Professional, positive dog training on Vancouver Island

Baby Dog…I must say, having had dogs all of my life, showing, training, and competing, taking my new young “man” to baby socialization classes was brilliant! Baby Dog taught me a lot as well. I love that they teach and use positive reinforcement philosophy for training. As we encountered some growing pain challenges, particularly with “focusing”, I took advantage of a few private lessons that were spot on! Aviva knew which tool to pull out of her tool box to assist with our particular challenges. Thank you Aviva and Co for all that you do and offer! I have a dog who loves to work, is engaged and focused, and who interacts respectfully with other canines! I highly recommend Baby Dog…for your young pup, as well as your “mature” pup.

Dusty, a 20 month old Coton de Tulear, was attacked by a dog at Island View. He became reactive after this and we needed help. We brought Aviva to help Dusty and ourselves and it was such a pleasure to observe Aviva's knowledge, insight and skill in helping with Dusty's problem. We all learned a lot and Dusty is well on his way to recovery because of Aviva. Thank you Aviva, it's been such a pleasure to have you involved and Dusty loved you immediately. You have special talents which are much appreciated.

I highly recommend Dave and Tomey K9 Services! I knew my 6 y.o. Yorkiepoo Benny wanted to please, but I didn't know where to begin to help him rein in all of his energy around people and reactivity around other dogs. Dave taught me how to use redirection and positive reinforcement to help Benny become more obedient and calm. Benny now looks to me to see how he should react when another dog or distraction is coming our way, and I know how to help him through what used to be anxiety provoking situations. I couldn't be happier with the outcome. Thanks Dave!

We brought our puppy Lola to Level 1 Obedience class with Meg. She was an incredible instructor. She explained and demonstrated the training clearly and was fun and patient. She always checked in to see if we had questions and was also happy to answer questions outside the curriculum. When we had missed a class, she took the time to show us what we had missed. We learned a lot and were so impressed by how quickly our puppy learned each task. Taking the class with Meg helped build our confidence with training our puppy using positive reinforcement. We can’t wait to take her to Level 2!

Our trainer was intelligent, skilled, and kind. Helped us understand our own dog’s behaviour better and provided us tips and tricks to help us care for her safely in all settings. While we’ve had other dogs in the past, we’ve never had a bully breed so appreciated her generalized as well as her personalized insights. Always felt supported. Worth every penny.

We had Dave over to our condo five times to help get our two dogs under control when someone comes to the door. We have a 5 year old Papillon and a 1 1/2 year old Yorkie. I immediately felt comfortable with Dave and appreciated his gentleness with Finn and Chewy. He always arrived exactly on time which made it easier for me to ready them for his arrival. They now sit quietly in their “place” while we eat as well as when someone comes to the door. I would highly recommend Dave to anyone having difficulties with their dogs.

Meg was an excellent trainer. She presents very well, and is extremely passionate with people and dogs. She has a natural affinity to the dogs, and it’s obvious she loves her job. We’re looking forward to taking another class with Meg or Baby dog trainers.

Babydog has been the most amazing resource for our family and our young pup with separation anxiety and other issues. TL;DR - We've tried a lot of different dog training services and Babydog is BY FAR the best. Babydog helped us with: - One-on-one puppy training - Puppy socialization - Group obedience class - Separation anxiety issues (this was a life changer) - Reactivity to other dogs - One-on-one training for our adolescent dog - Serious emotional support Writing that all out makes me realize how far Benson has come and very much thanks to Babydog. SEPARATION ANXIETY I can't stress enough that if your dog has separation anxiety, reach out to Babydog. Aviva helped us get our lives back. We went from not being able to leave him alone for more than 15 seconds to being able to go out for hours at a time without worrying. If you're going through this, know that it can get better! PRIVATE TRAINING We started out with private training for our young puppy and the support we received was amazing. Our dog was pretty challenging at first but the trainers we worked with were patient, helpful, accommodating and made a huge difference. PUPPY SOCIALIZATION We also took Benson to puppy socialization classes with Babydog where he learned to play appropriately with dogs of various sizes and breeds. He was pretty shy in the beginning but his experiences with Babydog's puppy socialization gave him more confidence and now he's a very social guy. GROUP OBEDIENCE We took Benson to both the beginner and intermediate group obedience classes. The support we got was excellent here and he did great in the beginner class and learned a lot. I think we pushed him into the intermediate class too soon (8 months old). He ended up just wanting to play with everyone so maybe timing is something to think about if your dog is a bit more rambunctious! ONGOING SUPPORT Benson is 1.5 years old now and we're still getting so much support and value out of Babydog's one-on-one training. Aviva has been a huge help and the classes are fun for us and Benson. The training support AND the emotional support have been truly amazing and I really don't know if we could have done it without the help. Thank you Aviva and team!