Canine Obedience Training at Hunt Club

If you’re looking for a Dog trainer, Dory is the best! I took my 4 year old golden to class for some basic training and guidelines for myself! During the first class Dory made sure to introduce herself and explain her process and how the class would work. The class gave me every day tools to help with the dog for example, If someone comes over I'm able to stop him from charging the door sit stay and wait. Another great aspect was that Dory allowed me to bring my nephew to shadow the class. I believe this gave him the ability to see how to handle his dog and how to behave around other dogs. The bonus to this class: even with a group Dory will take the time to help individually if you or your pet needs additional guidance. She is the absolute best!

I would like to write my review to help those who are looking for/interested in a group class for their dog. My GSD took basics and sub novice classes with Dory. If your goal is to take CGC test and/or other titles, Dory’s classes are for you. Taking test is not required but her classes are more like test prep courses and owners need to follow her methods and practice quite a lot to keep up with and to graduate each class. She sometimes extends her class period if participating dogs aren’t ready to graduate. If you agree on it and then you will like her class. I had no interest in making my dog a show dog or to learn in deeper level than everyday obedience, plus I did not want to pay for extended classes just to meet Dory’s graduation requirements, so I decided to leave. (I explained this to Dory before I left.) There is nothing wrong with her classes, it is just her classes weren’t met by my expectations for my goals. For people who decide to take Dory’s class, here’s a heads up. Dory sells some equipments (collars etc) to clients in class. She let you use them in class to try out but doesn’t give you time for decision-making to purchase unless you say something (I said something after purchasing, ended up returning.) If you try it out during the class, that means you are pretty much buying it from her. You may feel a bit pressured even though Dory never intends to do so. It would not hurt to do own research on products and not rush before purchasing when Dory tries to sell equipments/tools. I failed to do this so I ended up returning the product I bought. Trainers should agreed on full disclosure on what they sell. Lack of transparency is for me a red flag. When I asked Dory about BRAND of the product I purchased (before returning it) and quality/price DIFFERENCE compared with others, her response was “it did cost her because these products are not found in stores easily.” I am not saying not to buy from her. “Know what you are buying and paying for”—that’s what I am saying. I wrote this review so that there will not be another person like myself. This review is simply based on facts and my experience, nothing biased or personal against Dory. Hope my review helps someone. Edit 7/29/25: I don’t know how Dory read my above three star review but she contacted me privately saying I was complaining about her, judging her, and trying to hurt her etc in a very aggressive manner. She also said nobody said anything like I said (in my review) in her years of experience working dogs and owners. She started to compare myself with her other clients which made no sense. Basically she took my review personally, threw her negative emotions and anger at me defending herself. She obviously could not read my review objectively as one feedback. Not professional, AT ALL. I was calm the whole time during our text conversation (I am glad I was) and first suggested her respond to me here in Google review instead of telling me privately so that the public would learn about her, but she didn’t, so I am sharing here. Then I told her hope she said everything she wanted to say, ended the conversation, because I was not going to continue listening to her complaining about me and I had enough of her aggressive attitude. I knew the purpose of my review was, and it was clearly explained in it as well. Then after all, in her last response, she decided to apologize and thank me for my perspective….seemingly this is her way of patching things up. This trainer is all about herself. What was her earlier attitudes towards me? I did not deserve to hear all of her erratic and rude remarks. I am glad that I parted ways with Dory and I really felt that today. I would not choose a person who doesn’t have a calm demeanor as a trainer even if how she is skilled or experienced. This person is ALWAYS subjective and very difficult to communicate to reach a mutual resolution. When you say something to her, she ALWAYS says “YOU could have done this/said that.” It’s always someone else fault. This is the reason why three stars became one star.

My family took our first dog, Keagan, to Dory’s puppy class in 2003. Keagan was afraid of meeting new people. We did not know anything about raising a puppy at the time and did not realize we were catering to undesirable behaviors by allowing Keagan to hide behind us when people he was not familiar with would approach him. Dory taught us how to help Keagan become a confident puppy and later on a very social dog who greeted all people and other dogs appropriately. We have continued to count on Dory over the years with the new additions to our family from crate training, obedience, socialization and all the other challenges/questions that have come up with being a dog owner. We are thankful for her dedication and assistance to our family.