Client Reviews and Testimonials

Practice, practice, practice. Having in home training allowed for Mary to help me get it right, we both benefited (Annie and me). Although the Bah command does not come natural for humans, Annie really responds to it and knows it's for her, which helps when you have small children and you find yourself saying no all the time. It's a nonviolent training technique that puppies respond to....the key is consistency and making them use their brains to make good choices. It does work. Permalink

Very pleased, Mary was through and provided tons of great exercises. I was skeptical of the "bah", but I'm walking away very impressed with how it works. It was great to see Daisy react quickly and I LOVE the guarantee. Mary was incredibly personal and also candid in training us as well as the dog. Permalink

Mary answered all of our questions and provided pictures and handouts. Results....yes! Both dogs DID NOT rush the front door, which was a big issue at first. Frito was walking great on leash and really listened to our commands. I didn't expect results so quickly and without hands on corrections, it was AMAZING! We got a lot of good tips and advise, interesting, helpful information, we smiled and laughed through 3/4 of the training. I have tried other trainers and methods but nothing seemed to really work. I love Bark Busters methods and the dogs respond! It actually works. Permalink

Front door training was excellent. I look forward to having guests. Very effective methods. I noticed a big change in Fritter with each segment of training. I can't wait to work with Fritter and take him to fun places we can both enjoy. Permalink

All techniques were very simple and common sense. We were absolutely amazed!! Incredible results and we look forward to more in the future. We really liked that it worked with praise rather than physical corrections. Permalink

Our dogs, Jack a 3yr old Havanese and Rocky a 4 year old Black Lab/Border Collie mix, were typically very lovable, but had a lot of bad habits. This includes absolutely out of control behavior when guests came over, jumping and barking and making it impossible to greet our guests. They also scratched at the door, pulled on the leash for walks, etc. After our first session with Kathy and Betsy, they were able to enlighten us as to who was in charge. Of course, it was the 10 lb Havanese, with what I like to call a Napoleon complex. Kathy and Betsy were able to teach very quickly how to alter our behavior in order to get the desired behavior from our dogs. The results were astounding and virtually immediate. We still need to apply the techniques we learned, but things are so much more peaceful in our home! It was money well spent. Outstanding job! Permalink

Excellent training. Deb explained the techniques several times. We saw noticeable results by the end of the first lesson and are already seeing improvement after only a few days of practicing. We would recommend Bark Busters to others needing help with their dog. Permalink

Lisa established rapport quickly, was articulate and clear, and answered every question without hesitation. [The training methods] work like MAGIC! Permalink

I have a 1-year-old German Shepherd, Bella, who is extremely playful, but has tendencies to jump up on others, bark when she sees people walking outside with their dogs, pull on the leash when we walk her and a few other small problems which have become extremely hard to deal with. I have met with Donald about 3 times now and from the first visit up until now I have seen some great improvements with Bella's behaviors which has provided me with confidence in the training style Donald has been teaching us. I didn't realize how much time and effort needed to go into training Bella and now that I have guidance from Donald I am able to set time aside each day and work with Bella on her behaviors which need to be modified. To date, Bella has learned all the basics and she follows commands much better. Donald recently met with us to work on attentiveness and distance control which is a big problem when we are outside. I am able to call him or email him whenever I run into any problems and this is reassuring to myself so that I can continue to move forward in the relationship Bella and I are developing. I am very pleased so far with the results that I see in my dog's behaviors and how patient Donald has been through this whole process. Permalink

In August, on a very hot summer day, I think it was around 95 degrees, I was taking out the garbage in the alley. I heard a dog crying a couple of houses down and investigated where it was coming from, and found a crate with a very cute dog inside. This was the same kind of crate used to transport animals on a plane. At first blush, I thought the owner was inside the house and would take the dog in after dropping off her luggage. About a half hour went by and I had this gnawing feeling about the dog in the crate. I came back outside and saw one of our neighbors and asked if she knew anything about the dog. The neighbor did not know, but said the dog was there for about 2 hours. I then peered into the crate and saw that the dog was very mangy, very matted looking and there was a foul order coming from it. I opened the crate and the dog ran out and away. I chased after this dog for over an hour, and then gave up. As I was walking back home, our neighbor corralled the dog in her yard and gave him to me. My husband Danny and I found the dog in very bad shape. The smell was coming from its ears that were bulging out like cauliflower. As we went to look deeper in its ears, it turned around and bit me. Immediately, we took the dog and ran to the vet where the dog was quarantined for 2 weeks. He also had severe ear trauma, fleas, well, you name it - the bottom line is that dog was neglected and put out in 95 degree weather to die. We visited the dog at the vet and we decided to keep him. We named him Ollie. For a couple of weeks back in our house he was great. We have another dog and they seemed to get along just fine. Then, one day, as we were putting drops in his ears, he turned around and bit me again. This occurred a couple of times, but the last time, it was pretty bad. Now we had to decide if we were going to keep Ollie or if we were going to take him to a shelter. As we were thinking about the shelter, we felt that it would not be right to give him up to one since he had bitten me a few times and he was now hard of hearing because of the damage done to his ears. So, now we're thinking we had to put him down or get help. We contacted our vet and he recommended that we call Bark Busters. Marlene and Howard came to our home and we immediately saw that the techniques and their knowledge of dog behaviors were the best fit for us. After one lesson, Ollie showed great improvement. Marlene and Howard showed us how to communicate with him without using any shock collars, prong collars, or electronic collars. Rather, they showed us how to be a leader in the household by using training exercises coupled with voice tones and body language. These exercises have helped us to now have a trust and bond with Ollie. We know we have a way to go, but we are on the right path and we have laid the foundation to be part of our household pack. We highly recommend Marlene and Howard Marks and Bark Busters as trainers and to help fix unwanted behaviors with your dog. We did, and we did not have to euthanize Ollie. Permalink