East Coast Canine Dog Training

07/14/2025

🐶 Puppy Manners open for enrollment! 🐶

We have 3 courses coming up:

Thursday 31st July, 7pm
Tuesday 5th August, 7pm
Wednesday 13th August, 7pm

Puppy Manners is a 6 week training and socialization program for puppies up to 16 weeks old. Classes run for one hour each week at A Dog's World Inc. and are taught by board certified behaviourist, Sarita Pellowe MSc ACAAB.

In Puppy Manners, we cover:

✨ Safe, positive experiences with people and puppies

✨ An introduction to leash walking, learning not to pull, and how to pay attention to your human

✨ Basic skills like sit, down, touch & paw

✨ Body handling & preparing for grooming & vet visits

✨ Desensitization to scary sights and sounds

✨ Impulse control, teaching Leave It, wait, and polite greetings

✨ Recall - teaching your puppy to come when called

✨ Trouble shooting problem puppy behaviours, like nipping, house training, kennel training and destructive behaviour

Our goal is to provide a safe, fun learning environment for you and your puppy - preparing you for the road ahead and helping you raise the puppy of your dreams!

Enrollment is currently open on the website - the scheduling system will take you through enrollment and payment. Got an older pup? Our Adult FUNdamentals program is also open for registration!olgs

07/11/2025

✨ NEW STUDY ✨

- Gut microbiota composition is related to anxiety and aggression scores in companion dogs -
Pellowe, S.D., Zhang, A., Bignell, D., Peña-Castillo, L., Walsh, C.

“This study adds to the growing area of microbiome research as it relates to animal behaviour, and provides novel insight into the links between behaviour and the gut microbiome in family dogs.”

“In particular, the genus Blautia was consistently identified by our analyses as having a close relationship with anxiety in pet dogs.”

“Given the current knowledge that dietary changes in dogs can alter both gut microbiota and behaviour, and that the composition of the gut microbiota is linked to behaviour, there is an early promise that modifying the gut microbiome via dietary changes or supplementation with probiotics may be beneficial in the treatment of behavioural issues in dogs. However, given the limited basic information available to date, any direct translation of this research for therapeutic treatment in dogs will first require a more thorough description and understanding of the core microbiota populations that exist in domestic dogs, and what their relationships with behaviour might be.”

Link to our new study available via open access at Scientific Reports in the comments! 👇👇

07/10/2025

Sneak peek inside Puppy Manners.. new courses now open for enrollment on our website!

07/10/2025

🐶 Leeloo update 🐶

I forget sometimes that we’re caring for a cancer patient.. our sweet girl has been so strong over the last 10.5 months, she makes it easy to forget the beast that we’re fighting. It all comes rushing back on testing day - today Leeloo is at VSC getting her immunotherapy treatment and had her chest X-rays to monitor for spread. I’m relieved to say her rads are looking good - there is a small mark on one view of her lungs, but it doesn’t appear to be a tumour. She has some small changes in her bloodwork which we’ll monitor over the next month, but overall our vet believes the cancer has not spread, and we’ll continue living her best life this summer. I think it’s time to start planning her birthday pawty in a few weeks - this will be the birthday we didn’t think we would get with our girl 🥹❤️

07/09/2025

Got a problem behaviour? Your pet insurance may pay towards your behaviour modification costs!

Sarita Pellowe is a certified applied animal behaviourist (ACAAB) - board certified by the Animal Behavior Society, and holds a Masters degree in Cognitive and Behavioural Ecology during which time she researched extensively the gut microbiome, aggression & anxiety in dogs. Sarita was previously a certified trainer (2017) and behaviour consultant (2018) with 13 years of dog training experience, and most recently had her work published in the Nature journal, Scientific Reports.

In addition to group classes at , Sarita offers both behaviour modification and basic training on a private, in-home basis to help you address your training needs. Check with your insurance provider for their specific requirements (typically, a referral from your veterinarian) - then get in touch to see how we can help you make the most of your behaviour modification and coverage! 🐶🤓

07/09/2025

👀 Group classes are open for enrollment! 👀

New sessions posted for Tuesdays, Wednesdays AND Thursdays, with Puppy Manners at 7pm and Adult FUNdamentals at 8pm each night. Courses run for 6 weeks, with one hour class each week. Classes are held at A Dogs World and taught by board certified behaviourist, Sarita Pellowe.

Check dates and availability on the scheduling page at www.eastcoastcanine.ca - let’s get training! 🤓🐶

07/09/2025

Getting ready for graduation in Puppy Manners with those nice polite greetings!

07/08/2025

It’s official.. ya girl is a published author 🥹 a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this work, I am beyond proud of this accomplishment and so incredibly thankful to my co-authors and mentors who helped this happen.

Here it is in all its glory!

“Gut microbiota composition is related to anxiety and aggression scores in companion dogs”
- Pellowe et al., 2025

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-06178-4she

There is mounting evidence for a link between behaviour and the gut microbiome in animal and human health. However, the role of the gut microbiome in the development and severity of behavioural issues in companion dogs is not yet fully understood. Here, we investigated the relationship between gut m...

07/07/2025

If there are 3 things we love in our family - it’s fishing, food, and our furry friends! We had a LOT of cod to use up after this weekend, so it’s time for the Newfoundland twist on the tuna fudge classic 😍

🐟 COD FUDGE 🐟

12oz cooked cod (oven bake in a dish, and keep the liquid)
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
2 eggs
Parm & garlic powder for seasoning
*recipe can be multiplied infinitely - I just did a 16x recipe 😳

Mash it all together until well combined (it will look like pate wet food) and bake (covered) in a 1/4 inch thick slab at 350F for 20 minutes. Let it cool, then cut into training size pieces. Keep in the fridge, freeze, or dehydrate when you’re done!

The best thing about cooking for dogs is they DO NOT care if it looks bad or stinks your house out (in fact, they prefer it). They’re also really good at doing the dishes after! I hope my students like cod because I now have about 8kg of treats ready for the week 😅

07/04/2025

Catching up on some emails this afternoon with the sweetest view 😍🐶 we have added new classes to the scheduler at www.eastcoastcanine.ca/book-online - Puppy Manners and Adult FUNdamentals Level 1 🤓 spaces are limited, so book fast to ensure you get your spot!

07/04/2025

And the winner of the Adopt a P**p giveaway is…. Miss Merry!!!! Way to go Merry - I have some prizes for you! Thanks to everyone who participated in helping keep our streets and trails clean - it’s a better world with you wonderful folks in it! 😍

07/03/2025

🐶 Puppy Manners is now open for enrollment! 🐶

Our next session begins on Tuesday 22nd July @ 7pm - classes are taught by board certified behaviourist Sarita Pellowe, and held at A Dogs World on Torbay Road. This class is suitable for puppies up to 16 weeks in starting night - the program runs for 6 weeks at $300+tax. (There will be no class on Tuesday 29th July)

Send us a message for more info, or visit the website to register!