Every dog owner needs to hire Sidewalk Dog Training including experienced dog owners! After our two 14yr old furbabies passed away, we decided to attempt to fill some of the void by fostering. We've been around all types of dogs and our dogs were rescues from unfortunate circumstances so I felt confident about our abilities to be effective fosters. Unfortunately, this was not the case. We did not learn that our first foster pup was super aggressive until we brought in a second foster dog. The second dog is timid and gentle, and our first foster became very aggressive and territorial. His behaviors were challenging and became scary. He started getting aggressive toward us when we tried redirecting him from his negative behaviors. After he attacked and bit the new foster dog on the face and neck, we knew we had to get professional help. Thank goodness for Sidewalk Dog Training and David! David was reassuring from the start and approaches his work with an asset-based mindset. He is incredibly knowledgeable and loves what he does! David was patient and took the time to answer all of my millions of questions. He quickly identified our dog's needs and what is causing him to be aggressive and anxious. We learned how our body language was miscommunicating expectations which exacerbated our dog's behavior. He demonstrated skills and had us practice them. Everything was broken down thoughtfully with the reasoning behind the action. David provides resources including his book, visuals, and breed specific activities and tools, as well as regular check-ins and communication with additional resources. I could go on and on about our experience...!!! THE RESULTS: Truly miraculous! You would've never known our foster dog was aggressive. He is super loving and affectionate. He plays and goes on walks with his foster brother, and they can ride in the car together for regular outdoor adventures and road trips. He no longer views his foster brother as a threat. Consistently utilizing the skills we learned from David has eliminated any signs of previous behaviors. If any negative behaviors start creeping back in, we are able to reflect and identify our behavior and inconsistencies that may be triggering it so that we can quickly address it. Also, David is always willing to provide additional support as needed! A massive weight has been lifted from our shoulders! It feels empowering to be able to support our foster dogs and ensure they feel secure and loved... So much so that we made the decision that this will be their furever home! As someone who did extensive research and had multiple conversations with dog trainers in the area, I can confidently tell you that David is who you need to hire. Don't hesitate because it will drastically improve the quality of you and your furbabies life just like it did ours! read more

We wanted a one on one trainer for our puppy, Lily, that would come to our home. I found David Shmucker (Sidewalk Training) through Angie's List and sent him an email asking for an appointment. He sent a confirmation email and some pre-reading materials that we found very helpful. He also asked what we hoped to accomplish during the visit. I sent a long list :) . He schedules 3 hour sessions for $395. David arrived promptly and immediately set to work with me and our 2 teenaged kids. If you have ever watched Cesar Milan on Dog Whisperer - David uses Cesar's techniques and, holy cow!, it was if David was channeling Cesar. David was able to have our extremely hyper, out of control dog lay calmly by his side while he educated us on dog behavior for over an hour. My children and I were stunned. The information he shared was most interesting and even my 14 and 16 year old kids were enthralled. And it just got better and better from there. We each learned how to walk Lily without her dragging us to and fro. It's pure joy to walk with her now. Lily also has an affinity for socks and underwear and would get a hold of our clothing with a vise grip. it would take us forever to get her to let go. David managed to have her release the object on her own within minutes. We have been able to duplicate his techniques without any trouble at all. David gives you a training collar and a bag of treats as part of the package. He demonstrates the techniques with your dog and then helps you learn the technique by doing. We also purchased ($20) a dog toy from him that has been very helpful in engaging Lily's prey drive, which is a great way to exercise her and releases some of her pent up energy. David is available for phone consultations the life of the dog. So far everything he showed us is working perfectly with our pup - making life with Lily exponentially more enjoyable. Of course, it takes each of us being consistent in the training, but Lily gets the point very quickly and it sticks. Some may worry about the $395 price tag - but it is worth every penny. How much would you pay to turn your out of control crazy dog into a delight in a rather short amount of time? I highly recommend David and we will definitely be calling him when we get our second pup next year. read more

David truly helped our family! We adopted a large breed dog named, Zook. Our beloved 13 year old mixed lab died last year. This was our first adventure with an "older" dog as our first was adopted as a pup at only 8 weeks old. Our current dog was young but (after a broken canine tooth, we were told he was 1 year old) came with some anxiety and issues from never having been in one home for very long. He had separation and stranger anxiety, many things scared him and he would ferociously bark at people/us when closeby. He was a velcro dog (still a work in progress), a lunger on walks, and did not have the best listening skills. We were in desperate need of a trainer to help us Zook before he destroyed our house and continued to hurt himself (noted above, broken canine tooth). Luckily I came across David's name and all of the glowing recommendations his clients had written, all of which were true. David came to our house and really helped us understand our dog's fears and anxiety- what was causing it and how to handle. Our two younger sons really liked David's hands on approach to training and were eager to help out. Usually his clients only need one home visit but we did need to follow up with him, which he was so understanding and asked us to come to his home. He immediately found the root of the cause for the continued anxiety (velcro behavior had not been addressed). Since that last appointment we have had minimal issues but if we see some bad behaviors popping up we now know how to handle them. David was great in following up every few days after our training session, to check on how things were going. He also continues to send great articles on training tips on similar behaviors our dog had. He is quick to respond to any email or call and we feel so relieved to know he is always a call or email away if we run into further problems. He knows dogs! He can really help anyone who has been struggling to completely enjoy their sweet dog. There is no reason for either the pet or the owner to live in discord when there is a simple solution. I highly recommend Sidewalk Dog Training and will continue to sing David's praises to all of our friends and neighbors. Thanks so much David- Zook thanks you too. read more

Absolutely worth it. I was a little skeptical at first that so much could be achieved with one three-hour appointment, and wasn't sure I wanted to spend the money to hire a private trainer. I am SO glad we did. David has a gift with dogs and really helped us with our 1.5 year old mixed breed Penny. We fostered her and, after adopting her, she started becoming more aggressive towards other dogs and also more disrespectful towards us (jumping, pawing at us, barking loudly, stealing food, helping herself to furniture, etc). After trying a group training class, which was making things worse, we found David. Turns out, the other advice we had been given was not the best advice for Penny. He quickly did an analysis of her and, with almost spooky precision, was able to predict her behavior. He then explained so much to us about who dogs are and how we need to behave to encourage positive behaviors and discourage negative ones, and answered so many questions we had about our particular dog. It was so helpful. We are a week removed from our session with David, and Penny's behavior is much better. We have passed dogs that were lunging at Penny and barking at her, and she has walked by without even paying it any mind. She also now lets us sleep and waits for us to get up (hallelujah), instead of pawing at us beginning at 5:30am, and doesn't jump up on furniture without being invited. She has had the occasional set-back, and barked at a dog here and there, but it is much more infrequent and now we know how to handle it. Long story short: Make the investment in this for your own sake and your dogs. You will both be happy you did! read more

I contacted David after reading reviews on Angie's list. He was very professional and askd many questions about Oreo's behavior. He explained his fee, his training method and promptly set up an appt to come to the house. The session is a one time three hour session but goes by very fast. David arrived on time and spent time observing Oreo and talking with me about dog behavior , what he was observing, how I unwittingly played a role in the annoying behaviors and how to change it. He is very nice and extremely good with animals and people. His is very knowlegeable about animal behavior as well. My dog Oreo responded to him immediately. It was fascinating to see the change in behaviors so quickly. Most of the training is done through body language and rewarding good behavior. Once you understand how the dog is thinking, the commands (body language and a few verbal) make sense. By the end of the session, Oreo was walking nicely on a leash and following my commands the first or second time. It has now been several weeks and I am still seeing excellent results. I have to continue to be consistent but this training has been a life saver for me. Oreo is much more responsive to commands and overall calmer in general. David also followed up to see how everything was going and gave me plenty of materials and resources to review what he had taught Oreo and I. His fee includes a follow up visit within thirty days if needed as well as lifetime email, phone follow up. Well worth the money and time invested. I highly reco read more

I had my training with David just over a month ago and the training really stuck with my rescue dog. I had an overall great experience with David, you can tell he really understands dogs. Part of the reason that I went with David over a traditional dog school is that teaching my dog tricks like "sit" and "stay" was fairly easy, but I liked David's method of teaching the dog that you're the "pack leader" which helps more in the long-term. He taught me and my boyfriend how to use a show collar (used for show dogs) properly and humanely. As far as cost and convenience goes, it balanced out for me to go with David for a more personalized training experience than to pay for multiple Ubers/Lyfts for a 6-week group class. We were able to work on several behaviors with my dog, including leash pulling and reactivity with other dogs on walks, chewing blankets/his leash/clothes/sometimes people, jumping on people/couches (without permission), and whining when someone leaves the room (something I didn't even think about fixing). While some other things will require ongoing training on my part, David gave me the tools to keep working on them and I can already see the results, and he makes himself available by phone/email for the life of the dog. Overall, I have nothing but positive things to say about the experience! read more

David helped us a lot with our young, rescued mixed-breed dog. She is a shy, anxious dog and shows her anxiety by lunging and barking at strangers, so we were afraid she might hurt someone if we didn't get things under better control. David came and worked with our family, including kids ages 9 and 12, to understand both the theory behind her unwanted behaviors and the specific things we should do to change the behaviors. David covers a lot of ground in that 3-hour session, but it is possible to absorb most of it because of the way he teaches. Specifically, he is clear with the instructions, he offers tools and written resources to help and remind us what to do, he models what we should do and has us practice while he's there to correct our mistakes, and he makes himself available for follow-up questions. We have seen big differences in our dog, starting almost immediately after working with David about three weeks ago. She now knows her place in the house, takes walks without pulling the way she used to, and is obeying commands like "stay" that she used to ignore. She is a more respectful dog, and on the way to becoming calm and well behaved all the time. In addition to all of that, David is very professional and easy to work with - he does what he says he will do. Highly recommended. read more

I cannot say enough good things about David and his training methods. After only three hours in our house (about half of which was just with the humans, not even involving the dogs), our two dogs are much better behaved, and we are much more in charge and comfortable with them. We have two rescue dogs, one is seven years old and the other just a year. They are both affectionate but neither listened. They were hard to walk, pulling on the leash, getting on the furniture, etc. David showed us in a few short hours how to understand how the dogs think and how we could act like "pack leaders" that our dogs could follow. The results were nothing short of remarkable after only a few short hours. In fairness, David's methods might be more appropriately called "owner training" rather than "dog training," but the point is that they worked. The dogs and the humans are all much happier and more comfortable together. We were worried that we would have to endure weeks of training at great expense with some other service, and we are thrilled that we have the dogs we wanted after only a few hours. Cost was extremely reasonable. $499 for one dog, another $100 to add the second dog, and we also bought a chase toy from David. Highly recommended. read more

I give my unreservedly highest recommendation possible for David and Sidewalk Dog Training. Having a strong bond with your dog is not a "nice to have;" it is essential for the happiness, well-being and health of both you and your dog. When we welcome a new furry family member into the home, it may not always be easy. With David's support, I am fully confident that whatever problems you have, there is a way through. I know this because David helped us through a very challenging time. In the process of fostering two dogs, I was faced with significant aggression issues. Little did I know, David's guidance showed me just how seriously I was exacerbating the situation. My actions weren't expressing to my dog the confidence that he needed to truly become himself. And that is the beauty in what David provides: the tools, knowledge and confidence to be the leader your dog wants you to be, so they can be themselves, and live in a happy family unit in harmony. So, while I went into the training looking for ways to "control my dog," David truly provided me the knowledge and understanding to control myself, and be the leader that my dog needs. I cannot thank him enough, nor recommend him enough. read more

David was easy to work with, easy to schedule, and very friendly and professional. I will admit I was skeptical at first - as it was not what I was thinking of when I first thought about training for our rescue dog Charlie(7 month old mixed breed puppy). Charlie had issue with street noise, pulling on the leash, jumping up on people, the sofa and the bed. David's time with us was invaluable. He explained to us in an easy to digest manner all aspects of things such as why it was happening, how we can change it, and what to do. He provided us a new way of looking at things when it came to our relationship with our dog. I will admit that I was a little overwhelmed with the information at first, but the way that it was presented made it easy to follow and remember. David also provides follow up videos, guides, and ta book, which have all been helpful resources. It's also nice to know that he is only a phone call away should we run into any issues. And I suppose the most important part --- Charlie has responded well to the training. We are continuing to work on the things David presented us with in the training. And it just keeps getting better. read more

We got a rescue dog a few months ago who was having some issues with aggression, dominant behavior, and walking on a leash. David was everything we could have asked for in a trainer. We called 40 trainers in the DC area- literally- before we decided on him, and are so glad we did. If you are in the D.C. area and have ever thought of hiring a trainer, this is the guy. If you aren't sure about whether you want a trainer, give David a call and just talk about your situation. When you do, you'll know immediately, like I did, why he is the one to hire. He knows his stuff and is worth every dime. The best thing about David and his work? He trained us on how to speak dog. It's a language every dog owner should understand, and most do not. He helped us help our dog, and we are so grateful. Have him do the same for you! read more

David is simply a magician. We started him with our young puppy, a Beagle/Pekingnese mix, when he was just a few months old. Even though the dog is still developing at that point, David patiently and expertly explained how to communicate with the dog in a way he can understand, and in a way that will ultimately help shape good behavior. His system is very easy to understand, he explains it in a friendly way, and best of all, it works! Our puppy is extremely well behaved, and he's gets better and better the more we use David's training. We wholeheartedly recommend him to anyone looking to train their pup! read more

I see our experience in the reviews of others. We got a darling rescue dog but she behaved terribly; and we were sadly thinking about giving her back when our daughter suggested getting a trainer and sent us a link to Sidewalk Dog Training. David came that evening and our dog responded immediately to him. In fact, she fell asleep at his feet in 20 minutes, while David trained us to be alpha dogs. Our session lasted 2.5 hours, and we learned so much. We are now alpha dogs and our pet is a happy beta dog, and she is now a wonderful member of our household. read more

We adopted a dog in July, who had some undesirable behaviors that we needed help fixing, so we called in David for guidance. He was able to identify the problem immediately and help us in correcting it very quickly. Also, he comes to his first session with a ton of information that help you understand your dog and how to train them appropriately. By the end of our first session we felt so much more empowered and confident in our own abilities as "dog parents." I would highly recommend him to any one who is feeling discouraged with their dog's behavior! read more

Dave pulled up to our house just as I was quite literally hosing off blood on one dog's ear after they fought over food. I was thinking we'd have to rehome or maybe even put down one of the dogs. Dave confidently told me "That won't be happening anymore." Well, he's right. The dogs snuggle on the couch now instead of fighting and my husband and I know how to handle their behavior. We can't thank him enough. Can I also add that Dave works really well with special needs families? Is there nothing this man can't do?! Dave for President! read more

I cannot recommend David's training enough! A big weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I've seen a huge change in my puppy's behavior since our sessions. Instead of repetitive obedience training, he helped me understand why my puppy was misbehaving in certain ways and how to teach her to stop in ways she could understand. He is patient and professional and reassured me that any issue can be worked through. Huge thanks to David and highly recommend his sessions for all dog owners! read more

David is excellent at what he does. We used him after we got our first dog, and I only now realize what a difference his techniques made after having gotten a second dog that we failed to correct. The second training session (years later with 2 dogs) was even better than the first...the insight, practical techniques, product recommendations, training videos and manual that he provides are invaluable for any dog owner. read more

SO impressed! We had a training session today with David and already our dog seems so different. She is very calm and content, and while she normally would have barked many times at various noises throughout the evening, tonight she hasn't made a peep! We learned so much in 3 hours and I can't wait to implement everything. We finally understand how to effectively communicate with our dog. Very happy! read more

We are so pleased with our training session from David. Our Oakey is a 2 year old Beagle/Jack Russell mix and seemed to want to be in charge of his new rescue Dad and Mom, rather than the other way around! After our encounter with David, Oakey is now obedient, happy and a joy to take on walks and beyond! The best 3 hours we've ever spent. We would heartily recommend! read more