The Dog Institute of Williamsburg

We can’t say enough great things about The Dog Institute. Elizabeth has created an amazing “baby puppy” program that laid a wonderful foundation for our pup. We had a great experience with the virtual sessions, and our pup absolutely loved going to “school” for play & train sessions with Roshni, Julia and Allie. If you want to teach your puppy confidence, excellent manners, how to walk well on a leash in the city, and of course how to properly socialize with other dogs, we highly recommend enrolling here. It has made all the difference for us, and we couldn’t be more pleased. Looking forward to staying in this special community!

The Dog Institute of Williamsburg was a game changer for my puppy, Ford! I was nervous about how impactful virtual dog training would be, but it's been great. Elizabeth is super knowledgable and patient, and because her sessions are 1:1 you have the opportunity to focus on specific behaviors depending on your pup's needs! The homework she provides is also really clear and easy to follow. My sessions with Elizabeth were a really great foundation to building a relationship with my puppy! I also cannot say enough good things about the play & train sessions. The space is super clean, there aren't too many dogs, and the staff is incredible! It's been a great way to socialize Ford, practice being apart from each other, and reinforce behaviors we are learning at home. It is Ford's favorite place!

This is a review for remote puppy training with Elizabeth and in person Play + Train classes @ the institute. Remote training with Elizabeth saved us in the throws of baby puppy behavior issues. We really felt like we brought home a cute 4 lb ball of fluff who turned into a velociraptor at night. We struggled with very nippy baby shark zoomies, handling issues (aka HATED the harness), and just your general puppy training issues! Elizabeth was able to help us set the foundation for positive reinforcement training and also learned all about Fox's personality alongside us so that everything could be tailored to Fox. This was especially important to us as we had, egoistically, believed that our youtube videos and puppy book reading had made us into experts--it had not. The real thing is so much more chaotic and requires so much more patience. Probably the most important thing to us is that Elizabeth was able to help us learn when to laugh @ the situation and stop panicking, which really helped us emotionally -- to enjoy time with our cute pup! -- and in training because a sense of humor has really helped us with patience. For people who are worried about remote, it has worked for us because observing Fox in her natural habitat (our home -- see photo!) brings up some behaviors that are impossible to replicate @ a training facility. This offers much more flexibility and more insights into Fox's habits. + we can work with her in our quarantine dog friendly PJs and not feel embarrassed haha! Play and Train: now that Play and Train has been available IRL, it has been WONDERFUL to introduce Fox to a cohort of baby puppy friends and also to have amazing one-on-one time with fantastic trainers. This has really helped us to supplement specific techniques that have been a challenge for us (handling, harness, movement on and off couch). In the city too, we've found dog parks can be overwhelming and unpredictable (you never know who else is going to be there) but @ Play and Train everybody has worked with the dog institute and we feel really comfortable with the supervision! Fox is 1000% a better puppy since Training and Play and Train. We were calling her a dud for a while, but now we think she's a pretty cool dog. < 3

We had to do virtual training because of the pandemic. If you’re asking yourself can virtual training be just as effective as in person training - it definitely can be. The training is to train/teach you how to train your dog and I believe Elizabeth is able to get that across. She was very patient with questions and made sure that you knew what you were doing. I liked the Dog Institute for basic training for my pup who is also my first dog. Thank you Elizabeth :)