Canine Campus

We’re very excited to announce that we have expanded our facility, nearly doubling the size! This allowed us to move the entrance to the south side, solving the driveway problems and making for a far better entrance area. It provides us with a much roomier set up for both the daycare and the training.

Be sure to come and check out the new facility!

Photo compliments of our very own Jason Leung

Planning on bringing home a new puppy in the near future? Attend one of our informative seminars beforehand, so you’re sure to set them off on the right paw!

We cover all the puppy basics, including breed information, house training, necessary equipment for the home, safety precautions and learning stages.

This seminar will set you up perfectly for when you bring puppy home. Then if you do no other formal training – Puppy Kindergarten helps properly introduce your pup in for the world during the crucial learning stage of under 4 months.

Many dogs find the world outside their home to be entirely too stimulating and therefore overwhelming. Maybe they react with inappropriate aggressive signals, or are just too excited and drag their owners to every person and dog passing by. Either way, it translates to a very uncomfortable walk for the owners and the more it happens, the more ingrained the behavior becomes. The walk turns into a dreaded outing, instead of pleasurable time together.

Lucinda has been successfully working with these types of dogs for years now. The course High Anxiety was developed specifically to address these issues and help owners learn to manage their dogs more effectively. It is so important to understand what your dog is feeling, anticipate their reaction and find a proper way to channel it.

Let us help you get that wonderful dog back that you brought home and make walking a pleasure again!

We also do in home consulations, to work with dogs who may not be ready for the class environment yet.

Vet recommended and backed up by excultant owners – we can help turn things around for you!

Next session will be Mondays at 8:30, starting May 16th.

I always recommend that before bringing puppy home, clients find a stuffed dog for their new addition. Sometimes I get the feeling that people think this is a tad crazy! However, the puppies really do appreciate their new buddy and most bond with it quickly.

Try to remember that your puppy is likely leaving behind a litter of buddies and that the transition can be stressful on a number of levels. Puppies tend to sleep in “pig piles” when they’re together; completely on top of each other and cuddled up close for comfort. Suddenly, mom is gone, as are all the familiar sights, scents and sounds and they’re all alone in their crate or bed.

At this age, puppy vision is not highly advanced and they tend to see more generalized outlines and recognize color shades. So if you find a stuffed dog with similar size and coloring to their litter mates, and the same type of ears – floppy or up – puppies will recognize them as their new buddy.

Here’s Dante, happily curled up with a very chocolate lab looking toy!

As improbable as it may seem, I’ve seen it happen over and over and they really do seem to take some level of security and comfort from their stuffed buddy! Sonic still has his buddy, “Dale” as his favorite crate mate.

So help your puppy have a positive transition! Pick up a crate mate before bringing them home.

Puppies don’t get their full set of shots until they’re over 20 weeks of age – so they aren’t supposed to go to any public place or interact with other puppies. The problem is that the ages form 8 weeks to 16 are the most formitive time in a puppy’s life.

One place that they can come safely is Puppy Kindergarten. We always freshly disinfect before the class and never allow any interaction with older dogs or their toys. This offers a fun, safe and positive environment to learn in with puppies their own age.

The kindergarten is geared for the 10 – 20 week old puppy who needs to learn some very important lessons. Some of these they can only learn from other puppies; bite inhibition in play, reading body language and proper play.

The families learn lots too, including proper handling, motivational training and how to manage all those puppy issues. Your puppy will be socialized with men, women and kids too – which is so important while they’re forming their opinion of the world.

Come prepared to get on the floor and play with some incredibly cute puppies – and take away a better socialized and trained member of your family!

Sonic and I are very honored to have been selected by the Animal Planet to be featured in an upcoming series, “Breeder of the Pack”. The show follows us through our training regimen and as we hit the competitions looking to earn new titles for Kudos and Sonic. Incredibly stressful to not only be competing – but to have a camera crew following you!

The show first aired on September 2nd on the Animal Planet and has repeated over the last couple of months. It has now been picked up by mainstream TV, making it more accessible to everyone.

Since the show Sonic has gone on to earn his 6 MORE titles and many more 1st place wins, so he’s really rocking the competition! He’s even doing Agility now and winning there, so it just goes to show you – any breed can be trained to work with you!

We’re on facebook now! Though I’ll continue to post news here in the news section, the Facebook page allows all of us to share pictures, links, notify others about causes and is just a lot more interactive! There’s a discussion box where you’re free to start a topic, you can post your cutest puppy pictures…have fun with it. So check it out at: Canine Campus Facebook

You can also do a search on facebook for Canine Campus to get to the main profile – the above is the “fan page” – both will have lots of news and info!

Toronto Barks, an online pet magazine, held a contest asking customers to vote for their favorite pet service in Toronto. Thanks to the wonderful group of owners that rely on our services – Canine Campus was awarded the top prize in our category! You can visit the magazine at www.torontobarks.com

We are very thrilled and honored to have been awarded this “people’s choice” vote of confidence. Of course we will continue to strive to deliver our best in our training and daycare. Our personal service, small class size and knowledgeable staff add up to a great combination of quality dog services.

Thank you to our valued customers for your wonderful support. If you aren’t a customer yet – we hope to have the chance in the near future to show you our winning ways! Lucinda