GROWL

Sharing life with a reactive dog makes daily activities a real struggle. The simple act of walking down the street or welcoming a guest into the home can be a challenge. Traditional obedience, harsh corrections or trying to distract with food will never get the job done! A more focused and thoughtful approach is needed to create new pathways and compassionate understanding for the struggling dog – and space to learn. 

Your dog needs YOU to be an educated and purposeful leader to build confidence and connection.

This is where we step in: working with reactive and over-aroused dogs is where we excel. We personally live with high drive, “big-feelings” dogs and we understand how that canine brain works!

Our Growl course tackles the difficult subjects of fear, reactivity and frustration in the urban dog. Through personal coaching sessions we explore factors that contribute to your dog’s mental health and cause an “over-response” to those unique triggers. Through Growl you will learn how to use marker training, real-life management, counter-conditioning and desensitization techniques, calming exercises and tailored protocols to calm and reconnect with your aroused dog.

The Zen Dog Approach

Growl begins with a Zoom session where we help you understand your dog’s behaviour within the context of reactivity. We create a specialized training plan built on desensitization and counterconditioning protocols that targets your dog’s issues. Lifestyle changes (including diet, management, exercise and enrichment) also are explored in this mental wellness session. The session ends with foundation exercises for you to practice before our first in-person session.

We then move to three one-hour training sessions held in the environment you need us most. We show you how to create connection with your dog and still meet the intended function behind that reactivity but with more socially appropriate behaviours. We recommend these lessons be spaced two weeks apart so there is time to practice, reflect and refine if necessary.

You will receive follow up emails with  homework notes and relevant materials and lesson plans for future reference. Phone call and email support is available and encouraged throughout the extent of the training  package.  

Travel charges apply outside of Vancouver.