Bay Area Family K-9 Training LLC

I could not recommend James and Bay Area Family K-9 higher. My wife and I have a 1 year Border Collie called Kai. Kai (unsurprisingly) has very high energy levels and constantly wants to push the boundaries with his owners making him a real challenge to handle at home and outdoors and something had to change. Kai is extremely intelligent, which I thought would actually make training his easier however this means that you need to outsmart him as he seems to always has the upper hand! We tried to train him in a class once per week but given our work commitment and work involved to make progress, we soon realised that we would need to book him in for board-and-train. In just four weeks, we returned and found Kai to be a different dog, for the better! He listened, did what was was told and was a pleasure to walk both on and off the lead! We couldn’t believe it. Initially we honestly were a little surprised with the training method as from the outside it seemed quite heavy handed with the “manual corrections” and we were not prepared. However, James was extremely patient with us and went above and beyond to give us insights into the methodology and why it works. My recommendation to anyone considering this training for their dog is to get involved and ask as many questions as possible, trust James and trust the process, it really works! James’ methodology finishes with us bringing Kai home and we had to learn how to do the training ourselves. It took some getting used to (Kai was very patient with us!) and we soon learned how we were supposed to handle Kai. Even once the training was officially completed, we had a couple of issues in particular instances when Kai was off lead. James kept to his words of “I’m always here for you guys” and scheduled a phone call with us one evening. We talked through the concerns and James put us right back on track! James is a very talented individual who is incredibly knowledgeable on dog behaviour and clearly takes dog training seriously. I would have no doubts in recommending him to anyone that is interested in training their dogs.

James is a great trainer and he helped us out with a full Board & Train program for 4 weeks. In case it is not obvious, even B&T program comes with regular homework that must be done and there is no shortcut. James sets up an amazing foundation and a framework during B&T that we continue to use to train him once he's out of B&T. After only 3 weeks of me training Mylo, I was able to take him off-leash on walks. In just 5-6 weeks, Mylo became extremely obedient and I had full confidence while off-leash as well. Regarding negative reviews, talking about training methods, etc, if you're not in agreement with his training methods, you don't actually understand how you train a completely off-leash obedient dog, OFF-LEASH being the key. James isn't there to teach your dog "sit pretty", or "spin" etc. He means real business and he'll train the dog in a framework that means REAL OBEDIENCE and a dog that is always obedient even with distractions like barking dogs, cats, playing dogs in a dog park, squirrels, crowded places, restaurants, etc etc. That means a better quality of life for you as well as your dog. I love my dog 10 times more than I did earlier, there's an immense level of trust and respect between me and the dog. Fast-forwarding to now, 4 months later, Mylo is a very obedient dog, even with distractions, and meets our expectations in terms of what we wanted out of this training experience. We are super happy with the results, and we'll recommend James to whoever is reading this review.

Cannot stress enough on how much this place should be avoided for any dog owners who really care for their fur babies. Think 100 times before choosing BAFK9. At this price, you can find much much much much better place for you dog's training. Your dog will come home with skin allergies, digestion issues, weight loss, kennel cough and others which you will discover over days after picking up from training. They don't care about any kind of vaccinations whatsoever. In fact, I was advised to skip Rabies vaccination and board my pup a month earlier than the date agreed upon. It's all about money. I cannot put into words how much I regret sending my pup to board & train here. I worked hard for almost 3 months with my puppy's diarrhea and skin issues. He was healthy as a horse when I dropped him. Within 3 days after that I had to pick him up for some personal reasons and had to pull him off the training. My husband and I were surprised to see how our puppy looked when I picked him up. Since, the day I picked him up, I had to see his vet for various health issues. In spite of informing James, that my puppy (5 months old) had skin allergies and sensitive stomach, he was made to sleep/lay/sit in damp places. Mostly unhygienic. He was starved for 3 days to make him food motivated (without even evaluating him, they decided to starve him so that he takes commands). This business has been in place for years, but they don't understand the level of nutrition a 5 month old puppy needs. Everything is generalized. They don't go by breed/behavior/health, nothing. - Trust me, they don't alter anything according to your puppy's needs here. Again, it's all about money. (James keeps reminding you that there will be "no refund"). Lol!! I feel sad to write all this. Because I had put all my trust in a place/people I believed would care for my puppy as much as I did. I was told there will be no refund because they had to set up some facilities for the puppy's training. I'm not sure what kind of facilities were set up for my 5 month old puppy - such that, when I picked him up, he had ear infection, damp fur, rashes all over his groin area, arm pits and chest, acid reflux due to food deprivation, symptoms of kennel cough and diarrhea due to stress. I met his vet before I wrote this review. She said the puppy has kennel cough and might be having flu as well. All of this, in just 3 days. I wonder what his state would be if I had let him stay there for 3 weeks assuming he would be fine. I'm not at all sad/angry about losing thousands of dollars. I'm guilty that I made my puppy go through this. BAFK9 will ask you not to contact them and that they will share videos and pictures of you dog on Facebook and Instagram. This does not apply to all dogs. If James does not like you or your dog, the dog will go through what it has to. Watch the videos and look at the pictures. The dogs don't even have an indoor kennel/crate to relax/sleep. They sit/lay and play on damp floor inside a huge playpen. They pee in the same place where they play. These environmental conditions do not suit all dogs/little puppies who will not have developed immunity completely. So think 100 times before choosing BAFK9. At this price, you can find much much much much better place for you dog's training and well-being. James runs a business. But, before taking the dog in, for board and train, he does not consider to call his client and the dog inside the facility, sit and understand how the dog is doing, if there are any concerns related to health or behavior. Your dog is picked outside and that's it!! And if you happen to pick the dog up in the middle of training, he will be returned to you outside and that's it!! No respect for either the dogs or the clients. And not to forget, you are never get a tour of the facility. Not sure what are they hiding. For sure the world does not revolve around me James. But every dog owner’s world revolves around his/her dog. Sending them to some place we think we trust and bringing them back sick, hurts any owner. You're a dog owner too :)

This place is a terrible. We tried to schedule a preliminary visit with our 10week puppy and were told we need to pay $50 before even scheduling, which we did in good faith. Then we had to wait for days for a response on when our visit would be. After we finally heard back and scheduled it, our puppy got sick the night before and we rushed him to the emergency which made us contact the place and inform them that we won’t be able to be there in the morning and would have to postpone the visit a bit so the puppy would feel better and be able to actually do the visit. They didn’t respond for days after we tried calling them and sending them multiple emails. Finally, they reached back to us and told us we need to pay them another $50 if we wanted to schedule a preliminary visit. We also found out that when enrolled in the classes you don’t get the attention your puppy really needs to learn the most. I would not recommend the place to anyone.