Professional, positive dog training on Vancouver Island

We heard about puppy socialization classes from another dog owner. We learned more in the first few hours than from reading tons of books and watching all kinds of videos. The dog experts at Baby Dog really know their business and really helped me and my puppy with first time interactions. I highly recommend the classes. We saw improvement after the first session!!!

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'.

Our dog Dewey is a rescue from Mexico and came to us with some behavioural issues. Aviva the owner of Baby Dog training is the best trainer we’ve encountered. She uses the principles of psychology including desensitization and positive reinforcement. Aviva is kind and patient and has a sense of humour. Dewey has improved and we will definitely recommend Baby Dog training!!!!!

BabyDog was recommended to me by a friend and now I am in a position to recommend them to my friends and family. I contacted BabyDog for private sessions to help me improve my puppy’s impulse control. My Jack Russell Terrier had a terrible habit of picking things up and eating them - everything. Even dangerous things. I was at the point where I felt I could not keep him safe and I was considering rehoming him. The Baby Dog trainer and I worked slowly and methodically building a strong foundation of impulse control commands such as no, leave it, drop it, sit/stay, and place. We added one or two new skills every week. As my pup improved we worked on walking skills and recall. Everything finally came together and now my pup lives safely and happily, as a member of our family, and loves training every day. I am so pleased with my investment in my dog and my partnership with BabyDog. Their training methodology is science-based, gentle, kind, and it has proven itself effective for my dog. I found the trainer to be knowledgeable, skilled, patient, and kind. She was an excellent communicator for both handler and puppy. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with her, gaining confidence in my ability to teach my pup and his capacity to learn. My dog and I are now a team, training every day, and continuing to solidify the skills we have learned. I am a BabyDog customer for life.

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!

Hands down. The BabyDog Team are the best Victoria resource to help socialize and train your puppy. If you have a puppy, you need to take it to BabyDog! It will shape your dogs life and yours forever. They have lot's of options for group classes, pack walks, and private lessons. The team of puppy whisperers are fantastic. Very professional and knowledgeable of all breeds and canine psychology. We took our puppy Oscar for a pack walk, group sessions, and a private lesson and we're constantly being complimented on his socialization skills and general behavior. Any time we meet someone with a new puppy we always recommend looking into BabyDog. It's not easy learning to be a dog parent and understanding what your puppy needs. BabyDog can help. Check them out today!

Meg was an excellent trainer. She presents very well, and is extremely passionate with people and dogs. She has a natural affinity to the dogs, and it’s obvious she loves her job. We’re looking forward to taking another class with Meg or Baby dog trainers.

We brought our puppy Lola to Level 1 Obedience class with Meg. She was an incredible instructor. She explained and demonstrated the training clearly and was fun and patient. She always checked in to see if we had questions and was also happy to answer questions outside the curriculum. When we had missed a class, she took the time to show us what we had missed. We learned a lot and were so impressed by how quickly our puppy learned each task. Taking the class with Meg helped build our confidence with training our puppy using positive reinforcement. We can’t wait to take her to Level 2!