Hiring K9 Nutt and Dottie Dunnigan will prove to be the best decision you can make for yourself, your family and your dog. Dottie provides exceptionally well-educated, credible and reliable dog owner and dog training. My husband and I have been a client of Dottie's since 2014, participating in her group classes and taking her private lessons. Dottie was also our "canine consultant" for the purchase of our second puppy - a service that led to the adoption of a healthy puppy with good genetics from an honest breeder and prepared us to receive a new puppy. Dottie will teach you there are no "one-size-fits-all" training methods for any one owner or dog breed. Her high-level of canine education is apparent in her customization of training for different types of households and breeds. And our situation was no exception. My husband returned home from the hospital in November 2014, recovering from a brain injury. Upon his return, we purchased our English bulldog, Ruby Rose. Although we always thought about having a dog, we understood that having a pet would be a great source of therapy for my husband's recovery. We quickly sought a breeder and purchased Ruby. As excited and happy as we were to have Ruby, we were failing as dog owners. We knew little about raising a puppy when Ruby arrived. There was so much information to absorb - we read books, and we listened to advice from other dog owners and so-called "dog behaviorists". Everyone had different advice, most of which didn't take our lifestyle, or our dog's breed, into consideration. (Later on, we learned that the "dog behaviorists" weren't properly licensed, or experienced, and Dottie taught us that activities encouraged by some of these so-called behaviorists aren't healthy for dogs, especially puppies.) Thankfully, a neighbor referred us to Dottie. Dottie began her training the second I opened the front door to greet her for the first time. During that first lesson, and subsequent lessons, she provided the "tough love" we needed to become a stronger dog-owners. Although she understood times were difficult and chaotic with my husband's recovery, she also knew that if I didn't get my puppy under control, problems within our home would increase, negatively impacting the relationship we have with our dog. She didn't accept my excuses for not practicing what she taught my husband and I - this was a good thing. If we had a dog-trainer that accepted the excuses for not training our puppies, we would have been wasting our money and had undisciplined dogs to boot. And Dottie's training goes beyond the park and your backyard. Dottie provided suggestions and direction that helped me cope with my work schedule while monitoring and caring for our new puppy in the healthiest and safest way possible. She evaluated our home environment and our lifestyle habits to create a healthy environment and daily routine for our dog Ruby. This year, after some consultation from Dottie, we decided to find a "little brother" for Ruby. Dottie exceeded our expectations as a consultant in the purchase of our second puppy, Baxter. She took much of her own time to vet breeding websites and breeders across the country. Further, she provided valuable direction in preparing home, Ruby and us for the welcoming of the new puppy. Dottie's passion and love for what she does is clear in her work and the "above and beyond" efforts and steps she takes to ensure you're a strong, disciplined dog-owner with a happy pet. Dottie teaches you the importance of following through on the commitment you made to dog ownership when you purchased your dog. She's passionate about making sure every dog lives in a safe, happy and health environment. I highly recommend Dottie Dunnigan and K9 Nutt if you're willing to make a commitment to dog ownership and being the strongest and most loving dog owner possible. If you'd like to speak with me more about this letter and my recommendation, please feel free to contact me at the above referenced telephone number or e-mail address. read more

Dottie has a connection to dogs that is rare. If allowed, I would call her the ultimate "dog whisperer." I have worked with Dottie now with three different dogs over a span of more than two decades. With my first two I lived in Ventura and trained in ongoing classes. About 10 years ago I moved to Oregon. Dottie and I stayed in touch. When my last dog passed, I turned to Dottie to help me choose a breed and pup for me. As I aged, I wanted a smaller dog than my lovable labs. Dottie had gotten to know me well. She honestly told me a few breeds I was considering weren't a good fit with my personality. I respect and appreciate Dottie's expertise. I agreed with Dottie's advice and looked at Goldendoodles. Dottie found a breeder she liked and helped me select a pup. She walked through the process with me of finding a new dog. She went above and beyond even talking to the breeder. Now two years later I couldn't be happier. My Moki is the perfect fit for me. Dottie and I did FaceTime training when he was a pup. At one point I thought Moki would benefit from training with other dogs and owners present. I've worked with two different trainers here in Bend, Oregon. I enjoyed working with both of them, but they weren't Dottie. After I had taken three classes here, more advanced training wasn't offered that would help me reach our goals. I turned to Dottie again. Moki and I traveled to Ventura this past Fall to do additional training. Since then Dottie and I have stayed in close contact. We have problems with geese where we live. These beautiful creatures leave the parks a mess. Believe me, you don't want your children playing where geese inhabit. One of my first goals has been to qualify for geese hazing. Sounds easy and fun...but because you are a volunteer representing the city you must pass a strict obedience test. I'm thrilled to say we just took our training test and WE PASSED! Dottie can now add geese hazing to her résumé for training. My next goal for Moki and me is to train to become a therapy dog. We may need to wait a year or two and burn off some energy doing geese hazing before we qualify. I know that Dottie will be walking through that training with me also. I already have plans to visit Ventura and do more training with the BEST TRAINER EVER!! read more

I absolutely love Dottie. I have trained one Rottweiler, and one German Shepard. I am now on my second German Shepard after our last one passed 3 years ago. I had forgotten how to train a dog. My other two were excellently trained. I called Dina Case Paul who I used for my Rottweiler, she no longer does training but will come and help you for a fee. All she did was come out and talk to us about the personality of our dog and to tell us everything she was doing was normal. She was a great trainer 30 years ago when I had my Rottweiler. Not so much now. The next place I went was the rec. center. One hour a week for 6 weeks. That trainer would have everyone stand and watch her with her dog then she have each person try one at a time. You spent 45 minutes watching and 15 minutes working your dog. Not a good fit. Then I found Dottie. She came to my house first. Saw the yard and house to know what the dog had for space and any issues. She started training me and my dog the first session. She came to my house three times working with us the entire hour one on one. Fabulous. When she knew we could work in a group session, we started that. I go twice a month for 1/5th the price of the private sessions, and you only pay for the session you go to. When you get there you start warming up your dog doing what Dottie tells you. Then she works with us on increasing our dogs obedience. She has the different levels of students doing slightly different things to make it so everyone is learning more. She puts you in real life situations and you practice what to do. Such as: If a person or dog rushes up to you. If a person lets their dog go and say "My dog is friendly.", even if you don't want their dog near you. Teaching your dog to stop if a car or something other danger is coming. I am working my dog the entire hour with other dogs working also. I can't say enough about how great she is. read more

K-9 Nutt Dog Training is the best training in the Ventura area. The classes are held in various locations in Ventura, which gives the person and the dog different environments to train. The reason it works is because of Dottie. She is a great trainer. She understands the dogs and they understand her. If you listen and follow what she tells you, you will have an exceptional dog. We first contacted Dottie when a very head strong German Shepherd joined our family over 10 years ago. We couldn't believe how quickly the dog responded to Dottie on the first day they met. That's when we knew she was the trainer for us. Dottie helped us better understand how to get our dog to respond to us like she did to her. It worked. We were so happy with our dog that we added a second dog to the family. We knew we could take our dogs anywhere and knew the dogs would respond to our commands without hesitation. In addition to training the dogs, we learned how to read the different environments and how to handle the dog so you are in control. When the third and fourth dogs joined our family, we immediately contacted Dottie to sign-up for her classes. We want to have the same confidence with these dogs as we did with our previous ones. We know if we do the work these dogs will be as wonderful as our others. read more

Hiring Dottie as our trainer has been such an amazing experience! I have three dogs and honestly, things were getting out of control. I went into this knowing that I was doing things wrong, but not really understanding exactly what it was I was doing wrong. Dottie has a way of guiding you to that realization so that you have that "lightbulb moment" and have full understanding. For me, that was very important. The change in my actions and my dogs behavior has been immense and we are all so much happier with our new sense of balance and order. We can go on walks without them reacting to every person, dog, cat, car, or bike going by now.....we just walk. I honestly can't say enough how highly I reccomend Dottie. We are still working with her in group classes to get even better...we have already exceeded the expectations I had going into this, but it's fun and we're just going to keep on learning and strengthening our bond as a pak. And that old saying that you can't reach an old dog new tricks is so wrong! My dogs are older and had some bad habits (so did I) and we are learning just fine! So glad that K9nutt was recommended to us and that we have Dottie to guide us thru this!! read more

My brother gave me his dog Jake, a border collie. Jake was 3 at the time and had very little training. He pulled when walked and did not know any commands except sit. After a few days it was apparent that Jake was uncontrollable. My neighbor recommended Dottie. Dottie has given me the tools to train Jake. After just 2 private visits, Jake mastered basic commands, sitting, down, and recall. She also assisted me in choosing the right collar so Jake no longer pulls and walks well on a leash. After several months of group classes with Dottie, Jake can heel, "lets go", and wait on leash and off leash. He can also recall and obey hand signals at a distance. Dottie uses several venues around town to walk and train, so he is comfortable walking downtown or in a strip mall. Jake has become the best, and most well behaved of all the dogs I have ever had in my life and that is thanks to Dottie. She will train you to train your dog from basics to off leash obedience. I truly believe that training your dog leads to a calm and even mellow dog, who understands what you, the owner, expects of him or her and Dottie is the trainer that will help you achieve that. read more

Dottie is absolutely AMAZING!! I began my search for a dog trainer, after a dog attacked my dog Zippy and I while we were on a walk. Zippy was a rescue puppy who we had only had for about a month at the time, and he was only 7 months old at the time this event happened. It made him extremely scared of any dogs that came near him or his vicinity, and he was terrified to go on walks in general. He also comes with a traumatic past prior to us rescuing him. Dottie was instantly able to see this and create a training plan for him and myself. After just ONE session, Zippy was a completely different dog. He had more trust in me as his owner, and was willing to go on walks. We are now a month into training and all I can say is THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU DOTTIE!! She puts time, love, and commitment to each and every dog/owner she works with. Zippy has improved immensely! He now interacts with other dogs in training classes, he is showing confidence, and I as an owner have learned so much! I will continue to work with Dottie, and you should to! Every dog could benefit from a lesson from Dottie! read more

Dottie was recommended to us by a couple who saw us walking our 4 month old Doberman puppy on the boardwalk in Ventura. Their Doberman had recently passed and they asked who we were using as a trainer, we didn't have one so they recommended Dottie. They couldn't say enough good things about her and how well trained their dog had been because of her. When our Greta reached a point where we had taught her all that we felt we could we called Dottie to take Greta's obedience to the next level. Dottie was amazing!! Greta went from a well behaved dog to an amazingly well behaved dog. She is now 7 months old and while she has a long way to go, we often get compliments on how well behaved she is for her age. I told Dottie that I wanted a dog who was so well behaved that she wouldn't need to be on a leash and that is exactly what we are headed towards. When we are camping or at the beach she is totally reliable to be off leash and come when called and ignore other dogs when told. Dottie isn't cheap but she is worth every penny!! I have learned so much and am so grateful. read more

If you are looking for help training your dog, I strongly recommend you contact Dottie. I had never raised a puppy before, but my wife had, and had used Dottie in the past and said we needed to get started with Dottie from the beginning, I thought that was overkill, but I was wrong. Dottie came to the house a couple of days after we brought Gordy home, her first visit was to check if we had the proper tools to get started and start us off on our training. On one of the next visits she taught us how to get him to wait, to our amazement at the end of the session, we opened the front door and told him to wait, walked out the front door, he sat there like a champ and waited until we told him to come to us. Around four months we started taking him to Dottie's classes which are held all around Ventura. Seems like we learned something at each class. Today Gordy can go anywhere with us, a quick trip to Lowe's, a dog friendly restaurant, the park off leash. If you're looking for a dog trainer you should contact Dottie, she really is the best around! Lester M. read more

I have worked with Dottie for a while now and the changes in my dog have been nothing short of miraculous! She taught me HOW to work with my dog to change his behavioral problems, including aggressiveness and excessive barking. Once I realized that the issues weren't going to be resolved by just training the dog, but by training myself as well, that's when the major improvement began to happen. Dottie is a very professional teacher who truly has the dog's best interests at heart....and you know what? It works! I now have a dog that I enjoy coming home to every day, that is fun to be around and that doesn't "surprise" me anymore with aggressive behavior. I highly recommend working with Dottie.....not only will your dog benefit, but you will learn the skills to ensure your dog (and you) stay on the right path. Before I worked with Dottie, I was thinking that I may have to give my dog up due to his behavior issues, but now - not a chance! I am confident in my ability to be the kind of owner that he needs. Thank you Dottie!! read more

Our first experience with K-9 Nutt and Dottie was 2001, we adopted a 6 month old female (untrained) Boxer. Someone gave us her card and we started going to lessons. Since then we have had a Boston Terrier puppy and another rescue Boston terrier and most recently our 2 year old Male Pitt mix Tobey who we adopted from the Camarillo Animal Shelter 6 months ago. The reason why Dottie is so incredible is that she truly tailors each training to the particular dog. Correct me...trains us humans to bring the best out in each of our dogs! She does individual training to lay the ground work and then brings you into a group session, there you learn from each other as well as continue to learn with Dottie. Bringing a two year old, strong, male pittbull to class may sound crazy to some, but Tobey is such a great dog (and there are many more like him at the shelter!) and Dottie is the perfect person to bring the best out in Tobey. I would adopt more dogs if we had room, and Dottie would train them all! read more

We had just moved into our new home in Ventura. Our two dogs began having vicious fights with one another. They are both Pitty mixes, and the female has always been bossy. In the new house, she started biting our male dog, and both of them were doing damage and we feared that serious injuries would happen. I called Dottie, at K-9 Nutt. She returned my message quickly and from the moment she started asking, I felt that she knew how to help. Since our problems began in the new house, we chose to do in-home training with Dottie. Her use of positive reinforcement and limits on behavior created and immediate improvement. Dottie taught me ways to direct my dogs that increased my confidence at the same time as calming them down. In two weeks time, there were no more fights. Walks, that were difficult because the female was a car chaser, are now a pleasure. Calm and rewarding for all of us. Dottie gets my highest recommendation. read more

I used Dottie to train an AKC English Mastiff that I rescued when he was one year, 8 months old. 100% professional and and courteous unless the person she's speaking to is rude or just will not accept instruction. I have personally seen Dottie do everything possible to avoid being "rude" but every now and then the teacher needs to blunt and direct with a dog owner. With my dog, she not only taught me how to get this exceptionally large, a very stubborn breed to behave, she also offered help years later that saved my dog from being put down. Without her expertise, I would've have lost my dog, my friend, my companion. I would ask Maurico if the trainer they found has or had a dog they not just entered into a show but walked away with a trophy like Dottie has done. OR, did Maurico sound more like a shill for another trainer, checking prices and comparing services. "Matador" The English Mastiff Lou Marsalis, the owner read more

We rescued our Belgian Malinois, Maddy, at the age of 5 years old from a local shelter. She was not housebroken; she was anxious, skittish, mistrusting, and lacking in any form of obedience. She pulled on leash, lunged, barked, growled, jumped on people, etc. I was uncertain if I would ever have the skills to control her. Dottie helped with the process of teaching Maddy manners, trust, affection, and rules. Maddy is now loving, fun, curious, lovable, protective... without being aggressive. Dottie taught ME how to train my dog. Dottie is patient, incredibly knowledgeable, and my dog loves her!! I have such regard and respect for Dottie and her remarkable skills, values, and acumen in the area of dog training. I am in awe of her ability to understand and interpret my dog's language! I am a better dog owner because of her. My dog is happier, healthier, safer, calmer... because of Dottie. read more

I have worked with Dottie K9nutt since 2001. She was recommended by two professional women I knew who had very well behaved dogs who had trained with her. Dottie help me get Pepper (a Smooth Fox Terrier) certified with Love on a Leash. We worked with children and visit nursing facilities, Pepper was also a delight at an Alzheimer's lock down facility. Have also worked with Dottie with our 2nd SFT, Hallie. Have used her training techniques on our Chi-weenie grand-dog. This last year she helped me with a yellow Labrador puppy, I was raising to be a guide dog for the blind. I'm looking forward to working with Dottie again in the fall when I get a new puppy. If you want a solidly trained dog you can take anywhere put in your time with your pet and K9nutt. I have never met a more skilled, compassionate, competent teacher/handler in all my decades of having dogs than Dottie. Regina read more

My 7-month old golden was eating our walls and out of control when I called Dottie the first time. She helped me train him in some private lessons first, then we attended group classes for almost a year. It was very helpful to me. I always learned something new each time. I met lots of nice people, and my dog loved coming to "school." More recently, we rejoined the group classes because my dog had been attacked and run up on by off-leash dogs and was showing some fear and aggression. Dottie worked with my dog and did "set-ups" in class to help him get over his fear. She has also given me many ways to be more proactive in protecting my dog. Dottie really cares about each dog that she works with, and the dogs can tell! They all love her! If you have a dog that needs to learn manners, or has specific behavioral issues, give Dottie a call. I highly recommend her! read more

Best training ever...and I needed lots. I came into class knowing nothing about how to train a dog. My first dog with Dottie was a male lab that needed some guidance. With Dottie's years of experience she was able to get us BOTH trained in a very professional manner. I'm now on my second dog with K-9 Nutt and she is a Golden Doodle which I was again, not totally prepared for the challenges that came with an extremely intelligent and energetic dog. Thanks to Dottie's hard work and training skills my Doodle not only responds to verbal or hand commands she is also completely off leash trained. It was a commitment on my part but if you put the work in and your consistent it sure pays off in the end! One more note...I love that Dottie has classes at different locations. They're fun and get the dogs exposed to different environments and noises. read more

We reached out to Dottie to help us train our dog Oliver. Oliver is about a year and half old Beagle and super sweet, however, his bark is deafening and he is really hyper and uncontrollable outside the house. We could not take him out on walks because he would be so reactive to any little thing he saw. If he was in the car and he saw a dog he would bark for 3 blocks straight and get really stressed out. On the leash, If he saw other dogs, he would be completely uncontrollable and nearly separated my shoulder on a couple of occasions. After a few sessions with Dottie he is a completely different dog, he now listens and we can walk him on a leash without any issues. His reactions to other dogs and even rabbits are minimal. I look forward to continuing our training with her and would recommend her to anyone who needs help in training their dogs. read more

When I began training with Dottie at K9 Nutt, I had no experience training dogs. Dottie has helped me through the training of two dogs, one of which is dog aggressive. She has helped my confidence in handling my dogs and any situations that we're in. I like the structure of Dottie's classes. She has a great mix of locations throughout Ventura allowing students to work through many distractions. Dottie always has control of the class. She accepts all sizes and temperaments of dogs but is always careful to let students know if there is an issue to avoid. If you're looking for a dog trainer, you couldn't ask for a more knowledgeable or conscientious person. I have referred many people to her for dog training as I was referred to her by another satisfied dog owner. read more