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REACTIVITY & FEAR

Helping dogs feel better about the world.

Does your dog display fearful or reactive behaviour in certain situations?

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Our Certified Dog Trainer will help your reactive, nervous, or over excited dog feel better about the world, while reducing the overall frequency and intensity of their outbursts.

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We provide comprehensive dog behaviour modification programs tailored for you and your dog. Our programs will equip you with the knowledge and skills needed to help your dog be calmer and more relaxed. 

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Does your dog...

  • Bark, growl and lunge at people you pass during walks?

  • Panic when they hear loud noises?

  • Enjoy playing with dogs off-leash but whines, pulls and lunges at other dogs when walking on-leash?

  • Bark at everything and everyone they see passing by your house?

  • Cower and hide when you bring out the nail clippers?

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When your dog is fearful or responds with reactive behaviour such as barking, lunging, or growling in certain situations, it is stressful for everyone. It can affect so many areas of your life and feel impossible to enjoy walks or have visitors to your home.

 We are here to help you create positive change with how your fearful or reactive dog views the world, while reducing the overall frequency and intensity of their outbursts.

With professional guidance from a Certified Dog Trainer, we can help your dog learn that the world is not such a scary or challenging place.  We can help nurture within your dog a sense of safety and curiosity about the world, and teach them new skills to navigate the world with more confidence and optimism. We can help your dog learn a new way of acting in the world and develop new habits around people and other dogs. 

Initial Consultation

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We begin every Reactivity & Fear program with a one-on-one virtual consultation. 

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The Initial Consultation allows us to thoroughly go over your dog's history, behaviour and lifestyle, discuss the challenges you are having, and answer any questions you have. You will learn the critical first step to successful behaviour modification, and we will provide you with management strategies to give you and your dog some immediate relief and minimize maladaptive behavior being rehearsed. 

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The consultation includes education around the positive reinforcement training methods and techniques we will use in the training sessions, and I will explain what I feel drives these behaviours to occur and continue.

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Lastly, I will go over the training package options and will then share recommendations for a personalized training package.

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Initial consultations are 75-90 minutes and are conducted through Zoom.

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Initial Consult Fee: $150 (+gst)​

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Please note: All clients must complete an initial consultation prior to booking any packages. Our Reactivity & Fear packages are custom-tailored for you, your dog, and your situation. Packages offered to individual clients are recommended on a case-by-case basis depending on the behavior and training needs of the dog.

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Reactivity & Fear Packages

We provide comprehensive dog behaviour modification programs tailored for you and your dog. Our programs will equip you with the knowledge and skills that you need to help your dog be calmer and more relaxed in the world around them. 

Get Help With:

  • Reactivity towards people (lunging, barking, growling directed towards strangers, or known humans)

  • Reactivity towards dogs on or off leash (lunging, barking, growling)

  • Reactivity in home when people or dogs walk by the house (lunging & barking from windows/fences within the home)

  • Reactivity towards visitors in the home (lunging & barking at visitors inside the home)

  • Reactivity towards moving objects (i.e. cars, skateboards, wheelchairs, bikes, etc...)

  • Fear of strangers or family members including children

  • Fear of other dogs

  • Fear of environments (i.e. vet's office, car rides, crates, slippery surfaces, crowds etc...)

All Packages Include:

  • Private coaching sessions where our Certified Dog Trainer works one-on-one with you and your dog. You will learn:

    • How to interpret your dog's body language

    • Management strategies to minimize maladaptive behaviour being rehearsed (changes to your dog's routine, home environment and walks that reduce stress for both you and your dog)

    • Leash handling skills

    • How to improve communication with your dog and increase your dog's engagement with you.

    • Training exercises to build your dog's confidence, help them to feel calmer and more positive (and less scared, worried or frustrated) towards their triggers (i.e. people, dogs, bikes) and teach them alternate behaviours they can do around the things that worry or frustrate them. 

    • Ways to advocate for your dog and how to help them feel safe.

    • Activities during and in between walks to help your dog (and you) cope and recover

  • A detailed behavioural modification plan tailored specifically for you and your dog. 

  • Homework and hand-outs to keep you on track with training.

  • Behavioral wellness plan - As part of every package, we help you create and implement a plan to support your dog’s behavioral health. When we meet our dogs’ behavioral needs as a species, a breed, and an individual, we set the stage for them to be happier, more fulfilled, and more responsive companions.

  • Text and email support for all topics covered during our training time together for the duration of the package.

Training Packages:

  • The recommended number of sessions in your custom training package will be determined after your initial consultation based on the behaviors you'd like to work on and your goals. Training packages typically range between four and seven sessions and may include a combination of in-person and virtual sessions of either 45 or 60 minutes.

  • 60-minute in-person training session: $125 (+gst)

  • 60-minute virtual training session: $100 (+gst)

    • Please contact us and let us know the behaviours that you'd like to work on for an estimate of the recommended number of training sessions. We are unable to provide an exact package recommendation until after your initial consultation. 

Please note: All clients must complete an initial consultation prior to booking any packages. Our Reactivity & Fear packages are custom-tailored for you, your dog, and your situation. Packages offered to individual clients are recommended on a case-by-case basis depending on the behavior and training needs of the dog.

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How does reactivity and fear training work?

Private training offers the ability to learn alongside your dog and is perfect for those who would like to hone their skills or troubleshoot problems with the guidance of a professional dog trainer. Our Certified Dog Trainer works one-on-one with you to teach you how to do the training and behavior modification with your dog. Using positive reinforcement training techniques, we will first demonstrate the new behaviours with your dog, teach you how to do them, and then coach you as your work with your dog. We implement management strategies to keep your dog feeling safe and to protect their nervous system from rehearsing maladaptive stress patterns while we work on changing your their emotional response to triggers. We look at your dog as a whole to understand and meet your dog's needs. We add enrichment to reduce stress and build confidence and optimism. During training, we work under threshold so that your dog can learn. That means working at a distance and an intensity where your dog is comfortable and feels safe. We set your dog up for success by arranging the environment so that your dog is likely to choose the behaviours we want (looking at you, looking away, moving on, scenting/searching) instead of the behaviours we don't want (barking, lunging). We will also cover key concepts that will be critical to your success. Then you will have easy, effective training exercises to work on between sessions. At subsequent sessions, we review your progress and trouble spots, teach you additional skills, and give you a new set of homework.

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