See our Meet the Trainers page for staff bios and information

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Certified Professional Dog Trainers

 

The Dog Classroom is proud to be home to the first two Certified Professional Dog Trainers (CPDT) in Northern Ontario. This means that our instructors accumulated hundreds of hours of hands-on experience prior to passing a written exam to demonstrate a thorough understanding of how dogs learn.

 

As Certified trainers we pledge (and sign an ethics agreement) to avoid undue stress and discomfort to our human and animal clients.  In most cases, the CPDT can train the desired behaviour by focusing on the animal’s environment, physical well-being, by using desensitization (exposing the dog to the trigger at a distance they are comfortable) and counter conditioning (pairing the activity with something the dog likes). Continuing education is required for CPDTs in order to renew our Certification every 3 years. This allows us to teach our clients new skills and ensure we have all the most effective and up to date training methods.

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Finding a Qualified Dog Trainer

 

Before hiring a dog trainer, owners should ask questions to make sure the trainer is competent and skilled in training dogs and teaching owners. Some things to consider include:

 

• Find a trainer that uses positive methods for rewarding good behaviour instead of punishment. They should be a CPDT or be working under one.

• Ask to observe a class, are the dogs and people enjoying themselves? Also speak to some of the students and ask questions.

• Avoid trainers that make guarantees about results, as results will depend on the individual dog and handler

• Is the trainer able to answer your questions about training or behaviour knowledgably and clearly? Can they provide reliable sources to back up their answers?

• Avoid trainers who do not allow you to use food in class as it is a great positive reinforcement tool

• Avoid trainers that encourage you to train with a choke chain or prong collar as there are other useful tools that do not use punishment

• If you need certain type of training (reactivity, agility, obedience etc.) ask about the trainer’s experience and training methods for that area

• Dog training should be fun and educational for both the dogs and the owners

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We are transparent about our methods used and do not use prong, choke, or shock collars in our programs.

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If you have any questions about our trainers or programs please get in touch

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