ABC Dog Training Caroline Bird Cpdt - Ka

ABC Dog Training Caroline Bird Cpdt - Ka Caroline Bird CPDT-KA Certified trainer with 16 years of class teaching experience with dogs and owners. offering classes in obedience, puppy and agility.

Private sessions both in home and at my boarding kennels near st martins.

Our first new graduating group from the basic obedience classes for 2025. May they get to have much more fun in the year...
03/31/2025

Our first new graduating group from the basic obedience classes for 2025.
May they get to have much more fun in the year 2025 and beyond using all the new skills they have been learning over the set of classes.
If you want to join our next new group the start date of the next class is Thursday 8th May at 6.30pm
register via the website www.abcdogtraining.org

03/30/2025

Our next new PUPPY CLASS starts on Sunday April 13th at 5.30pm.
A set of 7 classes for pups aged 3-5 months old. Class includes a theory section to prepare people for the coming months ahead with your pup, social playtime and an introduction to everyday basic skills that you pup will greatly benefit from. Cost si $140.00 plus hst.

Our next new Basic Obedience class starts on Thursday 8th May at 6.30pm
A set of 10 classes for dogs of any age. We will be training on skills that include focus, walking, sit, down, stays and recalls. Our course is longer than a traditional commercial training course as we want to make sure that both owners and their dogs do thoroughly understand what we are teaching in class time. Lots of extra games are included to help proof whatever we are covering in class time.
Cost is $180.00 plus hst.

We will be posting about the classes coming up for this year on the face book page very soon so do keep checking in so that you do not miss out.

Held at 1250 Latimore Lake Road, Saint John.
Indoors in a spacious room with custom made cushion flooring to protect the dogs from slipping. Free parking right next to the building.
To register for any classes go to the website www.abcdogtraining.org

Check out the references or reviews on both the face book and the google business page to see what past students have experiences with the class.

03/29/2025

SMALL DOG SOCIAL PLAYTIME. Saturday 29th March. 3.30-5pm.
Held at 1250 Latimore Lake Road. Saint John.
No registration required as this is a drop in event.
Any dog attending must be up to date on their vaccinations
Cost is $13.00 per dog. $6.00 per second family dog.

Our last small dog social playtime is the second Saturday in April 2025, then we will restart again in late December 2025.

Just completed this course, lots of different ways to look at possible reasons for why some dogs are reactive.I will try...
03/27/2025

Just completed this course, lots of different ways to look at possible reasons for why some dogs are reactive.
I will try and post some on the notes from this one next week, good to see it from many different perspectives.

Its an unusual photo to post, but it will hopefully get people thinking about how we can keep our dogs mentally engaged ...
03/25/2025

Its an unusual photo to post, but it will hopefully get people thinking about how we can keep our dogs mentally engaged with new ways to play that does not involve having to rough house with them to keep them entertained. I have nothing against rough housing with dogs and it can actually be a chance to teach them good impulse control if it is done correctly.
Last week l had a family come in for a private session who had a large breed 6 month old puppy who was biting the childrens faces.
The family had dogs before this, but they were small dogs.
Sadly because of this being a big breed dog they were told by so many people that they needed to dominate the dog and were researching the wrong kind of trainers for advice on how to deal with this .Would love to name and shame these trainers but this is not what this post is about.
We talked about the dogs behaviors and established that shouting at the puppy and pushing it away was only making the worse. We talked about how rough house playing with the dog was only getting it to over aroused and at 6 months old it was far to easy for the dog to go over threshold and then not be able to switch off and calm down.
The private lesson proceeded as normal as the family learned so much information that was going to help them see their puppies behavior in a totally different way. In short they did not have a aggressive puppy and most things people were telling them to do was only leading to the wrong out comes.
They will be signing up for group training classes which will help them to communicate and understand their dog better.
So now to get back to the photo for this post. While l was talking with the parents one of the children, l am guessing is a young teenager found the ball shown on the photo and started rolling it around for the puppy to play with.
Within a short time they were moving around and interacting together , but this time the dog was not trying to grab the son because he had a new job to do that was to retrieve the ball and then take it back to the son so that it could be rolled out again. The puppy was being mentally and physically stimulated in a different way and would go home ready for a sleep.
As the family were getting ready to leave l picked up the ball and showed them how they could also push bits of rags inside the ball for the dog to pull out, or how they could also hide treats inside the ball and wrap it in the bits of the rags which would help keep the dog more engaged with the toy, But most important it would keep the puppies brain stimulated as he learned many new behaviors that did not include grabbing at parts of people bodies.

Thinking along these lines l am sure some people who are reading this might be able to put forward their own idea of how they keep their own dogs mentally stimulated. Any ideas are welcome. A simple one might be hiding a treat inside a towel and then rolling the towel up so that the dog has to unroll it with his nose to get the treat. It is so easy but it's a challenge for the dog and keep them thinking about how to solve challenges.

03/23/2025

Our last class week for the Movement Games class and little Maudie proves that being small does not mean you get to have less fun than the bigger dogs.
During her 8 classes she has gained so much confidence as she worked with all the props used on course as she went over, under, through , around and even walked through boxes filled with lots of different textured objects.
Through the Where are my Paws games she learnt some how to move her back paws and front paws so that she had more body balance while on course.
Looking forward to seeing her back in the fall time for the second part to these movement games as she learns even more confidence building skills.
If anyone is interested in joining our next beginner course in the summertime send me a message and l will put you on the notification list for when l have confirmed for the next class.
More class photos of the other students to follow soon in a separate post.

03/22/2025

SMALL DOG SOCIAL PLAYTIME. Saturday 22nd March, 3.30-5pm
Held at 1250 Latimore Lake Road. Saint John.
No registration needed as this is a drop in event.
Any dogs attending must be up to date on their vaccinations.
Cost is $13.00 per dog, $6.00 for a second family dog.

l just never know what kind of puppy personalities l am going to get in the puppy class . Some like to take the high pos...
03/21/2025

l just never know what kind of puppy personalities l am going to get in the puppy class . Some like to take the high position, others like the low position.
The good news is that the shyer one that is under the owner's leg is now out and playing with the other pups during playtime, it did not take long to get over the shyness seen during the first class few classes.

Our next new BASIC OBEDIENCE class starts on THURSDAY 8TH MAY AT 6.30pmA set of 10 classes covering focus, walking, sit,...
03/20/2025

Our next new BASIC OBEDIENCE class starts on THURSDAY 8TH MAY AT 6.30pm

A set of 10 classes covering focus, walking, sit, down stay and recall at short and long distances.
Taught by Caroline Bird CPDT-KA, a certified dog trainer with over 19 years of experience with all breeds of dogs.
Held at 1250 Latimore Lake Road. Saint John
Indoors in a large room with cushion flooring to help prevent against slipping on floors.
cost is $180.00 plus hst for the set of 10 classes
Register via the website www.abcdogtraining.org

I just read this article this morning from a well trusted source and just went very cold as l absorbed what l was readin...
03/19/2025

I just read this article this morning from a well trusted source and just went very cold as l absorbed what l was reading. Take a look at paragraph 2 and 3. Then search back down my posts from a few weeks ago when l posted about why we should NOT buy dog foods that contain American based foods.
The word MUTATE really stuck with me, this virus can easily spread beyond American borders and become even more deadly. With so much in the news cycle overwhelming us all now this might not gain much coverage. But please be aware if buying American products.
In England where l lived through the deadly outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease in 2001 the source was eventually traced back to some contaminated crushed food particles from another animal that had got into the food supply change.
I watched on the news as healthy herds of cows and sheep went to be slaughtered, burned and buried deep below the ground to eradicate the disease, If this outbreak mutates what other animals or even humans could it possibly effect.
In everyday life l would much rather post on this page happy photos and articles but for this occasion it is so serious everyone needs to know about it as soon as possible.
My source is from a face book page by Heather Cox Richardson, a trusted professor who l have been following for about 5 years now. Everything is fact checked by her team. I highly recommend her to anyone who wants to follow the horror of what is going on in America now

Still missing a few photos of our adorable new set of pups for this class, but this should be enough to get the awahh so...
03/19/2025

Still missing a few photos of our adorable new set of pups for this class, but this should be enough to get the awahh so cute factor across for now. Welcome to our latest group of pups all eager to learn and play with all their new friends.

Just wanted to give this shout out for Susan and her dog Ruby who she adopted for the SPCA .Ruby had been in the SPCA fo...
03/16/2025

Just wanted to give this shout out for Susan and her dog Ruby who she adopted for the SPCA .
Ruby had been in the SPCA for over a year and was not being adopted because of her behaviors, she was not aggressive, reactive yes but not on a scale that she could not be helped. She just needed a lot of training to help bring out the best in her.
Susan saw through all the negatives in her, adopted her, committed 100 percent to her training and the results are amazing. Such a different dog that came to me for privates a few months ago.

03/14/2025

SMALL DOG SOCIAL PLAYTIME. Saturday 15th March, 3.30-5pm
held at 1250 Latimore Lake Road. Saint John.
No registration needed as this is a drop in event.
Any dogs attending must be up to date on their vaccinations.
Cost is 13.00 per dog, $6.00 for a second family dog.

Just a quick post before l post the information for the small dog social on Saturday afternoon.For those of you, who lik...
03/14/2025

Just a quick post before l post the information for the small dog social on Saturday afternoon.
For those of you, who like stuff like this read on, its from the books l was gifted for my birthday. I just love information like this, and it all helps me to be able to understand dogs even more.

GENETC MEMORY
How traits and instincts are passed down from one generation of animals to the next.
This is the process whereby animals are capable of passing their acquired memories, knowledge and instincts on to their offspring in their genes.
Genetic memory explains so many otherwise baffling phenomena in the animal kingdom such as a bird's ability to make a nest, or how to migrate without being shown how, or why salmon feel compelled to swim upstream to spawn.
Similarly, it explains why a border collie has a compulsion to eye, herd or chase other animals or objects, resulting from the instinct's he inherited at birth, from the ancestors that existed before.

According to my children l am a very difficult person to buy gifts for, so instead of guessing they ask me what l would ...
03/12/2025

According to my children l am a very difficult person to buy gifts for, so instead of guessing they ask me what l would like.
So for my last birthday l asked for a book about Border Collies, which if anyone knows me is one of my favorite breeds.
l say one of my favorite breeds because l work with so many different dogs and could easily adopt most of them, lol. But the one that always seems to draw my attention the most is the border collie.
I have had 5 collies of my own at various times in my life and can only say that although they all carry the same herding genes, every one has had a completely different personality.
They are a very unique breed that can easily catch a unsuspecting person out, many people adopt them thinking they will be easy to train because they are so smart, but find out what they thought they were getting is just not the reality as their dogs come with a unique mind set that can quickly turn into obsessive behaviors.
I thought l knew a lot about Collies , but when l read parts of the green book in the picture it was quiet an eye opener for me.
People often come to me to do privates with their border collie dogs and tell about strange behaviors l am already very familiar with, so luckily l can enlighten them that this is indeed a very common behavior in border collies and what they can do to help their dog.
Understanding their mindset is definitely a good start so l will often recommend this set of books.
So back to the point of this post. I asked for one book and got all 3 books (thanks Laura), lots more reading to do and l will be posting a lot of interesting border collie behaviors on this page that l think people will find very informative, especially if they have a herding type breed of dog.
l can also show examples of one of my own border collies to highlight what she is writing about.
Just as a teaser for what is to come here is the authors writing on how many border collies traits can often mirror those found in.
autistic people, she then goes on to give a list of 25 behaviors . Its going to be an interesting read for me.
If anyone reading this post has a herding type dog, or even mixed herding type dog that does strange behaviors do comment below so that l can get an idea of what parts of the books you would like me to cover the most.
A really common one would be the obsessive tendency to chase a ball, and being unable to mentally stop the behavior despite exhaustion setting in.

Here are a few photos from Saturdays agility event at Petitcodiac which shows Rudie, Sidney and Sully having their time ...
03/10/2025

Here are a few photos from Saturdays agility event at Petitcodiac which shows Rudie, Sidney and Sully having their time on course.
Hoping to get a video of Brody which l can post later.
So glad to get photos like this, it makes me feel so proud of them all for everything they have achieved so far.
A few are blurred but l think everyone can get the general idea.

One very tired little Rudi who is one of the dogs in our agility class. fast asleep after a busy day at the Petitcodiac ...
03/09/2025

One very tired little Rudi who is one of the dogs in our agility class. fast asleep after a busy day at the Petitcodiac agility fun match, more photos of the event to follow this evening.

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1250 LATIMORE LAKE Road
Saint John, NB
E2N1Y8

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About my dog training services

Caroline Bird CPDT-KA is certified dog trainer who has been teaching classes in the Saint John area for the past 13 years. She is also the owner and operator of Saint Martins dog boarding and training kennels. Her classes that are held in Saint John include puppy class, basic obedience, advanced obedience, pre agility and advanced agility. her website for classes is www.abcdogtraining.org or for the kennels www.stmartinsdogkennels.com