Bark Busters Home Dog Training

It changed our life! It has not even been one week since Karen Gaines from Bark Busters visited us and it feels like we got our amazing dog back (or I guess he got his amazing masters back).
We contacted her in the first place because our 7-​year old English Bulldog had been showing signs of aggressiveness towards our 1-​year old son and even towards us. Add to this the fact that we had zero authority over him. It seemed that whatever we did was just making it worse. Needless to say, we were really worried about our baby’s security and, at this point, even about the place of our beloved dog in our family.
Karen first took the time to listen to us. Then she helped us to understand things from the dog’s perspective and she made suggestions based on our family reality. She showed us how to communicate better with our dog, how to «respectfully» establish barriers when we want or need too and how to become pack leaders. We went through some exercises for 20 minutes and we saw results after 10 minutes — literally.
Since then, we have not feared for our baby’s safety and we feel like we have a much better relation with our much happier dog. We cannot thank her enough.

Karen is amazing! We interviewed countless dog trainers, audited a number of classes and NO ONE compared to her approach and technique. She truly understands the behavior of dogs and ‘speaks their language’. With just a few tweaks and lessons on how to communicate with our pup, she had us on our way! I cannot say enough good things about her. No shock collars, no prong collars, and no treats… just communication. Truly amazing!!!

I first looked into bark busters after my very energetic dog got into some trouble chewing in the house. I had also had varying degrees of problems controlling my dog on the leash, especially when other dogs were around. Karen came out to my home for a consultation and spent over an hour meeting with me and my dog while I explained my various concerns. I immediately was impressed both with Karen’s friendly and relaxed attitude and her ability to communicate with my dog (who is usually quite rambunctious meeting new people) and tell her to stop jumping and go wait peacefully in her bed. Karen did a great job talking me through the various problems I’d been having and was able to offer a variety of suggestions to go about fixing them. She really did a fantastic job helping me to understand how I could better communicate with my dog and showed me how to use a different type of collar to facilitate proper leash walking.
First and foremost, however, was Karen’s philosophy on the dog-​human relationship. Most dog trainers I’ve used before or read up on tend to rely on gimmicks such as clickers or treats or certain code words to communicate with the dogs. Karen’s method was far simpler and in my opinion quite effective. It relies far more on vocal noises to communicate when your dog is doing something wrong and praise when they are doing well, no need to be constantly feeding them treats! This was especially effective for me because my dog, when distracted outside, could care less about the tastiest steak! This basic communication set the stage for all types of training, from leash walking to house obedience and it really made me feel like I was finally getting through to my often-​distracted pup.
It’s been several weeks since meeting with Karen, but I have noticed tremendous improvements in my dogs behavior and attention! I have tried to keep all of Karen’s lessons in mind on a daily basis and I’ve been amazed on how much my relationship with my pup has improved. She now walks very nicely, looking up at me for direction whenever I call her back to my side, ignoring other dogs I pass on the street when I say so. There have been no further chewing incidents in the house as well and I couldn’t be happier!
I think the true success of Karens training is its simplicity. She teaches the humans how to communicate effectively and efficiently with their dog without any fuss. I would guarantee that if you continue to follow that lead you will end up with a wonderful doggie-​owner relationship! I would highly recommend reaching out to Karen for any dog training needs, she definitely put my dog and I back on the right track!

I just have to say, that the training has been fantastic. After our lesson last night, today we went for a pretty good walk and we actually walked past other dogs and all went well. No barking, no whining… Then when we turned to come back home, there was a man driving out of his driveway and when he passed us he said. «Thats a very well behaved dog». I never in a million years thought anyone would say that to us on a walk. I am so proud of us… Thank you Karen for teaching us. It is not impossible. I am going to recommend BarkBusters to all my friends, and i never needed to use a treat.

I just want to say how THANKFUL I am for the training we have received. Karen has been GREAT. We have a 8 month old Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier. He has been a little hard to train, always nipping/​mouthing us, not obeying, running with socks and my kids toys etc. After just ONE session with Karen, I feel we have a new dog. He is now that loving, loyal family pet we wanted for our family. We have 3 small kids and he is doing great with them thanks to Bark Busters. My husband and I did drag our feet hiring Bark Busters because of the cost, but I tell you, EVERY DIME has been worth it. I feel very happy with the training. Karen came again last night for our second session, and Koda is doing great. Thanks Bark Busters!!!