discuss your training goals, review your dog’s behavioral history, and create a customized training program that addresses your dog’s unique needs.
Kristyn and Sean will personally transport your dog from Sarasota to their home in Tampa Bay, ensuring care and comfort from the start of the program. While staying at their home, your dog will be part of the family, with training occurring throughout their daily life and through structured training sessions. Training will also take place throughout the Tampa Bay area, including parks, shops, dog-friendly beaches, trails, and farmers’ markets. This allows your dog to develop high-level obedience skills, good manners, and address behavioral challenges in a wide variety of environments. Practicing in different settings builds confidence, strengthens socialization, and ensures your dog can respond reliably in any situation.
You will receive regular progress reports, photos, videos and correspondence throughout the retreat, letting you stay connected with your dog’s journey. At the conclusion of the four weeks of training, Kristyn or Sean will return your dog home, where you will receive 4.5 hours of follow-up training sessions across multiple sessions. These sessions are important to give you the confidence and knowledge to maintain your dog’s newly learned skills for long lasting success.
1. Behavioral challenges will be addressed using positive reinforcement and operant conditioning techniques.
Dr. Echterling-Savage will provide a personalized evaluation of your dog’s behavior and discuss your training goals and behavioral challenges. Behavioral challenges that we treat include separation anxiety, resource guarding, touch sensitivity, reactivity, fearfulness and cat chasing behaviors. We address each problem behavior through science-based training methods grounded in classical conditioning and positive reinforcement. At the end of the training program, your dog will return home more confident, socialized, well-mannered and ready to thrive both at home and as you explore Sarasota together.
2. Expert Training in a Retreat-Style Experience for Your Dog.
Beyond the Dog’s Board and Train Retreat provides more than just training; it’s a comprehensive program where your dog will live at the trainer’s home and enjoy a blend of play and training. From splashing around Picnic Island Dog Park to practicing recall at Eagle Lake Park, every outing will be both enriching and enjoyable. Each outing helps reinforce newly learned skills and positive behaviors. This is essential so that your dog comes home not just highly-trained, but socialized and confident. With Dr. Echterling-Savage and Sean Savage training your dog throughout the day, both in and out of the home, training results will be reliable across multiple environments and transition well to your home and local neighborhood after the retreat.
3. Training doesn’t end after the Board and Train Retreat.
Our goal is to ensure long-term success while fostering a lifelong love of training by making learning fun and rewarding for your dog. After the retreat, you’ll receive 4.5 hours of follow-up lessons with Kristyn or Sean, along with detailed notes to help maintain your dog’s newly learned skills and positive behaviors.