BabyDog Canada

I recently took a Level I Trick Dog Training course with Tara Savrtka at Babydog. I’ve had several dogs over the past three decades and trained them all. This class was really fun for both my dog and I. Tara was one of the best trainers I’ve had - great presentation, upbeat, fun and clearly enjoys her job and the dogs. Thanks Tara! Dayna & Brodie

Tonight we just finished up our first training class with Babydog, and it was such a great experience! We signed up our 1.5 year old 80lb Rotti/Shepherd rescue Lucy to the Basic Obedience classes taught by Tara Savrtka, and we absolutely loved it. Classes for Level 1 are taught in a regular Bosley's Pet Store, and at first we were very unsure (and even nervous) about how it was going to go, as we had never felt like we could take our dog into a shop...let alone a pet store filled with adorable puppies, toys and treats. We were surprised to find out it was actually a great place to have a training class. It provides real-world socialization and each student got an aisle, which was helpful in keeping our excited pups from being a little less distracted by each other. Of course it must be said that the aisles themselves often were very exciting and often distracting in their own regards (for example we were in the treat aisle); and while we found it to be a challenge...it turns out it was manageable and not as scary as we had first imagined! It helped a lot with our confidence to see our dog functioning/semi-functioning in a space we hadn't been able to imagine bringing her into at all in the first place. A huge part of that confidence and the most important aspect of the class was Tara. She was so awesome: very knowledgeable and such a great teacher and trainer. Thanks to Tara, class felt accessible to both the beginner and more advanced students. She offered a wealth of knowledge and was great at explaining the "hows" and "whys" of everything we were doing, which was so helpful in connecting the dots and understanding the bigger picture of all we were learning. We loved the structure of the classes too; 45 minutes of instruction and practice with Tara there to give demos with our dogs, offer tips, answer questions and help us trouble shoot for our individual pups, followed by an email after class with our "homework" for the week with an overview of the topics covered in class as well as a structured lesson plan detailing exactly what to practice every day of the week until our next class. This really helped make training Lucy far less overwhelming. The curriculum broke down our larger training goals into smaller, more achievable chunks and the extra information was so helpful and interesting. It goes without saying that another reason we appreciated having such awesome notes covering everything from class was that all of us human students were so often distracted by the furry canine students!! Knowing we had reference material available later was a huge relief in case we missed anything in becoming momentarily sidetracked trying to prevent some minor doggy-disaster. The way that Tara taught us and answered all of our questions helped make teaching our big, boisterous, dog-crazy dog (with no previous training) feel a little less daunting, and so much more fun! We are so proud of our girl Lu, we all learned so much and are noticing huge differences in her behaviour already in just this past 1 month of class. Thanks to Tara and Babydog - Lucy is well on her way to becoming a well-adjusted canine citizen. We highly recommend Babydog classes to anyone! We've found even this one class to have been a great investment into our life with our dog. We're already trying to decide what class to take next :)

We are so grateful for Meg’s help with our new Spanish Galgo, Cami. From the very first session, Meg’s calm, compassionate approach made a huge difference. Galgos can be sensitive, and Cami came to us from a shelter in Spain, so she, and we, needed patient, thoughtful guidance! Meg really understood Cami's unique needs and she gave us clear, practical tools that worked for both us and Cami. What we appreciated most is that Meg focused on building trust and confidence. She explained things in a way that was easy to follow, checked in on our progress, and celebrated the little wins with us along the way. We’ve seen such a positive change in Cami—she’s more relaxed, responsive, and confident—and we feel much more assured as dog parents too. Thanks Meg!