Ahimsa Dog Training - Main Campus

My wife and I got a new puppy last year and we wanted to start socializing with other dogs right away to make sure he would be a confident adult. Our dog Pip is a cavapoo who will be about 10 pounds full grown and we were concerned about his safety if he played with larger breeds. We are so glad we found Ahimsa because not only do they have a small dog play group that’s perfect for Pip, but Wynona and the team do a great job of managing dog interactions and ensuring every dog is able to feel safe and confident! When we started doing puppy play groups, Pip was a complete wallflower and sat in our laps for the entire time. He gradually started to venture out but was still hesitant around other dogs. It was difficult for us to see other dogs quickly thrive while Pip didn’t have the confidence to play with others even after attending the group for a couple of months. Winona helped to coach us through this challenging time by pointing out the areas where he did grow, helping us to understand his behavioral cues and make Pip feel more secure, and putting him into manageable situations that helped to slowly build his confidence. After a few months of attending weekly classes, we saw a huge breakthrough where Pip played with another dog for the first time! Since then, things have only gotten better and he has only gotten more confident! The room for puppy play is broken up into several different sections which are totally secure and isolated. This allows the team to split up dogs with different levels of energy and make sure every dog is in a situation that’s appropriate for them. Dogs will get rotated between sections during the play session and the team will pair specific dogs together based on how they are interacting. There is a big variety of dogs that are in the play group with many different breeds and personalities. There are a lot of regulars in our group and it’s been good getting to know them and their dogs over time. It’s also great for the dogs who often become friends and look forward to seeing each other every week. There are also plenty of new dogs that join in and help to keep things fresh! In addition to the play groups, we also did the Puppy Elementary curriculum which helped Pip build upon his fundamentals and greatly improved his ability to walk on leash. We got practical exercises we can do outside of class and direct feedback from the trainer during class to make sure we were doing things the right way. We’ve taken a break from behavioral training to focus solely on interactions with other dogs, but look forward to joining a more advanced class in the future. We love Wynona, Erica, Crystal, and the rest of the team at Ahimsa and so does Pip! If you are looking to socialize your dog or do behavioral training, we highly recommend you try Ahimsa!

We've been taking our puppy here for the puppy classes, playtime and day camp. As an ancient breed that is somewhat notorious, it was imperative that we worked early with socialization and setting him up for success, and it's one of the best things I could have done for my boy! Everything is well structured and thoughtful and ran by trainers that really know what they're doing and are passionate about it! If you have a young puppy, I don't think there's anything more valuable that you could possibly do than enroll them into the day camp and puppy classes. You're getting structured socialization with new puppies constantly which not only teaches them how to socialize better around dogs and people, but generalizes this skill as well! 100%, I would HIGHLY recommend!