A Better Dog Trainer

We have a wonderful Lab mix that we adopted at 2 y/​o. She was/​is great with people, gentle with kids and generally pretty good… Except we could not control her around animals (esp. deer, cats and squirrels all around where we live) and if food was present all bets were off – she is the epitome of chow hound. So, our first instinct was to do treat training, but we came to find out that she would respond wonderfully, as long as we had the treats, but when we ran out, she was back to the same old tricks.
We wanted John to train her out of those behaviors, however – as he told us and we soon came to learn – he doesn’t really train the dog as much as the people. The focus of his work became teaching us how to interact with the dog, consistently, in a manner that would reward positive behavior, but without the treats and gently punish to dissuade poor behavior. Its known as the alpha approach and it works! It works, in part because its addressing the animal’s instinctual behavior and interactions with humans. We worked with John several years ago and could not be happier with the outcome.
John is a quintessential professional – competent and very knowledgeable about many aspects of animal behavior, and a real pleasure to work with. He’s also smart, funny and engaging, the kind of guy you want to have a beer with… or better yet, invite into your home to help you with your dog’s difficult behaviors. I could not recommend or endorse anyone more than I do John.

John Vinton is amazing! Recently we adopted a two year old German Shepherd mix named Barney. He was found on the side of a road after being hit by a car with a broken hip. Barney was brought to a high-​kill shelter and was going to be put down until The Milo Foundation in Berkeley rescued him and raised money for his surgery. He was an automatic great match for our older dog, Fred, so we adopted him. Unfortunately, like a lot of rescues, Barney had some serious aggression issues. We were desperate to get help. We spoke to a dozen trainers and weren’t impressed with their quoting prices and monotone and money focused answers. And then we randomly found John Vinton. He was friendly and knowledgeable and spent a huge amount of time on the phone with us. He listened to every detail and was so nice… right away my husband and I liked him. Our dogs are our children and mean the world to us so finding the right person means everything. Well, our instincts were right. John is experienced and very special. Aside from being a dog whisperer, he’s a people whisperer too. He puts huge heart and time into his work and the dogs are magnetic to his unique ways. John is charming and organized and funny and makes the training process a happy, fun experience. He spends a lot of time talking/​explaining but even more time listening. And before throwing a million demands at us or the dogs, he strategically pieces our problems together. He leaves each session with us feeling confident and optimistic and of course, with a lot of homework! Without John, I don’t know if we would have been able to go through this process; we were really at a loss and felt very alone. Today, Barney jumps easily in and out of our car, his recall is phenomenal and we can now take him to the off leash Berkeley Marina daily, we can walk our older dog, Fred, in the neighborhood without one single treat which is a miracle! But like all of us, our dogs are a work in progress and John is the only trainer for us. We HIGHLY recommend him and I know your dogs will be happy too. All of us, especially Barney and Fred give John five wagging tails up!

John Vinton is an expert dog trainer. I highly recommend him.
He worked with us and our Scottish terrier to overcome a serious issue with crazy, outrageous behavior and barking at other dogs. We surmised that our puppy became fear-​aggressive in part due to an accidental death of our older Scottie. Perhaps she had to step up and be the «protector» when she really wasn’t ready for it.
Anyway, John has a very well thought out and executed training program that includes multiple visits to our home and walks with our dog in our neighborhood so he could see exactly what was happening. John’s methods are kind and gentle to both dog and owner and I rate them highly effective.
A lot of what we learned had to do with making sure our dog has an appropriate place in the human world she lives in. Some of the training tips are surprisingly easy to implement. However, if you embark on a serious training regimen with your dog, do expect to spend time each day on the project and it will be more than worth it.
A lot of what we did was basic obedience assisted in great part by John’s knowledge and guidance. We also spent a lot of time walking our dog in areas where she would meet other dogs. It was extremely difficult at first as she would be crazy, out of control around other dogs. The big breakthrough came after a number of weeks of slow improvement (the outrageous behavior was moderating). John had our dog on leash and suddenly came up on another dog. John intuitively could see that the other dog was friendly so he had our dog approach (all on leash), and the two dogs had a wonderful time sniffing around.
Even though our Scottie can still bark and act anxious when another dog approaches, if we permit her to get close, the encounters have always turned out positive.
Thanks to John’s coaching and gentle persuasion we have learned to trust that our dog really wants to get to know other dogs and she enjoys the interaction. I believe she is on the road to calm behavior around other dogs thanks to John Vinton.