DogStars History

In all its incarnations, DogStars has its roots through Georgina Bradley, who began on set training of animals for film and television in 1995. Her natural ability and intuition led her to becoming a professional dog trainer in 2000.

The Start of Something Big

DogStars began offering private training sessions for all kinds of clients, including obedience and acting training, through a network of veterinarians and satisfied customers. Word of mouth began to spread , and soon demand was higher than private sessions could possibly accommodate. DogStars evolved with the market, and began offering organized group puppy classes in 2002, in Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster.

From Students to Stars

DogStars had always offered private acting training for dogs and in 2002, an opportunity arose from a DogStars graduate ‘Henry’ a 8 month old Golden Retriever to appear in a Sony commercial. With Georgina training on set, the shoot was a success and the DogStars Talent Agency was born. DogStars began representing their own roster of personally trained animal talent and providing on set trainers for their stars.

Their Own Home

By 2003 it was clear that DogStars was exceeding all expectations. With more students than even group classes could handle, DogStars opened their own training centre in Vancouver and began offering all levels of dog training to the public. In addition to puppy classes, DogStars began offering two levels of group adult classes and a Star Training class for animal actors. Many of these star graduates began to form the body of the DogStars Talent Agency roster.

DogStars Training Academy

Both branches of DogStars, training and talent, continued to grow, with an advanced Star class added to the curriculum for those graduates looking to learn more complex acting behaviours. DogStars began mentoring Animal Behaviour students. Many of these students expressed interest in becoming certified dog trainers, and DogStars Training Academy grew to include human students by developing their own trainer program based on the reward, communication and animal safety philosophy of DogStars.

The Future

With the DogStar Talent Agency training and representing animal stars in such films as Air Buddies, 101 Dalmatians and Marmaduke, the possibilities are infinite for the Vancouver company. DogStars has grown from one woman with talent and a dream, to a training academy for pets and trainers alike, and an in-demand talent agency always looking to train and discover new stars.