DOGGY BOOT CAMP-Santa Barbara

“I just had to comment again today. Skyla has been lucky to have worked with many wonderful and a couple of not so wonderful trainers in Santa Barbara. She was a wound up jumpy borderline inappropriately dominant puppy who through a ton of hard work and training and time and of course M-O-N-E-Y! Had become excellent while on pinch collar or e-collar but who otherwise was just as or more crazy then ever when we didn’t have a remote in hand. A lot of the issues were my own. I was well educated in how to train a dog and she was well trained but I just didn’t know how to make the connection and translate what she and I knew into real life. And so… she lived in a crate when we couldn’t watch over her w remote in hand or tethered so she wouldn’t “shop” all over the house (Joe’s word for exactly what she was doing all the time!). After working with Joe for just a few sessions. REALLY! I only met him a few days ago!! My dog and my relationship with my dog finally feels like it was supposed to be like. Joe took the time to walk me through “real life” at a dogs pace and looking through a dogs eyes so that all the book learning and all the skills my dog has learned could meet and fall into place! I can’t say enough good things about this trainer. If you invest in the first meeting and walk with him… you will know quickly if he is the missing link between you and a well adjusted dog in everyday life, or… if you were hoping for something else. Many have found that that first walk and talk was enough to make the adjustments needed to go from good to great! Others have figured out that this guy can help them reach their wayward dog and some have even realized that getting their dog to not be aggressive required someone who wasn’t afraid to show the dog that it was not ok to be mean! And when you behave, life can be very good! All day with this boot camp and tonight my naked dog (no collars or tools) is uncrated, untethered, and asleep unsupervised in the den on her unchewed brand new “big girl” bed. Well done puppy! Good girl! Thanks Joe!”
– KR, dvm.

“REVIEW for DOG #1: SOPHIE I contacted Doggy Bootcamp SB close to midnight on a Saturday evening after staying up late searching for dog trainers who specialized in aggressive and reactive dogs. I was hanging onto my last thread of sanity- having spent almost every day over the past two months struggling with the newest canine addition to our family. Sophie was a great dog on her own – but she appeared to have some major issues with one of our dogs. Incident after incident happened; Sophie attacked our other dog several times – resulting in tears, bloodshed, a vet visit and some major heartbreak. I called the shelter where we had adopted her from, as well as several trainers, begging for help. We were two dog trainers in at this point, both who had ultimately recommended and supported what I felt like was my only option left: rehoming Sophie into a family that had no other dogs, and preferably not having contact with other dogs outside the home due to her being very “dog reactive”. When she was on her own, Sophie was so sweet- lovable, eager to learn, eager to please… so, in hoping that three times really is a charm – I wanted to give Sophie one more chance and searched some more and found Joe’s website; I read many, many reviews, sent an email… and he was in touch the next morning. After our first phone call with Joe, all of our lives changed: dogs and human. The new rules he wanted us to follow seemed a bit intense at first but within 2 days of implementing Joe’s rules into our household, we could already feel the difference. The house was calmer, quieter and less neurotic. There was less barking, less tension. After a week of doing our “homework”, Sophie was ready to meet Joe and in that first session, I saw that little dog transform. Within an hour of meeting her, Joe had her walking off leash. Within a few hours, Joe had Sophie recalling and off-leash amongst other dogs at the dog park. Not only was she not dog reactive, like we thought she was, she was actually afraid of other dogs! That night, with some new tools under my belt and new rules in the house- we reintroduced Sophie to our other dogs, after having had them separated for several weeks out of concern for everyone’s safety, and did they play! Fast forward many hours and many days of intensive training, I now have a dog who peacefully coexists, eats amongst and plays with my other dogs- even befriending the one whom she used to attack. I have a dog who is the superstar at the dog park and will happily play with anyone – big or small- who is willing to run and play with her. I have a dog who walks nicely on leash, and doesn’t drag me like a sled dog. I have a dog who has amazing recall when she is off-leash from hundreds of feet away, all thanks to Joe. Joe not only saved Sophie’s life, he saved our sanity and taught us how to let Sophie and the rest of our dogs live their best life. Thank you Joe, we are forever grateful for everything you’ve done for us and Sophie.”

“We didn’t think it could be done! our training with Joe has been an unqualified success and he has done for us exactly what he said he would do. If we knew then what we know now, we would have done this ages ago. Our dog Enzo, five and a half at the time he started with Joe, had been under-socialized. The result was that he was reactive with other dogs – nervous about life and the world (can relate!) and had figured out that he could cause other dogs and people to leave him alone if he barked and lunged and generally acted scary. We had a neighborhood reputation of having the sort of dog where you cross the street when you see ’em. Not. Great. Enzo was amazing with us at home but since he unpredictable with others, it bred a pattern of insularity where we didn’t invite people over, didn’t take him to meet other dogs and the like. Enzo was alone on our little island – he was getting out to walk but not really experiencing the world the way a dog should be able to. Enzo was overly sheltered because we were nervous. We had done training before with, at best, so-so results. Even though it was not our first time, I don’t think we realized it could be done so differently. I will say, when we first talked to Joe, our initial impression was: ‘whoa, this guy is sort of hardcore’. There were rules that he told us we needed to impose if we wanted to be successful that we hadn’t even thought of as problems. Nothing unreasonable but definitely changes in our regular routine and a more disciplined approach. That was new – previous trainers didn’t have much to say about the big picture or changing the home life, though in retrospect, this part was critical. We met for our first day – a multi-hour session to get everything started. We didn’t know what to expect but we were willing to give it a go and let him direct us. Our expectation was that it would take at least weeks to see results. We were wayyyyyy wrong. Even after that first session, we made major progress. Joe’s philosophy is to help dogs be dogs and it turns out that when you swim with the tide instead of against it, things go a lot more smoothly. Enzo is a changed dog. Our lives are better and most importantly his life is much better. He’s out running and playing with other dogs daily, something that we thought was impossible just weeks ago. Joe delivers and we give him a hearty recommendation.”
– Joel Zemer