The owner is such a great person!! My dogs adore her!! I will forever suggest her services!!!read more

Sara is great! Friendly with the dogs and knows what she is doing. They always come out smelling…read moreand looking good. Highly recommend, book now because she is in high demand!

I reached out to this lady as a first time dog owner with a rescue dog. She responded with a very…read morediscouraging article about all the reasons I should not adopt this type of dog. TOO LATE! Very negative first experience with a dog trainer. Do not recommend.

Awesome trainer! Good advice. We only had one session with her and it was totally worth it. We were…read moreable to follow her instructions and Jax our malamute was able to improve within a week of training. Gina, thank you so much.

Woof Woof pals!!!! Winnie here reporting in!!!…read more I am absolutely incredibly thankful for my time here at Ruff Start Training I cannot thank Gypsea's training along with wonderful Nellie enough When I first got Winnie I was absolutely happy adopting a new doggie into my family. It wasn't until a few days or weeks in of when she settled in did I see that some of her behavioral problems had come out. Where do I begin? Walking on a leash? Impossible. Freezing on walks, all the time. I had to carry her back home several times because she was soo scared to move. When I did force her to walk it would take us at least 30 minutes to walk around the block and I am not kidding. It was extremely frustrating and I was exhausted a lot of the time. I realized I needed a dog trainer immediately other wise things were only going to get worse! Winnie had so many behavioral concerns that I was NOT aware of until I met Gypsea for the first time. I did not know that Winnie was extremely fearful of the outside world and it wasn't until I did a lot of digging did I find out that she was abandoned in a cage left to die as a puppy with all of her littermates. Absolutely heartbreaking on sooo many levels. No wonder she was traumatized. Hence why she was afraid of literally everything. The first time I took her to a dog park she was glued to me and did not socialize with any of the dogs and would use me as her human shield. It was soo bad that she was so scared to even sniff or say hello to any other dogs. That is when I realized that she will need constant socialization with positive dogs to help build up her confidence. I had no idea this was possible but that is why Gypsea brings her lovely dog Nellie with her to every session which I am absolutely thankful for. There is soo much to learn in the dog world and I was thankful to have such a kind teacher explaining everything to me. Through a total of 12 sessions Winnie was successfully rehabilitated and it is all thanks to Ruff Start Training's team that did NOT give up on her and worked through her behavioral issues until she graduated. I would also like to add that Gypsea is extremely, extremely affordable in comparison to literally every other location that I looked into. I knew that Winnie needed one on one training sessions and group sessions through maybe Petsmart and Petco were not necessarily something I was looking for, but maybe it does work for other dogs and that is good too. The reason I think this is because it is unrealistic due to real life situations and circumstances. Training in a controlled setting inside a location is not the same as going for a walk and being exposed to a ton of distractions outside. Furthermore, I will always support small businesses no matter what because they actually take the time to listen to all of your concerns. Gypsea and her team helped me with this as well and eased my anxiety a lot especially with Winnie's prey drive. They assisted me with walking her around easy targets, like ducks and I mean a ton of ducks near a lake in the water and on the sidewalk. I was so scared that Winnie was going to go crazy but they really assisted me and helped calmed her down. Let's not forget about Nellie as well who helped by setting an example for Winnie But trust me, Gypsea is amazing and it didn't matter if sessions went over the time limit her and her team always ended the sessions on a positive note no matter what. Do I recommend her? 100% yes. 10 out of 10 a million times over. I really only have positive feedback for her and her business because they always kept us safe and prioritized our safety during each session. Gypsea does not lose her patience and earns each dogs trust no matter how long it will take. Contact her now and I mean it!!! To summarize, Winnie came in as a traumatized young puppy and graduated as happy successful puppy ready to take on the world on step at a time God Bless everyone thank you for reading!!

Love my experience with Gypsea, Alex and their pup Nellie! All worked really well with both of our…read morelandsharks aka German Shepherd pups they're friendly and knowledgeable in what they do. Pulling and barking walking in public was a big stressor before but thankfully now the pups can socialize and enjoy outings with us. Thank you guys for helping with our pups!! Definitely recommend if you're looking for a a dog trainer

She is simply the best. Where do I start. Maybe with the friendly welcoming smile, fun attitude,…read moreand knowledge she graces her students with. It's a fun and exciting class for both me and my Mini Schnauzer. He just turned 2 and cant wait to get to class. Thank you Ms Robin, for your smile, giggles, patience, and grace. We so appreciate you

Best dog trainer ever! She's been working with my service dog Daisy, and she worked with my…read moreprevious service dog Burt. She's very experienced and knowledgeable and is exceptionally fair with her pricing too.

Was very disappointed to find out Jordyn is no longer here. I loved the way she would groom my…read morebaby. I tried a different person (honestly I didn't even get a name) and my girl is so uneven. The left side of her face is visibly shorter than the right and she just looks overall wonky. She's definitely shorter than I had asked for as well. But the biggest issue I have with this place is the smell. Every time I come, it smells so terrible. Like dog poop with a mix of some type of air freshener trying to mask it. Even with the awful smell, I kept coming because Jordyn was awesome! But with her gone, I probably won't return.

We are so relieved to finally have a new professional and very large Grooming, Doggie Daycare and…read moreboarding facility nearby in Ventura! We had a large Golden Retriever groomed by Jordyn with so much love and care! What terrific job and a very happy Ireland! Website is so good and easy to schedule! Congrats to Alyssa and her friendly staff for launching a great new business in Ventura!

My dog is well taken care of, and gets play with his dog friends. I can tell the staff pay well…read moreattention to the dogs and even give me snippets of his day. Thank you Ventura Dog Ranch for the great service you provide!

Incredibly grateful to have found these guys. Our rottie is 5.5 years old and has always been…read moreweary of strangers. So finding a place to board him was a challenge when we moved to Ventura. Thankfully they gave him a chance and we couldn't be happier. In fact, I think it's been a key role in his behavior lately. I've been much less concerned while taking him out to chase ball at the park when strangers ask to greet him. And he's been noticeably more laid back about strangers coming up to him. I admit, there could be a number of factors that are contributing to this better behavior, but thought I'd share. They've also been great about my MANY last minute changes to boarding him longer or shorter than expected -- they work with you. Oh and they're also very active on social media (Instagram) which I appreciate. Big thanks!

We used Sheila 3 1/2 years ago to train our very exuberant and frankly uncontrollable golden doodle…read morepuppy. We were a little taken aback by her methods but almost immediately there was a change. Our puppy, Yogi, had been through clicker training but mostly, he and another rambunctious pup were in a separate area rolling around and playing. From that first interaction, Yogi has impeccable manners. I was trying to find Sheila's number, saw some unfavorable reviews and realized that we hadn't left a review after our work with her. She may not be right for every dog but she was perfect for Yogi.

I will second what the previous reviewer wrote back in 2012. How I wish I had come across that…read morereview before scheduling Shelia to perform her "training" service with my dog. If I could only leave zero or negative starts on my review I would! To say that I was extremely upset and felt completely shamed upon her departure from our session is an understatement! DO NOT USE Sheila!!! I cannot express that enough! Apparently she also has 2 yelp pages and the name of her business website is misleading as it is not the same name as her actual business. (cards, paperwork etc is a different name) I will start by saying that my husband and I rescued a 1 year old German Shepherd whom we had for less than a week when we started researching dog training. We have countless years of experience with owning dogs and we already had 2 small/medium size neutered male dogs in our home upon adoption of the shepherd. However, since it had been quite a while since we had a large dog in our home we were in need of a refresher & some advice. We adopted an amazing shepherd. Smart, sweet, quick leaner and great addition to our family. Given that she was adopted, the transition amongst her to our small/medium neutered males started off challenging. The shepherd seemed to be on high alert, in full on attack mode to our boys. So for about the first 1-2 weeks we were cautious separating them all from each other for all of their own safety. It was stressful and I did feel desperate as it was rough on my husband and I playing musical dogs. So that was when my research continued and we were navigating towards in home dog training to curb the issue of what we believed was the shepherd's "small dog aggression". We came across Sheila's website, which is online as Ventura County Dog Training (not Sitting Pretty as she uses for the actual business name) and I reached out pleading my case via email. Sheila followed up with an hour long phone call which at the time we thought was a sign of good things to come. However during her phone call she went on and on about a very particular brand of dog food to which "she had no affiliation with" but that we needed to start feeding to the shepherd right away. We didn't give this too much thought and in the end our desperation lead to her coming to our home for a session. Both my husband and myself had to request a day off of work for our appointment. Since we work during the day and Shelia is against performing training in the evening and was somehow booked for many weeks in advance on the weekends we had no other choice. She was then 20 minutes late for our 12pm appointment, blaming her directions. However as we set the appointment over the phone days prior she had clearly stated she had in fact been in our neighborhood before and knew just exactly where and how to get there. Guess the streets magically moved from where she knew they were last LOL! As soon as she entered our home instantly she claimed our dog was looking "too" aggressive and was about to attack her. She claimed she has been in a yard with 3 dogs coming to attack her and the hair on the back of her neck was standing up making her feel the say way she did around those "3 attack dogs". That should have been our first major red flag since our shepherd loves everyone and everything meeting neighbors, children, family etc. She had NEVER showed signs of aggression other than we thought to our small dogs. But alas, she was newly adopted we didn't want to take our chances and continued on listening to Sheila's BS. I wont go into every single ridiculous detail, because it was all ridiculous and this will be the longest review in history. But in a matter of almost 3 hours all we had learned is that our Shepherd gets bored easily when not challenged. She spent most of her time wanting to lay down as there was NO ACTUAL TRAINING taking place. Sheila the "trainer" NEVER touched our dog, not even her leash ONCE. She only instructed my husband in a very rude and unprofessional way of how he should handle the dog. She advised us to never command the dog using her name, or touching the animal. She claimed "all dogs automatically come programmed to know the word sit once they are 8 weeks old" Really? That is beyond laughable!! Not every home even speaks the same language!! All session all we worked on was "SIT". To top it off she completely insulted my husband and I trying to dig into our background as to why we had so little patience. Really? So little patience? We spent 3 hours telling a dog to "SIT" not touching her, not showing her the action not even allowed to look her in the eye! Of course we were losing patience! So was our dog! About 80% of the session was also again as was on the first phone call to preach to that us we purchase a very specific brand of dog food. She kept reiterating "she had no connection to the company at all but to mention her name when purchasing to get a better discount". That is such an insult to our intelligence I can let yo

I had to chase Shelbi down to get an assessment for doggy daycare, I've asked multiple times - and…read morehonestly I never had a chance to book with them. She answered all my questions during the assessment/in take. Staff all seemed very nice! We would have loved to get my pup in. :( I asked I think 3x for price packaging on doggy daycare with a promise to provide, but I still don't know how much daycare packages are. Im also surprised that no other staff member were able to provide this information; it was all vectored through Shelbi, and texting her directly. Initially, I was more understanding about the delay in response, but this has been on going for over a month. We had a tentative schedule for a complimentary half day, Shelbi said she'd "let the staff know", but there was no followup? At this point, I'm taking it Shelbi doesn't want my business. Wish it would have worked out, but this was disappointing and sad. I hope to try again one day and revise the review, seems like a really good place to take your pup.

Great staff there who really care about the dogs. Dog baths are available too, which is really…read moreconvenient.