Better Nature Dog Training

Jeff did an amazing job with our Golden Retriever puppy. We are so grateful to have worked with him. Jeff responded immediately to our email inquiries. He was even able to stop by our house in Los Altos to do a home assessment the day after we contacted him. He showed up promptly at the appointed hour (which was much appreciated). This is our second Golden, but we'd clearly forgotten the puppy stage from years earlier (lots of fun.. but LOTS of work). Plus, we now have several small children and cannot focus all our energies on a new puppy, so we have to use the time we have with our dog to really matter. We needed help setting up a puppy area in our home for our dog and getting her to stop jumping up on our small children. After Jeff's coaching and advice, the results were hugely helpful. He worked with us and our puppy both in the house and in the yard. As we were talking through various subjects, he took detailed notes of his recommendations and later sent a long email with guidelines to follow. Now we know to keep our puppy in her fenced off play area during mean time and when the kids are running all over the place. Major improvement. Also, he pointed out how critical it was to get our dog to some Puppy Socials.. and the reasons why they are so important. Plus, Jeff has reached out to us several times over the past weeks to see "how are we doing?". He has also been fast to follow up on several quick questions we had via email.

I called Jeff in a panic after my dog had attacked a friend's dog. He was going on vacation for a few weeks, but gave me incredibly detailed advice over the phone and followed up several times over email while on vacation. I held off working with another trainer as I liked Jeff's positive approach to training which didn't completely rule out consequences (i felt like other trainers i had worked with were either one or the other). In general, I have felt overwhelmed by all the behaviors I wanted to "fix" in my dog and all the different training methods out there. As soon as he got back from vacation, Jeff reached out and we had an intro session. Jeff helped me determine the proper training method for my dog (ended up being clicker) and gave me a few focus areas for her, laying out clear steps for me to follow over the course of a few weeks. He talked me through it, showed me what to do during our session, and provided extensive written guidance so I could refer back to his recommendations. Working with Jeff feels like a partnership, where he is completely invested in seeing by dog (and me) succeed. Having a dog with behavioral issues can be really overwhelming, and its great to know you are not alone. He has given me tons of (free) advice via email/text/phone both before and after my intro session and I will definitely be following up with another session or two in a few weeks. Thanks Jeff! Caroline

For my six year old Labrador Retriever Zoe, I had two problems I needed Jeff's help with: First, she was bad on leash (pulls, some leash rage) and second, she goes nuts around skate boarders. I had tried other dog trainers and classes, and no other training method or dog trainer worked to address these two problems. For the leash issues, Jeff and I worked together. After just a couple of sessions (mostly training me, as my dog complied with Jeff within just a few minutes) things are much better. For the skateboard issue, Jeff spent time with my dog without me to help desensitize her to skateboards. I can highly recommend Jeff. My only regret is that I didn't find him earlier.