1000+ dogs (and their people) helped
Aviva was an excellent trainer. My dogs are walking better and becoming less reactive to other dogs. I have noticed a real difference
I would highly recommend BabyDog! I was a first dog owner and they were patient, informative, flexible and very helpful plus they were all so lovely :)
Took the level one Obedience class with BabyDog and had an amazing experience from start to finish. Great communication and help from the Admin team before and during the classes. Our Instructor Meg couldn't have been better for us / our dog Marcus. It was amazing how quickly he would learn from her and set a platform for us to continue with. Highly recommend to anyone with a new rescue dog looking to learn more!
We moved to the island in December with our 2-year-old Italian Mastiff, Reese. Due to the stress of the move Reese became reactive around all dogs and some people. Given that he’s a big boy (110 lbs of muscle), walking Reese around the dense spaces in the city of Victoria filled us (and Reese) with anxiety. Walks with Reese became a stressful chore rather than a fun, bonding activity with our pup. Thankfully we found Ruth at BabyDog! Ruth was so kind, patient and knowledgeable that by the end of our first session Reese was going belly up to get Ruth to scratch him. With Ruth’s excellent guidance, we practiced our new skills at home, parks, trails, and wherever we could go to learn and get better at managing Reese’s anxiety. The hard work paid off and Reese is now a very happy boy who’s a pleasure to walk around the city or wherever we choose to go. He’s by no means perfect, but after having worked with Ruth we know we have the tools and the skills to help Reese live his best island life. Thanks for everything Ruth! Marc and Chris (& Reese)
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!
Aviva and BabyDog have a wonderful combination of technical training ability and a true love of dogs. This shows in everything they do-- private training, group classes, walks, and communicating with the pet's owners. I recommend them any time I can.
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 :)
No one else does puppy socialization like Baby Dog. What does this mean? It means more staff on hand to curate the socializations, astute groupings of the dogs according to temperament (e.g. shy, boisterous), and ongoing commentary from staff describing dog behaviour in action (!). This last point is especially helpful to listen to, as you will begin to recognize the many signals/cues your puppies demonstrate for fear, aggression, modes of play, etc. Can't recommend Baby Dog highly enough. When we invite another puppy into our lives, we will return to Baby Dog. Note: to this day, when our dog sees Ruth and Aviva, she is so excited. They are some of her 'top' humans, as far as those she considers her 'pack'.
Aviva was great with our young dog Luna! She was very knowledgable and had great suggestions with everything we asked her about. Our dog deals with a variety of issues (over sensitivity, hyperactive, aggression, fear etc.) and each week we threw her something new that Luna was dealing with and she knew right away how to help us and give us the tools to help our dog. I would recommend her to anyone!
We have taken both our puppies to BabyDog with fantastic results. Our training has never gone this well before. BabyDog is always focused on positive reinforcements and finding a training method the is kind and working well for our puppies.
I came to BabyDog in desperation with my rescue dog Pheonix, who had multiple behavioral issues. I was really at my wits end, and thought I would have to rehome her because I didn't have the environment or tools to help her. We only had 4 sessions, thus far, and the impact has been incredible. Aviva (owner) has been absolutely amazing to put it mildly. She's not only incredibly perceptive and adjusts the training to your dogs needs, but she is compassionate, has a plethora of knowledge, and goes above and beyond. She offered so much support and resourcefulness, it literally saved both Pheonix and myself. She helped me understand her postures and behaviours, enabled me to communicate effectively, and most importantly empowered me to give Pheonix what she needs. She connected us to Bosley's on Burnside for their first ever Reactive Dog night which not only helped Pheonix overcome her fear of stores, but we were actually able to return and attempt bathing. I could really go on and on about how grateful I am to Aviva and her team, and so happy that there are people out there dedicated to truly making a difference in not only dogs lives, but their guardians as well. I will definitely be returning for further training and to tap into their many resources. I highly recommend them to anyone anytime. Thank you Aviva and BabyDog team!!! Sincerely, Erin and Pheonix :)
We did private lessons with Danika for our new puppy and could not be happy with the experience. She was knowledgable, thorough, and you can clearly see how passionate she is about her job and dogs. Would recommend to anyone with a new puppy or looking to improve their relationship with their dog. Decibels going to come back for intermediate lessons in the spring!
My poodle puppy was frightened of everything and becoming reactive. I was desperate for help. We tried classes with no results. Avila suggested the Sunday pack walks as a non-threatening way to socialize him. She always took the time to let everyone know that we needed our space and every week Vincent got more comfortable. 6 months later, Vince is walking comfortably in the middle of the pack, he’s confident and happy. He is maturing into a very cool dude, and I can take him anywhere. Thank you Babydog for helping us.
My boyfriend and I had many training sessions with Danika Postle! The training we got was so positive and our puppy I’m pretty sure loves her more than us ! In all honesty the best dog training experience I’ve had is with her and this company and I recommend to anyone I know with a puppy :)
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.
Our puppy has attended puppy socialization and obedience. We've loved all of it. We've learned so much about positive training and it has absolutely made training our pup a joyful experience.