I am thoroughly pleased with Pawtopia as an organization. I have had the pleasure of working with both Andrea and Jake, and will be meeting Colleen this week. We have also used both group classes and one-on-one training from their selection of services.
Andrea came out to our home for some one-on-one training and we were very pleased with how much she was able to cover in just the short hour we had together. Prior to her arrival, she was easy to get in touch with (both email and phone) and didn't make me feel the need to rush our conversation. She advised us to make a list before our appointment with her so we could stay on task and get more covered during our time with her. We did just that and were very concerned that we had way too much on our list. But somehow, we covered it all! We were able to go over proper leash walking which included a leisurely walk around our neighborhood. During this walk, issues we were having with Riley (our pup) surely arose and she addressed each and every one of them; these issues included Riley eating anything and everything, poor listening, terrible leash walking, proper praising of going potty to encourage house-breaking, etc. Once we were done with our walk, we came back inside and had about a 15 minute "meet" with our cats. We had been struggling with balance in the household among the three animals since Riley's adoption which was seriously impeding on Riley's inside time only leading to further problems like pushing off proper house-breaking, etc. She somehow managed to cover all of this and more during our short one hour and she did it with such grace and compassion. At no point did I feel impatient to move onto the next thing to make sure we could fit our massive list into a one hour appointment. Andrea made great use of our time together and is clearly compassionate about her job. Only a day or two after our appointment with her, I sent her a rather lengthy email regarding some relatively new issues that quickly arose with Riley and she returned a lengthy email back to me. She not only assisted us in the issue we sought her help in, but she also reassured us as dog owners that we were doing the right thing and were not alone. She truly cares about her job and the people/dogs she helps.
Riley and I are currently meeting with Jake for Basic Obedience group classes weekly and we have had four classes together so far. Jake is equally compassionate about helping fellow dog owners in addition to setting our dogs up for success. He is very easy to approach and I felt no hesitancy to speak up and ask questions if I didn't understand something (this is big for me as I have major social anxiety). Jake is very clear in his instruction and is also more than willing to help if things aren't working out with your dog learning the commands. He seems to have endless tricks up his sleeve in the event that your dog isn't learning a command using a particular teaching method. He's also not afraid to have fun and laugh which is refreshing and makes the classes much more enjoyable. Sadly, I had to miss a class and reschedule it with another group and even though I will still attend that class, Jake offered his assistance to me one-on-one the following week 20 minutes before class. During that time, he calmly and slowly went over what we had missed and in that short amount of time I felt caught up despite not having met with the other group yet. Furthermore, he has spent a few minutes after two of our classes to support me in some problem areas I have been having with Riley, some of which are not covered in class. My point is, Jake is there for you and your dog, even beyond the group class setting. And he is happy to do so! I have some personal matters I needed help with regarding Riley being an Emotional Support Animal and I was struggling with finding accurate information and further training in my area and asked for Jake's help. He assured me that he would speak with his colleagues and reach back out to me with some possible solutions; he did just that. He even remembered to bring it up with me during the next class even though I forgot. So not only does Jake do a superb job at his group training classes, but he is also amazing one-on-one. I am happy to say that Riley has a success ratio that I wouldn't have dreamed of prior to beginning Jake's class (Riley has won 2 group challenges, too!). Jake has seriously created a foundation for my dog to succeed in all of the lessons taught and provided the necessary, and proven to work, fundamental teaching methods so that we can all come out victorious. Riley and I are already enrolling in the next level class because he has done so well in Jake's class!
In all honesty, Pawtopia stands above and beyond anything I've seen before or even expected.
And I want to give my most sincerest THANK YOU to both Jake and Andrea. Riley, my boyfriend, and I are thriving because of you! read more