Antonia is a sage and there is a special place in dog heaven for her. There are a LOT of dog…read moretrainers out there and Antonia is the pinnacle of calm, clear, loving, and knowledgeable. She set exacting, compassionate, and non-judgmental limits for our dog, and for us, in training our pup. I rescued an almost one year old Shepherd. Since I raised other dogs in my life, I would be competent to train this one too, right? Nope. My shepherd is smart and sweet, but also intense, loud, and insecure. She bared her teeth at every dog we saw, went into barking conniptions over most moving things (squirrels, yes, but hummingbirds?!), and threw whining tantrums if she couldn't be playing off leash with my children everywhere. Antonia expertly taught me how to set and communicate clear directions and limits with my dog via positive praise and feedback. She has rescued and rehabilitated far more difficult dogs than my own and will use her own dogs to help your dog learn too. If you are looking for a dictatorial trainer who will teach your dog to tremble under your authority, keep on looking. If, however, you seek a **brilliant woman who understands the nuances of dogs and people** and who guides you into a loving canine relationship where your dog respects and adores you, call Antonia. My whole family, and dog, are smitten with her.

Antonia is the best! She has helped me SO much with my dog Douglas. Any behavioral issue he had,…read moreAntonia had a solution. It's not just about obedience, but helping my dog live his best life! I can't recommend "The Spirited Canine" enough!

I called Torie to help me with a very high energy, anxious rescue cattle dog mix. This dog had been…read moreadopted and returned multiple times with a grab bag of issues that made her too difficult to live with. She turned this dog around with plans for mental and physical enrichment and taught her alternate behaviors that have her owners swooning over her. Torie is a credentialed, excellent, and experienced dog trainer and teacher of the human half of the team. She uses humane, scientific and evidence-based techniques to modify behavior and has a true gift for making the process fun and rewarding for the creatures at either end of the leash. Torie has the ability to work with all kinds of behavior issues, from correctly socializing puppies, to helping fearful dogs, to reactivity. She has the education and a wealth of experience to take on any challenge. She is skilled, kind and very caring. Your dog and you could not be in better hands than with Torie. I recommend Diamond Dogs to anyone looking for the very best training support there is.

My biggest concern when searching for pet care is whether or not I can trust them to care for my…read morefurry family member. Rarely do I feel they will care as much as I do. Most often I rely on reviews to make sure a pet has not been mistreated. That is not the case with Diamond Dogs! This business cares about your pet. The owner puts her heart into this business because she loves pets as much as you. You can trust that when your pup is with Diamond Dogs, they are in the best hands possible!

Owner and trainer, Caroline is also a psychologist, in addition to being a dog trainer, and this…read moregives her an upper hand (paw?), though she doesn't use her knowledge like that! ;) She really understands group dynamics, how to approach both owners and dogs in a way that's respectful and also gets the job done! Immediately, within the first hour of our working together, we noticed changes in our dogs' barking behavior! Like a good therapist, she goes at the pace of the dog, rather than pushing or dominating over the dog, and that produces immediate results that we have been able to sustain with repeated efforts. City Dog, Country Dog also hosts camps for you and your dog/s in addition to individual training, and, as dog lovers, we hope to attend one soon. I can't recommend Caroline at City Dog, Country Dog highly enough!!!

It took me a long time before finding the right trainer for me and my dog, I've look into…read moredog-trainers in Portland and I found a lot of them, I interviewed them all and I felt that Caroline was the right fit immediately. First she took the time to jump on a call with me for about 30 minutes to answer my questions. I saw her total 4 hours on a period of 6 months and I can honestly say that she changed our life. She is an amazing dog-trainer, she understands them, she respects them and she's also very good with human which is not always the case with dog trainer. We have a 2 years old male shiba-inu that was getting out of control, extremely scared of new people and other dogs, he would growl at almost anyone we would walk near by. He also growled at us. We were desperate when we called her and she helped us on a way I can't every describe. She gave us methods to gain his trust and make him feel more confident, she explained to us how he was thinking and why he was acting the way he did. It just changed everything. After few months of training he completely changed. Not only he doesn't growl anymore but we were able to bring people over for the first time in months, but also our entire relationship changed with him. He began to like being cuddled, he's way more obedient and he trust us more.We built a connexion with our dog that we never had before. When I say that we were desperate I mean it, I was even afraid to take my dog out. What Caroline did for us is priceless. Plus she is an amazing human-being and we feel so grateful we met her. Seriously don't think twice before calling her, she is amazing and she will help you through any kind of problems.

Maritza at West Coast Canine Connections is a very competent and knowledgeable trainer. I am so…read morepleased with how my dog's behavior has changed. When I first contacted Maritza my dog was aggressive toward people and dogs. Maritza helped me understand what was driving his behavior and she showed me how to train behaviors that he could do in place of his aggressive outbursts. I have the tools now to manage most situations and I am enjoying taking my dog for walks in public, on sidewalks, in parks and on forest trails. And on top of that all the training is kind and done without punishment. Carol M.

Wow, where do I start? Our pup was deathly afraid of everything, and had so much anxiety! Walking…read morehim was no fun because of his fear of people, cars, other dogs, bikes, etc.. We reached out to Maritza in hopes of her training help, and we are so happy we did! She is such a nice, down to earth, and very professional trainer who really knows her stuff! We learned so much about reducing our dogs triggers in order to teach him how to be more confident and have less anxiety. Her method for training is also really cool and very kind toward the dog. We learned that training requires patience but also persistence. The fee she charges is well worth it and we would for sure do it again! We are all going to miss her! Our pup is a much more confident and happy boy!

Trainers are very kind and willing to answer lots of questions. In group settings, they are very…read morethoughtful of the dynamics between the different dogs to allow more reactive dogs to feel safe and minimizing class disruptions for less reactive dogs. I love that it is a low pressure environment, but still offering many options to add complexity if we choose. It allows us to set our own pace and be as rigid or lax in our training as we choose, or to give our pup extra challenges. We have a dog that needs to be constantly challenged, so we have done a combination of behavior classes and "fun" classes (agility/tricks) and all have been great experiences. If we say it's "time for school" our dog perks up and sprints for the door, so she clearly loves her time there!

We just started puppy manners class (completed second class so far). This place is fabulous! Lucy…read moreis an excellent trainer. The class is small so the pups can really learn to focus. We've all learned so much in just 2 classes. What is really fabulous about HeDog training is the extensive variety of classes they offer for ongoing training. We are going to get our boy Roy thoroughly educated so he can be a good canine citizen and we can have peace of mind with a happy, well/ trained dog.

Plucky Puppy has been a lifesaver for me and my partner. Recently, we spontaneously adopted two…read morelabradoodle sisters from the same litter. After the fact, we got warned to spend a lot of time socializing them and training them separately if we didn't want them to develop a littermate syndrome. So, I loaded up on puppy socials, booking every social I could get my hands on at Wonder Puppy and Plucky Puppy. I booked over 35 socials for both of them to attend separately between the ages of 8 and 20 weeks. We also signed up for Plucky Puppy's Kinderpuppy class, and have hired the owner Katrin to board and train each puppy separately in her house one day a week per puppy for a couple of months. This review is for all 3 services we use: 1) Puppy Socials, 2) Private Training with Katrin and 3) Kinderpuppy School. I would rate Puppy Socials as 10/10, the private training with Katrin as 10/10 and the School as 8/10. Below is a breakdown of each service. Puppy Socials (10/10): I like them better than the other socials we go to because they involve the owners and teach the owners how to recognize and attune to the behavior and needs of their dog and understand the body language of all dogs involved in the activity. I really like the clear instructions for the owners and the constant narration the trainers are doing with the dogs as the dogs play. Other companies' socials have the owners step outside and look through a window, which is far less engaged and informative. Private Training with Katrin (10/10): I see a huge difference in each dog at the end of their training day with Katrin. They've learned so much we wouldn't have been able to teach them because 1) we're first time puppy owners and 2) we have two of them, which makes it extra challenging to train each if you don't know what they're doing. Katrin also spent time training our family with the two dogs present and working on separating the dogs into different room crates (we have them in separate crates but same room at home for the time being - working towards separating their crates into different rooms). Honestly, if our dogs keep up the trend of being good, sweet and trained dogs, it will all be because of Katrin. She's a life-saver. We are constantly getting compliments on how good our dogs are. Katrin also sends us multiple videos of each day's training and I love how she spends time socializing the dogs to different environments. Her kids love being part of the dog training, so we're getting a whole family involved in their care, which is amazing! Kinderpuppy School (8/10): Great training for dog parents and understanding how to communicate with your puppy and really attune to their needs, body language and emotions. Very hands on and interactive. The only reason I dinged the score a bit is that in the first few classes our school trainer waits for the late comers to arrive before starting class, which wastes valuable puppy attention span and fills up their belly with treats while they wait. The staff is extremely knowledgeable and attentive and I've already given them the feedback about starting on time and not waiting for people who are late, so I am hopeful this issue will be fixed going forward.

We (me, my husband, and our monster Buttons) adore Joanna at Plucky Puppy. She is a saint and so…read moreincredible to work with. Buttons has his fair share of issues (don't we all?) but her faith in his potential really helps me when it's an extra borky day. Her expert guidance has totally defined how we go about our day-to-day with him and she is always there to be our cheerleader or give me pointers when needed. And the fact that Plucky Puppy can take him in for a board and train makes everything so much easier when we need to travel-we know he is going to the best finishing school around.

My Belgian Malinois--German Shepherd dog and I worked with Poppy for about 6 months. I cannot…read morerecommend Poppy and Instinct enough! My pup has been dealing with reactivity towards strangers and dogs since I rescued her. Since our time spent with Poppy, I have had family and friends tell me she is a completely different dog. Poppy was incredibly patient with us and very attentive (plus my pup absolutely loved her). She aimed to understand our goals, ensured they were realistic for us and and helped us make great strides towards them. I also very much appreciated how empathetic and kind Poppy was when offering feedback. I learned a lot of effective strategies and tactics to help redirect my dog and give her alternative behaviors to choose. Poppy was right there with us celebrating every little milestone along the way. :) We are both now significantly more relaxed when we go out into the world. Poppy truly had an impact on our day-to-day life.

Poppy watched the dog for a bit and based her training on their actions. The dogs responded so well…read moreshe was excited on their progress. I loved the way she treated the dogs and taught me things to improve their barking.

Positive Solutions is THE best way to train your dog. Dawn Gilkinson is a great trainer of dogs and…read moredog owners. She provides online support, plus a training manual that is very helpful, along with in home visits that are so beneficial. We have one dog, a very enthusiastic puppy, and she has turned our frantic puppy into a well behaved young dog. I would highly recommend Positive Solutions to any one out there, rather their dog is a pup or older. With Positive Solutions, you can even teach an old dog better behaviors.

Dawn is a "Professional" in every sense of the word. She provides all the materials necessary to…read moreachieve your objectives. She is patient to a fault, and demonstrates everything you need to learn in order to train your dog. Golden Bond Rescue provided Dawn when I adopted my Golden Retriever, Chloe. There are many "Trainers" out there in the world...BUT only one Dawn. I will be using her services in the future when I reach the next level with Chloe. You can shop around...or, save yourself the hassle and contact Dawn...It's that simple. Respectfully, Mike Bischoff