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    Dog Over Breed

    4.6 (53 reviews)
    Closed 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

    Services - Dog Over Breed

    Dog boarding and training

    Private dog training

    Puppy socialization classes

    Dog Over Breed Photos

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    Recommended Reviews - Dog Over Breed

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    Reviews With Photos

    Jason H.

    Wow these guys did such a nice job grooming my 3 yr old golden retriever mix. He was shedding a lot and needed a good brush out. He also had a patch my vet shaved from a bad grooming elsewhere. They were able to blend his coat and thin out the bulk around his tail. Smells great too without any heavy perfumes. Check this place out!

    I cannot recommend Dog Over Breed highly enough. Mo and Vic are a Godsend. By the time I reached out to them, I was convinced I would never be able to vacation or have strangers into my house. Let me start at the beginning. My daughter talked me into adopting a pandemic puppy. When we rescued our Rookie, he was only about 8 weeks old. This was our first ever puppy. We were given a lot of bad advice in the beginning. We were told only to bring him to the vet and not introduce him to any other dogs until he was fully vaccinated. Due to COVID, when we went to the vet, we were not allowed to enter. They would come to the car and get him and then return him. When I took him back to the vet for his last round of shots, he started freaking out. He was terrified. He was so scared, they actually had me walk him in. Shortly after this, I took Rookie to his first puppy social. He was scared and acting in an aggressive manner. The trainer told me that he was suffering from fear aggression and due to his age, he missed his biologically opportunity to be socialized. She suggested finding a good trainer ASAP. I found a trainer and she helped me with socialization and basic obedience. This was helpful, but Rookie was often times taken away from the pack because they had too many dogs to work with mine. During this time I also struggled having people in my home because Rookie wasn't comfortable with this. By this point, Rookie was 80lbs. He is a Shepard/pit mix and can be very intimidating when he is barking. Due to some issues at the vet, I ended up switching vets. When I requested Rookie's records, it appears there was an incident at the vet that triggered his fear and nervousness. After reading his vet report, along with all the negative reinforcement I had received from several trainers, I was afraid of what my dog would do. I was not afraid at home, when it was just us, but definitely did not want to bring him around people. I was not willing to give up on Rookie. If I had surrendered him, he would have been put down. I resided myself to the fact that for the next decade, I would be tied to my house with my sweet, scary looking dog. After a few months, I really needed a vacation. This is when I started to research trainers and boarding that work specifically with more challenging breeds. Dog Over Breed came up in my research. Based on the reviews, I decided to give them a call. Mo answered my call. He asked me what I was looking for. Instead of answering his question, I started to explain Rookie's story and he immediately stopped me. He asked if he could meet Rookie and form his own opinion. He said he did not want to know anyone else's opinion before he met Rookie. We made an appointment to meet up. We met in the parking lot of his place. When I got there, Rookie was going ballistic. There were all kinds of people walking by and Rookie was not comfortable. Mo stood back and just ignored Rookie. We chatted a bit as Mo stepped closer and closer to me. Rookie was calm as Mo never acknowledged him. Mo put his hand out for the leash and I freaked out a little, but I handed over the leash. Mo walked away with Rookie. He gave Rookie all the basic commands and Rookie listened. At this point Vic arrived. Rookie was a little bothered at first but quickly calmed down. Mo and Vic both said Rookie was a good, well-trained dog. They said he was not vicious, but he was nervous. They said my fear was a large part of the problem. I completely agreed with them. It was then that my training and Rookie's socialization began. We have been going to Dog over Breed for about 10 months. We do daycare and overnight boarding. In that time, Rookie has become more comfortable around other dogs and people. We can now have company over and I have been to Hawaii twice. Mo and Vic have taught me so much. The most important lesson they have taught me is that Rookie will never be a mellow, easygoing dog. He is who he is and that is okay. It is okay to not bring him around everyone that comes into my house. It is okay if he is uncomfortable to put him in his crate. It is okay to trust myself with Rookie. Dog Over Breed gave me back my life. Mo and Vic and Chris are phenomenal with Rookie. They are good and what they do and I feel fortunate to have found them.

    Henry E.

    Mo, Vic and Chris are GREAT! My family and I have a 18 month old Rottweiler (Nala). We found Dog Over Breed because boarding places in Antioch and Brentwood where we live were scared by the breed. I talked with Mo over the phone. We arranged a pre-board meeting so that he could meet Nala. They hit it off immediately. Dog Over Breed is the only place we feel comfortable boarding Nala. Mo, Vic and Chris recognize that there is no such thing as a bad dog, just uninformed owners. They are good with dogs, GREAT trainers and even better people.

    Before

    I am SO lucky to have found Dog Over Breed! My dog Bean (5 years) is a ball full of energy. I've tried boarding at places like Wag Hotels before but they often put her in a room by herself because she had "too much energy" and they either didn't have the time or staffing to watch her. Dog Over Breed is a completely different experience. Bean gets to hang out with a bunch of dog friends ALL DAY and she enjoys every second of it. Because of all the dogs there she's always able to find another high energy dog friend to play with and they keep each other busy, and I even get lots of videos of her playing around! I never like leaving Bean when I travel, but now I can do it guilt free because I know she's having the time of her life while I'm gone. Sometimes she even seems more sad than happy to return home If you have a very social high energy dog look no further! This is the place to go. The owners know how to instill great behaviors in the dogs and make sure that they are properly exercised and engaged throughout the day.

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    4 months ago

    Highly recommended! Very knowledgeable and caring about dogs. They've done great things with our pups over the years.

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    Page 1 of 2

    Ask the Community - Dog Over Breed

    Review Highlights - Dog Over Breed

    I called Mohit at Dog Over Breed to help me and give me tips on walking my very large, very strong black lab.

    Mentioned in 14 reviews

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    The long version: We…read moreadopted a very timid, quiet pup at the beginning of October who, once he'd settled in, turned into a smart, energetic, stubborn and barking pup. That wasn't an option as we live in an apartment with WFH neighbors and going potty means walks around town with lots of other dogs. Overwhelmed, I started googling and found so many 5* reviews for Meryl from Bay Area Balanced Dog training. After a very thorough phone consultation where she took the time to talk about her process/our options and answer our many questions/concerns (we were nervous/uninformed about ecollars), we opted to do a 4 week board and train with a few private lessons beforehand. It was more than I had budgeted, but I was upfront about that, and she worked with us on a payment plan leading up to his stay. The private lessons were so helpful, and I highly recommend doing that before your dog's stay. So much about his good behavior relied on me being a good handler. This practice was also like a bandaid before his training, seriously reducing my stress on our daily outings, and made the transition after his stay easy as I already knew the basics of how to ask him for what I expected in a way he understood/had learned with the trainer. The board and train itself was easy, though be aware there's some additional cost to supply all the tools pup will need during his training. That was rough for me at Christmas. Speaking of Christmas, she was happy to keep and train him during the holidays when we would be traveling anyway. Very convenient and saved me additional boarding bills. She provided lots of daily video and picture updates on Instagram which was nice/really lessened my guilt about leaving him with someone for four weeks. He came home the same happy, sweet dog we'd sent away, except now he can walk nicely on a leash without barking his head off at every animal he sees. She also worked on recall training which is such a relief for a high energy dog I just know would chase a bear on a hike as off leash skills are really important to me in a dog. We work daily on everything he's learned and he loves it so much. It's a lot of money for what was an average dog with average bad behaviors, but we really believe that starting your dog off on the right path with the best guidance is the way to ensure a healthy, happy, safe dog. We went on our first hike just a few days ago, and after all that practice, he got to experiment with being fully off leash. He listened to every command, every time, even when there were tempting birds. I want to have a dog that is as fully involved in my family's life as possible, and now that we both have these skills, I know with consistency and practice, that's what I'll get. Tldr: The board and train is expensive, but you get what you pay for. Highly recommend. It truly saved my sanity.

    I cannot recommend Bay Area Balanced Dog Training and Meryl enough!…read more In November of 2023 my husband and I adopted our adorable 3-year-old Pitbull-mix, Midnight, from our local shelter. Unfortunately, pretty much everything the shelter told us in regards to his behaviors/needs was incorrect. For example: he was over-aroused all day every day, had lots of destructive behaviors with our furniture/household items, did not respond to verbal commands/corrections, jumped on us and on top of tables/counters frequently, had zoomies where he would body slam us and progressively get more aggressive, tried to run full force after any dog/cat/squirrel/bird we saw on walks, tried to redirect bite me on walks and landed one of them (which broke my skin), frequently ate inedible things (like leaves and cat poop - yuck!) no matter how hard we tried to prevent him from doing so, and landed a bite that broke the skin on my husband's hand too when he was resource guarding a treat-stuffed toy. My husband and I have owned and trained pet dogs in the past, but Midnight's behaviors/needs were at a level that was way over our heads. After six weeks of trying to work with Midnight on our own, we were beside ourselves from trying to figure out how to safely meet his needs and began to fear that we may have to try to rehome him or bring him back to the shelter, which we desperately didn't want to do. So, I did some research and found Bay Area Balanced Dog Training's website. I reached out to Meryl and from our first phone conversation she put me at ease and began educating my husband and I about Midnight's behavior and needs. Midnight did a 4-week board and train program with Meryl, during which time she continued to educate my husband and I on how we could be the best owners possible for our energetic, willful pup. When Midnight came back home with us, he and we were finally speaking the same language and understood each other so much better, all because of Meryl's training. My household is peaceful again, Midnight is so much happier/content, and we have been able to bond with him in a much deeper way than we were able to before. Walks are a dream (he even ignores cats now!), my husband and I are doing a much better job of properly taking care of Midnight's activity/energy needs, and we feel certain since Meryl's training that we are a good fit for him and he is a good fit for us. Our little family is going to be just fine, due to the gift of Meryl's expertise and skill. Although things are going so well with Midnight, I still worried about who would take care of him if we have to go out of town and can't take him with us, due to his unique behavioral needs. Meryl boarded him for a week for us recently and Midnight had the best time! The little videos Meryl sent us of how he was doing erased any worries I still had in the back of my mind about him, and I felt so much relief knowing that Midnight was being cared for so well with so much love. Another time we needed to board Midnight was last-minute, and unfortunately Meryl was all booked up and didn't have space at that time. Meryl went above and beyond in suggesting another skilled trainer that she knows well that had space during the time we would be away - that boarding experience was great too, and Meryl was spot-on in regards to the other trainer being a great boarding fit for Midnight. Meryl has been an absolute blessing for Midnight, my husband and me. We look forward to taking more lessons from her in the future and feel lucky to have her support and expertise in our corner. Please, if you find yourselves in a situation even somewhat like ours, don't hesitate to reach out to Bay Area Balanced Dog Training - it'll be the best call you can make for you and your dog.

    Dog Over Breed - pet_training - Updated August 2026

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