Our Lower Mainland trainer works out of Port Coquitlam and covers most of Greater Vancouver. Our Fraser Valley trainer is located in Hope and serves Chilliwack as well, but she is on maternity leave right now!

Absolutely.

 At Wag The Dog, we offer a distinctly different kind of training from the average dog trainer - even the average positive reinforcement trainer. We employ social learning, cognitive psychology, and modern research on canine cognition in our positive, force-free, and science-based methods.

We are educated, experienced, and certified. We do not need to resort to any form of force, fear, or punishment to get cooperation from the dogs we work with.

No. We're really sorry, and we wish we could. We do. We used to do this. But we now receive enquiries every day, and calling everyone back became an unpaid second job which took a lot of time away from our families and paying clients. 

We hope this FAQ page will help you out. If you think we might be a good fit for you, please submit an application. If you want to schedule a phone consult let us know and we'll help you schedule that into our workday.

We train privately, and when possible we come to you. We find dogs learn best one-on-one and preferably in familiar, low-distraction environments. We also enjoy going on field trips to local pet-friendly stores, to explore off leash trails, and to practice real-world situations.

While we encourage our clients to meet each other at online group check ins and fun bark-in-the-park sessions, and while our service dog clients sometimes participate in group field trips to help their dogs practice in the presence of other dogs, our training sessions are private. 

Which statement below fits you best? 

• "I am getting a puppy/I have a dog under 4 months of age."
• You want our puppy prodigy program. This will help give your puppy the best possible start during this crucial time of brain development. 

• "I have a teenage or adult dog who I am hoping to train as a service dog." 
• You want our assistance dog program. This will prepare your dog for certification and teach your dog the skills you need. 
  
  
  
• "I have a teenage or adult dog who needs help with manners/is driving us crazy/who is struggling understanding what I want them to do." 
• You want to wag your dog. This will improve your ability to communicate with your dog and give your dog the abilities they need to focus, calm down, and be a true best friend.

• "I have a teenage or adult dog and I want to do agility/scentwork/retrieving as a form of enrichment and bonding in a private, non-competitive setting."
• You want our trick dog program. We have an endless supply of fun, enriching activities from agility to nosework to adorable tricks. Trick dog titles are recognized by the AKC and CKC.

You can see our rates, packages, and membership options here.

We are the kind of trainers who support you 24/7. Our clients know they can reach out to us when they need us, not just during the one hour we are in your home. But we want to keep our training accessible to everyone, so we offer a variety of options to help our clients find the one that works best for their needs and their budget.

Teaching your dog new things and building a relationship with them is an ongoing process that lasts for the lifetime of your dog. 

You can commit to helping your dog by paying in advance for a package of training sessions, thus committing yourself to the change. Most trainers offer this option, and we do, too.

But not everyone has the cash up front to pay for a big package.

Monthly memberships ensure two things:

1. A set monthly budget dedicated to training your dog.

2. A good deal! Memberships provide variety of ways to get your money's worth - from distance group check ins to training sessions at a price half of the listed price or less. A basic membership is less than the cost of a single training session, and yet it grants you two private sessions and hours of trainer-time on top of that. 

We ask that clients commit to at least three months of training, but after those three months there is no fixed term to memberships. While they will auto-renew each month, you can cancel this at any time.

Does a dog roll in bear poo? Of course we do! 

Before the pandemic we had no idea how to work Zoom but we've figured it out now! Zoom has basically become a survival skill, hasn't it? 

Wherever you are we are happy to have you join the Wag the Dog family and we will happily coach you by distance to the best of our ability.

Excellent question! Carol and Amelia are trying to achieve a goal known as "a day off", but we aren't always successful at it. We are both parents, and keep most evenings to spend with our families. We are therefore generally available during "school hours" and at least one day on the weekend. Our availability fills up quickly, however, so please do plan ahead and try to book a month or so in advance to ensure you get the dates that work best for you.

We're really sorry that your work schedule doesn't mesh well with ours. Unfortunately our trainers need to maintain a work-life balance that fits our families' needs.

If you are unable to make time in your schedule for us, we can refer you to another well respected trainer. 

No, sorry.

Our group classes are more like field trips - they exist to let our clients practice what they've learned in new places and with other dogs, plus as an opportunity to socialize and meet other dog guardians. The trainer's attention has to be split between three or four different people.

We cannot teach you new skills properly in such a high distraction setting, without neglecting the other members of the class. 

This is perfectly normal puppy behaviour! Dogs are predators, and they love to play. There are only two dog games - Tag, and Bitey-Face. Your puppy would have spent hours roughhousing with siblings before coming to live with you. They need an outlet for this important exercise/bonding time. It takes time to explain to puppies that we are much more fragile than dogs are, and to teach them about People Games like Tug and Fetch, but thankfully they learn fast! 

We aren't big on obedience.

Don't get us wrong - our goal is always to have polite dogs who quickly and eagerly do what their owners ask them to do. But to us, that's not obedience. That's etiquette, good friendship, and teamwork.

After all, if you ask your friend to help you move, and they show up with a truck and cheerfully lug furniture all day, do you describe them as obedient? Or awesome?

We want dogs to be awesome.

What you really want is a dog you can take for a walk and doesn't jump all over your grandmother when she comes to visit. Heck, that's manners.

You want a dog who comes back when you call them? That's about your relationship. 

Plus we'd like it if your dog picked up their toys, sniffed out your phone for you, and could say "love you" with the push of a button, too.

Let's wag your dog.

Absolutely! We love helping dogs communicate with their owners better and recordable buttons are a great way to do that. They aren't the only way, though. We can also teach your dog to answer yes or no questions, identify people and objects from pictures, and more.

They sure can! Dogs have the cognition of approximately a three year old child, and can learn many of the same things. And yes, that includes colours. Yes, that includes colours like red, which they don't see as well as we do but can still see in their own doggy way.

No. 

We are not a certifying body. While we wish the world were more dog-friendly and that you could have your dog in your condo or in the cabin of the plane, we can't help make that happen. 

What we do is help disabled people train their own service dogs to the point where they are able to be certified by the BC Government.

Many of our clients have psychiatric or neurological disabilities, and their dogs perform a wide range of vital tasks to help them, from predicting psychosis to interrupting self-harm.

This goes far beyond the role of an "emotional support dog" to a vital medical aid. That's what we do and we can help you teach your own dog. 

Okay, so this SPECIFICALLY isn't a frequently asked question, but we DO often get asked some variation of "Can you help me train my *very unsuitable breed* to do *task this breed would hate doing/be physically incapable of doing*? 

Look. We are very good dog trainers. We aren't going to mince words about it. We also love to be wrong. Carol told a client that her Great Pyrenees/Probably-Wolf-Hybrid puppy was unlikely to be sociable enough to do service work, and he turned out to be a total love bug.

Dogs are individuals. 

But genetics do matter. We also don't take money from disabled people for funsies.

If we think your dog is not going to enjoy the work you want from them, we won't help you work towards it. If we think it is possible, but will take an extraordinary amount of patience and work on your part, we will be clear about it. Also, when our client roster is overflowing, we will prioritize applicants who are most likely to succeed, which means we may pick the person with the Golden Retriever Wheelchair Dog over the person with the Anatolian Shepherd Therapy Dog. 

This question isn't asked as frequently as we would like. People tend to contact us after the fact to ask us why their Australian Cattle Dog is nipping at their kids, why their Belgian Shepherd is snapping at people, or why their Husky keeps pulling on leash walks. 

If you are looking for advice on what breed of dog is best for your family we would be delighted to help you. Many of the dogs who end up in shelters are not bad dogs, just didn't end up with the right family. There are no good and bad breeds, only bad match-making. 

When you are considering breeds, think about what that breed was bred to do and ask yourself if you are looking for a dog to do that thing. Sheep herding dogs are going to chase things. Sheep guarding dogs are going to be suspicious of anyone who isn't in their immediate family. Retrievers are going to carry the leash in their mouths. Huskies are going to run for miles, and if you don't let them, they'll escape your ten-foot-tall fenced yard and run themselves. 

Without knowing you or your situation at all, our best recommendation to you would be either a Golden Retriever or a Standard Poodle. These versatile dogs can fit into virtually any situation with a little help and patience. Beyond that... get in touch with us and arrange a phone consult. We want to help.