Bob Minchella's dog owner counseling

I have an 8 yo German Shepherd rescue, Archer, who is extremely dog aggressive. Archer and I have only been to two classes so far but Bob and his staff had made amazing improvements in Archer’s behavior. Previously, I had seen trainers that wanted to shock archer into obedience or keep him in private lessons... Bob put archer right into a group lesson, and no shock collar advised. After one week in the “private room” archer was out today in the “general public” with the other dogs. He never made an aggressive attempt and was a joy to work with the entire class. So far, archer loves going to class, and I have seen a world of improvement in his behavior. Where he would previously lunge and bark at other dogs on walk he had been able to walk past with little sway - a nearly impossible task prior to our training with Bob. We are very thankful for everyone at Bob Minchella’s dog owner counseling and will be taking Archer to as many classes as we can in the future. They’ve really taught me how to work with my best friend, and I am forever greateful :)

I've used three different trainers for three different dogs over the years, avoiding Bob because I had heard he was hard on the owners. I ran into an issue with my current dogs (one new to me and one 8 year old) attacking another dog which completely traumatized me. I was, once again, advised to go to Bob which I finally did. Honestly, it's been the best experience because he holds the owners accountable for doing the work and keeps things incredibly simple. Plus, there were just the right number of dogs and people (8 dogs) to create enough chaos to make the training worthwhile, while giving us enough time with Bob and Jodi to reinforce our process. I'm taking my dog on to the advanced class which I never would have considered that in the past because Bob and Jodi.

Unfortunately, we had a pretty lackluster experience with Bob. His wife Jodi, on the other hand, was amazing. We brought an 8-month old never-been-socialized wreck of a dog into our home, and of course wanted to start class right away with him. Our dog was TERRIFIED of people, just terrified - to the point where he would choke himself out trying to flee. We began Bob's basic obedience class more so as a socialization experience for him vs actual training, but of course he was just so scared, he would shut down at first. I'd been continuing training with him at home and as the class went on we were able to see a longer period before shut down, and I found other things that helped him stay focused as well. My issue comes in when we were basically told by Bob to give up on the dog and that he'll probably be like this forever. Coming from a background of endless dog behavior knowledge & training myself, I knew he was right only to a certain extent due to the severity and persistence of his fearfulness, but the way he phrased any of his conversations and how he interacted with us just irked me; he was basically telling us there was no hope for our dog when I knew he was wrong. What kind of dog trainer tells you to give up on your dog? Especially one that is supposedly well-versed in behavior-problem dogs. Bob would continue to stare down my dog, when it was obvious it scared him more, and maybe once or twice tried the "throwing a treat from a distance", but then basically gave up himself on even trying to help and NEVER offered any suggestions. Any time I tried to approach Bob to discuss things, he would brush me off, start talking with someone else as soon as he got the chance, and just gave incredibly vague answers to any question I had, or just reiterated to me he's a hopeless case. And while Bob has a dry sense of humor that most don't get or find humerus (honestly, he's actually hilarious sometimes) - unfortunately he was being completely serious in his statements to me. What a lazy trainer. It seems as though he really only cares to work with dogs who will learn commands within 5 minutes and have zero behavioral issues. It's not even like he suggested private classes or anything - he just brushed us aside. The only positive was that Bob's wife, Jodi, was incredible - very willing to take it slow, be calm, and work with my dog's personality and not just lump us all into a group vs individual dogs. As soon as we finished Bob's class, I immediately began a fearful-dog specific class at Tails of Success, and continued to work with him on my own diligently, and have seen tremendous improvement. My dog now approaches people on his own accord, still shy of course and does still have a long way to go, but in general has made serious leaps and bounds of improvement. It's taken 8 months thus far of continuous, persistent training, but he is beyond what Bob apparently ever thought he could be. The staff at ToS are FAR more genuine and actually care and will take the time to work with your dog, even in a group setting.

We adopted a crazy Australian Shepherd 3 years ago. I had just recently had wrist surgery so training was done primarily with my fiance who never owned a dog before. After 2 sessions with Bob, Beemer walks almost perfectly on a leash and even off! Her recall is amazing as is her healing! We NEVER thought that would occur! Hats off to Bob for his dedication and perspective! My brother took their Husky pup to Bob as well! Thank you! Thank you! We will definitely bring our next pup to him!