The Common Dog Training and Walking

12/15/2025

12/10/2025

🐾 Holiday Break Alert! 🎄

We’re taking a short pause to rest, reset, and soak up some holiday downtime.

We’ll be closed Dec 22 – Jan 2 and back to our usual schedule on January 5th.

Hope you and your four-legged rascals have the best holiday too! 💛

With so much gratitude from The Common Dog Team!
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12/05/2025

Jimmy’s walk used to be pure chaos 😅 threshold battles, squirrel chases, couch zoomies. But through some consistency with Mobile Day Training sessions, we are seeing some decent progress 🐾

At our last session he nailed his front-door manners, brought laser focus to recall games, and even settled calmly on the couch after some initial wiggles. Bit by bit, Jimmy’s building real-world skills that stick ✅

Need help with leash manners, thresholds, or getting your dog to listen when it counts? Our Mobile Day Training comes to you.

Start where your dog is. Build something solid together.

thecommondog.ca/mobiledaytraining

12/04/2025

Ready to build real focus in real distraction?

Level 2 is where things start to really come together. If you’ve done the work in Level 1, this is the class that sharpens your dog’s skills and builds the kind of calm, reliable behavior that lasts.

Our first Level 2 session starts January 16th at 7:30pm

➡️ Visit our website at thecommondog.ca/groupclasses to register or learn more.
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11/29/2025

Ladysmith Dogs - We’ve Got Space! 🐾

Looking for structured social time and solid leash skills for your pup? We’ve got room on:

🕘 Tuesday mornings
🕑 Monday + Wednesday afternoons

These walks are a great outlet for energy and help reinforce calm, reliable behaviour in real-world settings.

✨ At least one Walk & Train session is required before joining pack walks.

Message us to book or visit https://www.thecommondog.ca/structured-dog-walking
to learn more (link in bio for easy navigation)
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11/26/2025

It's week 3 of our Level 1 Group Training Class! The pups worked on leave it, place, leash walking, and doorway manners! 🐾

We have two classes running, a 6pm and a 730pm and both groups did fantastic with the lesson today!

Stay tuned for updates on how these pups progress over the 6-week program.🐶

🗓 Interested in joining our next program? We will be running a Level 1 and Level 2 class starting January 16th, 2026! Visit our website for more info or to register!

www.thecommondog.ca/groupclasses

11/17/2025

Some dogs need more guidance than a standard walk, especially when excitement and distractions tend take over.

Our Walk & Train sessions help your dog learn how to:

• Walk politely without pulling
• Stay focused around other dogs and people
• Build confidence and impulse control
• Practice calm behaviour in the real world

Perfect for new training clients or dogs prepping for structured pack walks!

📍 Cowichan Valley | Small number of openings available

Get in touch through our website to get started: www.thecommondog.ca/structured-dog-walking

11/12/2025

First session with Devi, Claire, and Eddy with our Day Training Program! 🐾

These pups started off with Bella, and now I'm taking over to continue the work!

Here's a clip of my session with Claire, but Devi is also doing some excellent work with impulse control at the same time.

Claire is sweet and shy. She finds confidence in her house mates, so separating them and working with her on her own will help her confidence on her own improve!

We are doing a place, get it, and then recall drill.

She is reluctant to come towards me. This is why I've added the treat toss and get it command off of the place bed. Once she gets the treat, I recall her to me. I adjust my body language and get down to her level to help her feel more comfortable with my presence. Owners aren't aware of how much their body language communicates to dogs. A pup sensitive like this will shy away from that forward facing energy quickly. I want her to feel comfortable with me, so I go slow and adjust my body language to what works. As we build our relationship, I will be able to challenge her and encourage her to get closer to me or to come towards me while facing her!

For Devi, she is practicing some great impulse control here. She is tethered, so she can not access us, where if she wasn't tethered, she would be taking over this whole session and booting Claire out of the way! The tether works to physically restrict Devis access. She did some protesting with whining and barking, so I waited until she was quiet and calm, then rewarded multiple times in a row. This teaches her to understand what is expected of her and what she will be rewarded for. As I am working with Claire, I'll throw pieces of treats on Devi's bed to keep the reinforcement and feedback on what she's supposed to be doing, going.

Stay tuned for their progress!
-Brooke 🐶

Interested in having your dog trained while you're at work?! Find out more about our Mobile Day Training Program at our website.

www.thecommondog.ca/mobiledaytraining

11/10/2025

Our newest student in our Day Training Program, Jimmy!! 🐶

During the program, Jimmy will be working on his excitable behaviour towards guests and people in the street, his recall and overall listening, his over stimulatation around play and in the home, as well and his leash manners and heel command.

Jimmy is a sweet and smart pup who is motivated to learn! Stay tuned in our stories for weekly updates on Jimmy.

Ps. We haven't been sharing these kinds of posts as much lately, but we will be again! Now that Brooke is back work doing in person training, there will be regular stories and posts following along on all of her client's training journeys! 🐾🥳