Instinct Dog Training of NJ and PA

09/06/2025

Please help us welcome Leah Bornstein and her pup Tucker! Leah is a certified trainer who works with dogs both in homes and virtually. She is fluent in American Sign Language. Leah will be offering in homes lessons in the Central NJ counties of Essex, Union, Somerset and Middlesex. Welcome to our team Leah and Tucker! We are so very glad you joined our Instinct family!

07/31/2025

07/31/2025

LAST UPDATE:

All clear! The streets surrounding our facility did not flood nor did our Englewood facility. This is our final update. The storms largely missed us though they did considerable damage to communities in central New Jersey and the Jersey Shore. Please keep those affected in your thoughts.

UPDATE: As of 6 pm the storms seem to have split and are passing North and South of us.

We are continuing to monitor the situation closely, it looks like there will not be any flooding on our block or connecting streets

We will update this at 9 pm *unless* something changes in which case we’ll update immediately

For all of our families please stay safe!

Camper Olive here to let all our families know that we are prepared for any possible flooding tonight. We’ll update everyone here as the afternoon and evening progress. We have staff here all night, the generator is ready and if we have flooding in the building we have a site specific map of areas to which we will relocate within the building. We have areas that do not flood and will move them to those safer areas as needed

07/03/2025

Camper Dwight starting off the holiday weekend early! If your fur friends (including cats!) struggle with fireworks they may need some extra love and attention this holiday weekend 💕.

06/18/2025

Alumni Day School! Our alumni Koda and Toby, pictured here enjoying our new DaySchool program! This program can be added on to boarding or be booked as a stand alone. In addition to daycare content our pups also have extra time for fun agility, nosework, parkour, sniff walks and reinforcement of basic manners. Head on over to our website for information on how to book your pup into Day School!

06/04/2025

We are expanding our offerings for you and our family!

For a while now, our alumni have been asking for more options in both boarding and day programs. After talking and brainstorming with our families we’ve developed a new program for dogs who need a bit more! Whether your pup has anxiety, reactivity, fear or just plain needs a job to do every day our new Day School offering helps meet your needs. Currently it is available Tuesdays through Fridays but will expand to Sundays and Mondays soon.

Offering fun agility, nosework, outdoor pack walks, treadmill time and more our team can tailor a day based on your pup’s unique needs. This offering can be stand alone (you send your pup for a day specifically for these activities) or you can add this to our traditional boarding day. Please note this does not replace a training camp or lessons - this is a fun way for your pup to learn a new sport while also helping exercise their brain. Email us at [email protected] to book your session!

04/02/2025

Instinct owner Suze is fostering this wonderful joyful boy! He will be in the foster care program for a while, as he needs to gain a lot of weight and we need a deeper understanding of what’s going on with his eyes that caused his blindness. So if you’re able to head on over to their website and donate to Jacob‘s care!

02/08/2025

01/20/2025

Having Dobermans play well together takes a lot of monitoring and coordination. Adoptable Dawkins (a 1 year old Blue Dobie) never learned how to play as a puppy.

So helper dog Bridget has been helping him learn to come in softer and defer. He’s come a long way! And when he gets a little much she corrects him again. This type of training is only possible if the recipient (Dawkins) can accept correction- which he does!

Dawkins, a one year old Blue dobie with natural ears, is adoptable through our friends at Doberman Pinscher Rescue of PA, Inc.! If you’re interested head on over to their page to apply. And he comes with three free lessons at Instinct Dog Training of NJ and PA!

10/29/2024

It just doesn’t get any better than this. Happy tails to our sweet and spicy Steve ❤️😘🥰

🎉Huge congratulations to our spicy nugget Steve!🎉 He is another foster fail for the year. His foster mom Leslie and foster dad Phil could not see him going anywhere else. He is home!
Everyone has been following Steve’s journey from his tragic injury at 10 weeks old to the present time enjoying life to the fullest and being the best ambassador for the Doberman breed ever! Lots of wonderful volunteers and people to thank along the way. Thanks to Kristina Evans, our Communications Director, for seeing his Craigslist ad and jumping quickly to get him approved to come into DPRPA (we could not say no to this little guy and his plight) and for helping with his transport. And thanks to Diane Sorantino for helping out with the transport chain. Thanks so much to Suze Cullinan and her team at Instinct Dog Training for stepping up to help foster and get this spicy nugget all the help and vetting he needed throughout his long journey. Thank you to Joey's Paw for the wonderful donation of a doggy wheelchair to help
him get around in life. And also, to Special Needs Dobermans for their continued support with Steve and DPRPA. We cannot thank them enough. Thanks to all the wonderful vets and staff for never giving up on Steve's to ensure he got all the help he needed along the way. We can’t forget to thank all his donors who made his victory successful. And we cannot thank Leslie and Phil enough for doing everything possible for Steve to ensure he was happy and living his life to the fullest. He still has a long journey ahead of him but we at DPRPA know he is in the right place to make his journey a long, loving, and caring one!

Happy Tails to the spicy nugget and we all look forward to hearing about all his adventures in the future! We love you, Steve!

08/06/2024

UPDATE: The roads are clear! Message to all of our families- you may hear that streets in Englewood are flooding. They are indeed however all of our dogs are safe. We have flood controls in place and people on site. We also have a generator in the event that power goes out (which has not happened). If you are picking up your pup tonight please don’t attempt to drive in. We’ll keep them safe and sound and want you to stay safe too! Please call tomorrow before coming to the facility for drop off, pick up or lessons. We’ll post more updates here as we have them.

07/16/2024

I've swithered about the wisdom of posting this for fear of backlash but I keep coming back to these questions and I think they are important so here goes nothing...

I was working in the park yesterday and saw things which, if I'm honest, kind of broke my heart a wee bit. A beautiful puppy on a slip lead being corrected (by a 'trainer') whenever they stopped to sniff. An obedience class of dogs half of whom appeared to be on 'grot' collars (choke collars). A dog being walked on a prong collar in a strict heel and never allowed to stop, sniff or interact with the world around them.

So my questions are...

What has happened in our relationship with our dogs that makes more and more people feel ok about training their dogs with force & coercion & discomfort/pain?

Do people believe these things don't hurt? That the dog truly doesn't mind? Or do they acknowledge that these things are unpleasant (at best...painful at worst) but believe this is the only way to teach dogs? Do they understand what they are doing but feel there are no other options? Is the dog's discomfort simply a price worth paying for the human's convenience? Has frequent exposure to coercive trainers on social media numbed us to the casual cruelty with which they treat dogs? Or do we just avoid thinking about it all too deeply for fear we may have to face some uncomfortable truths?

Where is our empathy, kindness and understanding for the captive animals we have chosen to bring into our lives? If we truly care about our dogs (and I believe most owners do) then why are we often so quick to use physical force & discomfort? If we are prepared to sacrifice their wellbeing and experience in favour of our control over them - and it's worth saying these are not mutually exclusive - then we have some serious reflecting to do....