Come with an open mind and lots of patience. This is an awesome learning experience for you and your dog. Took my dog here half a dozen times this past year for different classes. Dogsmart was recommended by a friend who raved about their instructors. Tracey, Masumi & Alice all were calm, patient and helpful as we did Beginner Life Skills, Tricks & Games, Shy or Fearful Dog, Dog Out & About and Dog Care Basics. Annette - the friendly lady at the front desk also kept on top of providing multiple notifications for upcoming classes and was always there to help. Training isn't easy and the style might not be for everyone. You will be grilled about how you are working with your dog in all aspects. Words you say, actions you take, actions you didn't take. You will learn a different order of doing things, be asked about what you're doing at that moment but have to listen and visually focus on your dog all at the same time..! My advice: Be patient and practice the activities to the best of your ability! Ask follow-up questions in-class or privately via email and come prepared to talk about what your dog is doing week to week. Retail therapy: there's a shop with a selection of training toys, treats and supplies. It's an awesome spot for anyone looking for new treats to engage your dog at reasonable prices. My shy uncertain dog has grown to like this place and open his little heart. Thank you to the wonderful staff at Dogsmart for focusing on progress and for providing affordable & interesting classes to help Vancouver-area dogs grow. read more

DOGSmart Training & Daycare - Our dog doing "PAWESOME" @ Dogsmart! - Pet Training Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

Terrible training experience. Terrible advice. Condescending, judgemental trainer who constantly talked down to us. The advice made a slightly anxious puppy extremely reactive. Now spending a small fortune on a behaviourist to undo the damage. Basically. I've found out that everything the trainer told me was absolutely wrong. read more

I've gone to a couple dog training facilities and DOGSMART was the best out of all I've been to. I've taken my dog there for agility training and did the canine good neighbor course. Anyone who's asked me where I've taken my dog for training, I always recommend DOGSMART. Every time arrived at the facility, I've always been welcomed with a smile and warm hello. I don't think I can express just how incredibly pleased/satisfied with the results their training styles had on my dog. If anyone needs a trainer for a puppy through to adult dog this is the place to go! read more

DOGSmart Training & Daycare - Pet Training Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

Condescending trainer, talking to us dog parents like we are idiots. There are better ways to communicate with clients to teach them how to work with their dogs. We quit the course after two classes read more

They train you as much as the dog...and that's a good thing. Alice and her army of dog trainers are very particular (Caesar bad, rewards good) and run a tight ship (sample comment: "what ARE YOU DOING with your dog. STOP.") but we quickly realized - this is crucial. Doting owners learn to stop indulging their dogs and instead to reward for appropriate behaviour. The learning is very practical and enjoyable and has led to a far superior relationship with our beast. We have been back for three classes and have the "graduation" certificates to prove it. Location is a bit far from downtown but an excellent facility and store make it worth the drive. As Alice says..."TAKE IT!" read more

We took the Puppy SmartStart class with Tracey and loved it! We learned so much. It was wonderful to see how much Tracey loves her job and all the puppies. She is incredibly helpful and knowledgeable. We're excited to continue the training at home and feel like we've been set up for an awesome relationship with our lab. We also appreciated that the class is based on positive dog training rather than reactive training. Could not recommend enough! read more

Alice is beyond-words awesome! Her understanding of dog behaviour is current, relevant and most helpful so that YOU can effectively have a well-behaved dog! Our one-on-one training sessions were followed-up with an e-mail that reinforced what this human-canine team had been taught. I can't say enough good about DogSmart! Go to them! You won't be disappointed! read more

I LOVE this place! The staff at DOGSmart are top notch- very warm, genuine, welcoming and it is apparent they are big dog lovers. I signed up for agility class with MARY and it's honestly one of the best things we have ever done! Mary is such a natural with all dogs as shown by her professionalism and excellent training skills. (In addition to Mary being a highly respected agility competition judge, her dog recently won the national agility championship!!) We enjoyed every fun and challenging class with her and I would take her classes again without a doubt- my dog has learned A LOT from the classes in a very short period of time thanks to her. I can't wait to take more classes with Alice- I've heard nothing but great things about her too. My dog is now so excited to to DOGSMART keep up the awesome work!! read more

DogSmart is a fabulous facility. It is a large space and spotless with tried and tested products, food and treats available at very reasonable prices. After making an appointment with Alice, the owner, we enjoyed a comprehensive assessment of our dog. Alice recommended classes and training that would support our dog, and family. Alice was kind and knowledgeable with professional certifications. The rest of the staff were fun and patient in the doggie daycare. What a great day for my dog! DogSmart is terrific. We enjoy our well behaved dog and his good manners at home and in public thanks to DogSmart. read more

Between myself and my close family friend Ivan, we have three American Eskimo puppies. We have heard great things about Dogsmart training. However, they used to take puppies only after they are 5 months old+. Therefore, we turned to other dog training school who would take our puppies as soon as we took them home at 8 weeks old. By 6 months old, our dogs completed all trainings at Petsmart, Darling dog, private training from Oh my dog, and agility from Dizine Canine. We were proud of our puppies. When we finally bring our puppies to Dogsmart, Alice put us to beginner class. We honestly did not enjoy that class because we were bored with all the basic commands our dogs already learnt when they were 10 weeks old. What's worse was that Alice always looks so mean and we felt difficult to watch her seeming harassing the dog owners. We thought we wouldn't come back again. However, we can "try" to do everything right for our dogs, but just like all our parents do, we tend to screw up our kids one way or the others but we are here to learn. Time went by, we noticed that one of our dogs became fearful, one of our dogs started to be reactive. Luckily the other one is still perfect to me (he is my heart boy). We searched all over internet, consulted the vet, and asked around in the dog park. We interviewed all trainers we found on googles, recommended by the vet and dog parents. They all tell me stuff I can read on internet, promising they can fix our dogs. I even tried out some classes. They were really just wasting my time. Nothing works. It just confused the dogs further if you don't start off right. Now we have met over 10 dog trainers. No one has yet beat Alice in her expertise in observing dog behaviours/body language. We observe that her experience to dogs is real practical. We gave Dogsmart another try. We registered agility course for my perfect dog, fearful workshop for my fearful dog, and reactive workshop for my reactive dog. Guess what, they ALL improved! And they are happy! We identified why our fearful dog is fearful, and everything Alice teaches is useful. Our fearful dog is now also joining the agility course. We burst out in tear when we see two of our dogs are running up and down the agility equipment without fear. Thinking back, we weren't happy in our beginner level course because we really did took many courses before we take this class , but Alice was very serious about what she teaches so she wants to make sure we knows all the basic handling skills. Her courses don't just focus on giving me a "WELL TRAINED" dog, but they also give me a "WELL BEHAVED DOG". Thinking back to the beginner's course, my dogs were well trained, but they weren't well behaved. Therefore for some of the comments below, I hear you - Alice does seem mean at first. However, if you truly love your dogs, I would ask you to suck it in, because Alice knows her stuff and she can really help. I am a fairly successful and lucky young professional with my eagle all over the places. At first I felt frustrated because I cannot do anything right in front of Alice. However, I need my dog to be happy so I swallow the mean nothing eagle. The more classes I took from her, I learnt that she is just very serious about what she teaches and I am starting to appreciate it. It's much better than someone telling me all the nice stuff as a customer and then screw up my dogs' life. Good news is, Dogsmart is now offering puppy classes. I am jealous, if I could turn the clock back, I could have started off the right paw and would have come across much fewer troubles. I encouraged everyone to register her puppy courses and beginners courses as soon as possible. read more

I'm not sure how to rate this dog school, I am not thrilled nor am I unwilling to go back. My reactive 20 lb dog finished reactive dog classes 3 weeks ago. My husband and I worked diligently with our dog. He was asked to audit a class a few weeks before we enrolled, and he bought and read the two books she suggested before our class, a clicker trainer and pre-taught our dog what he knew was coming.I observed what others are saying here, Alice is not a people person, she is a dog person. I am okay with that, that's what I'm looking for, someone to help me with my dog. The reactive classes started with promise, but completely fell flat by the end. Every class we were doing the same thing, bringing our dogs in one by one and asking them to stand on various objects and feed them treats while they ignore something triggering in the room (custom tailored to each dog, ie a large dog in the room safely brought in by Rita, or a couple hugging an gesturing in the corner of the room with raised voices, someone using a walker with large wheels) We noticed some improvement with our dog in learning to "watch" us instead of what triggers him, but overall the main issue we have with him aggressive fear barking at people has zero improvement. Our dog becomes frenzied and the rescue Alice wants us to use, throwing piles of treats on the ground to distract him) has stopped working, and I believe reinforced that if he has a mental meltdown he will be thrown piles of treats. In our 6 week class there was no discussion of what the steps are beyond the bribe/reward. How do we transition to a well behaved dog with out fear of running out of bribes? It wasn't cheap or outrageously priced, but I am slightly hesitant to throw more money at something that isn't working that well. She mentioned a vet, and Alice thinks our dog needs medication for OCD. Maybe on meds, he will respond better to this class. I am on the fence. She is helpful with referrals, email answers and answering your questions. Will update after another round of classes, as my husband wants to try again with Dogsmart. read more

We just tried our first agility training class and it was so much fun. Nicole, our trainer was relaxed and supportive. She knew dogs really well. She also let us have our space without too many directions - just enough to guide us. Our standard poodle Luna did so amazing for her first time! She went through the the tunnel, did the jumps and climbed the A frame (her favourite!). We can't wait for next week. read more

Bad Dog Training @ DogSmart (Heather Location) I've heard only good things about Dog Smart @ the Marpole Location but the truth is they seem to only know how to train big dogs. They had to bring in small dog owners from the main location to try and train them but there was only one other Small dog owner at the time and she felt the same way we did. This was not your traditional style of obedience training, in fact our trainer went all over the place and did not have a proper lesson plan, instead she did what she wanted when she wanted, one moment we were doing fear training and the next we were trying to get them to sit down, 5 mins later we moved onto how to pee outside. It was abysmal planning. The worst part was that she was juggling 5 dogs at once, whereas I distinctly remember with my other shih tzu, our trainer went from one puppy to the next puppy and trained that way, which is much more effective. Also the small basement location felt like a dungeon, we were told the space was large and sufficient, I still believe most dog training should take place outside. Does your dog listen to you @ home? Does he then listen the same way @ a dog park? I think not. In the end, our small dog is now scared of big dogs and shows aggression when he/she wasn't this way before we visited. Beware. read more

I contacted Dogsmart to ask about private training for my dog. When I first called them they asked me to write an e-mail...so I did. Then I never heard back so I called again and spoke with Alice who asked me to write in another e-mail directly to her. She wanted me to write a day in the life of my dog e-mail so that she could get an understanding of his daily routine and what he does on a regular basis. I wrote a very honest, well thought out e-mail which took a long time to write. I never heard back. Two weeks later I contacted them again just in case my e-mail had gone to spam. After all, Dogsmart had been recommended to me and I was ready to enroll my dog in training. Alice gave me a pretty weak excuse as to why she hadn't called me back. When Alice finally read my e-mail and called me to discuss what I was looking for in training it was a pretty awful conversation. She completely misinterpreted everything I had written and made me feel like an idiot for writing that my dog was acting alpha in the off leash park. I felt like she was getting hung up on words like alpha and recall instead of just trying to understand that I am not a trainer and I am using these words loosely. I could tell she had a pretty warped view of my dog and myself. When I tried to explain what I meant about my dog acting alpha I could tell her wasn`t even listening to me. She had already made her judgement about us before she called me and her opinion wasn`t going to change. She made me feel so awful I was almost in tears when I hung up and reflected on the conversation. Needless to say I did not go to her for training. A good trainer should be open and understanding to both the dog and the owner AND someone who runs a business should be willing to have a conversation with someone over the phone instead of telling them to write a long, detailed email that they make judgements on or never reply to. read more

My first time at Dogsmart was roughly 11-12 years ago when they were first located on Dunbar and 41st avenue, when it was just Alice Fisher ( the pre-synthetic red hair phase ),a Japanese woman with her doberman(Kai?) and "Trixie treats", and It was not a positive experience at all. My dog, he was a puppy, and instead of teaching him to leave the tissue paper that was placed on the garbage can, Alice poors cold tap water on my dog's head. It was extremely disturbing, and the fact that the Dogsmart website claims that they now use, "Non-Abusive Motivational Training Since 1991 No Choke Chains, No Shock Collars, No Pinch Collars."..is a complete hypocrite. The trainers are so stupid, they only tell their clients to use treats to lure the dogs, and so the dogs are only dependent on treats and they do not fully understand what they are supposed to do. Also, I attended one of Tracy's puppy classes, and I asked her, " What should i do if my dog doesn't walk but just jumps nonstop( cause shes a large one)?". Her answer was, "Just make her sit with some treats, until you think its time for her to comply, and just use some treats and make her walk." Instead of taking her advice, I watched Cesar Millan, and now my dog walks perfectly without any treats, and I assure you that she and other dogs that I practice Cesar's techniques on, are not scared from his techniques., ( Fortunately, Cesar would never poor cold tap water on dogs but Alice Fisher from Dog Smart would ). And also, I warn you to stay away from Linda's classes, they are so boring and are a waste of time and money ( A gunshot blow to the head..) Linda just teaches you the 'tricks" that you learn from a puppy beginner's class, but she adds some useless You tube videos and a clicker, and calls it "Tricks and Games" and charges you another $135 +tax. .LINDA DON'T QUIT YOUR DAY JOB, or else you can't afford any more of those fries from Wendy's! Also, I would NEVER trust these trainers with my dogs-they are only out to make money. Rita was an incompetent so-called dog trainer, who dances around the room with a can of cold coke in her hands, and barking orders to the clients. Also, it is ironic that Alice Fisher, being a "Behaviour Specialist, Certified Trainer and Training Director", that her dog Quila, has aggression issues and is not "good" with smaller dogs. If Alice Fisher was truly successful at what she is doing, Quila would be a "balanced" dog , just like ALL the dogs from Cesar's pack and all the dogs that have experienced Cesar's techniques. All in all, avoid this pointless establishment at all costs, since you cannot establish a TRUE bond with your dog unless you have treats in hand. At Dogsmart, your dogs would only refer to you as their treats dispenser and nothing else.To save time and money, just watch the Dog Whisperer and learn from Cesar Millan ( the BEST and only TRUE dog psychologist, and most importantly, not trainer!!), instead of funding Alice Fisher's stupid establishment that uses so called "positive reinforcement" which is just full of absolute bull crap and hypocritical "teaching" methods that do not work on any dogs in the long run ( and without treats) whatsoever. read more

I made the mistake of not seeking expert behaviour training early enough with my last dog. After adopting another Staffordshire Terrier (Staffy, Bully, Pitbull) rescue dog, I spent a month meeting with dog trainers (Dogsmart was the 7th) in the Vancouver area. Several were suggesting harsh training methods (buzz/shock collars), others looked like they didn't like my dog, and those whose philosophies were congruent with mine want obscene amounts of money. Alice is frank and can be scary, but genuinely wants to see you and your dog succeed. DogSmart is very affordable and customizes lessons to each individual dog and owners needs. They are always a phone call or email away for advise, even if you're not enrolled in a class. They go beyond simple obedience classes; offering Reactive Dog, Agility, Out 'n About (basic obedience at a different park each week so you get real-life training), Play (dog park etiquette, making introductions, recognizing when your dog/others are overwhelmed), Games (pooches need mental stimulation beyond the same walk everyday), etc. Alice, Cathie, Rita, & all make you feel welcome and part of the family. read more

We were so lucky to find Dogsmart training!! When we brought our dog in as a puppy, she had severe separation anxiety. Alice was so supportive in helping my husband and I learn how to work positively with our dog. Alice genuinely cares about her clients and their dogs and goes out of her way to show you how to bring out the positive behaviours in your dog. We were at our wits end when we brought in our puppy and now we have the most wonderful relationship with our dog, all thanks to Alice. read more