Dog Basics PDX

We cannot say enough good things about Timothy. We would give him more stars if Google permitted. We have always failed at dog training (even while working with excellent professional dog trainers and our current dog is our 3rd dog) until we met Timothy who we found through Google. In just 2 short sessions, he taught us and our dog how to stop the dog from biting us, how to come to us consistently, how to focus on us and not distractions, and to be a good canine citizen overall. This improvement is nothing short of a miracle. Timothy is always responsive, prompt (and often early), professional, intelligent, patient, and listens well. Timothy is more than a garden-variety dog trainer - we regard him as an animal behaviorialist which, prior to Timothy, we have never retained. Timothy would observe our dog, diagnose our dog to explain to us why our dog is doing what she is doing (we didn't know that our dog's biting was a symptom of anxiety), and from there, taught us how to cure those unwanted behaviors. Timothy gave us very do-able homework, and in 2 short weeks, our dog has stopped biting us and is learning to come to us on recall. We also love, love, love that Timothy uses positive reinforcement training (clicker training, treats, and other techniques). Before we found Timothy, we were so desperate to curb the biting which had become unbearable, that we had considered using another local dog trainer/service which promised results in a short period of time. That would have required us to (1) leave our dog at the kennel (which resembled the animal shelter that our dog came from) at a boarding bootcamp for 2 weeks for training; and (2) that trainer told us that we would not be permitted to take our dog home at the end of each day of training nor visit her to avoid disrupting the new hierarchy that this trainer said he would establish with our dog. That kennel uses e-collars (shock collars) and trains dog owners/parents to perpetrate the use of e-collars, post-bootcamp, which made our stomachs turn. Although that trainer also has excellent reviews on Google and his clients seem pleased with the results (hence, our stumbling across him), we could not subject our dog (a rescue) to that kind of training. We honestly believe that whatever anxiety our dog has, would've been exacerbated had we made that wrong decision. We are so glad that we listened to our instincts instead and found Timothy who is a godsend. This also meant that we could keep our dog at home with us at all times, so that she would always feel safe and be at rest. We are forever grateful to Timothy. He is also very reasonably priced and comes to your door (we live in his geographical area) which was very helpful to us. We are busy professionals who don't have time to travel out to the countryside routinely for training, where many dog trainers seem to live. A+++++++ for Timothy!

Timothy showed us how to reshape our relationship with our lovable but unruly border collie, Charley, in the space of a one hour session. Timothy is super positive, easy going, and figured out how to best communicate his ideas with us in a way that always felt empathetic. We will be doing several more sessions with Timothy, but already we are enjoying our Charley a hundred times more than we were a week ago. Timothy is quite simply a game changer when it comes to dog behavior.

Timothy was a godsend for my puppy husky! I was having a difficult time crate training after flooding our pup with the cry it out method the first night. The pup has been anxious in the crate ever since but Timothy helped me understand my dog’s psychology in order to calm him down when he is in his crate. Now I feel way more confident that I can help my dog down regulate and prevent unnecessary anxiety. In just one hour, we were able to address crate training, jumping on guests, biting, and car anxiety. I am amazed by what he was able to accomplish so quickly with our dog. Highly recommend!