Board & Train
Without Sending Your Dog Away
Real Results. Real Life. Right at Home.
For more than 30 years, Family K9 Dog Training has helped dogs and their families achieve lasting, life-changing results through professional training built on experience, consistency, and trust. With a reputation earned one dog at a time — with an unsurpassed track record of success across obedience, behaviour modification, puppy development, and advanced family dog training.
But our Board & Train program is different.
Your dog does not leave home.
Instead of removing your dog from the environment where the problems actually happen, we come to you each day and work directly in your home, your neighbourhood, and your dog’s real-world environment. This creates faster understanding, more reliable behaviour, and smoother transfer of training to the entire family.
Every Program Begins With a Professional Consultation
Successful training starts with understanding both the dog and the family and it’s environment.
Before any training begins, we schedule a detailed consultation to assess your dog’s behaviour, temperament, personality, lifestyle, and the specific goals you want to achieve. This allows us to identify the root causes of unwanted behaviours, evaluate your dog’s learning style, and understand the daily routines and challenges within the home.
Just as importantly, we take the time to understand your needs, expectations, and long-term goals as an owner.
From there, we create a fully customized training plan tailored specifically to your dog and your family. No generic programs. No one-size-fits-all methods. Every aspect of the training is designed around what will produce the best possible results for your unique situation.
Whether your dog needs:
- Basic obedience
- Puppy foundations
- Advanced manners
- Behaviour modification
- Off-leash reliability
- Reactivity work
- Structure and impulse control
- Family integration training
…your program is built with a clear roadmap to achieve those goals effectively and efficiently.
The Smarter Alternative to Traditional Board & Train
Traditional board-and-train programs often require dogs to leave their family for weeks at a time. While the dog may learn in a controlled facility, owners are frequently left wondering how to maintain the results once the dog returns home.
Our in-home Board & Train model solves that problem.
Each day (Mon-Fri), Nick works one-on-one with your dog to build the specific behaviours and goals you want achieved directly in the environment where those behaviours matter most.
Once the dog clearly understands the training, we transfer those skills directly to you and your family so the results become permanent, practical, and easy to maintain.
Why Training at Home Works Better
Dogs do not generalize well.
A dog that performs perfectly in a training kennel may struggle again once back in its normal environment. By training in the home from the beginning, your dog learns where the behaviours actually matter most.
This approach allows us to address:
- Real household routines
- Everyday distractions
- Family dynamics
- Existing behavioural patterns
- Walking routes and neighbourhood triggers
- Visitor interactions
- Multi-dog household challenges
The result is training that becomes part of daily life — not something that only works in a facility.
Your Dog Learns. Your Family Learns Too.
One of the biggest reasons training fails is lack of owner transfer.
A dog may be trained, but if the family does not fully understand how to communicate clearly and consistently, the behaviour eventually fades.
That is why owner education is a major part of our program.
As your dog progresses, we guide you step-by-step on:
- Proper communication
- Timing and consistency
- Reinforcement techniques
- Structure and leadership
- Maintaining reliability long-term
- Preventing old behaviours from returning
By the end of the program, both you and your dog understand the system clearly and confidently.
Over 30 Years of Proven Success
Experience matters in dog training.
With more than three decades of professional work and an unmatched history of results, we have successfully trained dogs of all breeds, ages, temperaments, and behavioural backgrounds. Our methods are practical, humane, effective, and focused on creating reliable real-world behaviour that lasts.
We don’t believe in shortcuts.
We believe in clarity, consistency, communication, and results.
The Goal: A Better Life With Your Dog
Training should make everyday life easier, calmer, and more enjoyable for everyone involved.
Family K9’s in-home Board & Train program is designed to create a dog that listens reliably, understands expectations clearly, and integrates successfully into your family’s lifestyle — while giving owners the knowledge and confidence to maintain those results for years to come.
Get Started
If you’re looking for professional dog training with proven results — without sending your dog away from home — our in-home Board & Train program offers the best of both worlds.
"Nick didn't just train our dog he trained us to be better dog owners!"
From day one, Nick provided incredible guidance, support, and honest advice. He didn’t just train our dog — he trained us as owners and helped us truly understand our dog’s needs, behaviours, and communication. By the end of the two weeks, we were handed back a dog that was calm, structured, and ready to succeed. We continued putting in the work and following Nick’s direction, and we honestly could not be happier with the results.
We are incredibly grateful for Nick, his knowledge, his patience, and the care he showed our family and our dog throughout the entire process. I would highly recommend him to anyone looking for a dog trainer, whether you have a new puppy or are dealing with more serious behavioural concerns.
Thank you, Nick. We are beyond grateful for everything you did for our family. Georgie will miss your daily visits 🐾
Nick Changed Our Dog — and Our Lives
Nick’s dog training completely changed our reactive dog Nova. His in-home intensive training stopped leash pulling, improved her behavior around other dogs, and helped her stay calm when visitors arrive. We highly recommend Nick for anyone dealing with reactive dog behavior.
"Training that changed everything after 4 other trainers couldn't..."
The transformation in my dog after training with Nick has been incredible. Before training, walks were stressful — Spade was highly reactive, lunging and barking at people and dogs. Nick helped me understand his behavior, gave us structure, and taught both of us how to respond properly.
Now, with a simple “leave it,” Spade disengages, refocuses on me, and stays calm instead of reacting. I never thought we’d reach this point. What made the biggest difference was that Nick didn’t just train my dog — he taught me how to handle him with consistency and confidence.
The progress speaks for itself, and anyone who knew Spade before would immediately notice the change. I’m incredibly grateful for Nick’s patience, honesty, and dedication. He truly cares about the dogs and owners he works with.
Once again, from the bottom of my heart, hats off to Nick. You truly care about the dogs you work with and it shows in everything you do. Your patience, knowledge, and dedication made a real difference in our lives, and I’ll always appreciate what you’ve done for me and for Spade.
"Best Decision We Made For Our Dog!"
Nick was absolutely amazing with our 6-month-old female American Bully, Senna. His knowledge is incredible and clearly comes from decades of experience working with dogs. His training approach is very thorough and structured, while still combining compassion with the right level of discipline.
Senna absolutely loved him and genuinely looked forward to her training sessions every day, which says a lot about the trust he builds with dogs.
What really makes Nick stand out is the time he takes with the owners as well. He listened carefully to our concerns and made sure we understood how to continue the training with Senna ourselves so the progress would last. We learned so much from him.
I highly recommend Nick to anyone looking for a knowledgeable, patient, and truly dedicated dog trainer.
Un accompagnement exceptionnel pour nos labradors
“Nick nous a énormément aidés avec nos deux labradors malgré un environnement très stimulant sur notre ferme. Grâce à son approche, nos chiens sont beaucoup plus concentrés et attentifs envers nous. Il nous a donné confiance et c’est un vrai plaisir de travailler avec lui.”
Humanité, expertise et passion
J’aimerais prendre un moment pour te remercier pour ton professionnalisme et ton dévouement.
Ç’a été un réel plaisir et un privilège de pouvoir travailler avec quelqu’un comme toi.
Les deux heures ont été pour moi très révélatrices et productives.
J’ai vraiment profité de ce temps en ta compagnie. Ton intelligence, ta sensibilité et ta perspicacité ont fait bien plus que me montrer à dresser et accompagner nos chiens, ils m’ont aidé à décrocher réellement et être détendu.
Des fois la vie nous fait rencontrer des personnes qui nous font du bien, tu fais partie de ceux-là. Je souhaite à tout le monde qui travaille avec toi, d’avoir le même bonheur que j’ai eu. Tout ça avec une grande humilité ( pour ma part ).
A bientôt et merci encore
Compassionate, Professional, and Life-Changing Support
Too often we let good deeds and good people get pushed aside in the swirl of the day-to-day activities of life. While understandable, we believe that a general lack of acknowledgement faintly supports the idea that positive interactions are no different than negative interactions.
With that in mind, we wanted to share our experiences working with Nick Zevgolis owner of FamilyK9.
As parents of a severely autistic boy, we wanted to ensure our dogs transition in the family unit, would be a happy, healthy and balanced experience that would not disrupt (only assist and support) the inherent delicate life dynamics of a household with a handicapped kid.
We enrolled in Nick’s private intensive In Home Obedience – On and Off Leash training course hoping he could teach us how to work with our dog as well as help guide and train our young Shiloh Shepherd named Angel for our complicated lifestyle.
From our very first training session, we’ve been amazed at how professional, knowledgeable, caring and discreet Nick has been with all of us. Throughout the training course, we’ve become quite fond of Nick as has Angel. He has treated us as something other than just a customer and he has given Angel a steady dose of love and effective training.
Nick has been honest, forthright, kind and professional with us, in every interaction we’ve had with him.
We would highly recommend Nick to anyone who is looking for a dog trainer; he is hands down one of the best out there!
In closing we would like express our gratitude to Nick and let him know that our support goes beyond kind words, the whole experience from beginning to end was truly enriching, enlightening and always fun.
The family of Angel the Shiloh Shepherd
"Professional, Clear, and Highly Effective Training"
“We had an excellent experience with Nick from Family K9. He took the time to understand both our dog’s behaviour and our family’s needs, and clearly set expectations throughout the process.
We were dealing with a biting issue in a home with a young child, so safety was a top priority. Nick handled everything with professionalism, care, and calm confidence. In just two weeks, we saw significant improvement and now have a safer, more peaceful home.
We highly recommend Nick for anyone looking for long-term results—he truly delivers.”
