K-10 Academy Dog Training

My experience with the K10 Academy was absolutely amazing. The progress that I saw in my dog over a very short period of time I did not think it was possible. Professional, efficient, caring about you and your dog, Calm and willing to work with your vision of how you want to train your dog. I cannot say enough about how proud I am of my dog today and how well she did at K10, If you want dog trainers that are people people and also dog people this is the place where you want to go. I would not take my dog anywhere else and they are an amazing couple that works together with you and your pet. Safety is important. They are just wonderful human beings and I feel so grateful to have had the experience with Ray His beautiful wife Alyda. If I were to adopt another dog, I know exactly where I’m gonna go for dog training.

Ray and Alyda exceeded all my training expectations. My rescue dog struggles with reactivity towards strangers and physical contact, and Ray absolutely transformed the way both my dog and I approach the issue. In just a couple sessions with Ray, my dog went from snarling and lunging at strangers to moving away from approaching people and looking to me for guidance. Ray and his wife were incredibly kind, supportive and thoughtful in considering how we went about the training process and making sure everyone was safe. They taught me how to strengthen my relationship with my dog, who is now far more comfortable in the presence of strange people and public settings. Ray clearly knows dog behavior very well and was quickly able to detect the issue my dog was having with physical contact. His training methods were effective and well-practiced, and I was so impressed with the change in my dog's reactivity. They are also super flexible in availability (weekdays, evenings and weekends were all offered to me) and even worked with me on pricing to make sure I was getting all the help I needed with as little expense possible. After researching tons of dog trainers in Portland, I can confidently say I would recommend K-10 academy to anyone looking to get help with their dog.

I met Ray's wife Alyda in October 2024 when attending an event at the Oregon Dog Rescue with my (then 4-year-old) rescue Doberman, Dreadnaught. I had painted his fur like a skeleton, and we stopped by Alyda's booth for K-10 to catch a break from everyone else and their pups moving around the room and to learn more. Alyda commented on how cute my boy was with his skeleton paint and how relaxed he was despite how many dogs were in the room with us. She began to tell me about K-10 and their dog training work and how it could benefit me, a 100 lb female, with my 80 lb muscle dog. Though my boy was fairly relaxed and well-behaved, he wanted to make friends with every dog around him and was known to walk me instead of me walking him. While training was in my plans for me and my boy, I had intended to figure out as much as I could on my own; however, the idea of working with an experienced trainer that would be excited to work with such an intelligent (and at times stubborn) dog such as my Doberman was very enticing! I knew that, while I could likely teach my dog a thing or two by myself, it wasn't as easy to figure out how to teach myself certain keys to working with my boy/dogs in general, for that matter! I decided to go for their highest training package, and right away Ray got to see some of the things Alyda and I discussed, like Dread's pulling when we walk and his tendency to get distracted by things going on outside around us. He was immediately encouraging, and we created a plan for some things to work on throughout our lessons together. Throughout the next 6 or so months, we worked on Dread's leash manners and reactivity to things like squirrels/other dogs playing, as well as worked on getting him to a point where I can use a flat collar instead of a prong collar on walks. Amazingly, while we are still training and I am still working with my boy on being a perfect leash walker, his progress in the time we worked with Ray has been amazing! Dreadnaught used to chase every squirrel or bunny he saw, even into oncoming traffic (he even got hit by a car chasing a squirrel - took it like a tank with no injuries whatsoever!). I am so happy to report that he no longer chases after bunnies or squirrels! We see them frequently on our walks, and he respectfully walks past now instead of immediately taking off, and if he does start lunging at them, he is much more responsive to me correcting him! Additionally, we can walk past other dogs without my boy wanting to go say hi every time! His leash walking is also much more polite, even if we still have some edges to smooth over. Alyda even worked with me woman-to-woman to discuss body mechanics when working with my big guy, which was incredibly helpful and honestly a big key factor in our training! I couldn't be happier with all of the amazing resources and support that Ray and Alyda have provided us with and the love they have shown to my Dreadnaught; they have been totally instrumental in my training journey with my rescue boy. I am so excited to see where the next year of our training journey takes us, and I am so grateful to know that I have the support of K-10 Academy throughout that whole process!