🐾The Adventure Camp Difference

 

At Forest Tails Doggie Adventure Camp, we offer an all-inclusive soul-nourishing journey for your dog in a magical forest setting. We do not charge extra for forest hikes, scent walks, cozy cabin fire paw warm-ups in the winter or swims in the summer. We do not sit and rest mid-way through in cages or kennels. Here, at Forest Tails nestled within an enchanted forest, we offer each camper an unique journey into mind, body and spirit canine wellness.

 

Dogs are natural explorers, built to learn through movement, scent, and connection. Our camp honors this instinct, inviting each pup into a world of sensory delight, gentle socialization, and off-leash freedom, all under the loving guidance of an intuitive pack leader.

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What Your Dog Can Expect at Camp:

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• Joyful Exploration – A 2-hour immersive adventure of sniffing, splashing, climbing, and roaming along private forest trails. From leaping mossy logs to chasing the wind’s whisper, every step is discovery.

• Pack Connection – Small, intentional groups ensure safety, harmony, and friendship. Dogs learn to lead, follow, and play with emotional intelligence.

• Mindful Guidance – Gentle recall practice, trail manners, and respectful social play woven naturally into the day’s rhythm. No rigid structure—just organic, positive learning.

• Body + Soul Wellness – From stream swims to log hops, muscle bursts to calming scent work, camp builds confidence, eases anxiety, and balances energy.

 

This is doghood as it was meant to be—wild, wise, and wonderfully free.

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WHAT SETS US APART

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Our Canine Wellness philosophy and roadmap which meets campers where they are at and brings them to a more regulated, happy, less anxious and attuned state in mind, body and spirit.

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Swimming (Seasonal) in our beautiful big pure spring fed pond.

Joyful splashes, dock dives, and gentle water confidence-building. Many a camper has learned to swim on-site with us, even dock dive!

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Daily Joy Recaps

One-of-a-kind photo and video keepsakes, gifted with love to last a lifetime. Each camp day, Tiffany captures and shares gorgeous photos and/or videos so pawrents can feel part of the adventure—celebrating every joyful moment, especially their fur baby’s precious firsts

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Canine Chauffeur Service

Pick-up and drop-off options for your convenience within Goderich.

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5-Star Rated by Happy Pawrents

Glowing reviews siting many pawsitive changes from grateful families.

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PLAY THERAPY AT FOREST TAILS

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Play isn't just a pastime-it's a purposeful portal. Because here, connection is pure. Presence is everything.

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At Forest Tails, transformation is disguised as play and play is how dogs process the world, heal old fears, and rediscover their joy. Through chase games, log-leaps, gentle forest wrestling, sniff-led adventures, all guided by Tiffany, campers learn how to trust again-not just each other, but themselves

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At Forest Tails, play therapy happens organically on our vast natural forested sanctuary setting. Off-leash exploration, group games, and sensory-based activities support each dog's emotional well-being.

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Through this process, we observe:

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• Improved socialization and cooperation

• Decreased anxiety and reactivity

• Enhanced confidence, recall, and resilience

• Stronger bonds with both canine and human companions

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Play therapy isn't about structured obedience—it's about meeting each dog where they are, and letting joy lead the way to healing 

 

For dogs, play therapy means:

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• Encouraging natural expression through movement and interaction

• Allowing nervous or withdrawn dogs to build confidence at their own pace with gentle leadership and emotional support. Every step of the way campers feel safe, seen and heard with personalized attention.

• Using play as a form of communication, stress relief, and emotional bonding

• Letting dogs rehearse social skills, test boundaries, and practice self-regulation-all without pressure in small group sizes which allow for intuitive care and focused observation.

• Facilitating healthy pack dynamics where dogs learn from each other through role modeling and mimicry in carefully matched groups ​​

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Whimsical Camp Café Fun
Treat time gets a magical twist at our Camp Café, where pups sample delicious snacks sometimes in charming outfits and whimsical hats worthy of a forest fairytale. Tiffany graciously provides families with countless one-of-a-kind photo and video keepsakes—memories to treasure for a lifetime

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Mind, Body & Spirit Canine Wellness at Camp

We believe that there are eight key elements of being a fulfilled camper. If each one of these eight pieces of the wellness wheel can be met, we believe it lends itself to a camper's transformation and overall happiness, however big or small.

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At the core is felt safety and belonging.

Because when a dog feels safe, seen, and part of a trusted pack, their true nature can rise: joyful, curious & free.

 

HOW FOREST TAILS ACTIVATES CANINE WELLNESS​

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=1. Physical Vitality

• Movement that’s instinctive (running, swimming, jumping logs)

• Rest that’s natural (nose-led meanders through forest, field & path)

• A body allowed to move & explore freely, not on command

2. Emotional Resilience

• Time to just be—no pressure, no training, just existence

• The freedom to choose when to play or pause

• Trusting & safe relationships that allow them to open up

3. Sensory Nourishment

• Rich, layered scents (moss, bark, animal trails, earth etc.)

• Textures (mud, grass, water, air)

• Visual calm—soft green light, flickering leaves, birds overhead, gentle movement

4. Social Connection

• Non-forced, intuitive pack play

• Learning from older or confident dogs

• Acceptance, not correction

• Mutual understanding in a group dynamic

5. Mental Engagement

• Natural puzzles: sniff trails, tracking, exploration

• Curiosity without command

• The joy of discovery

6. Spiritual & Instinctual Alignment

• Returning to their wild self (pack play)

Dogs, like their wolf ancestors, are deeply relational beings.

In healthy pack play, they rediscover instinctual communication — body language, energy shifts, leadership/following, and non-verbal agreements.

This restores balance, reminds them of their natural place in the world, and fulfills the part of them that thrives in social, cooperative living.

• Moving at the pace of the earth

Unlike our rushed human schedules, dogs in nature reset their rhythm to something older and truer — the flow of the forest, the tempo of sniffing, resting, running, and pausing.

This allows their nervous systems to downshift, syncing with the calming frequency of the earth itself.

• Reclaiming autonomy, presence, and ancestral knowing

Autonomy: having choice in movement, sniffing, play — not always being led by humans.

Presence: immersing fully in each moment — a scent, a sound, a chase, or a still pause.

Ancestral knowing: the deep, instinctual memory in every dog that says “I know how to belong here. I know how to be whole.”

7. Safety & Structure

• Predictable rhythms (arrival, adventure, frolic & fun, treats, explore)

• Consistent, kind human leadership

• Environments designed with awareness of energy and need

8. Joy + Playfulness

• Space to goof, zoom, splash, tumble

• The irrepressible silliness that only emerges when dogs feel safe and seen

 

CANINE WELLNESS: MIND, BODY & SPIRIT

 

MIND - A dog is said to have 40 million scent receptors compared to our human 5 million. The forest is said to have 10-100,000 unique scent profiles dogs can pick out. Our location in the forest provides immense mental enrichment.

..........Nature is a dog's first language.

Dogs are descendants of wolves, after all. The forest speaks their original language through scent. Imagine it as a living scent library, thousands of natural aromas layered together—wildflowers, pine sap, wood rot, damp earth, resin from the bark. ............It’s a sniffari for the soul.

When a dog enters that space, their entire nervous system starts to shift. Sniffing, for example, lowers cortisol levels and gives them a job that’s mentally enriching. 

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BODY - The forest is full of textures, inclines, logs, and water to explore—it becomes nature’s agility course, building not just physical strength, but confidence. Playing with pack mates utilizing fast-twitch muscles provides a sense of tired a normal walk just cannot match.

 

SPIRIT - running with the pack, down to the bones this is hardwired in and provides immense joy. There’s something pure and balanced in nature's frequency. Unlike the overstimulation of city life, the forest is calm but alive. It holds space. It breathes with them. And dogs remember—they remember how to be grounded, curious, and free.

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"Forest Therapy: Where Joy Runs Wild"
   by Tiffany Jones

 

They didn’t need obedience school… they needed this.

 A place where the leash comes off… and the soul lets go.

 Where tails rise like wildflower flags,

and paws press into the soft earth of possibility.

 They ran through fields like they remembered something—

something old, something free, something true.

 Smiles stretched wide. Joy uncontained.

Each sniff a poem. Each gallop a return.

 Then came the brave one.

The water called, and though unsure, he answered.

 First time. Big strokes. Awkward. Honest. Glorious.

He swam across his own fear and came out shining.

 And then the orange ball appeared…

and the pack lit up.

 Splashing, chasing, soaring through pond and sun.

One bold leader took the lead, the others followed, laughing in their way.

 This was joy therapy in its truest form.

 And when the energy softened,

we gathered at the Camp Café.

 Lined up with sparkling eyes and panting gratitude,

they received their gifts

treats of steak, bits of love, and even a lick of vanilla ice cream.

 This isn’t just doggy day care.

This is forest therapy.

 A reset for the heart, served daily with a side of wilderness.

 Because healing doesn’t always happen in silence.

Sometimes it happens mid-zoomie, mid-splash, mid-chew

when you’re surrounded by forest, freedom, and friends. 🐾

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