Bay Area Family K-9 Training LLC

James is amazing! It all started when we had a puppy who was teething, jumping, and just would not sit still! James was able to get us in that same week for a quick lesson. By that weekend, she became very obedient. We then went to his puppy classes, which were nice because she got to meet other dogs. The puppy classes are great for socializing and for learning a few basic tricks, but we got a lot more out of the private classes, especially since we can pick the days that are most convenient. James will go at your pace, and even in between sessions, he is always available by phone and email. His schedule is flexible so were able to come in on weekends as well! We made a lot of progress with the private sessions, but we ultimately decided to do board and train for our puppy when our baby daughter was born because this was by far the fastest and most effective method. James was flexible and able to incorporate the training she did thus far and gave us a very reasonable price. Our daughter ended being born early James was able to fit us in his schedule for an earlier-than-planned drop off. By the time our daughter was a few weeks older and we were ready to pick up our puppy, we met with James and the puppy and were astounded by her progression! She was obedient and able to sit still for several minutes, was calmer, had stopped nipping, and walked without pulling. She has been wonderful around our daughter. Every now and then an issue may come up, and even though we are done with the board-and-train, James continues to be available. I would highly recommend him !

I would never leave my dog here for board and training. We went to learn about the facility and program. We got no direct answers, instead, he showed two youtube videos and a demonstration from his dog...who did not look relaxed or happy in the least. There wasn't even an attempt to get to know our pup, or what we were most wanting to accomplish. I have used training facilities in the past with great results, this place just left a bad vibe all the way around.

There isn’t enough that I can say about James and his training program. Me being a first time dog owner…I went to him in tears because my puppy Goose an American Pocket Bully who was about 8 months old at that time was a nightmare. He was impossible to train and was very aggressive. I had gone to various other trainers who just threw in the towel and told me that my dog was just crazy and not trainable. Even my vet told me that maybe he should be put down because of his aggressive behavior. My first meeting with James shined a lot of light on the issues at hand with my puppy…he was very honest and straight forward. But the one thing he said to me that stuck was that “every dog should be given the opportunity to be trained.” So I left his facility and while driving home I thought about all the things he said and I wanted to give My Goose a chance to be the best dog ever. That evening I spoke with James and he got Goose scheduled in for a 5 week Board and Train for February. This 5 week program was a total game changer. Goose came back a completely different dog for the better. All the follow up training sessions we have been doing have made us better dog owners because now we can communicate with Goose like never before. James is seriously a God send for us and Goose. We can’t thank him enough for all he has done for us and Goose.

My husband and I have a 6 year old border/pointer cross called Bloom that was found abandoned in Italy. We’ve had her from 6 months old and she has a lot of behavioural issues where she is very anxious and barks at strangers all of the time. We’ve moved around Europe a lot (Italy, Holland and Spain) before moving the USA and have tried so many different types of training methods with multiple trainers in multiple countries. Many trainings were very “soft” types of trainings, not pushing Bloom at all, very gentle because her character would make you believe that anything stronger would be a disaster for her. We’ve had so many issues with neighbours and strangers on the street, making our lives very stressful and unpleasant at times. Nothing worked and we felt she was a bit of a lost cause and something that we’d just have to live with and accept. We were very skeptical of James’ training methods for Bloom as we felt she was so delicate. As we had tried everything else, and feeling we had run out of options, we thought we should at least try it. We explained all of the history of Bloom and insisted to James that we knew Bloom best, we’d lived with her for the last six years so of course we would, right? Wrong. Very quickly, James figured out Blooms behavioural issues and got Bloom into board and train. We were so worried about Bloom for four weeks as we genuinely felt this was the opposite type of training that would suit her but it turns out we were wrong all along. Bloom was acting up as my husband and I were not being leaders and Bloom felt even more insecure. Once James explained this to us and we understood this critical difference, we implemented the training that James had instilled in Bloom and she transformed, in only just a few weeks! Incredible. My only regret with the training is that we did not move to the USA and meet James sooner! I would have saved us a lot of heartache.