Client Reviews and Testimonials

We called on Scot after over a year of escalating aggressive and distressing behavior by our 3.5 year-old pug. After moving into a new home, when our pug was about 2 years old, he began to showing signs of dominance, aggression and separation anxiety. For example, he perceived anything on our new, large screen TV as a threat, and he would repeatedly run at the wall the TV screen is mounted on, barking and running around the house, sniffing out a mispercieved threat. It got so bad that he was getting overheated from the distress. It got to the point that we could no longer turn on the TV without him going ballistic. This behavior then generealized to images on our laptop computers and smart phones that he would see. When we would try to put him in a separate room so we could watch TV without exposing him to the distress of the TV, he began attacking us as we would try to close the door, say, to our bedroom or office, where we would try to keep him. Additionally, he became increasingly aggressive with us (and anyone) who would try to leave our house -- jumping, barking, nipping and trying to block our exit. To try to remediate these behaviours, which were distressing to our pug as well as everyone in our family, we read books and watched videos online to try to find a fix, but our efforts yielded nothing helpful. Finally, feeling desperate, we stumbled across Scot and Bark Busters online. We were drawn to the in-the-home approach of Bark Busters as well as a number of other features of theirs that seemed more appealing than other options we had researched. Incredibly, after only a few hours of working with Scot, our pug's behaviour (as well as our family's towards him) improved. For the first time in over a year, we can now turn on and watch TV without eliciting a firestorm of barking and distressing behaviour from our pug. While we need to continue to practice and reinforce the techniques/approaches Scot taught us, we finally feel like we are on solid footing in our interaction with our pug. The dynamic between us has been reset. Our only wish is that we had learned these approaches earlier: a lot of stress and frustration could have been saved for all. Still, we are so happy to be where we are now, and we are so very grateful for the kind, knowledgeable and practical approach that Scot brought to training our pug and us -- no doubt the bulk of the education was directed at training us humans how to communicate/interact more effectively with our pug. Scot's thoughtful approach is something we hope more people experience. Permalink

excellent. our puppy responded to the trainer right away. we haven't done as well, but we need to be more consistent. Permalink

Ellie is a different dog!!! We can't believe some of the simplest techniques work so well. Thank you for your help and giving us a perfect companion. Permalink

Loved it! Amazing - quick response. Permalink

The training session was very informative. Bella responded well. Before she barked non-stop at visitors. She didn't bark, didn't attack sweeper, didn't bark at door and did not bark at yardman. Permalink

Before Amy worked with Joban he barked at all people and all dogs. Anytime he heard a sound he would bark and he would not come when called. After just the first session Joban is already responding to all the new techniques and our house is quieter. Permalink

June and Colin were a delite. Permalink

Personal touch and thorough with all attention to small details. Permalink

Ruth was wonderful! She was very easy to reach and schedule an appointment with and even offered a lot of helpful tips over the phone before we even met in person. She was prompt, organized, and was able to work with everyone in our family, children included, about how to be a better dog family! She provided us with lots of tips and strategies we could use immediately and even offered some suggestions in case other problems arose. Thanks so much for your help with Brecken and Princess! Permalink

There were many "a-ha" moments! It was almost like Moose WANTED the training. They were extremely knowledgeable. I know Moose will be happier because of it, and I would definitely recommend Bark Busters. Permalink