203K9 Training Service, LLC.

Jose has been amazing with our French Bulldog, Topanga! From day one he’s been transparent, knowledgeable, and patient. Frenchies can be stubborn and set in their ways, but Jose’s clear and thoughtful approach has made training so much easier and more effective. We’ve already seen such a positive change in Topanga and would highly recommend Jose to anyone looking for a reliable and compassionate dog trainer!

Wasn’t right for me and my dog. They prioritize harsh physical corrections for new dogs in new distracting environments and don’t allow for any high value rewards or take breaks. To start off, they go through steps and information fast and do the evaluation and training work in a small busy room with a lot of dogs in it. I have adhd, autism, and dyspraxia, and I needed both the person at the evaluation and at the training session I went to to slow down and they had trouble accommodating my needs, something to consider if you’re also on the spectrum. Without letting me know, the trainer I had to work with was different than the one I met with at my evaluation. If I’m going to be paying a trainer, I should be knowing who I’m paying before I commit to the session. Unfortunately, I clicked less with this trainer than the other people on staff. The trainer started dumping information on me right off the bat and didn’t really ask me anything about my dog or what my dog already knew and made a lot of assumptions that didn’t apply. He also started dumping a lot of instruction right on me right off the bat. When I told him I need instructions told to me one step at a time he got a bit irritated and told me he WAS giving them to me one step at a time.. he slowed down a bit after that though. My dog is still a puppy and has issues with pulling. The trainer put a slip lead on him. Slip leads correct dogs by choking them when they pull, I personally hadn’t used a slip lead on him before because of how hash he will choke him self already on a flat collar. Both flat collars and slip leads can cause damage to a dogs air ways if they’re putting enough pressure on them regularly. During the training, the trainer said I wasn’t correcting him hard enough with the slip lead enough. He proceeded to use it and yanked my dog repeatedly hard enough to make my dog yelp super loud, not at all comparable to if he gets hurt normally like getting his tail slammed in a door by accident. He ended up throwing up twice on the floor from when the trainer was yanking on the slip lead. Was not a fan. About half way through the training session I noticed my dog was starting to burn out. I mentioned it to the trainer and he told me he wasn’t. I feel like my dog could have really used a little play session here and then resumed the training after, and I would have gotten more out of the hour training session I was paying for. He was not having fun around this time and the only reward I was allowed to use at all was praise and pet. It’s understandable to want people to rely mainly on praise but, expecting a puppy to stay happy and motivated for an hour straight of harsh physical corrections in a new distracting environment as you teach them to work with absolutely no high value rewards is a lot to expect. And at the 40 minute mark he was done. The trainer said he was just tired and so the session was over, no advice to give or anything for the remaining time. My dog had his energy back as soon as we left the building so, I do think he was more burnt out than tired. I still hadda pay for the full hour. Another thing that bothered me was that one of the dogs that they were having my dog walk around, was a big doberman mix that “used to have aggression issues”. He had gotten up from his down stay at a couple points so his stay was not reliable, and his body language was not relaxed. I didn’t really sign up for my puppy to be around unreliable dogs that have been corrected out of their aggression issues which from what I’ve gathered from dog communities, isn’t fool proof. I picked up a couple pointers and did get some refreshers of some of the stuff I had learned on my own, and they do have some clearly well trained dogs there in reliable down stays with relaxed body language, but this program seems to be more catered to dogs that can thrive in police dog training styles. Dogs that can handle a lot of heavy correction handler motivated with fast paced owners. Your working german shepherd? Probably fine. Your primitive spitz breed? probably not.

We did a two-week board and train with our dog Cooper at 203K9 and it has truly changed our lives. Cooper was reactive with people entering our home and didn’t know even the basics like sit or lay down (we tried but couldn’t teach him ourselves). After his training, he has made a complete 180. When people enter our house, he no longer rushes up to them aggressively. He now know to go to his 'place' until he can calm down and interact with our guests. We worked with Scott, who was fantastic – attentive, patient, and quick to see the good nature in Cooper and harness it. Thanks to him, we now have the tools to manage Cooper’s reactivity, and his new obedience and confidence have transformed our day-to-day life for the better. Highly recommend 203K9 and Scott to anyone looking to help their pup reach their full potential!

My dog “Bisco” just finished the 2wks of Boarding and Training. Bisco developed a bad behavior of resource guarding, snapping, barking a lot, and charging at strangers. Jose was recommended to me by a work friend and I must say it’s totally worth it. For two weeks of training with Jose, my dog’s unwanted behavior got changed tremendously. And the communication with Jose is constant even after training. Thank you especially to Jose, and the entire staff for helping me modify Bisco’s behavior into a better version of him!