| Caryn Charlie Liles, CPDT-KA is a Toronto-based “people-trainer for dogs” and a Certified Professional Dog Trainer
through the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT). She is the founder of Whatta Pup!, a pet
dog training company established in 2008. Seeing a growing need for specialized training due to an increase in
aggression in Toronto, Caryn co-founded The Toronto Centre for Canine Education, specializing in “the socially-
challenged dog”.
Caryn speaks from the heart, injecting humour and compassion into all her work. She strives to inspire pet owners
and pet professionals to take an active role in learning the language of animals and teaching them appropriate
behaviours through humane and science-based training.
Drawing on years of experience in the corporate world, she shares a wealth of knowledge in communication, technology,
and leadership. Having studied languages, human resources, finance, and psychology, Caryn brings a well-rounded and
creative perspective to the table when working with clients both human and canine.
Caryn has always been an animal lover but it wasn’t until 2003 that she began working with dogs professionally. She
adopted a 3 year old German Shepherd / Husky mix from a shelter only to come face to face with severe separation
anxiety and dog-aggression, propelling her to learn more about animal behaviour, psychology, learning theory,
ethology and husbandry.
In 2008, Caryn opened Whatta Pup! to provide dog walking and training services to Toronto's dogs, gaining confidence
and experience in the field. During her third behaviour consultation, her use of force came back to bite her (so to
speak), resulting in a severe dog bite to the face, arms, and torso; she quickly realized that correction-based
methods did more damage than good to the canine-human relationship and took some time to re-evaluate her philosophy.
Caryn became a "cross-over trainer", spending the majority of her time researching science-based methods that did
not include the use of force, fear, pain, or intimidation to work with animals. Immediately she saw the difference
humane training could make with animals and how quickly she could get the desired results.
In 2012 she wrote her certification exam, scoring close to 100%. She earns continuing education credits each year,
ensuring that she is up to date with her skills and knowledge. Caryn has trained dogs, cats, horses, chickens, a rat
and even a goldfish.
Caryn has appeared on Rogers TV in a live episode of Toronto Speaks: Pet Talks, appeared as a guest in an episode
of Doggy House Calls, and was recently featured in the Globe and Mail in the Careers section.
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Mirkka has a professional background in science: her MSc and PhD in biochemistry and education as a research
scientist have helped her in developing an analytical and systematic approach also to dog training. As soon as she
got her working dog puppy, Hovawart Dea, in 2002 in Finland, she discovered clicker training and knew this was the
right path for her: everything is based on scientific data on how animals learn. She started applying these
principles to train Dea for obedience, tracking and search and rescue.
While attending several clicker training courses given by Clicker Trainers’ Club Finland she got to know other
training enthusiasts and together they trained working dogs very actively. The solid, systematic training produced
results: Mirkka and her canine partner won a search and rescue trial with the highest marks in 2006, got their
tracking dog (TD) title in Canada in 2008, and competed successfully in obedience and Rally obedience trials in
both countries. Currently Mirkka is training her Australian Shepherd for tracking, scent detection and rally
obedience.
Due to the guard dog instinct very prevalent in the Hovawart breed Mirkka became well acquainted with the importance
of helping dogs of hard-to-train breeds to cope with the challenges of urban environments. She became focused on
bringing positive reinforcement training to urban dogs, and while still in Finland she worked for a couple of years
teaching clicker training to dog owners. In 2010 she decided to take her education as a dog trainer to the next level
by attending the Karen Pryor Academy Dog Trainer Program from which she graduated with distinction in October 2010
as a Karen
Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner (KPA CTP). She keeps up to date with her education, and has
trained not only dogs, but chickens and horses as well. The essence of positive training is that it doesn’t only
apply to the animal: our focus is to make the training rewarding for the dog owners as well!
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