Your Stories
My wife and I have known Troy for over a decade.
Our relationship began when we hired Troy to help us in our training of our Doberman Pinscher. Over the years, our strong connection to Troy has grown.
Troy has a deep knowledge and understanding of dog behaviour. He encourages the most positive emotional development of family dogs. What is also remarkable is how attuned Troy is to human emotional health.
We are so pleased to hear that building upon these gifts, Troy has created a specialized program with dogs, to specifically assist and support individuals with many mental health conditions. Several scientific studies have found that relationships with dogs significantly improve humans’ mood, social behaviour and interpersonal interactions. Objective measures, such as heart rate, blood pressure, blood cortisol and adrenalin all improve during dog-human interactions.
Troy’s work will undoubtedly assist those suffering from depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. We cannot think of anyone else that we would trust, nor anyone more qualified than Troy Tappin, to provide this service for individuals, families and their dogs.
Dr. Robert Horvath, Family and Emergency Medicine
Troy truly changed my life forever.
I have been a dog owner for over 30 years. Troy was referred to me when I brought Baxter in our home. I wanted to do it right from day one, so we hired Troy and I have never looked back. The truly magical piece was that I learned so much about how my emotional state affected my dog. Baxter and I developed an incredible bond with Troy’s help. We learned to respect, trust, and comfort each other every day. Baxter became a true ambassador for his breed, and all who knew him could not believe that an Intact Male Bull Terrier was such a gentle giant. Baxter was the 1st Coloured Bull Terrier to ever win an AKC Grand Championship, as well as his Canadian Good Neighbour Certification. He was not just a champion in the ring, but outside the ring as well he displayed a champion attitude for his gentle soul, kind heart, loveable manners.
Sherry Weiss, The Family Dog Learning Centre Client
Intuition
We met Troy more than a decade ago on a referral when we first brought home our beloved Zoey, a cockapoo who was 12 weeks old. Our friends told us then that if we wanted a perfect family pet, we needed to train with him. Troy met with us and our young family of four children and had tremendous patience with us in Zoey’s training. Troy understands both human and canine behaviour on a deeper level and that understanding helped our family achieve success in Zoey’s integration into the family. Our house is a busy one and Zoey knows that she is well loved by all and in turn loves everybody back. Nine wonderful years later, Zoey is, and continues to be the perfect pet, as well as an emotional support to all of us, dealing with different issues over the years. We have grandchildren now and that same loving relationship that our children had with Zoey we now see building between Zoey and our grandchildren.
Troy has a unique intuitive gift and we have been happy to refer him clients over the years. The feedback we always get is that everyone LOVES Uncle Troy. Our son, now grown, recently got his own puppy. Having known Troy since his childhood, his first call when he brought Toby home was to Troy.
We recently heard that Troy was embarking on a new training journey and we are thrilled and excited to support him in this effort. Understanding that dogs are tremendous sources of strength, comfort and support to people with visible and invisible disabilities, Troy has designed a specialized program deeply rooted in the principles that enable a dog to understand what their human needs. This unique and highly attuned level of training helps to create a nurturing and healthy relationship between the dog and their human.
When my patients ask me about dog ownership and training, I always tell them about the fantastic experience we had and continue to have with Troy. I would not hesitate to recommend Troy Tappin and The Family Dog Learning Centre and look forward to hearing about the wonderful work that he is doing.
Dr. Marvin Gelkopf, M.D., CCFP
Serendipity.
One spring day, my husband and I sat outdoors at our local Starbucks, enjoying a cup of coffee, accompanied by our new Doberman puppy, Hally. We sat beside the most well-behaved Retriever and began a conversation with his owner. She told us about her awesome dog trainer who was incredibly gifted in understanding dog behavior and in helping to develop a healthy, nurturing relationship between owner and dog. And this is what led us to contact Troy Tappin.
Troy helped us shape our Hally into a loving, loyal, and friendly family dog. To refer to Troy as a “dog trainer” is truly an injustice. He is so much more than that. I consider him to be an “empath”, both for dogs and humans alike. So in tune is he with all the nuances of a dog’s mental state and behavior. He is equally in tune with us owners- our emotions, our body language, our voices, etc., and how our feelings and behaviours shape our dogs’ responses.
Troy has exquisite sensitivity to the interaction between dog and owner. He is truly gifted. The program he has developed is a god-send for those of us with invisible disabilities. His approach is customized based on our and our dogs’ individual personalities and needs – no “cookie cutter” approach here! I have no doubt that Troy’s program will be invaluable in alleviating the silent suffering of many people.
Dr. Sara Shiewitz
I have had the pleasure of working with Troy
over the past few months to address issues with my two dogs. Troy is an amazing trainer and he has been great with the dogs and with my family. He has a lot of insight into how dogs can be a positive support and resource for individuals struggling with mental health. From my own experience, I would not hesitate to recommend Troy to anyone in my practice looking for assistance in training service dogs.
Dr. M. Mandel, Psychologist
