Professional, positive dog training on Vancouver Island

We took our puppy Pitbull to babydog puppy socialization classes.The incredible rewards our pup and ourselves took back from them is fantastic.Our pup is a very happy well grounded pup who is growing so well cause of the classes and info I have received.Thanks so very much.Great work keep it up:) Zeus,Ray and Bridget :)

Babydog was fantastic! I had no idea what to expect when I walked in with my 8 week old pup. Aviva, Dave and Ruth were great at explaining canine behaviour and helping me understand why something was going on! I became so interested in dog training and behaviour, I became a volunteer. I recommend Babydog to any new dog owner. Also don’t forget their weekly pack walk for dogs of any age!

I was so impressed and happy with the work Danika did with my dog Higgins and I. Higgins is two and had a bad habit of jumping on people when he was excited - not aggressively, but given he is 80 lbs, he could hurt someone badly. Danika provided 4 private lessons and stayed very focused on the problem of jumping. She was knowlegeable, professional but also very fun to work with. Higs never never wanted her to leave! Most importantly, I now know what approach to take to make sure he stays under control.

The best investment I could possibly make for me and my puppy, thanks Emma!

We’re so grateful to have found Aviva at BabyDog to help with our two-year-old rescue from Mexico. She went above and beyond to tailor her training to exactly what we needed. From the start, she listened carefully to our goals and truly understood what we wanted to achieve with our dog. The transformation in our dog has been amazing, and we feel much more confident in our own training skills as well. For anyone looking to make a meaningful, lasting change in their dog’s behaviour, we can’t recommend Aviva highly enough!

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.

Love, love, love, how much I learned from taking my pup to BabyDog. The group socialization at Bosley’s allowed my pup to play with other pups of different breeds and temperaments while teaching us humans how to understand ‘dog’ body language. It also made for a relaxing day (big nap after play time)!! The group training with Aviva and Ruth in Brentwood and pack walks on Sundays taught me that every time we are in a different situation it is yet another learning opportunity for both of us! We learned a lot in an enjoyable, positive way. We also did some basic obedience with Dave at Tomey K9 Services which taught us how important it is to be consistent and that repetition (with good treats) helps our pups to understand what we are asking of them. The one thing that I will always remember is that Dave said “Our dogs want to please us” !