Golden Gate Dog Sports

I’m so thankful I found GGDS for my little rescue. He came to us with a lot of separation anxiety and confidence issues. We started in the pre-agility class, and now are working with the obstacles. My dog’s confidence has improved drastically, and we can actually leave him home alone without him panicking now! We’ve been working with Liz from the start, and she’s amazing at helping us with tactics, especially since our dog has his own quirks. Tuesdays are my dog’s favorite day of the week because of agility! It’s such a great thing for rescue dogs who need a confidence boost, and the GGDS staff makes it super approachable and attainable for the doggos!

Pursued an adolescent obedience class with the hope of it being a prerequisite experience for my pup before agility. Be aware that this facility is very strictly anti-training tools, including e-collars, martingales, prongs, etc. Surprised they even allowed a Halti on one of the canine students, and while everyone is entitled to their personal training philosophies, functionally shaming a customer for the use of training tools is not. (I was told on day one, “I have 20 years of training experience and can tell you that these tools are unnecessary—“ and showed the proof was in the pudding with their purebred dog, purchased at 8 weeks, with that background, age at time of purchase, and genetic predisposition to a good temperament, obviously didn’t have any behaviors that needed correcting. But I digress; plenty of Least Invasive Minimally Aversive and balanced trainers in the Bay have 20 or 30 years of experience as well, with strong relationships with their dogs and great success— but Golden Gate Dog Sport is extremely rigid in their training philosophy; surprising in light of the success that well-implemented e-collars have for off-leash recall and formal work, especially with working breeds.) While I was open to the positive-only training methods used by GGDS, I never got the chance to speak more with or learn from the staff. I regularly implement positive reinforcement for my dog, and correct very selectively for completely unacceptable behaviors, but was spoken to as if any correction was completely appalling and downright abusive. The staff members were, on two occasions, unresponsive to email, in which I asked for guidance in the early stages of implementing their training. They don’t notice when you miss a class, even if you and your dog are clearly struggling like my dog and I were with her energy levels and my broken foot. I decided to eat the cost of the rest of my lessons and simply work off of the google docs emailed out to the customers. Can’t speak for all the classes, but at least in mine: expect mostly purebreds: poodles and doodles, small Shitzu and Bichon type dogs, etc. A couple in the class had what appeared to be a professionally trained German Shepherd, and they seemed consistently underwhelmed by the program. Wouldn’t recommend this facility for adolescent obedience if you want trainers who reply to your emails, find success with training tools to correct unwanted behaviors, or have a large working breed who isn’t very calm — couldn’t have thought of a worse fit for my adolescent Belgian Malinois rescue. MIGHT consider coming back when she’s matured a bit, but only if I can’t find another facility with a warmer group of staff or a community competing with their rescues in sport — very much getting a “purebreds only club” type of vibe, + ample elitism and condescending behavior in regards to differing training methods.

We've always loved the facility and people at GGDS! They're always so kind and they offer a competitive yet fun atmosphere to train your dog (and yourself) agility! If you just want to have fun, there's no pressure to compete but if you want to compete the instructors help you obtain the skills necessary. We've been with Blancett from the start with both of our dogs and we are in love with her classes - but there's really not a bad instructor here! Highly recommend - we have a blast every week!

Too harsh of a cancellation policy. No refund at all. Our Buster split his foot between the toes night before and was limping. I hate paying full money for nothing when we gave notice 12 hours prior. Nope, sorry - not within 72 hours so have a nice day and get nothing for your pre-pay. It's part of doing business and some leniency is appropriate either in time or percentage or something instead of being greedy. Will not support the policy or business.