Specialized Classes

Free Style

Canine is a dog sport in which training, team work, music and movement combine to create an artistic choreographed performance highlighting the canine partner in a manner that celebrates the unique quality of each individual dog. It is built upon the foundation of a positive working relationship between a dog and handler.

Duration: 1 hour per week 4 consecutive weeks
Prerequisite for course Manners 2 or equivalent

Rally O

A competitive team sport for dog and handler, for those who want to have fun with their dog and train to a higher standard but don’t want to enter formal obedience trials. Owners communicate with their dog as they go through an instruction course designed to test obedience skills e.g. sit, down, stay, etc.

Duration: 1 hour per week 4 consecutive weeks
Prerequisite for course Manners 2 or equivalent

Growl Class

Reactive dog classes. These are group classes designed to help reactive dogs and their owners.

What do we mean by a reactive dog?

The phrase reactive dog is usually applied to a dog who reacts negatively to the presence of other dogs, animals, humans, objects, sights, sounds in the environment. Negative reactions might include barking and lunging at strange dogs, showing signs of combative behaviour, fear of other dogs, animals and humans. In Growl classes dogs and owners are given the opportunity to improve their skills in managing encounters with dogs and humans. The first class will be orientation without dogs and owners will be familiarized with the aims, methods and requirements of the class. Class size will be limited.

Duration: 1 hour per week 4 consecutive weeks
Dogs will be assessed prior to class for suitability.

Scent Work

What is scent work? Scent work is the process of training a dog and handler to utilize the dog’s sense of smell.
In scent work there is no need to teach a dog to smell – we only need to differentiate smells of interest to his human handler and to communicate his findings.
In practice this is tremendous fun for both dog and handler providing dogs with a game at which they can excel. There is of course no reason why a dog can’t be taught more than one scent of interest and put on cue to react to one particular scent at a time.

Gun Dog

There are several varieties of gundogs each with more highly developed skills in their particular specialty. These include setters and pointers who indicate the presence of game by their behaviour, spaniels (flushing dogs) whose role is to drive game out of cover and retrievers who pick up game and bring it to the hunter. There are also some breeds who are more generalized (hunt-point-retrieve breeds).

Gun dogs have had inherited characteristics produced by many generations of breeding which favour development of the relevant skills for their class of dog. Gundog training consists of developing these natural skills and using them to produce a working partnership with the handler for field work or completion.

Service / Assistance Dog Training

Offers individual training to facilitate the dog’s ability to assist people in coping with anxiety, , hearing loss, limited mobility and other disabilities.Your dog will learn to perform many useful exercises to help you on a daily basis whether at home, school, work or public areas. This course is specifically designed to offer you the opportunity to train your dog, develop life-long companionship and have fun doing so.

Age: 8 weeks & older, assessment of temperament required
Duration: will vary depending on the age of the dog and tasks required

*Hearing dog

A dog who alerts deaf or hard of hearing individuals to specific sounds. Hearing dog owners rely on their dogs to indicate the presence of unheard but important sounds in the environment.

*Service Dog

A dog who works for individuals with disabilities other than blindness of deafness. Service dog owners rely on their dog to perform physical tasks or to provide assistance.

*Psychiatric Service Dog

A dog who supports individuals who have a condition attributed to a brain chemistry malfunction or to emotional distress. Psychiatric service dog owners rely on their dogs to help them cope with panic disorders, , post-traumatic stress syndrome and other such conditions. *Reference: A Dog Who’s Always Welcomed, Lorie Long

Kitten Classes

Our kitten classes are aimed at socializing kittens with people, other cats and other pets. The classes will also teach owners to train their kittens and will provide information on how to deal with common kitten problems and how to maintain a healthy home environment for your kittens.
Duration: 3 weeks:
1 hour 1st week, 1 ½, 2 following weeks
Price: $50.00 +HST

Children & Pet Socialization

Emphasizing Child/Dog Safety

Dog / child socialization is a most important socialization for any dog – bad interactions between dog and child almost always lead to the dog being put down and sometimes injury to the child. Just a suspicion that the dog has bitten or threaten the child is often enough and people hardly ever stop to consider the circumstances. So dog – child socialization not only protects children it also protects your dog.

It is very important to remember that unless the child and dog are thoroughly familiar with each other and the dog is known to be protective towards the child, children should never be left unsupervised with pets. You cannot expect a child to understand a dog’s body language or to understand what messages the child’s body language will be sending. Children do not fully understand the feelings of others, human or animal and do not understand which of their actions may cause fear or pain. They do not have an adult’s appreciation of consequences and of right and wrong. These are things we learn through the following programs.

Be A Tree

Our program is based on showing children the difference between friendly and unfriendly dogs. We recommend that parents come to this workshop with their children.

We also teach children how to approach a strange dog appropriately. (interacting with a strange dog)
Teach children to interact with their own dog in a nonthreatening and affectionate way.