Absolutely amazing owner/trainers and programs offered. Very diligent, kind and helpful. The classes offered by Karlene have made an amazing difference with our dogs. I can't recommend her highly enough - really amazing. read more

My husband and I needed help with our newly adopted 4 year old Rottweiler (Wayne) as he had no prior training, no boundaries set and no socialization with other people or pets which unfortunately resulted in aggression. Before adopting Wayne, we already had another dog and a cat so we knew we had a lot of work to do to get them acclimated and keep them all safe. After just the first session, we witnessed many positive improvements with Wayne's behavior which kept us wanting more. Now, after just 3 sessions with Dr. Karlene, Wayne has an A on his report card -at least in our book! In addition to learning commands, he sits and patiently waits for our other dog to eat first before he gets any food. He is much easier to take on walks (no more pulling and growling or barking) and we don't worry about him hurting our other animals. He's a very gentle giant with all of them. We recently added a kitten to our family and he's really sweet with her too, even when she bites his tail and plays with his whiskers. During this process, I learned that training a dog isn't as simple as dropping it off to a trainer to do the work; the family really needs to come together (humans and pets) to learn the techniques and do the work as a team. It doesn't take much time, just consistency and a good behavioralist! read more

Animal Behavior Specialists - Wayne (Rottweiler), Tina (Kitten), Ella (Pitbull Mix) and Gary (Cat) - Pet Training Near Me - Rochester, New York

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We adopted a huge Rottweiler 1yr old from Lolipop. He was very aggressive towards cats, anything with wheels (including cars), anyone that didn't live in our house. We saw almost every animal behavior specialist and one said to train him with food. But wouldn't get on the same side of the fence with him. Everyone of them was afraid. We met Karlene and it changed his life. She graduated from Cornell in Animal Behavior and she retained and has put all of her knowledge into helping dogs with any problems. You don't have to live with a dog or cat behavior problems. She also will show you training exercises for bringing a newborn baby home to adding a new furry animal to your pack. read more

We have used ABS to train our service dog. The owner is very knowledgeable on the training techniques and is willing to answer any questions and/or concerns we may have. We even adopted our SD from one she was fostering. He is amazing. I have been told that our service dog is better behaved than those that come out of other service dog training. I highly recommend ABS. read more

Back in 2015 I adopted a dog that ended up with some fear aggression issues. I searched the ends of the internet to try and find the best dog trainer I could. ABS was the best bet. The owner graduated from Cornell with a Master's in Animal Behavior and she knows dogs inside and out. I spend four one-on-one session with the owner working on my dog's fear aggression. To date she is the bubbliest and sweetest dog when it comes to people and other dogs. Through ABS I have taken Basic Obedience twice, Intermediate I three times, and Rally twice. I have never walked away dissatisfied. ABS does an amazing job with dogs and especially special needs cases. read more

Karlene Bonnes, an animal behavior specialist with a degree from Cornell University, is amazing at what she does. I've taken dozens of her classes including Puppy Kindergarten, Basic Obedience, Intermediate Obedience, Jumping, Dog on Dog Aggression and Canine Good Citizen with all 6 of my dogs. I have also brought my fosters through her classes as well. I've taken classes with many other trainers, but none compare with Karlene's. She sometimes brings her Shepard, Koby, to help keep the obnoxious dogs in line during playtime. He's an amazing dog and he teaches other dogs to tone it down during playtime without hurting them. I've also done several privates with her in my home because of significant behavior issues that needed to be addressed. She helped me to understand the problem behaviors and taught me how to fix the behaviors without using harsh corrective methods and WITHOUT TREATS! I also learned that it takes time, dedication, consistency and lots of praise to change behaviors. On our walks, Roli would bark and lunge toward every car, skateboard and biker that passed by. I dreaded walking him and would walk him in the early morning when there wasn't anyone around. When Karlene came over to help, she explained the behavior and what I needed to do. She showed me by walking Roli and having me drive back and forth past Roli so that I could see the technique she had explained. Of course she made it look easy because she is highly skilled at what she does and I was just in the learning phase. Then we switched places and she drove back and forth past us so I could try the technique. After practicing for a few weeks, I finally got it. Roli stopped going after cars and bikers and I could now walk him with two of my other dogs any time of day! As for Roli's dog aggression, he would also lunge and bark at every dog we'd see on our walks. Karlene offers a dog on dog aggression class and I decided to enroll. It was hard work, but I was determined to learn how to handle him when we saw other dogs on our walks, so I continued to take the class whenever it was offered. Last year I enrolled Roli in Karlene's Canine Good Citizen class and he passed! I then took him to a therapy dog class and he did very well. We didn't take the final test even though I was sure he'd pass because the organization wouldn't give him the title of therapy dog because of his past dog aggression. My other dog, Gracie, became food aggressive towards me and the other dogs during feeding time. Again, Karlene came over and explained what I would need to do to fix the behavior. We first focused on the food aggression towards me and I continued to feed Gracie in a separate room. There were deliberate steps to fixing this behavior and I followed them for a couple of weeks. Once the aggression towards me disappeared, I was ready to work on the aggression toward the other dogs during feeding time. I was really nervous at first but didn't give up. It took a couple more weeks before I started seeing the behavior diminish. Today I can feed Gracie in the same space as my other dogs! Occasionally she shows signs of regression, but I revert back to the technique that Karlene taught me and it's short lived. Karlene has also helped me when I was having several, 5-dog fights, daily, which were instigated by Gracie. She helped me to understand the behavior and taught me what to do to correct it. Over the course of several months, Gracie was on a leash until she could be trusted and spent many hours in a down stay-one of the best strategies to help with dominance issues. Even though it took several months of hard work, I was determined. The hard work paid off. My household is peaceful again! Today Gracie is the most affectionate, loving and loyal dog. She makes everyone she meets feel special. She is now a registered therapy dog and works each week listening to children read-a job which she loves! Thank you to Karlene Bonnes of Animal Behavior Specialists, Inc! You are a gift to our furry friends and their owners! read more

The techniques taught by Animal Behavior Specialists, including Alpha-rolling, scruff-grabbing: grabbing the puppy by the scruff of her neck to correct, using a chain choke collar (sold to me by ABS) forcing the dog to the floor & standing on her leash to teach "down, stay" as well as others are rejected by the Animal Humane Society, Vets & many others. I trusted ABS to teach me appropriate ways to train my 4 month old puppy & I used their techniques. The more I used the techniques, the higher my puppy's negative behavior escalated. When I discussed this, I was told I must not be following through or holding her down long enough. All training is done without using treats to reward success. We enrolled in ABS's "puppy kindergarten" after paying for an initial private "lesson" in our home to address unwanted puppy mouthing. We were told in PK, our puppy would play with other puppies the same age to learn bite inhibition, which is necessary for puppies to develop, to learn not to bite too hard. In this class, which had far too many people in attendance for good things to happen, the trainer marked my puppy as one of the "dominant" dogs & she had me hold her on her leash while the other puppies were allowed off their leashes to play. My puppy, as well as 6 or 7 other puppies, in the over crowded class, squirmed & watched, causing anxiety, being restrained until the end. She also practiced some "training" during Puppy Kindergarten, the "Alpha roll", which is forcing your puppy over onto its back against its will until it "submits". As well as leash training that consisted of a constant yank on the poor puppy's neck with the command "no pull". Mind you these are 4 month old puppies. We were told to practice the "alpha-roll" technique at home on our youthful, happy, exuberant puppies when they exhibited unwanted behaviors such as nipping. ( I now know that nipping would have come to a more natural end after the puppy reached 6-7 months & was more able to be taught correctly, had these cruel punishments not been used.) The Obedience class was supposed to be for puppies 4-6 months of age. Obedience overlapped with puppy kindergarten. The class was again severely over crowded & was filled with adult dogs, mostly. No other young puppies, like ours, were in the class. Some dogs had issues, one wearing a muzzle, another incessantly whining. Another wearing a head halter, which the ABS trainer wanted me to use on my puppy also. I declined. The trainer walked around the room, to ask each person to follow her instructions, one by one, while all the other dogs were held on their leashes, frantically jumping, whining & barking. One week, my puppy spent over 30 minutes doing almost nothing but watching the dog next to us whine in pitches that could shatter glass. (This is the only thing my puppy did learn from that class) We attended 2-3 classes & withdrew after the trainer, in attempting to teach the "down, stay" command, had me force my puppy to the floor by her leash & quickly stand on her leash to prevent her from standing up again until she "gave up". When my overly frustrated puppy finally gasped a sigh & stopped biting her captor's (me) ankles, the trainer looked at me & said. "There. You won. Now you can let her up". Due to this early cruel & improper "training", I now have a 7 month old puppy that is very difficult to get close to. She bursts into uncontrollable tantrums while walking (we no longer use the choke collar from ABS, but a harness instead). She sometimes growls at us for no reason when we approach her. She clearly has learned fear & anxiety. We went to Animal Behavior Specialists, with a happy puppy, searching for techniques to socialize & train her up out of normal puppy mouthing & instead we were told to use punishments & cruelty, that increased her fear & frustration & caused her to develop inappropriate aggressive behaviors. Those I have spoken to: Cornell Veterinary Behaviorists, my Veterinarian & my puppy's breeder, said these techniques will likely cause aggression in any dog. I was advised by a Veterinarian Behaviorist that using an "Alpha-roll" is detrimental to a dog's well being because, First, your dog KNOWS you are not a dog. Second, a dog OFFERS a roll to another dog. They are never forced into this position by another dog! I'm heart broken that I hurt my puppy & possibly my dog's life. We'll now spend countless dollars & hours trying to do "counter conditioning" & "desensitization" to try to rehabilitate her from the trauma inflicted on her at such a young age by the teaching of Animal Behavior Specialists. I guess anyone can call themselves a behaviorist. The owner has a large German Shepard she uses to show that her techniques work. I have had well behaved dogs my whole life & I don't call myself a behavior specialist. It is noteworthy that her German Shepard bit one of the puppies in PK, causing the puppy to need stitches on its precious head. read more

I contacted Animal Behavior Specialists when we adopted a Shepard-Husky puppy, he was an adorable pup. We had many dogs in the past mainly Golden Retrievers and one Newfoundland they were all easy to train and wanted to please from the start. Geno was a different dog, very independent, smart and unknowingly to us dominant. When Geno was about 6 months old as I would walk him he would jump up on me and want to "play" by biting my arms, he would nip at our heals, and I had No Idea what to do with him, my family told me on a regular basis to give him up. I started the search for a trainer, I called Animal Behavior Specialist and met Karlene Bonnes, she came over to do an evaluation. She told me Geno was presenting with dominance behaviors and asked about his puppy days we explained how we had raised him and Karlene in a very kind way explained the things we did that gave Geno his attitude of dominance. Karlene explained that I now had to teach him who was dominant. She gave us some exercises to do with him based on dog pack communication, including the Alpha-Roll (which I have read other reviewers consider cruel treatment) Geno would try to wiggle out of it, she encouraged me to hold him if I released him before he submitted this would increase his dominance. I think the Alpha-Roll looks unusual but in no way was I physically hurting Geno, he was frustrated he did NOT want to give up his Alpha status over me. As I used this technique consistently with him he started submitting faster and faster, until he would stop with the warning "No bite, or Off". We went on to attend training classes with Karlene at Animal Behavior Specialist and Geno is now a 9 year old, very special part of our family, if it were not for Karlene Bonnes he would have ended up at Verona St. or Lollypop Farm. She saved Geno's life and will trust her with any and all dogs in my life going forward. read more

We were advised by the rescue farm from whom we'd gotten the most recent addition to our pack that he'd most likely need to be put down--something they would never lightly recommend. He had become aggressive and even vicious. We couldn't even think about doing that without trying every available option. A relative of ours had worked with Animal Behavior Specialists and highly recommended the owner, Cornell educated trainer, Karlene Bonnes. I hesitate to say that Karlene has worked miracles with our obsessive Border Collie, but only because that seems over the top and might not be believed. He's a different dog after boarding and training with her for just over three weeks, and we're having tremendous success with him now that he's home. We couldn't be happier or more grateful to Ms. Bonnes for her hard work, dedication, and wonderful handling of our young, struggling dog. Perhaps the best review of her work should come from him--we've attended two of her group classes since she started working with him, and she came to our home today as follow up to his training time with her, and he ADORES her. read more