Client Reviews and Testimonials

I am very impressed with Bark Busters so far, and particularly impressed by the skills of Scott Schwab. His understanding of canine behavior and cognition is truly exceptional. He identified problem behaviors in two seconds that we never would have recognized as such in a million years. I was also impressed with how Scott made absolutely sure he understood where we were with our dog, Odin, at the beginning, and what our concerns and goals were. After the very first visit, our dog is so much happier, so much more relaxed, is no longer hypervigilant, and the communication between ourselves and Odin has vastly improved. The training tools and advice provided by Scott have been invaluable and show a great deal of awareness of dog cognition and social structure. I'm just so impressed how well he knows how differently dogs operate from us, and how well he is able to communicate those differences to us so that we aren't just performing an action, but we truly understand why we are doing something and how it will impact Odin's psychology. Odin is a rescue and so he came to us with some issues (one being anxiety). Thanks to Scott, we have a much happier doggo who continues to improve with every visit. Thank you, Scott! Permalink

Very succesful first day! Good progress but have some work to do. Permalink

It's going to be a long road ahead to train this puppy but I believe I've found the help I needed. Permalink

I reached out to Bark Busters because my wife and I had found a starving stray dog in the alley behind our house. We fostered him while looking for his family and then through the process of finding an adoptive family. Lupin is a beautiful boy but understandably had some difficulty making the transition for life on the streets to domestic life. Marlene replied to my enquiry immediately and spoke to me a few days later on the phone. She was really supportive, encouraging and offered helpful , practical advice right away. She very kindly offered to come and give a free training session to Lupin as we were fostering him. Lupin has found a new home so we will not get to meet Marlene as we had planned to next week. I wanted to write a review to thank Marlene for her support and encouragement as we worked to get Lupin adopted, she is clearly a dedicated dog lover and I'm sure also a wonderful trainer. If we are ever in a similar situation, I wouldn't hesitate to call Marlene for help with training. Permalink

We had already taken Bacon a 2 year old English Staffordshire who we had only had for about a month to a so called training academy that had a put us in a group that had already gone through this training before. Which left me with zero confidence in the trainer if she was having repeat clients in the beginner classes. So I called Bark Buster's because the trainer comes to you. Harvey came in looking like he was an army drill sergeant, getting right down to business showing our dog he was the ALPHA! Then he showed my family and I how to channel our inner alpha's by using the word "BAH" and our high pitched Mickey/Minnie voices when saying good boy. Harvey exceeded our expectations by the end of the night our Bacon was so tired he passed out on the floor. Since Harvey's first visit with us we have had to call on him several times for different reason but Harvey was always there ready to listen, explain what went wrong and gave us way to correct it. Always coming up with ways to help whether it was for us to send him video's, coming back out to the house and as of right now waiting for me to get back to him with a time for us to Facetime because we moved out of his area and there are no Bark Buster trainers near by. He goes out of his way to make sure that everything is going well with you and your dog. You can not go wrong with Harvey but if you do he's there with a warm smile and a correction. Thank you Harvey. Permalink

We rescued our Chi-Pin, Austin, when she was about 4 months old. The first few weeks were challenging to say the least. She was destructive, barked incessantly, kept us awake at night, terrorized our two cats, frequently went to the bathroom on the carpet and she demanded constant attention. Contacting Michelle was truly the best decision we made. She really took the time to understand and evaluate our pup’s needs. Most importantly, she taught us how to effectively communicate with Austin both verbally and through body language. Remarkably, Austin’s behavior changed after only one session. Using the tools Michelle showed us, Austin has become more obedient, quiet and calm. She’s even been able to bond with the cats, which we never expected to happen. During our session, Michelle did warn us that future changes in the household could disrupt her progress. We didn’t understand how true this was until we moved into our new home. After months of perfect behavior, Austin began to revert to her old ways. We immediately contacted Michelle again and she was eager to help. It's incredibly reassuring to know that should any problems arise in the future, she is just a call or text away. We can’t even begin to express how thankful we are for all of her help. Michelle McCarthy is a wonderful trainer and we highly recommend her for any dog owner! Permalink

I adopted Murphy on July 27, 2019. He is a 4 1/2 year old Mini Australian Shepherd. He suffers from anxiety. Whenever we would have someone come to our house he would get very anxious. We had to put him in a room with the door closed. If we let him out while the person was still in the house he would attack them by biting at their lower legs or feet. If the person had left he would run around looking for them until he was sure that they were no longer in the house. We were having our family visiting for the holidays and were worried at how we were going to handle Murphy with our family visiting for a long period of time. Were we going to have to have him locked in a room for a week? After talking with James and him telling us how to make Murphy feel safe and know that we were in charge and that he did not have to be in charge. He showed us how to introduce our guest to Murphy with us in control. After working with Murphy for about 15-20 minutes a day following James instructions we were able to have Murphy be with our family and enjoy the holidays. Murphy is a very sweet and loving dog that loves his family and just wants to please us. We feel more confident about having people over to our house after working with James. We adopted Murphy knowing that he had some issues that we had to work through and with the help of Bark Busters and James we are getting a dog that we can love and who loves us back. Thank you so very much. Permalink

Professional with quick results. Permalink

Theresa was very knowledgeable and helpful! We can already see results from our first visit and we are comfortable and excited to continue with everything we learned! Permalink

June and Colin have worked with us and our puppy (4 months) several times and each lesson is packed with invaluable tips and techniques. Our pup is a large breed so it's doubly important for us to instill training clearly and consistently. The Bark Busters techniques are really working for us, Thanks, June and Colin for excellent advice. Permalink