Want someone else to bring your dog back down to earth?
You’re already Mission Control for so many parts of your life between work, home, relationships, hobbies, and taking care of yourself.
You were hoping that walking the dog would be a form of relaxation but their out of this world reactions stress you out even more. You would like to enjoy your time with your dog but finding the time to learn how to do that feels impossible.
Let us take some of the dog training off of your to-do list.
In Rocketship Day School, we give your dog training a boost by having a certified professional dog trainer come to your home and work directly with your dog. This lets you focus on what’s most important to you - your relationship with your dog and the adventures you two will be going on.
Imagine:
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Outsourcing the homework – one less mission for you to worry about.
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Your dog rocking real-life practice in your neighbourhood, no need to drive anywhere.
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Enjoying your daily walks while feeling like you and your dog are on the same planet.
Yes, even your dog can go from space cadet to reliable flight crew member.
Reactive northern mix Pancake watching dogs play at a park across the Rideau Canal.
Program Details
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Our Rocketship Day School Program is a 5 step process designed to take your dog from astronomical feelings to firmly back on earth beside you.
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Step 1: Discovery Call
Step 2: Mission Control Meeting
Step 3: Test Flight
Step 4: Rocketship Day School
Step 5: Post-Flight Checks
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We also have an optional step 6 for families who want to take their training beyond day school once they're back in the pilot seat.
Step 1: Rocketship Discovery Call
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We start with a short 15 min Discovery Call to determine if we are a good fit for each other and which package is the right fit for you and your dog.
Step 2: Mission Control
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This is a 45 min Zoom meeting where we will go over all the logistics necessary to set us up for success. We will cover your dog’s behaviour history, your training goals, any accessibility notes like allergies or learning preferences, and then we will get everything on the schedule.
Step 3: Test Flight
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Your trainer will come to your home and we will go on a walk together. This gives your trainer a chance to meet your dog and see what their current behaviour is like. This is also where you will show your trainer where your dog’s gear is and provide them with keys if they will be getting your dog while you’re out of the house.
Step 4: Rocketship Day School
Now the training begins. There are two key components to Day School: Just Dog lessons and Family Transfer lessons.
Just Dog Lessons
Your trainer will work with just your dog for up to 45 min. Some of this may be skills work in/around your home and some of it may be a walk in your neighbourhood.
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Your package determines whether you get 2 or 3 Just Dog Lessons per week.
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Family Transfer Lessons
You are back in the pilot seat for these lessons. Your trainer will get you caught up on what your dog has been learning and explain any tactics that they have been using to help your dog handle their big feelings.
The Day School portion lasts 6-8 weeks depending on your package (see below).
Step 5: Flight Checks
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After Day School is over, you get two Flight Check lessons. You are in the pilot seat for these lessons and you get to ask your trainer any remaining questions that you have. We usually go on a walk or a field trip to practice. This helps us make sure that your training “sticks”.
Day School Packages
Rocketship: Sublight Speed
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This 6 week long Day School program focuses on teaching you and your dog core skills and then puts you back in the pilot seat.
Great for mild cases or for families who want a boost before doing the work themselves.
Rocketship: Light Speed
This 8 week long Day School program gives your dog the benefits of 2 more weeks with your trainer. This lets us smooth out some turbulence and refine your dog's full skillset. This often leads to a smoother transfer back to you in the pilot seat.
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Great for moderate cases or for families who want to participate in Rainbow Field Trips after.
Rocketship: Warp Speed
This 8 week long Day School program gives your dog 3 lessons with your trainer every week. The extra trainer time means more real-life practice for your dog, more experience using their full skillset, and less turbulence for you once you're back in the pilot seat.
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Ideal for complex cases such as dogs who lunge or struggle to eat food in the moment.
Listed prices are in $ CAD and do not include tax
Pancake enjoying the sights of our National Capital on one of his Just Dog Lessons.
Libby relaxing near the local community garden and learning that not everyone will say hi to her.
Frequently Asked Questions
What will my dog be learning in Rocketship Day School? Your trainer will teach your dog to handle their big feelings using a combination of exposure games, decompression games, and escape games. We will experiment if needed to figure out what works best for your dog and your situation, and then transfer what works. In the end, you will have a full set of skills to navigate life's challenges.
How much training do you expect me to do during Rocketship Day School? We expect you to incorporate what you are taught in your Transfer Sessions into your daily walks with your dog. If your dog needs additional support through daily training exercises, your trainer will cover those at your Transfer Session as well. We design our training to fit in to your daily life so don't expect to have to set aside a 30 min chunk of your day for extra training in addition to your usual walks. However, you will still need to make changes to help your dog maintain what your trainer is teaching them.
Why is this so much more expensive than a dog walker? Rocketship Day School isn't a dog walking service. Every Just Dog Lesson is a 45 min training session with a certified professional dog trainer who is exclusively focused on your dog and every Transfer Lesson is a private training session to pass that training on to you. Our goal is to transform your dog's behaviour so that you can either walk your dog yourself or so that a regular dog walker can take over after our program.
Do you guarantee results? If I'm paying this much, I want to make sure my dog changes! No we do not provide guarantees. Dog training outcomes are unpredictable due to working with living, thinking, feeling creatures, and to guarantee an outcome over the animal's well-being or natural pace of learning is considered unethical by many professional organizations (including ones that Logan belongs to). We have designed our program to maximize the possibility of behaviour change that lasts beyond Day School through the inclusion of weekly Transfer Sessions and Flight Checks. We promise to be honest with you about your dog's progress throughout Day School and to adjust our training as needed to fit your individual dog.
Why not just do board and train instead? Board and train programs take your dog out of their home environment. This is both good (reset, decompression, easier to install new behaviours) and bad (dogs often struggle to generalize behaviour to different contexts, adjustment period at start/end). We've found that day school gives your dogs the benefits of focused trainer attention and the added benefits of working in their usual environment, which creates a smoother transfer back to you when you're in the pilot's seat.