Beyond the Dog, LLC

As a first time dog owner, I am so happy with my experience with Beyond the Dog. It was worth every penny. Abby is truly remarkable. She helped my 6 month puppy go from barking and lunging at other dogs to being super playful. She also helped Jazz learn basic obedience commands, which helped me tremendously as I did not know what to do. I found Jazz as a stray on the street a few months ago. I was completely overwhelmed and stressed. I decided to invest in training with Beyond the Dog and Jazz’s progress is outstanding! Abby showed up eager and willing and it’s obvious she cares about her client’s dogs. Abby is very knowledgeable and professional. I think she has a PhD in dogs, lol. Jazz absolutely loved her. Abby understood Jazz’s needs and now Jazz is much better behaved. Jazz was even featured as dog of the month and she recently passed day care evaluations with flying colors. Abby also helped me learn some basic tools I need to reinforce good behavior. I’ve learned so much. I feel much more confident now. Now Jazz is better socialized and she can go to day care. This is helpful since day care provides me time to work from home undistracted. Jazz is very high energy, and I simply can’t meet her needs alone. I was so overwhelmed I wasn’t taking care of myself properly. Now I have some freedom back. I also better understand Jazz’s body language and now I am better equipped to understand her needs. Thank you Abby and Beyond the Dog! Y’all have changed my life for the better! Highly recommend!

We had a great experience working with Abby & Beyond the Dog. We have 2 dogs that were slightly aggressive towards each other (we had just brought our second dog into the house a few weeks before be started training with Abby). We did the full program and now we're able to have our dogs together at all times, no aggression issues, they know all the basic commands and a few extras. We were very happy at the thorough training sessions that Abby conducted. The notes after each session were so incredibly helpful for us to continue the training after she had left. We also enjoyed that my husband and myself were trained one day each week to confirm we understood what was reviewed, how to continue the training and it gave us time to practice with Abby and the dogs to make sure we knew what we were doing. Very happy with the results!

I would recommend Beyond the Dog to anyone who is interested in training their dog. We started off a bit rough because our expectations of the program were too high for what was possible with the executive program (3 days a week for four days) and a mistaken thought that our puppy could be aggressive (she was not). Once we realized and accepted that only so much could be done in a given time, and focused only on the leash walking aspect, everything worked out well. Our puppy came to us at 6 months old and was not socialized properly. She had reactivity to both dogs and humans. She really wants to play and engage with pretty much anything that moves. She is also not food motivated and we had some dietary restrictions for her. Nohelle worked hard to find the items that clicked with her, testing different options, toys, different foods and techniques. The difference in walking her now is like day and night. It used to be a big chore to walk her, even my husband would come back with sore arms (she is only 22 lbs, but pulled like crazy). Now it’s much better and we are able to enjoy walking her. Nohelle was super dedicated. She also brought her program manager with a dog to help train our puppy at how to behave with other dogs. She found places that would be most effective for the training. She also gave us some tips for things like crate training, even if that was not part of the program. I would caution that any training requires a lot of time and commitment from us also. We had to change her food routine completely and we had to spend at least one hour working with her on the days Nohelle was not here. We have to continue this even after training is done to not allow our puppy to slip back to bad habits. They were able to accomplish better leash walking and just an intro to “stay”. We were given instructions on how to continue the training and how to slowly ease into meeting other dogs etc. While we initially hoped the training would accomplish a lot more, once we adjusted expectations to reality, we were happy. Even after a month, the training is still effective

Prior to the beyond the dog program, our 3 year old golden doodle had a variety of behavioral issues: jumping on people, constant demand barking and reactivity to people/noise/other dogs, leash pulling, and of particular concern, resource guarding anything he found, with a history of aggressive behavior (including biting) or hiding when approached with an item in his possession. We were unable to eat a meal or work in peace due to this erratic behavior. We ended up electing for the most comprehensive package with beyond the dog to help address these concerns, and the difference in his behavior is night and day, even several months after he has completed the program. He sits for affection, doesn't demand bark/react to noises, knows how to walk without pulling, and doesn't hide or resource guard really anymore. He is able to channel his energy in a more calm way, and the positive association built through the training helps him trust us not to take away items in his possession and hide. In addition, he has learned several commands such as 'leave it,' 'sit/down' and 'stay,' 'wait' etc. which he is obedient to and we use on a daily basis. I cannot stress enough how dramatically more chill he is now - it makes us feel much more comfortable taking him into public places or other guests' house. Abby was very professional and amazing trainer. It's not a cheap training program by any means, but it will fundamentally re-wire your dog's behavior, which over the span of 10+ years is well worth the significant improvement in quality of life.