Training and Classes

Replace Heartbreak with Hope for Your Dog

If you are facing serious challenges involving fear, anxiety, reactivity, and aggression with your dog, we understand firsthand what it’s like.

You love your dog, but their behaviour is upsetting. You may be confused about what to do, as friends, neighbours, strangers, and YouTube and TikTok keep giving you conflicting advice.

Don’t let your dog’s fear and anxiety dictate their life. If it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse. The size of their world will shrink, along with opportunities for them to experience joy.

Take action and turn both you and your dog’s lives around.

Let us be your trusted guide. You’ll become the confident, skilled guardian and teacher that your dog needs to overcome their fear, anxiety, and reactivity. And you’ll see your dog’s confidence grow too, as they thrive in situations that used to send them into a state of panic.

Since 2010, we have helped thousands of urban dog guardians in Toronto overcome serious behaviour challenges together.

Overcome These Challenges:

Barking and lunging at other dogs (Dog Reactivity)
Barking and lunging at strangers (People Reactivity)
Aggression towards dogs or people (nipped or bitten or caused injury to other dogs or people)
Resource Guarding (aggression to keep toys, bones, or stolen objects)
Handling Sensitivity (aggression when touched, held, groomed, or restrained)
Separation Anxiety
Fearful and shut down in new or strange environments or around new people

Our Process

Since 2010, we have supported countless pet guardians through emotionally complex dog behaviour challenges. The When Hounds Fly GETS Process for Behaviour Change is our system for working with our clients to support them through their journey of employing humane approaches to change behaviour in their dogs.

First, Gather history and background to understand the antecedents contributing to the behaviours of concern. Our clients complete a comprehensive Canine Behaviour History Form, and during the first appointment, we review it together to confirm understanding of the critical contributing factors.

Second, Explain the underlying principles of learning and behaviour that reinforce the behaviours of concern, and how you’ll change these behaviours over time.

Third, Teach YOU how to teach your dog! The journey will require consistent effort over time, and if we do our job correctly, you’ll have the skills you need to see it through.

Lastly, Send you post-lesson followup materials, and adjustments to your training plans until we see you for your next lesson.

Our Values and Methods

Your dog is counting on you to bring on a trusted professional. Rest assured, we adhere to the guidelines found in the Humane Hierarchy, which has also been adopted by many organizations such as the CCPDT. We’re also bound by the Code of Ethics of numerous professional organizations such as the Karen Pryor Academy and the Canadian Association of Professional Dog Trainers.

Ensuring the health and physical well-being of the dog – that includes physical health (diet, rest, exercise, medical illness) and emotional well-being
Setting them up for success – Avoiding putting the dog in situations where he or she is likely to fail and do the unwanted behaviour

Desensitization and Counter-Conditioning – Presenting less threatening versions of the triggering stimulus and pairing it with things the dog really enjoys
Positive Reinforcement/Differential Reinforcement of Alternate Behaviour – Teaching other skills the dog can do instead of the unwanted behaviour

Rest assured, you will not find these kinds of techniques or tools in our training plans:

Leash corrections (jerking on the dog’s neck)
Punishment collars (choke chain, prong collar, shock collar)

Physical violence (scruff shakes, alpha-rolls, pinning the dog)
Fear-inducing deterrents (throw chains in bags, water balloons, pop cans full of pennies, “pet corrector” horns, etc.)

Availability

Our team is growing and we strive to offer you fast turnaround from inquiry to your first booking. In a few cases of very severe aggression or anxiety, clients may need to book farther out for a senior instructor.

Our Service Area

In-person lessons are available as follows:

Downtown West: Bordered by Dupont to the North, Spadina to the East, Parkside Dr to the West, Lakeshore to the South

Etobicoke/Swansea: Bordered by Bloor to the North, High Park to the East, Kipling to the West, Lakeshore to the South

Midtown: Bordered by Lawrence to the North, Mt Pleasant to the East, Roxborough St to the South, Avenue to the West.

East End: Bordered by O’Connor/St Clair to the North, Woodbine to the East, Broadview Avenue to the West, to Dundas East at the South.

Markham: Around 16th and Woodbine Ave.

In-school lessons are available out of all of our 5 locations (Pinmarked on the above map). We are happy to work with you at our facilities if you are outside of our service area.

A Team-Based Approach for Success

We are a team!

Working with When Hounds Fly means you get many experts working behind the scenes to help you succeed.

We hold weekly case review calls where we review our current cases and brainstorm as a team for best practices to bring back to our clients.

Our most senior instructors have 10+ years experience each, allowing our whole team to leverage our collective knowledge. Why hire one trainer when you can work with a team?

Add-On: Intensive Coaching

For behavioral breakthroughs with reactivity, leash walking, recall, and more…

(Limited availability)

To achieve breakthrough improvements, each of our instructors accepts a limited number of clients for Intensive Coaching.

By booking multiple weekly lessons for a period of four weeks:

We directly work hands-on with your dog, so they benefit from our expert timing and training skills
You can watch and observe as we train, to learn how we respond to your dog’s behaviour in a variety of settings
We go to various locations such as your home, your neighbourhood, and your dog parks; in the environments that are part of you and your dog’s life
We provide intensive coaching to help you become really skilled at training and communicating with your dog

Examples where Intensive Coaching could help:

To help with leash reactivity to other dogs or people in your neighbourhood
To work on engagement and recall at the dog park
To help fast-track your new puppy’s leash walking skills and behaviour in public
To help with resource guarding issues
To help with body-handling issues (co-operative care)

Our clients who sign up for Intensive Coaching see rates of improvement that wouldn’t be possible if they did it alone, or only saw us once every couple of weeks!

Ask your instructor about adding on Intensive Coaching!