Keep this in mind
After a PD360 Assessment at our Scottsdale campus, a trainer walks you through a specific program recommendation before you leave the pickup meet, not a report card mailed later. Most families who enroll in the recommended program pick a start date before they leave, and a deposit holds it. The fee is applied as store credit when you enroll in your recommended camp or a membership; it does not apply to a la carte bookings or general reservations.
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"Nicole was very personable and informative as to what the assessment would entail. Upon pick up I saw a video of my dog in playtime and what she would benefit in training. Felt confident to sign up for training camp." That is Leslie L., a Scottsdale parent, describing the part most families remember best: the conversation at pickup.
A trainer walks you through what they saw before you leave the building. The pickup meet runs from 2 to 4 in the afternoon, after your dog has spent the day working with different handlers across different environments at Scottsdale or Cave Creek. You get a verbal breakdown of what showed up: which stages your dog handled cleanly, where the wheels came off, and why. There is no written report card handed to you at the door and no packet of same-day paperwork to sign. The plan gets built into our system after that conversation, and a revised PD360 score follows so you have a number to track against later.
The recommendation follows what the dog showed during the day, not what the intake form guessed. The morning drop-off runs from 9 to 10, and the hours after that put your dog in front of multiple handlers and new environments built to surface the real pattern behind the symptom you called about. A family who books the PD360 Assessment because their dog barks at the door might leave with a Behavior Camp recommendation once resource guarding or territorial aggression turns out to be the deeper cause, closer to what Bruno's family found over his three weeks at camp. The recommendation names a specific program: Foundation Camp, Behavior Camp, Transform Camp, DaySchool, or private lessons.
There is no separate banding scale sitting on top of the score; the band a skill lands in is one of four stages. Teaching means the behavior is brand new and still has to be built from nothing. Reinforcing means the dog knows it but only holds it in easy settings. Proofing means it has to survive real distraction: another dog on the trail, a delivery truck, a raised voice. Maintenance means it is solid enough that the job now is keeping it that way. A dog can land in Teaching on one skill and Maintenance on another at the same visit, and that spread shapes the recommendation.
Most families booked into their recommended program pick a start date before they leave the building. Private lessons and group classes at our Scottsdale campus on Shea Boulevard often open that same week. A camp recommendation depends on the next available intake date, which the trainer checks with you at pickup. A deposit holds the spot, and families from Paradise Valley or North Phoenix leave with that date already set.
One visit answers most of it
One day at Scottsdale or Cave Creek gets your dog a real recommendation instead of a guess. The fee applies as store credit when you enroll in that recommended camp or membership, not to a la carte bookings or general reservations.
Board-and-train camps run on a calendar, so the start date depends on the next available intake, not a fixed number of days after your assessment. Foundation Camp runs 14 nights, Behavior Camp is built around the dog's specific root issue, and Transform Camp stretches across a 12 to 16 week arc that includes the boarded stay plus follow-up coaching. The trainer checks the actual calendar with you at pickup so you leave with a real date, not a guess.
A family can walk in expecting Behavior Camp and walk out with something lighter, and that is not a downsell. Odin came in with hyperactivity, pulling on leash, and destructive chewing, the kind of case that can look like it needs Behavior Camp on paper. Foundation Camp turned out to be the fit, and his stay stretched from two weeks to three so the team could finish the leash work and socialization his family needed once he got home. Families are allowed to disagree with the recommendation. If a program feels like too much commitment on day one, the conversation shifts toward starting with private lessons or DaySchool and stepping up only if the smaller path stalls out.
The pickup conversation includes a few things to practice before your dog's first scheduled session. Settling on one word for a behavior instead of three different cues, holding a leash without constant tension on an evening walk, or simply not correcting a behavior the trainer flagged as still in the Teaching stage. None of it replaces the program; it just keeps your dog from rehearsing the wrong version of a skill.
Camp families get daily updates; class and lesson families get a session-by-session plan tied to the same score. Either way, a trainer keeps working the specific stages named at pickup, with progress tracked against the original PD360 score rather than started over from zero. The plan traces back to the same afternoon conversation.
"The assessment was accurate, informative and helpful in deciding what classes we wanted our dog to start her lessons in."
Lisa P., Scottsdale
The Cave Creek campus follows the same pickup-day conversation as Scottsdale: a trainer names a program and a realistic start window before you leave. Private lessons and group classes often open the same week, while camp cohorts depend on the next available start date for Foundation Camp, Behavior Camp, or Transform Camp.
If the assessment turns up aggression toward people, other dogs, or resources, the recommendation is almost always Behavior Camp. The start date then depends on the next available Behavior Camp intake, which runs on its own calendar from Foundation Camp. The trainer explains the realistic timeline at pickup instead of leaving you to guess.
A Paradise Valley family goes through the same process as anyone else in the Valley: book the assessment at whichever campus is closer, get the same pickup-day recommendation, and hold a date with a deposit. Distance changes the commute, not the process.
Yes, sometimes. Behavior Camp and Transform Camp are more likely to run a waiting list than Foundation Camp, DaySchool, private lessons, or group classes. The trainer tells you exactly where your dog's recommended program stands on pickup day, including the realistic start window.
The trainer will tell you
See the drop-off and pickup schedule, what the day covers, and how the fee applies as store credit toward your recommended camp or membership, not to a la carte bookings or general reservations.