Dynamo Dogsports (& Dog Day Care) - Edmonton

Baby and I took the Foundations class and learned a ton. Can't wait to do group classes in the huge new space!!

My dog and I had tons of fun learning agility from the O'Neill family. Excellent instructors and a great community.

The instructors have no formal knowledge of up-to-date dog behaviour and training methodologies, instead relying on inhumane, force-based “techniques” and anecdotes that have been proven over and over in research to create fear and break trust and have no basis in scientifically-backed current practices among contemporary and competent trainers. Avoid this business at all costs. Do some simple research on the dangers of aversive training techniques employed by this facility and choose instead to go to a humane and properly-informed training facility so that your dog can effectively learn in a cooperative and stress-free environment and to create a strong relationship based off trust and clear, evidence-based communication.

Love this team..... my rambunctious OES puppy is learning and so am I. My Shih tzu/ Border Collie Cross Looooves Barn Hunt. Fabulous coaches

Fun trials, organized and excellent timing for the whole trial day.

My girlfriend has been taking our dog here from the past few months. He has grown so much in ability in that small time frame it blows my mind. The instructors are friendly and knowledgeable, the facility is clean and your dog will become better behaved through thiers and your training. Great little business in the City.

My dog and I have been attending here since last November. My dog knows the minute we pull up where we are and he squeaks with joy! He and I both look forward to our agility days. Thank you Seanna and Kirsten for providing handlers and dogs a fun environment to work in and for all of the advice you have offered. Marcus' confidence has really grown since we started, and so has our bond.

I had my 2-year old rescue dog for a little over a week when we attended this class. He has collar sensitivity and therefore walks only on a harness. He had huge improvements on the leash in the time I had him, but I was hoping to refine my ability to teach him loose leash walking, as well as basic commands and work up to some agility skills, because he is quite smart and agile I thought it would be good for him to have an outlet. I went to one "foundation A - relationship class" and I had an absolutely horrible time. To enter the training space, you need to walk through a small room and a narrow hallway. When I arrived, no one was in that space to greet me. When other's arrived, the dogs immediately started off on a bad foot because small space, on-leash greetings are in no way ideal for dogs. This might not be an issue for experienced handler-dog pairs, but we were there for a foundation class so I am surprised no effort was made to make a smoother welcome to the facility. Greetings were done over spinning, barking dogs who were very anxious to explore the space and very distracted by each other. No instruction or tips were given on how to keep your dog calm among the chaos, other than to keep them far enough apart that they can't interact with each other. We started with loose leash walking and sit, both of which the instructor taught using physical methods - "popping" the leash - ie yanking on the throat of the animal to get them to look at you. This is not an effective method for my dog, because he walks on a harness. The trainer did not attempt to provide me with tips and approaches that worked for my situation, but instead told me 3 separate times that I wouldn't have success without putting a collar on my dog. This instructor should have known that even if I were interested in "getting my dog used to the collar" - as she suggested, the humane approach to doing that would take weeks of conditioning. Not to mention, yanking the throat of the dog can be dangerous, especially over time. The instructor indicated that to get the dog to sit - you should push down on their hips and pull up on the collar. The environment during these exercises was absolute chaos - the instructor called out cues over all the spinning barking dogs and you had to listen for her, pay attention to your dog, try to get your dog to focus and try not to get close enough to any of the other dogs in the meantime. Some of these aspects are probably inherent in dog classes, but I expected a class instructor to have some advice or approach to help mitigate this. It was a context that was basically impossible for me to learn in, let alone my dog. Toward the end of the class, the instructor taught an exercise that is meant to build up to recall. It involved picking up her small terrier, tossing him away from her, then turning and walking in the other direction with a toy to entice the dog to follow. This might work for that pairing - the dog was tiny and quite hardy. I'm not sure how the exercise ended though, because her dog barked so incessantly at her, and my dog of course began barking in return, that I had to leave the class. My dog was stressed and afraid the whole time. The reviews highlighted on the web page - that the trainers worked with dog/owner pairs - couldn't be less true. I emailed the instructor to let her know that I would not be returning because the context was too chaotic for me and my dog given that we are early in the training journey (as should be expected given the entry level of the class). To her credit, she offered to refund the class since other people were interested in attending, despite the no refund policy on their webpage. I'm a new dog owner, so the lesson I learned by attending a class without speaking to the instructor about their methods is well taken. I will never pay for instruction without specifically asking someone if they use physical methods to train their dogs, or asking questions about how learning is supported. *edited after email response from instructor*