The Dog Talker - Charleston's Leading Aggression & Dog Behavior Expert

I would highly recommend The Dog Talker! Vivi was an extremely knowledgeable and experienced trainer! Our miniature dachshund, Tucker took to her immediately. Vivi was able to incorporate many new obedient skills with Tucker regarding new guests in our home, barking at other dogs, sitting, tolerating our new cat and much more. During our program so many of our friends and family commented on how much more calm and social our Tucker was! I would highly recommend The Dog Talker!! Not only for puppies but adult dogs too!

My husband and I adopted a blue heeler/Shepherd mix puppy from a rescue and knew we'd need a great trainer to help us 'hit the ground running," training him and socializing him. We hired Vivi of Viva Paws and loved her professionalism, organizational help (remembering the what she taught us -she put all the info in an easy to recover app, plus personalized videos of our puppy learning things) and lovely personality. She fit right into our new family and helped with a lot of the initial things we weren't quite sure about. This is a woman who is committed. She's kind and understanding and so patient with both us - the humans (who probably needed MOST of the training) as well as our puppy! Hire her!

Vivi is AMAZING!!! My wife and I have had lots of dogs. We thought we were good at training on our own until we adopted our most recent one. She was not getting along well with our older dogs, and she was exhibiting some bad behavioral issues. We called Vivi late one day because we just could not figure out what to do, and we were panicking. In the very first session Vivi gave us training tools that we will use forever, and we began noticing huge improvements in all of our pets. By the end of the course we were much more confident dog owners, and our dogs were getting along so well. I don't know what we would have done without Vivi's help and knowledge. She was absolutely wonderful.

I highly recommend VivaPaws! Vivi is the best dog trainer ever. We have a dog who is very fearful of strangers, and have been working with Vivi since January 2020. Vivi guided us through changes to Queso's environment, desensitizing and conditioning, and just generally having a better relationship with our dog. When we started training with Vivi, Queso would growl, bark, and enter into an uncontrollable tantrum whenever he saw or heard a stranger (human or animal). Now, after working with Vivi, we are able to work confidently with Queso, and introduce him to strangers in a controlled way. I will admit that Queso still has a lifetime of progress ahead of him, but if it weren't for Vivi, we would have gotten nowhere. Why? Like advertised on her website, Vivi employs a science-based approach to dog handling. Many dog handlers and trainers make this claim, but then reference outdated, flawed sources to justify their methods. Vivi uses modern, respected literature. She cites her sources and provides us with the research and science behind what she does. Vivi's practices should be the industry standard. We are moving away, so we can't keep having regular sessions with VivaPaws, but Vivi has given us the tools we need to continue with a lifetime of progress! I would highly recommend Vivi to anyone who has a reactive/fearful/aggressive dog. Also, if you have a puppy, Vivi now offers proactive preventative training!