Beyond The Leash

I want to thank Scott and Jess for helping a grooming client I recommend to them. The dog is a recent rescue from the South that was having fear aggression issues and probably never handled much before. The family adores this dog but didn't have the experience to deal with the multiple issues the dog was showing. The dog is improving for grooming, less reactive, more at ease. The family said they have been doing some in home lessons that has made them more confident on how to handle the dogs behaviors. The owners seem more relaxed and bonded with the dog.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend Beyond the Leash. Scott was the first private trainer we ever hired for our dog, Ollie, who was then a newly adopted 10-pound rescue puppy who had a lot of fear and anxiety around strangers. We purchased 10 private lessons with Scott after our first consultation, since Scott seemed so confident he could help. However, as first time dog owners didn't realize that the methods used by BTL would ultimately worsen his fear and anxiety, namely strict obedience and punishment, including a pinch/prong collar, and then when that wasn't enough, an e-collar. Scott told us that our dog was simply being a jerk and that we needed to just teach him that his behavior was unacceptable-- like barking at strangers. However, punishing him for being afraid and repeatedly exposing him to his fears did nothing to solve the underlying issues and actually worsened them. I became increasingly uncomfortable as private lessons went on, seeing more punishment and more demands for Ollie to be completely obedient at all times and little progress, so we never scheduled our last training session. Two years later, I really see the full extent of the harm that his training methods caused. We now see a veterinary behaviorist regularly and only use force-free and positive reinforcement training methods which have worked wonderfully-- we are all much happier. I wish that I knew what I know now and never hired BTL, but I also wish BTL would have recognized that their methods were not a good fit for the issues we were experiencing and recommended a behaviorist or a different trainer better suited for our needs.

It’s tough to put into words how glad we are with the outcome of our at-home training sessions with Scott. We reached out because our string-willed and stubborn pup Rosie had no leash manners and separation anxiety. We started seeing progress on-leash as early as our first session. A few visits later and we were able to leave our pup alone at home without any stress. Scott brings a wealth of knowledge and seems to have a method for dealing with any problem we could possibly run into with our dog. Most importantly, Scott trained my fiancée and I on how to better our relationship with our dog. At no point during the process did we feel pressured to try any techniques we weren’t comfortable with. We would highly recommend Beyond the Leash to anyone looking to solve specific behavioral problems that have developed, or even to inexperienced owners who want to learn how to prevent bad behavior and better manage their dogs environment. Thank you!!!!

Scott and Jess Williams from Beyond the Leash SAVED out family! Our 1 year old puppy was struggling with anxiety and despite trying other training placed in our area, nothing worked and our home life was stressful and unhappy. Scott responded within hours of my first inquiry and we made the consultation appointment very quickly. Scott’s teaching is so clear and easy to do that we saw improvements with our dog just after the first hour of our consultation. We sent our dog to the 2 week board and train and she came back so confident, happy and almost no anxiety! Scott and Jess have been so great about continuing the training for us (the owners) and will answer any questions we have. Our household is full of happiness and fun now that we have a reliable training technique to maintain. You WILL see results with Beyond the Leash!