Professional, positive dog training on Vancouver Island

We are so happy with the progress our dog has made and recommend them to anyone! Our trainer Ruth was amazing and we had such a great time working with her.

It only took one lesson to see improvement in my dog. She has completely turned around in 4 lessons, and now we have the tools to keep growing on our own. The other dog owners in our neighborhood are constantly complimenting Beans on how far she’s come!

Ruth and Aviva of BabyDog are a fantastic resource for new puppy owners. We took our timid puppy Jazz to their shy dog socialization sessions at Bosleys and after a few weeks she graduated (with flying colours) to the regular sessions. We partipated in the Sunday pack walks and enjoyed both the human social aspect and the improvement in Jazz’s social behaviour. We also had 2 private lessons with Aviva to deal with a couple of problem behaviours (leash pulling and barking), with great success! I highly recommend them.

We had private training sessions with Aviva to help us with our puppy. Aviva helped us all so much with the tools to continue to work with daily. It was amazing watching our puppy learn so much during those sessions.We looked forward to each session and we highly recommend Babydog. Our puppy has severe anziety with strangers and dogs and watching her work through this was absolutely amazing !

If you’re looking for puppy training, you can stop now. You’ve found the best. My pup, Zion, a three-month-old Bernese Mountain Dog, has gained more in his training sessions with Baby Dog than I could possibly have accomplished on my own. Like any over-functioning pup parent, I read the books, listened to the podcasts, and watched the YouTube videos. None of that compared to the information, coaching, and motivation we received from our trainer, Danika. Each week, Danika presented us with new training tools, discussed them in detail, and went though the steps with Zion. Then I would make my attempts, with Danika giving helpful tips and tricks along the way. Zion absolutely loved Danika. She was lovely with him: calm energy, engaging demeanour, and just the right amount of assertiveness when he needed it. Danika was flexible with the sessions, keeping us on track, but was also happy to answer all of my random questions. Her follow up emails were very helpful. Now that we’ve completed the beginner sessions, I plan to take a few months off, then attend the intermediate classes. Danika has given us so much to work with, and I look forward to watching Zion develop his skills then show them off when we meet again!

We went to Babydog's socialization classes from 8 weeks till about 6 or 7 months and it was amazing! Madeline learned to be around every kind of dog and a lot of different people also. If you have a young dog that you want to learn the ways of the world in a safe and fun environment, I cant imagine a better experience than we had at Babydog!!!

We are so glad we ended up doing formal dog training, and Danika was superb in giving us all the tools we needed to succeed with our pup. 90% of dog training is training the owners, and she was incredibly patient with all of us as well as our kids. Truly would not have our dog at the level he is right now without her. Especially love the focus on positive reinforcement and patience, which other places may not emphasize as clearly. Thanks for all your help Danika, we look forward to intermediate!

I had the opportunity to see Emma in action at her socialization class for shy/tiny dogs last Saturday. I brought along a timid foster dog and couldn’t believe how calmly and skilfully she managed a class of 10 dogs and their owners. She was quickly able to organize the pups into appropriate small groups and guide us through introduction exercises. I learned so much as a participant, and while observing the other groups too. Emma set each dog up for success by ensuring everyone had a safe space to move through the instructions at their own pace. I’m thrilled with the progress my dog made in just one hour! We’ll definitely attend the class as often as possible, and I’d recommend Emma to anyone looking for a dog trainer.