Kindred Creatures
Canine Behaviour Services
Modern, professional, welfare-centered dog training.
Learn what your dog loves. Love what your dog learns.
​Creating training experiences that dogs enjoy, and foster trust.
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Using dogs' natural desires to address challenges and support behaviour.
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Showing guardians a compassionate approach that turns training into a conversation between friends. ​
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About Kindred Creatures
Hi. I’m Cate Taylor, founder and trainer at Kindred Creatures. I am a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner (KPA-CTP), a Certified Separation Anxiety Trainer (CSAT), a Family Dog Dial Guide, and a Family Dog Mediator (FDM) in the making (working towards qualifications under the L.E.G.S. model).
I have been helping families and dogs for ten years. ​​I use evidence-based, positive reinforcement & behaviour modification methods that prioritize the dog's emotional and physical comfort during training. Informed by the sciences of applied behavioural analysis and applied ethology, I use dogs' natural tendencies and pleasures to support their well-being, encourage desirable behaviours, and discourage unwanted behaviours.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Services
Some of the needs Kindred Creatures can assist with:
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life-style training (communication, manners, adapting to change--new home, new baby, aging guardian)
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dogs struggling to cope in the city, with other dogs, noise, over-excitement, fear
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reactive barking, lunging, melt-downs
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separation anxiety, fear
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helping dogs cope with nail clips, grooming, and vet visits
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communicating with a hard-to-reach, aging, or sick dog
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puppy life skills
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Socialization* for puppies (6 - 14 weeks of age) ​​​​​​​
The goal is to equip you with the up-to-date information, training techniques, and strategies that enable you to confidently and compassionately obtain and reinforce your dog's desirable behaviours throughout your lives together.
Kindred Creatures' Private Behaviour Service provides learning and enrichment opportunities for puppies and dogs of all ages. Whether you're wanting help to get your young puppy off to a good start, to get to the root of a barking problem, to have your dog assessed for separation distress, to boredom bust, or to learn more ways to train for fun and enrichment, Kindred Creatures will customize a program for you and your dog(s). If you have a burning question about your dog's behaviour and are wanting just a little input to clarify your understanding, or point you in the right direction, the TLC live chat or Video Feedback Service may be a good fit.​​
PRICES
Private in-person and on-line service is $100/hour, billed by the quarter hour. A travel charge may apply for in-home or outdoor training locations. See below for more information and where minimums and special pricing apply.
TLC (Talk Live with Cate) by phone
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video call, 20 minutes for $35 or
Video Feedback Service* (VFS). Receive input on your dog's body language, behaviour or your training technique. VFS* is available after 90-minute Initial Assessment. (Service may be denied when there are concerns about safety that cannot be adequately addressed in this format.) VFS is included as a feature of KC training services, and available at special pricing for past training clients for life.
Separation Anxiety training Initial Assessment is specially priced at $125 for approximately 90 minutes.
SA training is provided in 4-week packages for a special price of $700. (Plus a one-time set-up and resource fee of $100.)
Outdoor Nature Enrichment (Romp and Roll Program) is priced per outing after an initial orientation and trial period. Group Outing price is $25 - $60 per dog, per outing.
Private Outing $125 plus travel
Private Behaviour and Training Services
Private Behaviour Service is a one-on-one learning format where the trainer focuses solely on one guardian or family and their dog(s) customizing the components of service to suit each dog's and family's unique personalities and specific needs. Whether it's for a single problem area, or an entire communication system, strategies and solutions are crafted for the individuals' characteristics and circumstances with a focus on supporting a good quality of life and relationship, facilitating the acquisition of everyday life skills, and effective two-way communication.
The service is provided in the dog's home, online, or in community/outdoor settings.
Small group sessions can be arranged upon request for friends, co-workers, or neighbors.
Two Options for Private Behaviour Service
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1. Private Coaching - Trainer Works with You and Your Dog
The trainer will provide information and demonstrate strategies and techniques that support your dog to learn while focusing on empowering you to develop or deepen your skills for reinforcing desirable behaviours, addressing unwanted behaviors, and teaching new behaviours.
Initial assessment. Special price of $225 (3 hours)
Subsequent sessions: $125 (75 minutes)
Pre-paid multi-session special price: 5 x 75-minute sessions for $525 (save $100)
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2. Private Training - Trainer Trains Your Dog
The trainer will directly engage your dog in learning, while you're at work, or while your observe.
Ideal for dogs new to training or for those facing more complex behavioural challenges.
Initial assessment*: Special price of $225 (3 hours)
Training Packages: Special price of $90/hour following initial assessment
Two-week training package: 6 x 60 minute sessions + videos + notes $540
Three-week training package 9 x 60 minute sessions + videos + notes $810
Four-week training package: 12 x 75 minute sessions + videos + notes $1080
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What to Expect as a Behavior/Training Client
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My goal is to equip you with the positive tools needed to confidently and compassionately reinforce your dog's desirable behaviors throughout your lives together.
The service unfolds through three stages:
1. Assessment: Gathering initial information and insights.
2. Observation and Support: Identifying any frustrations or confusions negatively impacting your dog and implementing management strategies to reduce those frustrations or confusions until new learning/training can address the root causes. (Training is not always necessary; sometimes, making changes in routines, boundaries, communication, or the dog's environment can resolve issues.)
4. Planning/Training: Developing a plan for training and/or longer-term management that enhances your relationship and helps your dog thrive.
All prices are subject to HST; travel charges apply beyond 15 minutes or15 km of travel.
Separation Anxiety
Does your dog struggle when left home alone?
If you were to put a camera on your dog to see what happens when nobody is home, what do you think you'd see? Your dog resting quietly? Your dog quiet (not vocalizing) but pacing, panting, shaking, or shivering near the door or window? Would your dog be destroying things, barking a lot, spinning in circles, trying to chew its way out of confinement, or toileting on the couch or floor? Would you perhaps observe some other behaviours that might be associated with distress?
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It is not a spoiled or coddled dog that kicks up a fuss or destroys things or self harms when home alone; rather it is a dog with a mental health problem.
Dogs with separation anxiety suffer from a panic disorder. They rarely grow out of it, and the training strategies that can help with other problem behaviours are not effective. Many dogs with separation anxiety also suffer from confinement anxiety, and common recommendations such as crating or isolating the dog in a dedicated small area while home alone can actually increase the panic.
The hard truth about separation distress is that there is no way to predict which dogs will have or develop it--it seems to be largely in their genetic make-up--and there is no quick or easy way to fix it.
Specialized Training for Separation Anxiety
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Most pet dogs don't really like to be left alone. They depend on us for most everything and 'home alone' is not their preferred status. But a majority of our dogs cope with being home alone. Dogs suffering from Separation Anxiety do not cope with being alone. Rehabilitation for a dog suffering during separation requires a specialized program, and a trainer with a specialized skill set to structure the training. Success is dependent on customizing each step in the training process to fit the needs and coping capacity for each individual dog. Working closely, initially, with a Certified Separation Anxiety Trainer (CSAT) to teach your dog to feel safe when home alone is the best option for helping a dog with separation anxiety. When the dog has made some progress, and its guardians are feeling confident in the process, and in their ability to recognize the unique features that combine to procure 'success' for their dog, they may continue the separation training with less frequent input from the CSAT.
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​The CSAT-lead program is delivered as a 4-week package and is provided entirely virtually (the dog is observed on camera since it is best when the real-life leaving routine is not distorted by the physical presence of a trainer).
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Cost: Initial Assessment (60 - 90 minutes) $125 Cdn
CSAT training package (4 weeks) $700 Cdn.
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​​A self-lead program option is available. For those who wish to do the training on their own, a manual with the information guardians need to be successful working the CSAT protocol on their own is available for purchase, as are ad hoc consultation sessions with a CSAT at any step(s) along the way.
​​“My dog is great, there’s just this one thing…”
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Brief Service Option 1
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Talk Live with Cate (TLC) offers dog guardians the opportunity to get trainer input on a question or issue related to life with their dog. Book a phone or video call. Explore a topic relevant to your dog’s behaviour. Chat for 25 minutes for $40, we’ll throw some ideas around, explore what your reinforcement options are; maybe you'll discover a fresh perspective, a new starting point, some tips for being more effective in your efforts to help your dog.
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​Brief Service Option 2
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Video Feedback Service Submit a video* of you and your dog for feedback on body language and training technique.
* 90 minute Initial Assessment required for ad hoc service $150
$25/video for written feedback or 15 minute call
Included at no charge for all active training clients.
Life-time access for past training clients.​​​
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Talk Live with Cate (TLC)
Outdoor Nature Enrichment
​​ROMP & ROLL meant for all dogs. If there is only ONE thing you can do for your dog…this is it! Outdoor Natural Enrichment!! ONE!!
​This program offers one of the most important service for a dog -- the opportunity to be a dog, full out, full stop.
Group and Private Outings.
​Outdoor Natural Enrichment nourishes a dog's instincts and facilitates the expression of natural behaviours. The deep satisfaction from ONE outings meets many needs:
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mental stimulation
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sensory stimulation
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exploration
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exercise
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agency (freedom to choose where to move, how fast, what to sniff and for how long)
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socialization
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alleviates boredom
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mitigates frustration
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helps compensate for stress related to limited opportunities to express natural behaviours
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helps manage the desire to bolt from the house
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offers the opportunity for a quality connection with the chaperone (trainer!) who offers positive interactions and social support* during the outings
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the company of other dogs
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(social support* means encouraging dogs in their communications with one another; monitoring dog-dog interactions to mitigate tensions and/or redirecting behaviours that may not be appreciated by another dog)
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Group Outings cost: $40 - $60 + HST per outing. Price includes transportation to and from the romp location, one hour of paws and nose to the ground, and picnic fixins (treats for foraging).​​
Private Outing cost: $125 for one hour of paws and nose to the ground, recall training (optional n/c) and treats for foraging. (Some travel time charges may apply.)
​​​Kindred Creatures is focused on fostering peace and optimism in your relationship with your dog.
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NOTE If you currently train using aversive equipment—can of coins, spray bottle, choke, prong or shock-collar—I am happy to work with you to acquire new skills so that those tools can be retired.
