Silver vs Gold
Silver vs Gold board and train: one week or two
One week sounds like the sensible first step, and for some dogs it is. For most of the dogs that arrive at our Cypress training home, though, the second week is where the habit actually flips. This page says which is which without upselling.
Last reviewed September 11, 2026 · by the Best Dog University Team
Side by side
Silver is a foundation; Gold is a foundation plus the week that makes it stick.
Silver Foundation Program is seven days in our trainer's home. Our team introduces structure, loose leash walking and waiting at doors, then hands the dog back with a go-home session. It is a starting point or a refresher, and we say so on the program page. The dog leaves knowing what a leash means and that a threshold is not an invitation.
Gold Board & Train is fourteen days and covers the full basic obedience set: sit/stay, place/stay, loose leash, door boundaries, jumping, pulling and impulse control. The second week is spent proofing those commands with distractions in the house and on the street, which is the part a one-week stay cannot fit. Gold also includes one additional lesson after the go-home session and lifelong support.
| Silver Foundation | Gold Board & Train | |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 1 week | 2 weeks |
| Price | $1,500 | $2,500 |
| About per day | $214 | $179 |
| Skills | Loose leash walking, door boundaries, basic structure | Everything in Silver plus sit/stay, place/stay, jumping, pulling, impulse control |
| After the stay | Go-home session | Go-home session, one additional lesson, lifelong support |
| Best for | A refresher, or a first taste of structure for a steady dog | Fixing habits: jumping, pulling, no off switch, ignoring commands |
| Not for | Behavior transformation | Reactivity or aggression (that is Platinum) |
When Silver wins
Silver wins for a refresher, a steady dog or a family testing the water.
A dog who graduated from a stay last year and has gotten sloppy at the door does not need two weeks. A week of structure restores the rules, and the go-home session reminds the family what changed. That is the classic Silver dog. So is the steady three-year-old Lab who walks well enough but has never been asked to wait at a threshold, whose family wants a clean baseline before a move to a Fairfield house with a busy front door.
Silver also suits families who want to see how their dog handles a stay before committing to Platinum. One week in the house shows our team the dog's temperament, and it shows you the updates, the videos and the handover. If the phone consultation ends with our team saying a week will do, believe it. We would rather send a dog home early than hold him for a second week he does not need.
- A refresher for a past graduate
- A calm adult with no real behavior problems
- You mainly want loose leash walking and door manners
- A trial stay before a longer program
- The budget is $1,500 and the dog is easy
When Gold wins
Gold wins as soon as the word habit enters the conversation.
Jumping on guests, pulling toward every dog on the Towne Lake trail, bolting out the gate, whining through dinner: these are habits with weeks or years of practice behind them. Seven days is enough to teach the alternative, not enough to make the alternative the default. The second Gold week is when our trainers add distractions, doors opening, people passing, food on the counter, and the dog chooses the new behavior without a prompt.
Gold also wins for adolescent dogs, roughly six to eighteen months, because that is the age when a dog tests every rule twice. A Golden or a Doodle at ten months who has stopped listening needs place/stay and impulse control, which are Gold skills, not Silver ones. And the extra lesson matters. Most Houston families use it two or three weeks after the go-home session, once real life has thrown up its first surprise.
- Jumping, pulling or bolting that has become routine
- An adolescent dog who has stopped listening
- You want place/stay so the house is calm at dinner
- You want a follow-up lesson built into the price
- The dog needs impulse control, not only a leash lesson
What Houston families choose
The pattern our team sees: Silver for the graduate, Gold for the first-timer.
Silver suits past clients and dogs that need a refresher. Their dog knows the house, the rules and our trainers, and a week is a tune-up, often before hurricane season travel or a holiday when the house fills with visitors. First-time families almost always have a habit to fix, and a habit is a Gold job. Our team will tell you which you are on the free phone consultation rather than let you find out at the go-home session.
Season shapes it too. From May to September outdoor work moves to early morning and evening because of the heat, so a Silver week in July has fewer sidewalk sessions than a Silver week in March. That is another reason Gold makes sense in summer: the extra days give the dog enough cool-hour walks to make the leash work real. Either way, updates arrive on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
How to decide
Five questions that settle Silver or Gold in a minute.
Answer honestly and the program picks itself. Our team runs the same list on the call, and the answers rarely surprise anyone once they are said out loud.
Has your dog trained with us before? Yes points to Silver as a refresher.
Can you name one behavior you would call a habit? Yes points to Gold.
Is the dog between six and eighteen months? Adolescents need the second week.
Do you want place/stay and impulse control, or mainly leash and door manners? The first is Gold, the second Silver.
Is there growling, lunging or snapping? Then neither; ask our team about Platinum.
The programs
The two programs, side by side.
Silver is the foundation week. Gold is the two-week program that most first-time families end up needing.
Asked and answered
Questions people ask about this.
Can I start with Silver and add a second week later?
Talk to our team before the stay rather than during it. Extending mid-program depends on space in the training home, which holds only a limited number of dogs at once. If there is any doubt on the phone consultation, booking Gold from the start is cheaper and cleaner than adding days.
Is Silver just a shorter Gold?
No. Silver covers loose leash walking, door boundaries and basic structure and ends with a go-home session. Gold covers the whole basic obedience set, including sit/stay, place/stay, jumping and impulse control, and adds one more lesson plus lifelong support. The skill list, not only the length, is different.
Does either program fix reactivity?
Neither is built for it. Reactivity and aggression are handled in the three-week Platinum program at $3,750, where behavior modification and field trips are part of the plan. Silver and Gold dogs work on the property and the neighborhood streets, not in public stores, and the stay is too short for graded exposure work.
Will a one-week dog still get the Monday, Wednesday and Friday updates?
Yes. Every stay, from Silver to VIP, includes photo and video updates three times a week, and every stay ends with a go-home session where our trainers hand you the leash and walk you through the commands. What changes between Silver and Gold is the skill list and the follow-up lesson.
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One week or two? Ask us.
Describe the dog and the one thing you most want fixed on the free phone consultation. Our team will say Silver or Gold plainly, and a $250 deposit reserves the week.