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Dozens of dogs in a room. They are playful and active, but there's a clear lack of fighting, growling, even barking. It's part of a new method of animal training in which the human handler in essence becomes the alpha dog: He sets the standard for behavior in the room.

The method was created by an animal trainer named Brewster Smith. It's being implemented at TheSpotExperience -- a boarding facility created by former NFL Carolina Panther Mitch Marrow, who's exploring ways to create quality, boarding and pet care for people on the go.

He has solid advice for people boarding dogs for holiday travel.

"I would ask for a tour and I would ask t speak to one of the handlers, the actual handlers. I would ask if they have any sort of medical training in terms of CPR, emergency medical care training," says Marrow.

Also, if the boarding facility claims to be cageless, ask for a definition.

"Either glass like Lucite-type crate, they crate them. They just aren't in wire crates. So you wanna know if your dog is going to be spending half of his day in a confined box," says Marrow.

Finally, there's transparency. This can come in the form of online webcams that allow you to check on your dog from your laptop of phone. But make sure you are getting the whole picture.

"You'll often see places that'll have a webcam but it's pointed, it's one camera and it's pointed in a very weird direction so you only see a few dogs that they wanna bring by or it's only on for certain hours during the day," says Marrow.

Make sure to bring any pet prescriptions in the original bottles. That way the staff can lookup the chemical composition in case there's a mixup.