Aggressive Dog Training Santa Monica | Dog Trainer Los Angeles | Dominant Dogs

I honestly cannot say enough good things about Leonard. He has changed mine and Hope’s life! I have a 4(ish) year old dog that I adopted last year. She was VERY dog and food aggressive. If we walked by another dog, she would lunge or freak out. She had been to 2 other trainers and did a board and train with one of them. She learned some obedience and even though they said the dealt with aggression they did NOTHING to help with Hope’s issues. We have done 4 sessions with Leonard so far. After the first 30 minutes with Leonard, Hope was checking in with me while we were walking and we walked next to another dog!!!! Although he calls himself a dog trainer, he really is a people trainer. I had to adjust how I was handling Hope and the energy I was putting out in the world to get her to understand what I want from her, that I have her back and she can trust that I will take care of her. Over the past 4 weeks Hope and I have built such a stronger bond, she is so much more loving and snuggly but that is because she knows what the boundaries are and I actually stick to them too! I thought that Hope needed to go to Leonard’s board and train and was nervous that he thought that we could make the progress we needed to with just training sessions but of course, Leonard was right. After our session last week, I ate at a restaurant and Hope laid next to me and there were other dogs in the restaurant…she didn’t even care! I'm telling you, stop waiting and call Leonard now. I promise it is worth the time and money as long as you actually listen to him! I can’t tell you how grateful I am that Leonard came into our lives!

We've had our dog back from Leonard's boot camp for about a month now, and are so excited about where she is. She's a totally different dog. Leonard spent hours with us, explaining her stress, helping us reconnect and bond with her in a healthier way that would relax her and keep her from her aggressive behavior. He focuses a lot on body language, which I really appreciated. It helped me understand how to read her messages instead of just enforcing what I think she's supposed to be doing. It's now much more of a conversation, and I feel like I can actually respond to her concerns and show her that I'll take care of them! Her behavior is much better, and I feel more bonded to her and like we're building a relationship that is fun and trusting. It's very comforting that we got another check in with Leonard after two weeks to see how everything was going, so he could help correct any habits we fell back into, and make sure we were staying on track. I feel so lucky that we found him when we did-- now our dog can have a happier, easier, more playful life, which is all we want for her! UPDATE:Our dog did Leonard's three week bootcamp about 8 months ago. She's been hugely improved but we were seeing some regression to her attitude and aggressive behavior with dogs over the past month. We went back for a check up session and Leonard got us right back on track. We're so relieved that he was able to remind us of everything we had forgotten and give us encouragement about how far she's come. We were only supposed to meet for half an hour but he gave us 2 hours and we even had her hang around other dogs! Thanks Leonard.

I have had dogs my whole life, ranging from German and Australian Shepherds to small dogs. I had always heard wonderful things about Doberman's and always wanted to own one, so I decided to finally get one. Everyone that has ever owned a Doberman will tell you they are extremely stubborn, a little quirky, and too smart for their own good, which makes them difficult to train. How true that is! By the time my Doberman was nearing 2 years old, I decided I could not get her under control by myself because she was extremely smart in manipulating me. I searched for a trainer for several months before I found Leonard with Dominant Dogs, who came highly recommended to me. I had an initial interview with him and he determined that we were a good fit. Leonard does not take any dog; he interviews with you to determine you and your dog's mindset and then determines if all three of you will be a compatible fit. I was grateful that he took my dog and I can tell that on my initial interview, I knew my dog would be in good hands. I gave Leonard my dog for 3 weeks. Leonard stayed in constant communication with me, providing status updates on my dog while in his company. When I was ready to pick up my dog, I could not believe it was the same dog; she was so respectful and mindful. Now comes the hard part; that is transitioning my dog so that it obeys me like she did Leonard. This is where I was even more impressed with Leonard. He followed up with me periodically after I returned home. He saw me three times over the course of a couple of months to ensure that my dog was on the right path and spent several hours with me each time. I can tell you one thing, I have many friends who have sent their dogs to trainers but most of them do not follow up, and for those that did follow up, it certainly is not to the extent that you will find with Leonard. The "following-up" after training is probably one of the most important parts of training a dog. He made sure I was on track with my dog. In fact, I had many pillow talks with Leonard in the beginning and he was always there for me. He truly cares about your dog and is personally invested in your dog because he puts in so much time that he does not want all his training to go down the tube. He is direct and you know where you stand with him at all times. When you feel it's not going so well in the beginning when you first get your dog back and you are really putting in a concerted effort with your dog and listening to his instructions, Leonard will not abandon you...trust me, I was there. It has been 3 months now and my dog is transitioned fully. And Leonard was there every step of the way. Today, everywhere I go, people comment on what a well behaved dog I have. I attribute this 100% to Leonard and his tenacity to make sure you do not fail when transitioning your dog to listen to you. Leonard made every decision with my dog's best interest in mind and I have learned several things about myself during this process as well. One piece of advice I will dispense: no matter who you do business with, let the experts do their thing. Don't try to tell them how to do their job; they know best. Whether you go to a hair stylist, attorney, accountant, dog trainer, etc. you are paying that person for their expertise; they are the masters, not you. I am so thankful for Leonard and I am so glad I blindly put my trust in him. He definitely earned my respect and trust and that of my dog.

UPDATE: I’ve never left a review ever but since he requires it, I’m compelled to revise to be truthful. He was very open and available ensuring i positively reviewed him, and thanking me for doing so after, then the tone changed. I cannot speak to his training skills- I hope any dog and family in need gets help. But I can only speak to the less than professional experience I had that’s left my household more tense than before. Everything below is more or less accurate- We were given tips right off the bat and told to follow through for at least the next 1-2 weeks with these tasks including leashing or crating the dogs at all times. This was effortful, but let’s do it if it means closing the book on our dogs aggression. So, after approving my review of his service, Leonard suggested six weeks of courses with him. By the time I inquired about price (of course) and the timeline (is this once a week, etc) he emailed back saying “he’s not offering this service due to covid.” Well... you suggested it so why do so if you aren’t offering it? But ok, of course health and safety come first! It took me over a week to get in touch with him again to basically twist his arm to do virtual/phone sessions of any kind- all the while my dogs have been crated, no praise, no toys, no affection- what else could i do? He said going back to “normal” prematurely would make the aggression worse! So long enough story short, after having three or four call times offered and revoked by him in a series of erratic emails, we settled on a time to call, he sent a PayPal request that went to my spam, and that morning he said I didn’t pay in time, training is canceled, and it’s over now. He’s over it. Maybe I wasn’t an ideal client for him. I didn’t just open my wallet and shut my mouth. But, hey, he prides himself on being the trainer you go to after you’ve seen everyone else so why wouldn’t we have questions and concerns- we’ve been through a lot with ineffective trainers. He went from concerns about my pregnancy and talking about all the extra time he’s spending with me because he cares, to one sentence emails blowing me off. His advice is to find someone else yet he also states he’s the best and forget the rest. For what he charges he won’t care about actually helping you if there’s easier money to be made from other clients- that’s the vibe i have now. While blowing me off he’s also posting on Instagram so I know he’s working, and good for him. I would have preferred to not be led on and now stranded in limbo with my dogs more confused than I am.