Brandon McMillan’s Dog Training Masterclass Review: What to Expect?

The digital landscape has resulted in the rising popularity of convenient, accessible, and affordable online learning platforms. Animal trainers are in on the hype, creating prominent and helpful online courses for animal lovers!

If you’re a dog owner, trainer, or enthusiast, you might want new avenues for training your dog.

Professional dog trainer Brandon McMillan may be the answer for you and your fur pal! 

He offers an online MasterClass to help you master, understand, and shape canine behavior. As he says, “There are no untrainable dogs—just untrained humans.”

We’ll explore whether his masterclass is worth the subscription by looking at:

• Who he is
• His MasterClass’ promise and inclusions
• Pros and cons
• Final verdict

Let’s get into it!

Brandon McMillan: A Background

With his father and uncle both in the animal entertainment industry, Brandon McMillan grew up around a variety of wild animals. 

At 18, he began working for his uncle’s animal training company supplying animals for film and television. 

McMillan’s path as a trainer began in 2010 when he opened a boarding facility dedicated to therapy and service dogs. 

As an accomplished celebrity in the field of dog training, McMillan boasts an impressive resume as the author and Emmy Award-winning television host of “Lucky Dog”, where he trains shelter dogs to find new homes. 

Now, Brandon McMillan is dedicated to helping build relationships between humans and their pets. 

His diverse experience positions him as a credible instructor of canine training. Moving forward, we’ll focus on whether the masterclass itself is worth the time for you and your furry friend!

The Promise of McMillan’s MasterClass

As advertised through Masterclass: “Expert animal trainer Brandon McMillan teaches you his simple, effective training system to build trust and control with your dog.”

In the MasterClass itself, Brandon shares each component of his simple and effective training system, with the intention of improving your dog’s behavior and developing a lifelong bond.

Each video clip is dedicated to learning the ins and outs of a principle or practical technique, from teaching obedience through commands like sit, stay, and down, to impeding bad habits like barking and digging. 

Assessing the Cost: MasterClass Pricing

Masterclass prices are relatively affordable when compared to the cost of hiring a professional dog trainer, which can cost around $200 a session due to demand and lack of availability. 

Subscribing to the Masterclass website as a whole costs $120 annually, allowing unlimited access to all courses.

The McMillan dog training MasterClass (as an individual plan) costs only $15 monthly, billed annually at $180. 

Other online dog training courses range between $100-$500, depending on if it’s a full package or a monthly subscription. For example, the popular K9 Training Institute Masterclass costs $497. 

Class Structure & Inclusions: A Breakdown 

Brandon McMillan’s MasterClass includes 15 episodes, each of around 7-8 minutes in length. The total course adds up to just under 3 hours. 

McMillan’s complementary textbook includes clear, colorful infographics and picture guides to supplement the video content! 

The masterclass episodes include instructions, tips, and techniques, with physical demonstrations performed alongside a dog. Each episode is dedicated to teaching owners a training principle or practical technique, outlined in the following order:

• Meet your instructor (intro)

• Variables that make your dog unique

• Trust & Groundwork for Training

• Training Foundations & the 7 Common Commands

• Signaling Commands & Leash Techniques

• Sit

• Down

• Stay

• No

• Off

• Come

• Heel

• Housebreaking

• Doordashing

• Digging, Chewing, Barking.

The structure of the masterclass begins by introducing instructor Brandon himself, and then understanding why all of the key variables (such as breed, age, history, and imprinted DNA) make your dog unique. 

The first training episodes begin by laying the preparational groundwork, with a focus on the core principles and trust. 

The middle episodes turn to primary signaling and verbal commands, from leash techniques to “sit”, “come”, “heel” etc. 

The final episodes focus on maladaptive canine habits, and how to prevent and discourage these through reinforcement. 

You can watch a sample video of the masterclass, and access all of the transcript previews.

Takeaway: The Pros and Cons

McMillan’s MasterClass is well-loved and highly rated by its users, with a 4.7/5 star rating. 

He has received praise for his authentic, dedicated attitude and engaging teaching style. The class itself is described as well-structured and orderly, as he manages to seamlessly integrate theory and practice. 

McMillan also demonstrates his training videos with various dog sizes, breeds, and temperaments, catering to all sorts of owners. 

The message here: no dog is untrainable!

In terms of cons, the course could benefit from including and troubleshooting other common behavioral challenges that were excluded, such as night training. 

McMillan could potentially have included training techniques for older dogs too. Some reviewers have also noted that – while not critical – the course ends rather abruptly, with no final goodbye or closing note after the last training episode.

To summarize:

Pros

• Brandon’s dedication and care for animals
• Personal warmth with a backstory
• Various types of dogs demonstrated in video content
• Engaging delivery & teaching style
• Well-structured, orderly episodes
• Anti-dominance attitude and techniques
• Shows materials you’ll need
• Includes key takeaways.

Cons

• Early/intervention training focus (may be best for puppies/young dogs)
• Does not address all problem behaviors
• No conclusion or closing episode.

Fulfilling the Promise: Did the Course Deliver?

As advertised through Masterclass: “Expert animal trainer Brandon McMillan teaches you his simple, effective training system to build trust and control with your dog.” 

McMillan does just this: delivering a simple but effective method of training your canine!

The course effectively translates McMillan’s expertise into digestible lessons, providing a simple and easy-to-follow approach to dog training. 

With a passionate focus on trust before training, McMillan delivers on this principle especially. As he puts it: “Trust and bonding fall under the same category; they’re the exact same thing.” 

Laying a foundation of trust is emphasized particularly in the beginning episodes, but reinforced throughout all of the training.

Control is built gradually throughout the episodes, as McMillan demonstrates all of his techniques that allow you to both foster obedience and prevent unwanted behavior.

Value Assessment: Is the Investment Worthwhile?

The cost of this course is relatively affordable — especially when compared to the price of hiring a professional dog trainer, which costs around $200 a session!

Other courses vary widely in cost (depending on subscription type), but don’t offer access to other unrelated courses. 

It may be worthwhile to check these out according to your budget and interest in pursuing other masterclasses. 

Audiences who might not benefit from this masterclass include those with already well-trained dogs looking for additional techniques, or those with dogs requiring extreme or more unique obedience training.

For those who don’t have the patience for long textbooks or tutorials, McMillan’s expertise is condensed into simple, engaging, and orderly chunks. 

You won’t have to invest too much time into the course itself — hopefully leaving more time to spend training your dog! 

Masterclass users find this investment worthwhile, rating McMillan’s dog training course an average of 4.7 out of 5 stars. 

To determine your own investment: what price would you pay to build basic trust, obedience, and bonding with your canine companion?

Also Read: The 25 Best MasterClass Courses

Conclusion: My Verdict on the MasterClass

For dog owners, trainers, and enthusiasts, Brandon McMillan provides an engaging new avenue for acquiring the basic training skills catered to both you and your companion! 

His expertise is condensed into digestible lessons, with nothing too complex or hard to follow.

The course is almost a ‘one size fits all’, aiding you to understand the key variables that make your dog unique and how these affect training. 

McMillan guides users from laying the groundwork of trust to implementing core principles, commands, and techniques, and finally preventing disobedient behaviors.

The course delivers on its initial promise: delivering a simple yet effective method of training that will stick. 

McMillan leaves us with his core philosophy of building not only mutual trust but mutual training: “There are no untrainable dogs, just untrained humans.”