Fun Paw Care Dog Training

Fun Paw Care truly exceeded my expectations. We're experiencing issues with our new rescue puppy's difficulties on-leash and her tendency to want to eat everything on the ground. Russell with his expert behaviorist knowledge was able to explain the sources of these issues and provided us a wealth on information and resources to set us up for puppy-parent success. If anyone in Los Angeles is looking for a helpful and talented dog trainer, I highly recommend Russell and Fun Paw Care.

We sent our 2 year old rescue dog, Maia, to Russell Harstein’s "Fun Paw Care Boot Camp" for two weeks due to her fear-aggression towards strangers and heightened sense of fear/anxiety in general. Russ’ approach and training methods were based on fear/force-free positive reinforcement, which was perfect for our fearful pup. While Maia typically demonstrates extreme fear aggression towards men in particular, Russell's caring and gentle demeanor put her at ease and allowed her to open up rather quickly. Russ sent us many adorable pictures and videos of her every day as well as detailed daily reports about her training and progress. In these reports and videos, we learned different techniques to help lessen her anxiety/fear around certain triggers. Russ made it very easy for us to understand her mindset and why she exhibits the behaviors she does, and how to correct/prevent certain behaviors. Maia really seemed to enjoy learning these new skills and always looked like she was having fun at the beautiful ranch! It was a pleasure working with such an experienced, knowledgeable, caring and exceptional dog trainer/behaviorist. Russ, we deeply appreciate everything you have done for Maia and for us!!!

We hired Russ to help us with our very reactive and anxious 10 month old German/Swiss Shepherd mix. She has been fearful since the day we rescued her and has now started to be reactive toward the things that scare her which are strangers and other dogs. It was very obvious how knowledgeable Russ is when he came to our house to evaluate the situation. He was able to provide us with likely reasons for our girl's fears and a detailed explanation of what needs to be done to help her gain her confidence. We have been implementing what Russ has suggested for a week and can already see improvement with our scared girl. Russ is also extremely responsive via email so his support doesn't just end after your session with him. He is always there to answer any questions along the way. Our only regret is not hiring Russ sooner! We have now been following Russ' training methods and suggestions on how to improve our life with our rescue girl for 3 months. Today we walked on a crowded green belt passing several people and other dogs on our walk. Our girl was able to handle the walk with confidence and was having a blast checking everything out. She did not react to any of the people or dogs and showed no signs of stress. This type of walk would not have been possible to do with her before working with Russ. We are living our best life thanks to Russ!