The Balanced Lab

05/21/2026

The Balanced Lab took the Platinum spot this year! 🏆 Thank you to everyone who voted - I will do my best to live up to the title 😆🥇

Congrats to all the other winners 🐾

04/28/2026

Please take a second out of your day to cast your vote for us 🫶

Official 2026 Community Voting Awards Platform for Barrie, ON. Where the community votes for their favourites every year.

04/27/2026

Say hello to Mayzie!

Mayzie is halfway through her board and train program (along side her house mate, Emma). Mayzie’s owners main concerns are “explosive” dog reactivity, selective listening & disconnection (especially outside) and her relationship with Emma. They have had some fights in the past which left Mayzie with some puncture wounds on her back. The physical wounds have healed but the trust between the girls is still a work in progress.

Follow along in my daily story updates to see her progress 🐾

04/20/2026

🫶

04/18/2026

It’s the perfect texture for running

03/24/2026

Welcoming Archie to the pack! 🐾

Archie is a 2 year old golden doodle and he is on his last week of training with me!

Over the past 2.5 weeks, this cutie has come heaps in bounds in his reactivity, impulsivity and overall manners. Some of the biggest struggles his owner had with him was his explosive reactivity in the car and his unpredictable lunging at anything that moves (including cars, joggers, bikes, scooters & sometimes dogs). I have been working hard at teaching him a strong sense of impulse control so car rides, walks & adventures feel a lot more pleasant 🙌

He is a really nice dog with a sound temperament, he just needed to know when to turn those prey instincts on and when to control himself.

01/13/2026

There are a lot of people out there that will use the phrase “just let dogs be dogs” as a way of getting out of being a responsible dog owner. Some people actually believe whole heartedly that letting a dog do whatever it wants is the kind thing to do, and any type of restriction, limitation, boundary or rule is unfair to the dog 🙃

This is simply not true and goes against everything their nature tells them. Dogs need a job. Dogs need to be fulfilled. Dogs need to explore. Dogs need to understand the rules of modern society. Dogs need their instincts suppressed at times. Dogs need to work their minds. Dogs need real whole food diets. Dogs need healthy social skills. Dogs need a regulated nervous system. Dogs need an authority figure. Dogs need to be treated like dogs in order to live a fulfilling, safe and impactful life.

12/24/2025

This is looong overdue but welcome Maple the pack!!!

Maple is a young husky mix that started training with me via private sessions before I moved back in June. We continued training throughout the summer and finally completed all 10 sessions by end of September. It took around 3.5 months total to get her fully off leash like this. Maple’s family is exactly the type of people I aim to work with, they were so dedicated and followed all of my advice. Maple is such a sweet, easy going girl, but of course she had her husky selective listening ears on most of the time, so they knew they wanted to get proper training to make their lives easier. Their biggest goal was to have a dog they could let off leash safely and I believe we accomplished that! I ran into them at the store the other day and they told me Maple walks off leash in their neighborhood on a daily basis and all these months later, things have only improved 😄

Private sessions are a lot of work but if you do the homework and stay committed, you get to reap the benefits!!!

Happy for you guys 🐾

12/23/2025

I feel like this 90 second video gives you a recap of the past 5 weeks with our friend, Tokyo.

I know she has a lot of fans out there, I have gotten tons of messages over the past 5 weeks admiring her progress and rooting for her. 5 weeks was truly not enough time to take her as far as I wanted to but I am happy with her progress in that time, and I feel confident her owners can piggy back off what we started for her. I have asked them to send her back in the near future for more time with me.

She still gets spooked, she still has moments of insecurity & suspicion, but her recovery time is so much faster and her resilience to stress is so much stronger. Tokyo used to have to be carried if the wind blew too strong (🥴) so the fact that her owners walked her downtown with people passing us, strollers, kids AND wind was a big victory.

What a way to end the year! Love you Toky T**e ♥️

12/20/2025

Welcome the last board and train dog of 2025, Zelda!

It feels very fitting to end my year with a black lab, the dog that started it all.

Zelda is a 1 year old female Labrador and she just spent the last 3 weeks with me learning how to be the best version of herself. When I first met Zelda, she was completely out of control & overwhelming her owners. As first time dog owners, they made a lot of mistakes that often first time dog owners do; giving waaaay too much freedom/ privilege too soon. Zelda is an amazing dog. Great temperament. Great genetics. She was simply missing leadership & structure to her life. Teaching her everything she needs to know was easy, she is a great student and eager to learn. The real challenge comes with teaching her owners how to be the pack leaders I know they can be! We have 1 more lesson together before she goes back home officially.

Come back anytime Zelda 😘