Is your dog a scaredy-cat?
Do you have a dog who seems scared of their environment? Are they afraid of things that weren't there the day before? Do they cower at the sight of the vacuum or at the sound of large trucks? Do they shut down and refuse to walk with you? Or do they panic and try to go back home?
We can help!
Imagine this instead. Your dog hears a loud bang or sees a strange person. They might flinch at first then they look at you for guidance. You reward your dog for checking in with you. Your dog shakes off the stress. Then, they choose to curiously approach the scary thing. When they feel unsure, they stop and they check in with you again. When it's too much, they retreat without overreacting, shake if off again, and ask to move on instead.
We can teach your dog to go from fearful to curious, from terrified to brave, from shutdown to neutral.
Our Fearful Dog Program looks like this:
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Virtual Consult to get to know each other and some management advice
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Private Lessons to change your dog's feelings about what scares them
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Possibly Rainbow Field Trips for controlled exposure to different environments
Virtual Consult
We start with a Virtual Consult. This is a 45 min meeting via Zoom.
The purpose of this meeting is to get to know each other a little bit. Your trainer will ask you some questions about you, your dog, and your household. They will provide you with some management advice (how to avoid some of the things that scare your dog) and give you instructions for how to prepare for your first in person lesson.
Private Lessons
Private Lessons are 45 min long and take place at your home or in your neighbourhood.
During lessons, your trainer will provide you with instructions on how to help your dog feel safer around the things that scare them. They will help you set up training scenarios, demonstrate what to do, and coach you through the process as you practice in front of them. They will also point out your dog's body language and help you understand their feelings so that you can better understand their actions.
In order to support both you and your dog in your confidence building journey, we provide private lessons in packages of 3. We find that one lesson on its own is rarely enough to get consistent behaviour and we want to support you through the process to get some real lasting changes!
If you sign up for an additional set of 3 In-Home Private Lessons, you also get access to 3 Virtual Office Hours. These are optional opportunities to ask questions of your trainer and to listen to the questions of other students.
Rainbow Field Trips
Rainbow Field Trips are a members-only group outing to a public location so that we can work on our dogs' feelings in a semi-controlled setting.
Every team in the Field Trip will receive:
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A walkie-talkie so that your trainer can provide direction and instruction
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A colour coded bandana indicating how close other people/dogs can get to you
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A quick pep-talk at the start
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A quick debrief at the end
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Approximately 30 min of working time
We plan to start doing field trips in Spring 2026.
Not sure where to start?
Feeling overwhelmed? Want to get some help but not sure about signing up for the whole package in one go?
Start with the Initial Consult.
We'll listen to your concerns about your dog and help you start making a plan to take you forward. We'll also give you some management tips that you can get start with right away to help reduce your dog's stress and your human overwhelm.