Yes. We train dogs from across the island — Sea Pines, Hilton Head Plantation, Palmetto Dunes, Port Royal, Indigo Run, Wexford, Long Cove and Shelter Cove. Training happens at our 20-acre academy in Dorchester, SC, where your dog lives and works for the length of the program.

The island is outside our complimentary pickup area, so it works one of two ways and you decide on the discovery call. We can quote you transport and handle both drives, or you can bring your dog out yourself. A number of island families make the trip once deliberately — walk the 20 acres, meet the staff, then hand over the leash. The cost is settled before you commit either way.

That is the goal, and it is the single most common reason island owners call us. Hilton Head allows off-leash beach time outside the restricted summer hours, but only for dogs genuinely under voice control — and voice control is doing a lot of work in that sentence. A dog that recalls in your yard and ignores you at a shorebird is not under voice control. We build a recall that holds against birds, other dogs, joggers and open water, which is what turns the beach from stressful into the reason you live here.

We will not use a live alligator, but we will build a recall stronger than your dog’s curiosity. Nearly every gated community on the island has lagoons and nearly all of them hold gators. An emergency recall — one command your dog obeys instantly, every time, regardless of what they have locked onto — is the most valuable safety behavior your dog can own in this environment. On Hilton Head it is not a convenience. It is the difference between a close call and a loss.

Yes, and it comes up constantly. The island’s pathway system puts bikes, strollers, joggers, golf carts and other dogs in a narrow shared lane with no shoulder to step onto. A reactive or pulling dog makes that lane genuinely unsafe. We teach social neutrality and a loose-leash default, then proof both against exactly the traffic mix the pathways throw at you.

Six weeks is our standard and what we recommend for most dogs. Four-week and custom lengths are available when the dog and your goals call for it. We do not run two-week programs. Under four weeks there is rarely enough time to build reliability that survives contact with real life, and we would rather say so now than hand you back a dog that regresses in a month.

Board & Train starts at $4,726. Private coaching is $400 per session. Transport from Hilton Head is quoted separately since the island is outside the complimentary pickup area. Financing is available and we will walk you through it on the call.

Yes. Behavior modification for aggression, severe reactivity, fear-based responses and anxiety is a large share of what we do, and a number of our dogs arrive after another trainer turned them down. Be straight with us about bite history on the call so we can scope the program honestly.

Your puppy needs to have finished the vaccination series, which usually lands around 16 to 17 weeks. There is no upper age limit for adult dogs — we have turned around plenty of eight- and nine-year-olds.

You get a turnover session where we put the leash in your hands and walk you through the entire system — what to say, when to say it, and what to do when your dog tests you on day three. Qualifying programs include lifetime support and alumni group classes. We do not hand you a trained dog and disappear.

Yes, and graduates get priority. Your dog already knows the campus, the staff and the routine, which is a meaningfully different experience from a boarding kennel they have never seen. For island families who travel or spend part of the year elsewhere, that is worth a great deal.

All of it — Sea Pines, Hilton Head Plantation, Palmetto Dunes, Port Royal, Indigo Run, Wexford, Long Cove, Shipyard, Shelter Cove and the north end.