Gary Maria Professional Dog Training

We recently completed a 6 week basic training course with Gary for our 2.5 year old golden retriever. Our dog had been becoming more afraid of children and was starting to be less obedient overall. We are super happy with the results of our training. Our dog is already showing much less fear of children and less fear of new things in general. Most importantly, Gary helped us better pay attention and understand our dogs behavior. That understanding helps us better communicate with our dog and set her up for success. Overall, our dog has been so much happier since going through training with Gary. I can't recommend him enough!

We just completed our sessions with Gary for our rescue Benny. Benny was struggling with leash manners and his fear of men. Gary took such an empathetic approach to training in order to build trust with our dog (an us!) and make sure Benny was always comfortable and also having fun. We really appreciated how much Gary explained not just the fix to the behavior but the underlying causes and how we can be better handlers and advocates for our dog. Benny has grown so much through this process, we’ve learned a ton, and we are eternally grateful. I can’t say enough great things about Gary’s approach to training, his engagement with our dog and just who he is as a person.

Gary Maria was enormously helpful with our puppy. She was nervous, easily frightened by other dogs, unfamiliar people, and loud noises. It was hard to enjoy a walk with her because she would often come to a halt at a spot where something had scared her days before and refuse to continue. Gary introduced us to quite a few practical techniques for use in tough situations such as that. More importantly, he taught us how to understand our pup’s thoughts and feelings, and respond in a gentle, sympathetic and effective way-- he trained us to how to train our dog. He is astonishingly alert to what is going on with a dog from moment to moment, and resourceful about ways to stimulate self-confidence (ours as well as our dog’s). In addition, he’s a very interesting and pleasant person to be with—we looked forward to our sessions with him. Worth every penny, and a memorable experience with a remarkable person.

I just finished Gary's basic obedience training with my now 7 month old Golden Retriever puppy. Gary is a true professional. I'd highly recommend him. Before seeing Gary, I did weekly virtual training sessions through dog training mobile apps and like many other dog parents do, scoured the internet for free resources online. The vast amount of information out there (oftentimes conflicting) can make dog training somewhat overwhelming, especially to a first time dog parent. These methods worked for a while and got my puppy to a decent place obedience-wise (or so I thought), but I really wanted to take her training to the next level. Gary's system was exactly what I needed. His training methods are unique in comparison to other cookie-cutter methods I have seen. It's all about understanding your dog, why they do the things they do, and what that means for you, the owner/handler. Throughout his course, you'll learn about dog psychology and will develop a greater understanding of how to effectively communicate with your dog. Gary's obedience course isn't about teaching your dog useless parlor tricks; the training program is all about building a solid leader-follower relationship with your dog. You'll learn how to get your dog to trust you and look to you as the protector and pack leader. But of course, with these foundations, you can teach your dog pretty much anything. At the end of the day, Gary teaches you, not your dog. You'll have daily homework after every session and each session builds off of the last. In conclusion, this course was worth every penny and my relationship with my puppy couldn't be better. I plan on coming back for the advanced obedience training in a few months.

Gary is a life saver! We rescued our 2 year old Shepard mix 6 months ago. She was initially very timid and quiet but as she became more comfortable in her new home she became rather scary. Nipping, jumping and snarling at stranger. No control on walks. She was jealous and aggressive with our 18 month old baby. We started with some corporate training, which was a fine start but in hindsight a waste. We thought about a "boot camp" but found out that most of these programs are NOT reward based, something Gary helped us understand. We also hired a behaviourist for 1 session that was marginally helpful. Once we arrived with Gary we were in desperate need of progress. From session one we felt better about the direction of our training. He has such a love for dogs and is fiercely protective of their growth and happiness. That means he will not cut you any slack for not being precise in your training. The training appears simple but each session is a progression of activities and as we practiced there was a world of change in our dog. Beyond the act of training we felt her start to calm. She started to understand there were boundaries and that my wife and I were the pack leaders in the house. We have now completed our sessions but the practice continues. As we continue to practice we are able to branch out to more and more distracting environments. We are getting much quicker responses. And we have not worried about our wonderful dog around our baby since training started. Thank you Gary!