In short
Every skill in the Partners Dogs curriculum moves through four stages in a fixed order: Teaching, Reinforcing, Proofing, and Maintenance.
On this page
Every one of the 115+ behaviors tracked across our 8-level curriculum, from Group Classes where a puppy learns Sit through the off-leash work a Dogtorate graduate carries for life, moves through four dog training method stages in the same fixed order:
These four stages are the actual scale we score every behavior against. The point before Teaching begins, when a behavior is not yet in a dog's vocabulary at all, sits before stage one on that scale. A PD360 Assessment is where a senior trainer first maps which stage each of your dog's skills already sits at, and every session after that moves those skills forward one stage at a time.
Teaching is where a behavior takes shape for the first time, built piece by piece in a low-distraction setting through shaping, luring, and conditioning. Nothing is expected to hold up under real-world pressure yet, the only job is getting the dog to understand what the cue means. In Pre-School, Sit starts as "Sit w/Lure," a food lure guiding the dog's rear to the ground until it starts offering the position on cue. Recall enters Teaching in Kindergarten as "Recall/Come/Front," worked at a modest 6 feet before distance is ever added. Crate training starts the same way back in Pre-School, where the goal is minimal resistance and a dog who settles calmly instead of whining, barking, or scratching to get out. A skill graduates out of Teaching once the dog shows real recognition, and often anticipation, of what is being asked.
Reinforcing is where reward moves from continuous to variable, so the dog keeps offering the behavior even when a treat is not guaranteed every single time. Sit becomes a "Known Behavior" by Kindergarten, one grade level after it was first taught with a lure. Recall grows into "Recall to Heel" in Elementary, no longer just coming when called but arriving into a working position at the handler's side. Heel itself, taught in Kindergarten as basic heeling without pulling, moves into Reinforcing the very next grade level. All four reinforcement quadrants can come into play here, as long as the dog still recognizes the goal being asked of it. The behavior itself stays the same; only how reliably the dog produces it without a guaranteed payoff changes.
Proofing tests a behavior against five variables at once: duration, distraction, distance, direction, and difficulty. It is the longest stage in the Partners Method, since a new environment can always expose a new weakness. Heel becomes "Focused Heel" once it reaches Proofing in Middle-School. Sit reaches Proofing in Elementary, the same grade level where dogs also start Leave It. Leave It begins by setting up the opportunistic moment, then correcting it and redirecting into a better choice. Leave It does not name specific triggers like mounting or play-policing other dogs until it is reinforced at Middle-School and High-School. Boundaries, the skill that keeps a dog out of an off-limits kitchen or off the bed, is taught in Elementary and does not reach Proofing until High-School, three grade levels of steadily raising the bar. A behavior is ready to move past Proofing once it holds up in new places, around new distractions, and at new distances.
Maintenance has no finish line. A skill stays sharp because it keeps getting used: in class, at DaySchool and DayCamp, during boarding, and at home. Heel, Sit, and Crate all settle into Maintenance by Middle-School or High-School. They stay there through College, Masters, and Dogtorate, not because the dog stopped needing reps but because those reps are now folded into everyday life instead of a dedicated lesson. By Dogtorate, a graduate is carrying 115 behaviors at what we call mastery depth, tracked the entire way. Maintenance is the reason a dog does not slide backward months after finishing a boarded program. The behaviors keep earning their keep instead of being asked for once and forgotten.
"She came for training and it has made her such a great dog. She still comes for boarding and weekly daycare."
Jordan C., Scottsdale
See it in action
The fastest way to see Teaching, Reinforcing, Proofing, and Maintenance in one session is a live Group Class at Scottsdale or Cave Creek.
A single Group Class session runs 45 minutes, and every block maps to one of the four stages. Interval work opens the class, 20 minutes of focused reps at rotating stations, and this is where a new skill actually earns its first stage of Teaching. Group work follows for 15 minutes, the whole class works one behavior together around the pull of other dogs and handlers, which is exactly the pressure Proofing requires. A 5-minute AMRAP round lets a Pet Parent pick one behavior and rack up clean reps, the kind of volume that turns Reinforcing into something automatic. The last 5 minutes are Demo, where your trainer gives direct feedback and sets the one thing to drill at home before next week, the bridge into Maintenance. Classes run in small groups of 6 dogs or fewer, led by a master trainer, with open enrollment so missing a week does not undo a stage your dog has already reached.
"We also are participating in group classes which help us to reinforce all of his hard work with the guidance of trainers."
Molly M., Cave Creek
A behavior that is Teaching at one grade level becomes Reinforcing at the next, then Proofing, then Maintenance, which is why nothing in the Partners curriculum is learned once and forgotten. Pre-School starts a dog with 14 behaviors. By Kindergarten that grows to 29 cumulative skills, Elementary to 44, Middle-School to 59, and so on up through Dogtorate's 115. Every new grade level adds a fresh set of Teaching-stage skills on top while pushing everything already learned one stage deeper. The word "Sit" cued in Pre-School and the word "Sit" cued in Dogtorate are the same cue. By Dogtorate it has been drilled through seven more grade levels of distance, distraction, and difficulty. That repetition is what makes the same cue mean something far more reliable to the dog, even though the word itself never changed.
Every skill your dog knows sits at a stage, and every stage is worth points inside the PD360 Pet Progress Tracking System, so a grade level's score is simply the sum of every tracked skill's stage across the curriculum. Each stage carries a fixed point value inside that system: Teaching is worth 2 points per skill, Reinforcing 3, Proofing 4, and Maintenance 5, so a skill that moves from Reinforcing to Proofing adds exactly one more point toward the grade's cumulative score. That same score follows your dog across every program you use: Group Classes, DaySchool, DayCamp, and boarding. A behavior that reached Proofing in a Tuesday class does not quietly reset to Teaching the next time your dog boards. PD360 runs on weekly check-ins and goal re-evaluation, and a grade-level graduation happens once the score hits that level's target, driven entirely by the dog's stage progress. It is also the intake gate: a PD360 Assessment is a senior trainer evaluating your dog in person and mapping exactly which stage each behavior already sits at before recommending a starting grade level.
"What I like and appreciate is the way all the trainers are sending me the report cards with Sadie's progress."
Natasha T., Cave Creek
The four stages are the operating system behind every program we run: Foundation Camp, Behavior Camp, Transform Camp, Group Classes, DaySchool, and DayCamp. Foundation Camp compresses a dog's early Teaching and Reinforcing work into a 14-night boarded stay. Behavior Camp's 21-night boarded stay and Transform Camp's 28-night boarded stay each sit inside a 12 to 16 week arc that includes built-in follow-up coaching, because moderate to severe behavior cases need that much time inside Proofing before Maintenance can hold on its own. Group Classes keep skills climbing week over week in a social setting. DaySchool and DayCamp exist to keep Maintenance-stage behaviors sharp between formal training blocks, with DayCamp built specifically for dogs who still need a more structured, behavior-focused day.
The same stage runs at a different pace depending on the setting. Inside a 14-night Foundation Camp, a new skill can move from Teaching into Reinforcing within days, since the reps happen multiple times a day with the same trainer. In DaySchool, that same jump usually takes longer, since the reps are spread across whichever days a Pet Parent books rather than compressed into a boarded stay. Both are still the same four-stage scale, just moving at whatever rate that setting allows.
Whichever program a dog is enrolled in, the same PD360 score and the same four stages travel with it, so nothing has to start over.
The four stages are Teaching, Reinforcing, Proofing, and Maintenance. Teaching builds a brand-new behavior in a low-distraction setting. Reinforcing moves the reward schedule from continuous to variable so the dog keeps offering the behavior without a guaranteed treat every time. Proofing tests the behavior against five variables: duration, distraction, distance, direction, and difficulty. Maintenance keeps a mastered skill sharp for life through ongoing real-world use.
It depends on the skill and the dog. Some behaviors, like a basic Sit, move from Teaching through Proofing within a few grade levels. Others, like off-leash reliability, are not introduced until Middle-School and are not fully proofed until High-School. Proofing is usually the longest stage because it keeps testing the behavior against new environments, so there is no single timeline that applies to every dog or every skill.
Yes. The same four stages and the same PD360 score apply whether your dog is in a weekly Group Class or working through a boarded program like Foundation Camp, Behavior Camp, or Transform Camp. What changes between programs is the pace and the setting, not the structure. A skill that reaches Proofing during a boarded stay carries that same stage forward into Group Classes or DaySchool afterward.
PD360 is the Partners Dogs Pet Progress Tracking System. Every behavior your dog knows sits at one of the four stages, and each stage is worth points that add up to a grade-level score. PD360 runs on weekly check-ins and goal re-evaluation, and the same score follows your dog across every program, so progress made in one setting is not lost in another.
No. Group Classes use open enrollment with a modular structure, so missing a week does not undo a stage your dog has already reached. Behaviors repeat within a grade level, and a Pet Parent can repeat a grade level as many times as needed before moving on, which keeps the four-stage system forgiving of a busy schedule.
Where it starts
A senior trainer places your dog's skills on this four-stage scale first, then a Group Class turns that plan into weekly practice.