When our Weimaraner's bad behavior with other dogs became dangerous, we were considering the sad…read moreoption of putting him down. Our vet recommended calling Linda first, and she was amazing. She saw the potential he really had, and taught me how to work with him. Years later, about a year before Simon died at a wonderful old age, he had made friends with a little male Westie and enjoyed "hanging out" with CoCo on the farm. In my book, Linda is a miracle-worker.

Experience, Talent, Integrity, Credentials Linda has…read moretrained 2 service dogs for my Autistic Daughter. They both responded beautifully to her positive reinforcement method with the "clicker". She also made sure that I could replicate her method and receive similar results independently. There are a bunch of "fly by night" trainers out there that don't have the same credentials or results that Linda has. Do your research and you will see that she rises above and is the clear choice if you are looking for positive results.

We hadn't had puppies in MANY years, when we decided to get two 16 week old labradoodles. So…read moreadorable. We had never had a dog trainer in past but knew we wanted very well behaved dogs in our future. After a fair amount of research, we called Alert Canine Training and spoke with Matt. We liked him instantly and began working with him right away. He has the patience of a saint with our puppies, and with us humans too! He understands the dogs and has a way to get them to do what is expected. His price is reasonable, and he worked around our very busy schedules. Our puppies are awesome, and very well behaved. Thanks Matt, you rock! W&D Poughquag NY

Absolutely highly recommend ACTS -Matt takes time with both you and your dog-its obvious at first…read moremeeting that he has experience in training. He really takes time to help you and gives easy at home training techniques for you to follow. He has motivated me to continue with training-seeing the results with my year old golden is a good feeling- a trained dog is so enjoyable!!! Matt is great, you will not be disappointed-also, he extends himself as a constant resource to you even after your training- genuine person clearly in the right line of work! - Maura E.

Nicole came to our home to work with us yesterday, and there's already been a significant change in…read moreour dog's behavior. Nicole has a warm, non-judgmental, and straightforward manner. We immediately felt comfortable with her, and it was clear from the get go that she is extremely knowledgeable about what she does. We started work right away. The exercises are practical, made sense, and produced almost immediate results for us and our year and a half old Lab. Nicole also offers support outside of appointments, in addition to a lifetime of support for you and your pup. My only regret is not calling her a year ago!

Nicole is motivating me to do the right things for my dog-after the 1st zoom-I have used some…read moretools-it has already made a difference -so happy/so far(lol)

Sarah is the absolute best!! She is in tune with all the dogs. It's incredible to see how they…read morerespond to her. She has away of instructing that makes all tasks very attainable. I have been to several of her trainings and have read her books and no matter where I go people always comment on my well behaved dogs!! She is so worth it!! Check her out!!!!

I have worked with Sarah to help train all of our family's dogs for over thirty years. Many large…read morebreed rescue dogs with Issues! and several small breed terrors. Her advice has always been so inciteful and 100% accurate. Sarah has amazing ability to quickly identify the root cause of unwanted behaviors and train us to remediate them in a positive way. And as a licensed veterinary technician I have the utmost confidence when our hospital recommends her to clients.

Art of k9 I can not…read moresay enough good things about Angelo and Art of K9. When we found him we were in a desperate situation. Our dog was totally out of control and having recently but our baby, we didn't know what to do. Angelo took our dog within a week and a half of contacting him and helped guide us along the way until we were able to drop him off. We committed our dog to the 8 week program, unsure of what to expect but hoping for the best. We knew this was a last resort. It's now been about 6 months since we have picked our dog up from the program and I can confidently say that it was the best decision we could have made for our family. Not only is he more controlled, he is actually a joy to be around and have around our child. He listens to commands and we find ourselves very rarely needing to correct bad behavior as it doesn't really happen. We went from having a dog who would never come when called, bark uncontrollably, destroy toys and furniture, to a dog who immediately goes to place on a cot when someone knocks on the door (without being prompted) and lets out a few alert barks and stops once i say enough. We no longer have to worry about aggression with our child. He is great about listening when we get him away from her and often will walk away from her on his own when before he would growl. Additionally Angelo has checked in to see how our dog is doing, if any issues have come up, and whenever he needs a training refresh we have been able to bring him back. We will be sending all future dogs to Angelo for training

Angelo saved our dog's life -- and I mean that in the most literal sense possible…read more Oliver is a rescue who had been surrendered by two families before us. We took him in, loved him, and still found ourselves in crisis -- biting, aggression, resource guarding. We were scared of our dog and desperate for help. Oliver was our fifth dog and as a family we were seasoned users of positive reinforcement as the primary training method. We turned to Angelo at Art of K9 and made the decision to board Oliver for 8 weeks. He took on Oliver after a thorough consultation. Angelo worked through Oliver's aggression and resource guarding using the e-collar and other training tools. These methods gave us the ability to communicate with and control our dog in a way positive reinforcement couldn't. The transformation is hard to put into words. Oliver is now relaxed, cuddly, and genuinely at peace. He still has his moments -- but now we have the tools to handle them. This has changed everything. If you have a dog with serious aggression or resource guarding and you're at your breaking point, I highly recommend Angelo. He didn't just train Oliver -- he saved his life and we are so thankful.

We adopted our puppy from here at 11 weeks. She had been brought up from a kill shelter down south…read morewith her brother and had been with them for about 2 weeks prior to adoption. They did a wonderful job with socializing her and starting her off on training. The facility itself is beautiful. It's very clean and well staffed. We were able to spend time with different puppies out in the main area, which gave us the chance to see how they did with other dogs, people, etc. We probably spent two hours there and never felt rushed into making a decision. Highly recommend!

Awesome experience. We adopted 2 brothers. Brianna was helpful and available to answer any question…read moreI had. The staff was very friendly and attentive. This is the place to go to adopt some awesome pets

It turns out First Friends is a little far from me so I wasn't able to work directly with Jean,…read morehowever, in my first week of having my new puppy Jean helped me immensely. I was so overwhelmed and just needed some guidance from a trusted and professional source. Jean called me back and while we weren't able to work in home together she helped me identify ways to start some training and find another training organization who was in my local area that she felt comfortable with me engaging with. I went from being a complete basket case to feeling more confident and supported in just 1 phone call. Thank you, Jean!

Prior to working with Jean, life with Sadie was difficult. After returning from a walk, Sadie was…read morehaving accidents all over the house. As an adult dog, she pulled on the leash, barked at everyone, jumped on people and knocked everything out of my hands. Within a few weeks, Sadie is so well behaved. The top thing is to read Sadie's body language. I know what to look for when Sadie is getting anxious and Jean taught me how to deescalate the situation before bad behavior begins. Another thing I learned is how train Sadie while having fun. I enjoyed our lessons very much. The training program exceeded my expectations. Sadie is potty trained, respects other people and we can finally have an enjoyable walk together.

WARM & WONDERFUL!! I would recommend Virginia Dare to anyone who has any type of dog training…read moreneed. She is professional, warm, easy with pets and children as well as adults. Virginia is non-judgmental, patient, attentive and truly loves animals. Her pricing is reasonable and if I have any future needs, I am going back to her! There are levels of training - even if your dog is already good with basic commands, she can get him/her and you to the next level. I have a rescue who had a number of behavior problems (jumping, nipping, uncontrolled enthusiasm) - much of this is related to his age, but Virginia gave us tools that reduced and even eliminated his poor behavior. Training approach - Rewards-based (although there are alternative methods she will work with you on if you'd like) Technique - Praise / non-responsive to poor behavior (no military-style approach!) Responsiveness & Availability - Any question I had I was able to ask her either during the training session or in follow up (email or phone). Virginia's goal was to ensure we were getting the behavior we wanted to see. Whenever I had to reschedule a training session, she was very flexible and understanding. Overall character - Virginia is someone I'd love to call a friend - she is warm and friendly and is kind and consistent with everyone! I'd though my children (both 9) would be 'in the way', however, Virginia included them in the training sessions and it was great! My daughter became very skilled in training our Ivan. Virginia is very gentle with everyone and has a refreshingly open view of living with dogs. Follow-up - Virginia always followed up after each training session to ask if there were questions. She provided detailed reference for us that we could review and more deeply understand the 'why' of the training. She did explain everything during the training, but it was very helpful to have written material to refer to afterwards.

From the owner: North Star Canines provides private training lessons for good manners and obedience skills, and…read morebehavior consultations to resolve a large variety of problem behaviors. Training techniques are very effective, humane, and based on positive reinforcement. Certified trainer Virginia Dare has over 30 years of experience in the field. Serving Scottsville, VA and surrounding areas in Central Virginia.