It has been a few years since we have utilized this service. Our dog was 2 years old and is now 9 years old and our pride and joy. The most well behaved and mellow companion you could hope for. Our beautiful dog; Boom was 2 years old and had reached the (protect mommy stage) she wanted to fight any dog in my vicinity- if they threatened me or not We were told that our dog was beyond help, they would not even allow her into any sort of training. After hearing that, we were devastated, thinking we were never going to have a dog we could take to the Farmers Market or to any other event, never have a well socialized dog. When we asked Carmen to step in...she asked to come to our Home to evaluate Boom. No charge!! AMAZING!! Who comes to your home like that?!?! She obviously cared! She came and spent time with our dog and after her evaluation, told us that Boom was not unusual, she just needed "lead aggressive" training....she was right. Once a week for 6 weeks, we took the classes and conquered our girl's aggression. Although it has been 6 years, the amazing effects are lasting. Carmen is the leader is training!! PLEASE: You cannot give up on your dog, they can change.... Carmen will help you to help your dog. She is kind of tough but dang, she is GOOD! Go see her, let her help. read more

Way To Behave - I may be a "Bully" but obviously a misunderstood lover, too. - Pet Training Near Me

We have been doing private training with Carmen to help our rowdy dog learn some manners. Not only has she provided solutions that work, she is also helping us understand what our dog needs to be mentally and physically fulfilled. She is flexible and accommodating to our funky schedule, which is amazing. We're so thankful to work with her and are looking forward to learning even more! Us and our dog are all so much happier now. read more

Way To Behave - Our dog practicing "wait" for a photo. - Pet Training Near Me

My spouse and I were looking for some help with leash reactivity with our dane/mastiff pup. Carmen provided us clear instructions and skills we could employ to help with training in this area. It was really helpful to have in-the-moment coaching and the skills have really stuck with our dog and are working well! Consistency is key, and so we keep the training skills going every day. We highly recommend Carmen! read more

Way To Behave - Pet Training Near Me

Carmen has been fantastic. We ordered 8 private sessions for my two dogs, a pure-bred Havanese and a mixed-breed rescue. Both dogs had a lot of unique issues, but we covered a lot of ground (door greetings, sit/down stays, heel, leash manners, crate training, paw handling / nail trimming)​. These sessions are as much for training the owner as training the pooch, so not only have we made massive improvements on a whole range of behaviors: we have also developed the skills to reinforce ADDITIONAL behaviors. A lot of this work is owner-directed, so you definitely have to put in the time and work in between sessions, but it is AMAZING what you can accomplish having someone with Carmen's training working directly with you and your unique animals in your own home. A+, 10/10. read more

I started working with Carmen in February. My dog has some pretty severe anxiety when it comes to meeting new people and dogs. Our training focuses on building his confidence so he can face those new situations without stress. The knowledge that Carmen shares on how to handle his type of reactive behavior has been so helpful and I've started seeing an entirely different dog. He used to get anxious at night and has begun to calm down as his confidence continues to grow. I really appreciate the lessons and would recommend Carmen if you have a shy and anxious dog. read more

If your dog needs help, Carmen is the one to call! We consulted her when we got a rescue during Covid. The dog had been found roaming for about a week and consequently was very aggressive. Carmen's training of our dog (and us--what we should n shouldn't do) was immensely helpful in helping our pup to adjust to our busy household. She also helped us find and train our subsequent dog, from puppyhood. After being with her for a short time, she literally had him jumping through hoops! We highly recommend Carmen...a dog whisperer right here in Vancouver! read more

This is a warning for anyone looking for a SD trainer in SW WA. You may be OK with her if your disabilities are physical only. If you're dealing with ASD or other psychiatric/neurological issues, I would recommend avoiding Way to Behave/Carmen LeBlanc as a trainer (although I think the issues we encountered are unacceptable & unprofessional for anyone). Her communication is difficult at best and she disregarded and dismissed my needs despite me disclosing them. After waiting 2 weeks for our 1st appointment for our son's ESA (after many months and multiple communications regarding our upcoming training needs for a SD and ESA), she never provided details of the location for the session or anything we needed to provide or expect. When I emailed her the night before to find out that info, I also reminded her that my child's OCD would not allow us to work inside our home yet and we hadn't gotten our fence up yet. She replied the next morning, 45 min before the appointment, stating we should come to her home for the appointment. I ran out the door to make it and didn't respond. She texted me 5 min before the appt and asked if we were coming. I replied that we were almost there. When we arrived, she was in a bathrobe and was clearly NOT happy to see us and made a flippant passive aggressive comment about not even knowing if we were keeping the appointment. I'm autistic and was frazzled from racing there with a manic giant puppy and my son. This "greeting", which continued after we came in the house with more comments about not knowing if we were coming, were visibly upsetting me. She said she was going to get dressed but kept pushing me to tell her what was wrong. I told her I'd be OK but she kept pushing. She blamed me repeatedly for "complaining" when I simply was answering her questions - I told her I was frazzled because I was racing there with little notice and no idea what to expect (this she declared was complaining that she didn't respond fast enough and she blamed me for expecting too much), She blamed me for her not being able or willing to keep track of her client's info (that due to my child's issues we can't work in our home, that I'm autistic too, that I need clear communication). She blamed me for becoming emotional as I shed a couple quiet tears (I was not irate or "emotional" in any negative sense, I was simply talking to her to have her understand that I was not even complaining at that point, just answering her questions about what was causing me to be upset in the moment). She blamed me for not responding to her instructions to meet at her house when it wasn't phrased as a question. She did all of this in front of my son. In the end she told us to leave as "we weren't a good fit". I'm sure avoiding working with her will be a good thing in the end, but I hope no one ever has to deal with what I did. read more

I loved Carmen's teaching style. She was totally non-judgmental in her approach even when I repeatedly did a process wrong. Her corrections were very clear and led to success for me and my pup. Her 10 basic tips for training were excellent and I referred back to them many times. Best of all were the follow up instructional sheets she provided for every training session. They were an excellent reminder of the right way to train the desired behavior. Feeling overwhelmed after a series of 6 puppy classes, she turned the experience of training a puppy totally around! Five star rating!! read more

I reached out to Carmen to get some advice on a recently adopted dog that we were having issues with (isolation anxiety, separation anxiety, etc.) Carmen responded quickly with a knowledgeable, empathic, and kind email, which I can't express how much it meant to us, especially compared to how the rescue has made us feel through this difficult time. Her recommendation and support helped us make the right decision. I would highly recommend Carmen and her services and I will definitely be contacting her with our next dog. Thank you! read more

We started private sessons for our large German Shepherd to work on his on leash reactivity. We are seeing results and we are pleased with the instruction we are getting from Carmen. She follows up after each session with handouts so we can review and practice. We are really pleased and we confidently reccomend way to Behave/Carmen LeBlanc. read more

Just as a rebuttal to the former reviews; I have three large breed dogs (each over 150 lbs) all of whom have been trained with Carmen's help. While they all have quite different personality types, and idiosyncrasies, She was able to help me with each of them. She was always very clear with her instructions. She helped me better understand my dogs' personalities, and refine how I was working with them. It was made very clear upfront that what I could expect to see in terms of results would definitely be proportionate to the time I was putting into working with the dogs, both with her and after our sessions. Certainly, there is no "magic bullet", but I have much better adjusted and happy, calm dogs now in large part to Carmen's help. Additionally, The dogs all enjoyed working with Carmen and would get excited to see her when she would come for our sessions, even my fearful/shy female. I think my dogs' validation of her is probably the most important point of this review. read more

Do not recommend. We made an appointment for our puppy that is struggling with resource guarding. It took 3 weeks to get an appointment and she was 30+ minutes late. The entire appointment she was talking, mostly about other dogs or behaviors that we were not focused on. She did not listen or ask us about the behavior problem, she just said she read our file. She didn't work with our puppy almost at all during the entire 90 minutes. She kept saying what we would work on in future appointments and trying to be a salesman rather than give us helpful information during the current appointment. At the end of the appointment she told us that we went over the 90 minutes and she charged us extra without warning us and she was talking, not us. We were told we could pay by credit and when it was time to pay she said she didn't have a card reader that day. We wrote a check and it took over 2 weeks to come out of our account. Overall terrible customer service, but mostly just a waste of our time and we did not learn anything to help our puppy with resource guarding. read more