Professional, positive dog training on Vancouver Island

A wonderful place for young pups to have safe and supervised playtime. While educating owners about appropriate play.

We have had incredible success with Aviva and our dog Blue in the first four sessions we have done! We are looking forward to our next set of sessions and to see all of the skills our little pup can learn!

Two months ago I adopted an 8 week old puppy, Ormandy, from Yellowknife with no idea what I was doing. I had never had a pet before and was overwhelmed and nervous. I started going to BabyDog Socialization classes immediately and have felt so supported and well educated by Ruth and Aviva. We have attended socialization classes regularly and I have seen a huge change in Ormandy's behaviour and an even bigger change in my understanding and behaviour. Me and Ormandy are starting a basic obedience class with BabyDog this weekend and I can't wait to see how much more we learn!! I recommend BabyDog to everyone I meet that has a pup, they've helped us both so much.

Great dog behaviour knowledge, we learned so much about calming signals. Aviva is amazing. Can't wait to go back for more classes.

While I have owned dogs most of my life so far, I have never had a young puppy. Wanting to do right by her, I researched training and socialization classes. Baby Dog was the one that was recommended over and over again without hesitation. We've now been going to weekly sessions for three months and my dog while having mastered what they teach loves the class so much that we just keep coming. When I pull up in front of the class she knows what we're there for and her excitement is off the charts. Aviva and her team run amazing classes and they should be the go to for every new puppy owner in Victoria. I studied to be a dog trainer 17 years ago when considering a career change. That said, I have learned a ton from Aviva while having our pup trained and her approach and explanations are much more effective and in line with what dogs need, than what I was originally taught. We are very luck to have Baby Dog as a resource.

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'.

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!!!

Dave was such a huge help in getting our 8 month old Shiba's fear barking under control. Despite doing our best to socialize him when he was young, he for some reason developed a fear of people and would bark uncontrollably if he was surprised by someone. We read several books and watched tons of Youtube videos in an effort to address it, but couldn't get any traction. Dave was able to help us get it under control in just a few sessions. While he doesn't exactly "like" people, he is now a quiet and confident dog around them. What a difference! I'd highly recommend their puppy socialization classes at Bosley's as well.