Confident Dogs - Canine behaviourist & pet dog trainer

I'd recommend Nivedita, from Confident dogs to every pet parent, in a heartbeat! Nivedita has been my teacher for years now. When I brought home my Weimaraner puppy Roohi, I knew I needed clear guidance on how to raise this naughty, high energy dog right - given the various variables one can expect to come in your way, especially in the busy, city life. Nivedita immediately came to my mind. Roohi has been interested and excited about dogs since the day she came home. Given the fact that I wanted her to stay in harmony with my other, sweet dog - Kiss and also be my assistant and demo(nstrative) dog for work purposes, I wanted Roohi to have the least amount of excitement around dogs without having to scream unnecessarily at my dog for it. Nivedita has been the absolute best to guide us to reduce and minimise any possible conflict around dogs for Roohi. She's well settled with Kiss also now! She explained how to work with an intelligent dog like Roohi, keeping clear goals in mind BUT also keeping her stress minimal through it all. We did both online and in-person sessions with Nivedita, and both have led to my dog having a strong foundation of life skills, where I'm able to easily generalize the training if we are faced with new issues. If you are able to get Nivedita's time and book a consultation with Confident Dogs, please don't give it up!

I bumped into Nivedita on insta when I was almost at the end of my wits with one of my dogs (I’ve got 3). Inspite of enrolling my dogs for training with other trainers none of their strategies seemed to work. What caught my attention was Nivedita’s insta posts which seemed realistic and logical. Nivedita took time to analyse all 3 of my dogs to understand the root cause of every behavioral and other issues we were facing. All this was done through zoom calls, extensive WhatsApp messages (videos, voice notes, texts) as we don’t live in India. Nivedita was super responsive and addressed all our concerns one by one. After a week of analysing all the video, we had a call where Nivedita took us through each of her analysis and what the training plan and aim would look like. My husband was recovering from a life threatening surgery and induced coma. She understood our living situation, was empathetic, respectful and extremely patient with the process. One of our biggest issues was one of our rescues would get territorial at night and instigate a fight with the other dog. We had absolutely no idea why this happened and it would occur even if they were separated. We barely slept at night for close to a year. After consulting with Nivedita, she helped us understand each of our dogs better and it’s been close to 2 years and we all have uninterrupted sleep, no fights between the dogs. The other issue was that our rescue didn’t know how to leash walk plus we could never walk as a pack. This has significantly improved and today, all 5 of us go on our walks together! We are still in touch with Nivedita and she still is very much responsive on WhatsApp and Insta. If you are looking for someone to help you understand your dog better, give you practical and realistic solutions for you to have a successful relationship with your dog- I highly recommend Nivedita. Where you live doesn’t matter, as long as you have access to a smart phone and can make time for your dog:) Pic 1: my rescue who would never listen to us when outside. Here she sits when asked in a park with lots of distraction :) Pic 2: the 3 musketeers:)

I attended Nivedita’s online training session for RECALL almost 3 years ago. As a first-time dog parent, there was so much I learnt about dogs’ instincts, natures and needs specific to their breeds. Those pointers really helped me in working with my Labrador retriever. We are fortunate enough to be living on a farm - a dog’s dream environment. But because of her nature of sneaking out and eating all sorts of rotting food, dead animals etc she would end up with an upset stomach and because of all this, she was always on a leash. Another problem with her was her curiosity and wanting to abandon the human and go after other dogs and strays. We have had instances where she’s dragged us when we were off guard and had us fall causing an injury or two. Niveditha’s guidance really helped understand dogs, how they work/perceive and interact with us. She also took time out to explain and clarify things to me 1:1 when I had specific questions about my dog’s behaviour. Almost 3 years after the training, she still keeps in touch and is keen on knowing how my dog is doing. And the couple of times I reached out to her with questions, she has been able to point me to the right direction. Today my dog is leash-free and living a full life the way a Labrador should. She walks with us at our heel, communicates with us when she wants to go out (and promptly comes back within a few minutes when she’s done exploring), goes for a swim in the lake near our home as many times in a day as she wants and basically just enjoys her everyday life so much more now - all thanks to the advice and gentle encouragement coupled with the training we received from Nivedita.

We started consulting with Nivedita when our dog Oscar was about 2 years old. I sometimes wish we had gone sooner and started when he was a puppy. She was very gentle with him and very good with him. Her experiences and training helped us as dog parents understand Oscar a lot better and form a stronger bond with him. Her training has surely helped Oscar in many ways and he's become a lot more calmer now and understands us as well. She's still our go to person when I have any doubts with Oscar and we know we can always reach out to her when we need. Would surely recommend her to anyone looking for a trainer with a solid foundation and who takes into consideration the puppy's needs and their behaviour pattern to make a thorough assessment and then the way forward after that. She is very clear in her communication and very patient with us dog parents in explaining all the nuances. Thanks Nivedita for everything you have done for Oscar, and us :)

We have known Nivedita for 3 years now. Had we not found her, we may have not fully found Polo for who she is, and can be. Polo is a rescued indie who was adopted 3 years back. Due to her history she is extremely anxious and we wouldn’t have realised how our unawareness could have harmed her, unless we found Nivedita. Our sessions were all online, but the way Nivedita helped us understand each behaviour through the lens of trauma, safety and needs of the dog, while keeping the individual understanding of Polo in it all, was a game changer for how we developed a home for Polo. She is now playful, has training for commands. All she needs is a routine, and us. She is still reactive to dogs, still anxious but now we know what helps her and she is able to handle herself so much better. Nivedita is a blessing. We wish we knew her before adopting Polo so that whatever we missed out upon could have been taken care of. ❤️