We adopted our puppy Storm and knew we needed to get our shy and scared puppy socialized so she could grow up to be a great dog. We started with puppy socialization classes with Colleen and were very excited to see how she interacted with the pups and their pawrents. She answered lots of questions others had about crate training, positive reinforcement and behavioral issues. We decided to put Storm into puppy obedience school so she'd learn how to interact and learn a few basic commands. She loved it! It took us a few classes to get her to be more comfortable but she's adjusted into a great dog and we know part of that is from the great training she received when she was only four months old. We also enrolled Storm into the intermediate course, because emergency recall was a concern of ours. Storm made lots of friends and enjoyed running around the classroom and drinking ALL the water! We also tried some one on one training with our older dog, a six year old Maltese with anxiety and leash aggression; but weren't able to really get to the root of the problem as every time we had Colleen over Jessie (our dog) acted like an angel! Colleen did give us some great tips on working with Jessie on leash aggression. If you're looking for some tips on training and obedience school for your furry legged children then we'd recommend giving Colleen and her team a call; we weren't disappointed and don't think you will be either. We've never used their dog walking service. So we can't speak to that. read more

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Dog Tranquility and it's owner Colleen Dermott have truly been life savers for our family. Over many years and multiple dog training experiences, I can honestly say that our experience with Dog Tranquility and Colleen is the best we have ever had. She is very passionate about what she does and cares very much about customers and their pets alike. We have adopted dogs for years but two of our current pups were getting along so badly that they were having fights that drew blood. Since we adopt for life, giving one or both up was not an option. Colleen worked closely with our dogs and educated us as owners to address the issues. It was not easy but within only a couple of sessions Colleen had our dogs starting to peacefully interact and over time they have now become good friends. On the rare occasion when we have an issue, we now know how best to address both in the heat of the moment and afterwards to bring the two back together. I am hoping to continue working with Colleen to focus on additional basic obedience and training and to continue to address some lingering behavioral issues. I don't write a ton of reviews, preferring to only write when I have extraordinary experiences and this is one such case. I highly recommend Dog Tranquility; Colleen's experience and training far exceeds usual obedience & training options and the outcomes have been far more meaningful & longer lasting than other options we have tried. read more

I agreed to a consult with Colleen for $150. I thought it was steep but dog trainers are costly. Our session was in a park and lasted a half hour. During that time I told her about my dog and what my concerns were. She observed my dog but did not offer any tips or ideas. The last 15 minutes was devoted to telling me about what she offers and how much it costs. So, I feel like I paid a lot for a sales pitch. BTW, her hourly rate is $300 per hour for training. read more

We went to our first group class today. It was only a puppy socialization but it was supervised by two trainers who helped our puppies play safely. I know I will go back for more of these group classes and I will keep you posted if I try either the group basic training or private lessons. read more

Dog Tranquility LLC - Pet Training Near Me

Colleen has been helping us with our dog, a rescue who has been with us for three years but is already 7 years old. He's a great dog but has one issue that has been causing a lot of problems for us ... he is reactive when he sees other dogs during our walks. It's unclear whether it's leash reactivity, fear, not being properly socialized early on, etc. Regardless of the cause, the behavior is a problem, especially since we're in a townhouse that has no yard so our dog has to be walked/leashed for potty breaks. Colleen is wonderful with him. He really likes her. She looks at the "whole dog" and made some recommendations about some things that don't appear to be specifically related to the reactivity but could help our boy's anxiety/stress level in general. Colleen also uses positive training techniques which we feel is definitely needed with our sensitive guy. We would definitely recommend Colleen. read more

We did our research when we needed to address some unwanted behaviors from our two dogs, our 6 year old Husky-Terrier-Shepherd mix and our Pittie-Lab mix - both rescues whom we've had for several years. Colleen did an initial assessment, observing both dogs and had us answer detailed questions about both dogs. We were trying to address behaviors with our Pit-Lab mix and through Colleen, realized that the interaction between both dogs had a lot to with the resulting behaviors. She did not start with a traditional training class environment, rather she had us learn to better understand our dogs' personalities, look, listen, and adjust how we relate and work with them in order to change the resulting behavior. We have had to put the time in, but have noticed that even 10 minutes per day of reinforcement as well as paying attention to their body language has resulted in a difference. We will continue to work with both dogs, but are so appreciate that Colleen has showed us what cues to look for, how to be proactive, and how to actually work and understand how to improve our understanding and their resulting behavior. read more

Last year around Valentine's Day it was love at first sight when for the first time I met and adopted, my service dog Thunder. After returning back from Afghanistan, I was medically discharged under honorable conditions after 17 years of service in the Army. Colleen The owner of dog tranquility and service dog trainer was present at the time of the adoption to conduct a temperament assessment. Just recently thunder took and passed the service dog test, during that time Colleen was not just a trainer but she became a great and supportive friend. She is not only a knowledgeable, caring, dog lover, patient and flexible in the event of a scheduling conflict. Also I was able to see her interactions with other dog owners and their dogs during group sessions and she was very well liked. Thank you so much for all your help, training and friendship. I would recommend to anyone the services of Dog tranquility. read more

Dog Tranquility LLC - My service dog thunder - Pet Training Near Me

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Having a 130 pound Dogo Argentino mastiff puppy, we weren't sure where to go for dog training. All we knew is we needed it and wanted our puppy to grow up & be well mannered and trained. We heard about Dog Tranquility through the military, and found out Colleen does a program training dogs to become service dogs for disabled vets. Our experience with the course was great. She was very empathetic toward our needs and all the other people in the course as well. I love how she's familiar with the military and knows how dogs can be super beneficial for emotional needs and companionship, and how essential they are to every day life. That being said, our experience with the class was wonderful and she taught the class different things and then went around with each person and trained each dog individually, which was very useful in making sure we were doing each step correctly. I really appreciate that, because it felt very individualized and personalized in that aspect. Almost like private dog training but in a class setting. Following the course, our mastiff listens better, recalls better, when people come over, he is well mannered.... great course for vets who want a service dog and or people who just want an overall well behaved and well mannered dog. Definitely recommend Dog Tranquility. read more

Dog Tranquility LLC - Zeke, our 130 lb Dogo. Sitting patiently. - Pet Training Near Me

In August we rescued a great dog, Genghis, and we want to do well by him by getting training and really improving our communication. As a result we searched to find the trainer that fit our ideal traits of personable, staunchly positive, and well liked as well as well as well reviewed. After hunting via internet and personal contacts for a few months I came across Dog Tranquility. The combination of what Colleen posted and what I read and heard convinced me this was the right choice. Experience has proven me right. The first class is just the people giving Colleen a chance to properly orient us to her style and prepare us to be successful with our dogs. It's difficult to bring together a very diverse group of people and teach them how to learn from you and how to communicate with their dogs and the first class really set the foundation. In the following classes they proceeded at a nice pace with clear directions each step of the way along with tips that would pop up when a dog presented a particular behavior. These tips have been very helpful, expanding my knowledge and confidence in how I respond to my dog. One of the things I'd really like to call out is the personal attention each dog and their people receive from Colleen and her assistant Lisa. One or the other of them has spent noticeable (i.e. not just in passing) time with Genghis and I and usually more than once per class. I've seen them doing the same with all of the other folks too making sure everyone is feeling confident, understands the lesson, and is generally happy. I've also heard them looking for feedback to continue improving class. I have also taken advantage of their willingness to answer questions after class that are specific to Genghis. Colleen helped me convince that the kennel is a safe place to hang out while we're out not a place to avoid! We had some big challenges with the weather since it's been a tough winter and Colleen has had to cancel a number of classes. The fact that she's willing to cancel classes, which impacts her business, rather than have the dogs in weather that could be bad for them shows her priority are the animals and her customers. She has also allowed me to make up a class I had to miss due to a family obligation which she didn't have to. All of this supports my expectation of a trainer that cares about the animals and providing excellent training and customer service before everything else. read more

We are finishing up a puppy obedience class with our pug Winston, and Colleen is just amazing. She (and her assistant Megan, who runs the puppy social classes) is so patient and helpful. Winston has really taken to her style of training, and I cannot wait to sign up our other puppy for her class. I highly recommend Dog Tranquility. read more

We are loyal clients of Dog Tranquility's home pet care services. We needed a reliable and trustworthy provider to come into our home while we were at work, to walk our two beloved small senior dogs, spend time with them and give them love. We can recommend Ian and the team at Dog Tranquility without hesitation. read more

As a dog owner, I'm on a never-ending quest for the best care, best food, and best training for my three-year-old ball of fluff. Colleen and Dog Tranquility made the quest a lot easier for me! Specs, my Mini Pin/Chihuahua pup, was going to be staying with my boyfriend for two weeks in Virginia, so I did a quick Yelp search and contacted Colleen to ask about her availability. She was very accommodating and we quickly had a schedule set up for 4 private sessions over the two weeks, spaced out so that Specs could have some time to practice and learn on his own. Specs is usually a pretty fast learner, but he was extremely receptive to what he learned with Colleen, and three months later, he still strongly retains his knowledge of the exercises he ran through with her. Colleen gave my boyfriend a lot of insight into Specs's capabilities and I think it helped both him and my dog to become a stronger training team. I'm usually in and out of Virginia, but I'm already trying to find a longer span of time to go down with Specs so we can get in another couple of sessions with Colleen! read more

I took the basic training course with my goldendoodle puppy and it really helped get my dog off on the right foot (paw). I thought I already knew everything about training a puppy, but I was definitely wrong. Her group class was really fun and informative. She also helped us personally with our dog's overly submissive behavior, and now she's much more confident and won't let other dog's bully her. I highly recommend professional training from Dog Tranquility. read more

Dog Tranquility LLC - My puppy playing with our neighbor's vizsla - Pet Training Near Me

My partner and I (and our beloved dogs) have been using and loving Dog Tranquility. We've been working with Colleen and whole heartedly recommend her. She is kind, professional, on time and honest about a dogs/animals progress. She is a skilled trainer but has wonderful people skills to match-- Colleen meets people and pets where they're at. We're very happy with our decision to work with her. read more

These geniuses do not provide their class schedule online. They require new customers to emailed them and existing customers to leave a voicemail (they NEVER answer the phone). I emailed them 3 times and left 2 voicemails but never heard back from them. This makes me wonder how their rating on Yelp isn't terrible. All I need to know is what days their specific classes are offered... read more

I encourage you to call Colleen if you behavior issues with your dogs. We have 2 big labs that had leash aggression issues. They would pull on the leash and bark aggressively at other dogs while on walks. Colleen visited our dogs and shared that they were not aggressive but had excitement issues. Good to know. In 4 lessons, we were able to learn how to correct the wrong behavior and reward the good behavior. Our dogs are now safely walking the neighborhood. Colleen is great to work with. read more

I'm not sure who likes Colleen more, us or our dogs. We have a 13 year old lab and a 2 year old cattle dog. Colleen came to our home and helped us train both! My husband and I were thrilled with the results. Colleen was helpful in training us on how to train our dogs and her techniques have stuck with us. It has been 6 months now and we still get great results from our pups. We have recommended her to our friends and will continue to do so! read more

Colleen's group lessons are great. They are in a normal dog environment with many regular distractions. She also teaches good behaviors and can help you one-on-one if you have any questions. Will be back for the intermediate training! read more

I have worked with Colleen, both in her Basic Obedience Group Class , as well as 1 private session at home, with our very fisty 5 month old male and our 11 year old female Goldens. She has been a wealth of knowledge and has really helped us to instill some good habits in our younger pup so that he will be a good family dog and get along with his "sister". She even talked with our vet when our pup had some health issues. Colleen is also very flexible and patient so that everyone is successful! I highly recommend her and will continue to work with Colleen in the future because it is clear that she has a true love of dogs and wants whats best for them and their families, not to mention, we get GREAT results! read more

Our family is extremely grateful for Dog Tranquility and Ian's care! While out of town our elderly dog had some health issues and Ian was a HUGE help for Sammie. I knew our dogs were well taken care of and that gave me peace of mind while on a trip. Our elderly dog needed to be carried outside, as she can not do stairs, and Ian did a wonderful job. At first meeting I knew our dogs would be treated with care and kindness. When we needed to add a few extra visits because of our dogs health issues Dog Tranquility immediately responded. Wonderful company!!! read more

Colleen is very knowledgeable, kind, and professional! I have a 4 year-old rescue who was very shy with people who came into our home. Colleen helped show me how to keep Hazel calm, happy, and confident with strangers in our house. I was very impressed with how quickly Colleen was able to "read" my dog's body language and know from that exactly what techniques would be helpful in her training. I continue to practice what Colleen taught in our training session and my dog has been improving dramatically every time she meets someone new! Colleen is a fantastic trainer and I cannot recommend her enough! read more

Colleen is the best. I adopted my beloved Winston two years ago. He was a tiny, 1-year-old Yorkie-very sweet, very loving, very scared. Her strategies for breaking through to him helped me so much. In particular, he would not sit until she pointed out that he needed something soft beneath his little butt. She also honored a class that I had paid for a full year later. I appreciated that so much! read more

When we brought home our Miniature Australian Shepherd puppy, we knew we wanted to find a great puppy class for her to learn the basics as well as get socialized. After doing our research of local dog trainers we came across Dog Tranquility. We had so much fun in the puppy class and so did our Mini, Zoe. Colleen is extremely professional and a wealth of knowledge. She took time out before and after each class to answer any questions we had. I highly recommend Dog Tranquility. Thank you for everything Colleen! read more

We have done training, dog walking and pet sitting with Dog Tranquility and we've always had a great experience. Colleen is super patient and knowledgeable. She does a wonderful job of teaching you what to do to train and has a great sense of humor when it doesn't pan out as expected. We love her support and lack of judgement! Our pets seem to love their dog walkers and it always puts us at ease to come home to detailed notes about our pets were. Colleen and Leighann also went above and beyond when we had a dramatic incident with our older dog eating an extra heart worm pill. It ended up being no big deal at all but of course we were freaking out a little and Colleen and Leighann were very responsive to our concerns. Leighann kept in contact with us and helped to assuage a lot of our concerns. They have been super accommodating with last minute schedule changes. Overall, our experience with Dog Tranquility has been great and we would highly recommend them. read more

When it comes to fostering a highly-effective team relationship with my 10 + year old mixed breed Husky Service Dog, Aki; Colleen's intuition, knowledge skills and abilities shined. Experience with Colleen has proven that patience and consistently are her hallmark to getting the results we both needed to navigate through the complexity of crowds and urban environment meeting and/ or exceeding all my expectations to attain Aki's Service Dog credentials. Thanks to Colleen, Aki's Teamwork is indistinguishable form a pure-breed/high dollar Trainer alternative. read more

We hired Colleen as a last ditch effort to work with our dog and our new son. My dog had become increasingly more aggressive toward my baby, especially after he started crawling, and I felt as though I had to at least try before getting rid of my dog of 8 years. Colleen instantly saw the problem and fixed it. Initially, we signed up for four sessions, but my dog was fine with my son just after using the tools she showed us in the initial meeting. We then turned to work on dog aggression issues. Again, my dog responded so well to her. By the last session, my dog was around her two dogs, my son, and her two children having a blast without any issues. I appreciate everything she did for us. Our dog and son are now the best of friends. read more

Colleen is a master at training. My german shepherd loved coming to this class and I could barely hold onto her when she saw Colleen. The classes were very informative, and the homework was not too overwhelming. l especially liked the way Colleen showed each of us individually how to teach a certain new command. Even though my dog was poorly behaved Colleen did not make me feel like I was a pain to be a part of the class. read more

Loved it. Used them for both of my pups. Enjoyed the training classes. Colleen was available to answer questions & paid attention to the individual dog personalities. read more

We have a mix between a lab and a golden retriever. She was just barely six months old when we got her and she was a handful! She ran everywhere and ate everything! We needed to train her and we desperately needed some help doing it. We took Colleen's basic obedience class. This class was awesome! First off, its only about a ten minute drive away. Secondly, its in this house that has a monstrous back yard! Its completely fenced in and our dog LOVED it! During that class we were able to teach our dog the basic commands. She learned sit, down, come (when she's loose), leave it (when she tries to eat something she shouldn't), stay, wait..............................and several other commands. Lastly, our dog got to socialize with other dogs too. That just added to the enjoyment that our dog had in that class. That yard was HUGE and she just didn't stop running around it with the other dogs. It was a great experience for all of us and I would highly recommend this class for anyone else that needs to train a puppy. read more

I had an extremely poor experience with Dog Tranquility LLC and its owner, Colleen Dermott. Ms. Dermott's services did not meet my expectations and the group dog obedience class she sold to me was being conducted at a home located in residential zoning. According to Fairfax County, providing this service at this location is not a permitted use and is in violation of County zoning ordinance. I'm not comfortable with this. I posted a poor review and used non-litigation options to try to come to a peaceful resolution. However, since posting my poor review Ms. Dermott has filed a lawsuit against me seeking a $55,000 judgment, $10000 in punitive damages, and to enter an injunction against me. read more

My husband and I adopted a 3.5 year old mix, Red Hot Chili Pepper. I started with 4 in-home lessons with Colleen. Red would guard food, treats and generally wanted to be in control. Colleen's methods have made a big difference in Red's personality. I can pick up his food bowl, food can be dropped and he will 'leave it'. I have worked with getting a muzzle on Red with Colleen's help. Her training has made him a great in-house dog. I am also using some of her techniques in walking Red, where he needs some more improvement, but we are making progress. I highly recommend Colleen. read more

I have dealt with quite a few trainers over the years, having had rescue shepherds and other rescue dogs, as well as 2 puppies. Colleen, is by far, the very best trainer I have ever had the pleasure of working with, and my experience with trainers encompasses 4 states, in addition to the various types of dogs. She has an infinite amount of patience, and all that she does is with positive reinforcement. My dogs benefited greatly from her expertise, and my puppies became very well-behaved adult dogs. I can't stress enough how wonderful she is with dogs and with people, and I have recommended her to several people who have also had positive, terrific results. She has a great sense of understanding when it comes to getting into a dog's head, and I love seeing the dogs and Colleen click. If you need a trainer, don't look anywhere else. She is the best, and you will be so glad that you chose her. read more

I always recommend Colleen to dog owners when they ask me where our chocolate lab, Murphy, was trained. Colleen offers private and group training (and so much more). She is knowledgeable and of course loves working with the pups. She carefully plans out a training plan based on your individual needs and follows up to see how it is working. Murphy's behavior has improved tremendously since we did basic puppy training with Colleen and we still use all of her tips and homework sheets for reference! I highly recommend Colleen for your dog training needs! read more

Our experience with Colleen was great, and just what we were looking for in a dog trainer. Her knowledge, skill, and love of what she does is very apparent. I highly recommend her if you are looking for a dog trainer. read more

Colleen was exactly what we were looking for to refine the manners of our lab mix. We interviewed several trainers but she was the best fit for our family. Having her come to the house allowed us to work on the specific behavior issues we had that would be unable to address in a class setting. She took time to figure out our needs and understood what an important family member our dog is. She treated her with affection and kindness and trained us to train our dog. We are very pleased we found Colleen! read more