Our Services

We offer many different services to fit your goals, schedule, and lifestyle.

Private Lessons

  • In these 60-minute sessions, you and your trainer will work together on the specific goals you have for your dog, whether that’s learning essential skills like sit, leave it, and stay, or more advanced skills and even behavior modification. The sessions can take place in your home or at our facility in Brookland. Before your first session, we’ll identify your goals together, and then your trainer will create a tailored plan to reach them.

    • Basic Behaviors: Sit, stay, down, come, off, leave it, and many others

    • Polite Manners: Visitors, doorways, greetings, settling, and more

    • Loose Leash Walking: Walking with less pulling and more tail wagging

    • Leash Reactivity: Saying hi to other dogs calmly when out and about

    • Tricks & Enrichment: Tools and games to play with your dog and engage their brain

    • Crate Training & Separation-Related Behaviors: Strategies to help your dog feel at ease when they have the house to themselves

    • Confidence Building: Learning to feel more secure and independent in environments that are new, busy, or scary

    • Required virtual meet-and-greet with trainer

    • Single session: $150

    • Pack of 5 sessions: $675

    • See our Policy Page for additional service fees

Specialty Consultations

We’ve designed these sessions to help dog guardians in common but complex situations.

Aggression Consultation

Aggression Consultation

  • Realizing that your dog displays aggressive behaviors can be heartbreaking. But with the right force-free, fear-free tools and strategies at your fingertips, a happy, healthy life together is absolutely possible!

    Joseph Ryan, our aggression specialist, will assess your dog via a three-part consultation: an initial digital intake form, a 30-minute virtual discussion, and then a 2-hour in-person consultation at our facility in Brookland. You’ll then receive a comprehensive report and training plan.

    • Required virtual meet-and-greet with trainer: Free

    • First consultation: $300 (2 hours)

    • Follow-up session: $150 (1 hour)

    • Consultation follow-up package: $675 (5 sessions)


    Note:     While the first consultation happens at our facility in Brookland, follow-up sessions can take place at your home, if that’s more convenient.

New Puppy Consultation

  • Little pups are so much fun — and so much work! We want to make sure you’re both set up for a lifetime of success, whether you have your puppy now or are planning to adopt one soon.

    If your puppy is already at home, we offer a 2-hour, in-home consultation with Nikita Poe, our puppy specialist. If you’re getting ready to adopt soon, Nikita will meet with you for a virtual consultation before your new dog comes home.

    • Required virtual meet-and-greet with trainer: $40

    • First consultation: $300 (2 hours)

    • Follow-up session: $150 (1 hour)

    • Follow-up session package: $675 (5 sessions)

Small Group Play and Train

  • Small Group Play and Train is a drop-and-train style class at our facility in Brookland, DC. During this class, your dog will have safe and appropriate playtime with their friends, personalized training sessions with our trainers, and structured break time to prevent overstimulation and exhaustion.

  • • Required virtual meet-and-greet with the class instructor

    • $120 per class

    • Classes take place at our Brookland Facility (3510 12th St NE)

    • Morning class: 8am to 9am Drop-off, 1pm to 130pm Pick-up

    • Afternoon class: 130pm-2pm Drop-off, 6pm-7pm Pick-up

    • Large Dog (+30 pounds) / Wrestlers on Mondays

    • Large Dog (+30 pounds) / Loungers on Tuesday

    •Small Dog (>30 pounds) / All energy levels on Wednesday

    •Puppies (>6 months of age) / Friday

AKC Canine Good Citizen Evaluation

  • Let your dog show off their good manners (and your good guardianship skills) by passing the American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizen assessment with evaluator Ian Kilgore. The test takes between 20 and 30 minutes to complete and requires a 100% score to pass. Don’t worry if your pup misses an item — you can retest right there.

    • Required virtual meet-and-greet with our AKC CGC Evaluator

    • Exam: $50

Training Walks

  • Walking on a leash isn’t as easy as it looks! Training walks help with any behavioral issues your dog might experience out on walks — making everyone’s life a little easier. They’re also a smart choice if you want to hire a traditional dog walking service in the future, but know your dog isn’t ready for that yet.

    On a training walk, we’ll address on-leash reactive behaviors, loose-leash walking, and basic manners. We’ll maintain and reinforce the behaviors you want to see, like stopping and sitting at crosswalks, and we’ll reinforce cues like “leave it” to keep your dog engaged and well-mannered.

    You can schedule a training walk as a standalone service or use them to supplement what you’re already learning and working on in private or group training sessions.

    Training walks are led by a training apprentice who’s in the process of becoming a certified force-free dog trainer. Apprentices are qualified to execute training techniques and protocols so there’s a seamless transition between your private training sessions and real-world walks.

    If you're working with a private trainer not affiliated with Force Free DC, we’ll aim to coordinate with that trainer and keep their existing training plan consistent — as long as it aligns with our fear-, force- and pain-free philosophy.

    If you’re new to our training walks, you’ll first meet virtually with your apprentice trainer to develop a training plan for your dog and talk through any questions you have. We’ll also set up your online profile together.

    • Required virtual meet-and-greet with trainer

    • Single training walk: $85 (45 minutes)

    • Pack of 10 training walks: $755

    • Walks are scheduled between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., based on your location and availability

    • Training Walks are only available in NW and NE DC

In-Person Group Classes

Learning is more fun with friends! Our small group classes give you and your pup a great opportunity to work with a trainer and a few other students once a week at our Brookland location.

Basic Manners and Life Skills

Basic Manners and Life Skills

  • This course covers essential manners like sit, down, wait, recall, and loose leash walking to set your dog up for success in their daily life.

    We’ve developed a tried-and-true curriculum to make sure you and your dog get the most out of every class. To graduate, you must attend all six classes. After graduation, you’ll receive a certificate of completion for your dog and access to our Advanced Manners class.

  • Full course: $300 (6 weeks)

Advanced Manners and City Skills

  • This course builds on your dog’s strong foundation from Basic Manners and Life Skills. You and your dog will start with a refresh of the basics and then quickly move on to more challenging skills.

    We’ll work on building focus and impulse control, greeting people politely, relaxing (it’s harder than it sounds!), and navigating common distractions that come with city life. For the last class, we’ll put all your dog’s new skills together in a fun outdoor activity.

  • Full course: $300 (6 weeks)

AKC Canine Good Citizen Prep and Test

AKC Canine Good Citizen Prep and Test

  • Our American Kennel Club (AKC) Canine Good Citizen (CGC) group class covers everything you need to successfully pass the CGC test. At graduation, your dog will also get to take the test and show off what they’ve learned.

    The AKC CGC test requires a score of 100% to pass, but if you miss one item, you can retest right there and then.

  • Full course: $350 (6 weeks)

Puppy Social Hour

  • This weekly gathering is a chance for you and your puppy to join other puppy guardians and discuss socialization, training, and appropriate play with our puppy specialist!

    It’s a great opportunity to get some puppy energy out while enjoying the company of other puppy guardians to share your experiences of puppyhood!

  • • Held weekly on Saturdays at our Brookland location (3510 12th St NE)

    • $40 per class

    • Dogs must be between 8 and 24 weeks old and up to date on their vaccinations

Gift Cards Available!

Gift Cards Available!

Want to give someone the gift of positive dog training? Purchase a gift card!

To redeem, please email info@forcefreedc.com to have the gift card applied to your initial consultation or group classes!