We've made our little company home in the heart of Kitsilano, Vancouver, serving the Gor-tex and Lululemon crowd for almost ten years. We offer our clients the perfect blend of private behavioural/obedience consultations; hugely popular puppy kindergarten classes; and the continued support of a wonderful training community through our much talked-about, on-going group classes. At the core of what we do, our job is to create a better relationship between our clients and their dogs.
Who we are is because of our clients, and our success is 100% a result of their achievements. They inspire us, motivate us and keep us in love with what we do. Without them, we would be just words on a page in some glossy brochure.
We recommend a grain-free (and preferably raw) diet for our dogs, because good behaviour starts with good health, and good health starts with the food dogs eat. Dogs are incredible athletes and we encourage people to respect them as such. We believe in an intelligent, limited use of vaccines; and encourage people to educate themselves regarding an appropriate age to spay and neuter.
We discourage time wasted in a dog park because it undermines the relationship a person holds with their dog and teaches the dog that the fun is out there - away from their side. One would be hard pressed to find see many serious dog enthusiasts in dog parks for that reason. Instead, we encourage people to put in the effort and develop teamwork that will be a treasure through effort, grit, determination and goal setting. We encourage our clients to push on and take classes - all kinds of classes to help them become better training partners: tracking; agility; herding; and rally-o and competitive obedience. We believe the more terrain one puts into the journey, the more its appreciated it at it's end.
We adore intelligent and progressive trainers like Michael Ellis, Mia Skogster Joanne Fleming-Plumb, the great Sylvia Bishop and people who appreciate that a trained dog is different from a dog that does tricks for food. We prefer training to managing poor behaviour and for that reason we do not much recommend no-pull harnesses or haltis. We want our dogs to a be a part of the training process. A trained dog has life-skills like self control and focus to his leader and this will get him out of a bind when he needs to make a necessary choice.
As for other trainers we champion, anyone who can put a US Obedience Trial Championship on a blue tick coonhound (twice!) has our utter admiration. Trainers who step outside of their comfort zone to follow their dreams and reach big inspire us to follow them. Their respect for fellow trainers and their encouragement fill us with gratitude to know them.
Our dogs are a part of our families and are the walk to our talk. Remember that the next time you see any trainer's dog. We train positively and positively get results, reflecting the principles that mother nature herself uses to teach life's lessons from the whelping box onward. We don't believe in dominance but we do believe in team leadership, trust and respect. We stay very clear of any extreme on either side of the training methodology spectrum, and for good reason: what we do works.
