There aren’t enough words to express how grateful I am for Justin’s help with training Ranger. Here’s a bit about Ranger when we first started:
- He was 90 lbs and pulled on a leash, even with a prong collar.
- He was extremely reactive and could not contain the malamute in him. He just HAD to say hi (bark) at every person and dog to meet them.
- He was constantly on high alert, and his solution for every situation was the craziest solution.
Walks were unpleasant for both of us, I would constantly just yell and be frustrated and he didn’t have the correct guidance.
The first session with Justin, he was able to get Ranger to loose leash walk next to him in 5 seconds. That’s when I realized, it’s not Ranger. It’s my fault and our miscommunication. I didn’t know how to tell him properly that he shouldn’t be pulling on the leash. I didn’t know how to tell him that he has to be calm to be able to great people and dogs.
We’ve only had about 4-5 sessions, 30 mins each. His teaching style is very clear and super EASY! Ranger and I now have better communication and work better as a team. Ranger is now my service dog in training, he comes to my classes with me every week and flies with me. He can now:
- Loose leash walk, and heel properly.
- Ignore people and dogs when we’re out
- Be CALM everywhere we go.
- Realize the difference between play time and work time.
Justin doesn’t teach service dog tasks, but he WILL make sure your dog can become calm and confident. He was able to help me turn my reactive dog into a service dog. I am so so grateful for everything Justin did for us!
I highly recommend BarkBusters. This is the best decision we ever made! Both Ranger and I now have a better and happier life with better training and communication.
DON'T GIVE UP ON YOUR PUP!
Allow Jenna and Justin to guide, advise, and encourage you to give your pup the best life.
I first met Jenna in February 2022. At this time, I was waving a flag of surrender. Anaya, my Doberman, American Staffordshire terrier, and Rottweiler mix, would bark uncontrollably. There were times when she would pull me with all of her strength. She would come off as an aggressive dog, and truthfully I was scared she would hurt another person or dog. I was a first-time dog owner. I did not know what to do!
I met other dog trainers before falling upon Bark Busters. Something different about them as dog trainers is that they learned my dog's personality and worked around what worked best for her. Another thing I appreciated was that they informed me WHY my dog would behave the way she did.
From my experience, my dog had needs that I did not know how to meet. Ultimately they helped me understand my dog better and helped me build trust with Anaya.
Today Anaya can befriend other dogs, appropriately welcome guests into our home, walk on a leash correctly, and more. Something that gives me confidence is that if by chance we backslide, I know Jenna is a phone call away.
Justin's great to work with! He's so patient with my pups which is definitely needed because I have 3 (Nala, Baxter, Chloe) that he's helping me work with. My main concern was their barking but during training I realized that my youngest pup Chloe was starting to get aggressive with other (stranger) dogs on the leash. It was awesome to see immediate results after the first day. Even better is that it wasn't hard to get follow up appointments. In addition, Justin is easy to reach through texts if I have questions in between appointments.
His methods work really well and he takes the time to make sure I'm doing it correctly (half the battle is me implementing the corrections correctly lol) and is patient and good about correcting me when I lapse and do something incorrectly. When one method doesn't seem to work well, he's got another one we can try. My aunt even commented that she noticed a huge difference in Chloe's behavior when she saw her. She hasn't seen the others yet but I'm sure she would say the same for them. I'm super glad I went with Bark Busters and Justin and I'm definitely going to be working with Justin again for any future pups!
It has been about 1 year since our first training session, and we are still using and loving the tools today' It's not like a one time lesson and our dog was instantly fixed. In fact, we fell off from using the tools we'd learned for a few months, then realized we needed to get strict with our behavior so Koa could go back to his relaxed state of mind. The onus is on us as Kia's humans to do the work so he's a happy, healthy pup, and that was one of the biggest lessons from Justin. A year later I still think the training was worth every penny and I recommend it to anyone even slightly interested.
CESAR MILAN WHO?! ITS ALL ABOUT JUSTIN "The Real Dog Whisperer"
I am going to keep it short and simple if you haven't ready the hundreds of reviews below and been convinced then read this one!! We have a 80 pound Argentino Dogo puppy named Chance who is a absolute bolt of lightning! His issues included pulling on the leash, jumping on guests, attacking the front door when mailman or delivery drivers or just about anyone knocks, stealing food, jumping on counters etc... What I can tell you is that is true its all true, the session took about two hours start to finish, and within minutes Justin had our puppy acting respectfully and fully under our control. I was skeptical like everyone else about having to pay a large amount of $$$ and getting no results in return. Justin is worth every penny and to be honest I would have paid more!!! His techniques are simple, easy, and effective. No shock collars, no physical abuse of any kind to our puppy. Everyone suggested we use a shock collar simply because the breed is massive and normally cant be controlled by someone small or passive. However my 135 pound wife had our puppy walking by her side like a champ no pulling no lunging just a focused and controlled puppy! I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND JUSTIN TO ANYONE LOOKING FOR A REAL HONEST EASY GOING TRAINER!!! DONT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY LOOKING FOR ANYTHING BETTER! There is a reason it takes two months to get an appt with him, so book now you wont be sorry! Justin you are the man, and we are glad that we have you in Chance's corner! Now as for you the reader pick up the phone and call the darn number, should not take you more then 10 awesome reviews to make a decision and in the meantime your dog is probably eating your shoe! SO GET TO DIALING!! ;-)
Justin has been amazing with my rescue Pit. She was a little devil on a leash - pulling, chasing cats, zig zagging everywhere; unwalkable for me. She is the SWEETEST dog but on a leash she was a nightmare. Justin fixed my issue within minutes of working with me. Indie was a different dog - controlled, focused, and calm. Justin has changed our household and the energy that Indie now has. She is relaxed, patience and actually has manners :) Jusitn was so understanding, patient, and responsive throughout the entire process. He really took his time to get to know Indie and her background of abuse and neglect. THANK YOU JUSTIN - Jenna and Indie
Where to even begin? Justin deserves every single 5 star review written here and more.
My dogs are my babies. I have 2 boys, a 2 year old dachshund I've had since he was a pup and a 1 year old chihuahua mix I got from the humane society about 4 months ago. They are wonderful additions to my little family, but they both barked consistently, walking them was like flying kites and they completely ruled our house.. Which is why I called Justin.
We have now had 2 sessions with him and even just a few minutes into our first session they were different dogs. He teaches how to properly correct the dogs behavior and it's actually effective!! Finally, I feel like we're getting through to them and not just consistently speaking another language to them, which is frustrating to us and the dogs too.
They don't bark or bombard guests coming into my home any longer, they walk by my side, come when called, and so much more! It's amazing!!!
Having these tools to communicate with my boys is priceless and so rewarding when your dogs show you respect and treat you like the alpha that you are.
I love my dogs to pieces and having them so well behaved is only making my bond with them stronger. If you are even thinking about getting a trainer, look no further! You won't find anything better than Justin.
Needless to say we were the classic case of SRDS (Spoiled Rotten Dog Syndrome), luckily we did find a cure... Justin from Bark Busters! He is seriously one of the best investments we have made for our precious lil' boy. Rudford's "SRDS" made him an unruly dog, he was very aggressive: barking at and jumping on people. He pretty much ruled our house. Justin really brought to light what we were doing wrong, why Rudford was doing the things he did and how to EFFECTIVELY correct it. After just the first session with Justin it was like we had a new dog, the results were immediate! It has been a month now and we feel more at ease anytime strangers are around. Thank you Justin for all your help, you definitely earned the Dog Whisperer Badge of Honor!
When we decided to take on an adorable 9-week-old puppy (that would eventually weight more than us) we knew we were going to need some guidance. What we didn't realize was that most of the advice out there seemingly contradicted the next. Our heads started to spin as our little puppy, Alfred, started to grow. After trying many different methods that never quite felt right to either us or Alfred. We started our search for a personal puppy trainer. Yelp lead us to Justin at Bark Busters and the transformation began! Within 5 minutes of meeting Justin, we knew he was going to be the perfect match for us. He is genuine, kind and compassionate. He has an obvious connection with dogs and a real passion for his profession. We were so relieved to be given tools of non contact, non violent training. Our puppy never responded well to poking or physical correction but instantly surrendered to Bark Busters' techniques. Justin is truly committed to all aspects of his training. We have already taken full advantage of the "call me anytime" :) I am so glad he will be guiding us through a life time of Alfred's development. It has been worth every penny and more! Thank you, Justin, for being our life saver and Alfred's role model and best buddy!
My wife and I adopted a shepherd-mix puppy at 8 weeks last year. We quickly realized we were in over our heads and immediately signed up for obedience classes. Simultaneous to these courses - we "enrolled" Kazi in doggie day-care because we knew we wanted him to be socialized with other dogs. Neither of us wanted to have a dog that didn't get along with other dogs.
We never anticipated that he would become a dog that showed aggression towards PEOPLE!
We began to notice at about 5 months, Kazi not only was becoming fearful of a lot of things he had never been fearful of before (our friends, neighbors) but that he was becoming aggressive in general. He also discovered his bark - a bark that sounded 'cute' initially eventually became explosively aggressive In general - he was exhibiting these signs towards men, tall people, children. When he saw something he was afraid of hi hackles shot up, his ears shot forward, and his body stance appeared ready to attack all the while with maniacal barking and baring of his teeth. It was scary even for us! Worse we never knew when they would occur - so we were tense any time anyone approached us.
I kept telling my wife he would outgrow it, but eventually it just got to be so stressful for us that she insisted we find someone to help. I humored her, but I did not have much hope that anyone would be able to fix this behavior especially since it has escalated to this level.
She did a little research via yelp and decided Justin at Bark Busters sounded promising. She left a message, and we scheduled our first visit within the week.
Justin's ad promised results in the first visit. We had our doubts - but we were just desperate for help.
When he arrived at the house, Kazi had to be contained in the backyard while Justin explained his background and methodology. The entire time Kazi was barking like Cujo and throwing his body against the sliding doors/windows trying to get in the house. We just remember barely being able to focus on Justin's words because of how Kazi was acting. And we both recall thinking: Good Luck Justin! This dog will never change!!!
After less than hour Kazi was on his back, begging for belly rubs from him! It was nothing short of astonishing then and to be honest even today we marvel that Justin's simple and kind training methods /tools could get results like these. We felt like we were given the best kept secret for getting Kazi to listen, obey, and understand his position in our 'pack.'
The change was immediate and amazing. We felt utterly drained from the initial stress of not believing he could help us to nothing but joy that he gave us our home and peace of mind back. Justin told us that Kazi was going to be a lot happier now - now that he wasn't trying to be the pack leader and not having to protect us - and we see that he was right about that every day.
For us - apart from his complete flip to a docile personality - the best part was that Justin does not use any methods that hurt/choke/shock your dog. We had trainers tell us not to hug on Kazi or love him as much - which really bothered us - what's the point of a dog that you can't hug on and love?!
If you're having a very difficult time with aggression/fear/not listening to commands/pulling on his leash/not coming when you say to - Justin is your guy to turn to! His training is simple yet incredibly effective!
Kazi has turned into the World's Best Dog Overnight! THANK YOU JUSTIN ! - Mario / Amy / Kazi
Arah S.
22 months ago
— Greater San Diego
There aren’t enough words to express how grateful I am for Justin’s help with training Ranger. Here’s a bit about Ranger when we first started:
Permalink- He was 90 lbs and pulled on a leash, even with a prong collar.
- He was extremely reactive and could not contain the malamute in him. He just HAD to say hi (bark) at every person and dog to meet them.
- He was constantly on high alert, and his solution for every situation was the craziest solution.
Walks were unpleasant for both of us, I would constantly just yell and be frustrated and he didn’t have the correct guidance.
The first session with Justin, he was able to get Ranger to loose leash walk next to him in 5 seconds. That’s when I realized, it’s not Ranger. It’s my fault and our miscommunication. I didn’t know how to tell him properly that he shouldn’t be pulling on the leash. I didn’t know how to tell him that he has to be calm to be able to great people and dogs.
We’ve only had about 4-5 sessions, 30 mins each. His teaching style is very clear and super EASY! Ranger and I now have better communication and work better as a team. Ranger is now my service dog in training, he comes to my classes with me every week and flies with me. He can now:
- Loose leash walk, and heel properly.
- Ignore people and dogs when we’re out
- Be CALM everywhere we go.
- Realize the difference between play time and work time.
Justin doesn’t teach service dog tasks, but he WILL make sure your dog can become calm and confident. He was able to help me turn my reactive dog into a service dog. I am so so grateful for everything Justin did for us!
I highly recommend BarkBusters. This is the best decision we ever made! Both Ranger and I now have a better and happier life with better training and communication.
Arianna R.
3 years ago
— San Diego, CA
DON'T GIVE UP ON YOUR PUP!
PermalinkAllow Jenna and Justin to guide, advise, and encourage you to give your pup the best life.
I first met Jenna in February 2022. At this time, I was waving a flag of surrender. Anaya, my Doberman, American Staffordshire terrier, and Rottweiler mix, would bark uncontrollably. There were times when she would pull me with all of her strength. She would come off as an aggressive dog, and truthfully I was scared she would hurt another person or dog. I was a first-time dog owner. I did not know what to do!
I met other dog trainers before falling upon Bark Busters. Something different about them as dog trainers is that they learned my dog's personality and worked around what worked best for her. Another thing I appreciated was that they informed me WHY my dog would behave the way she did.
From my experience, my dog had needs that I did not know how to meet. Ultimately they helped me understand my dog better and helped me build trust with Anaya.
Today Anaya can befriend other dogs, appropriately welcome guests into our home, walk on a leash correctly, and more. Something that gives me confidence is that if by chance we backslide, I know Jenna is a phone call away.
Aly E.
3 years ago
— Carlsbad, CA
Justin's great to work with! He's so patient with my pups which is definitely needed because I have 3 (Nala, Baxter, Chloe) that he's helping me work with. My main concern was their barking but during training I realized that my youngest pup Chloe was starting to get aggressive with other (stranger) dogs on the leash. It was awesome to see immediate results after the first day. Even better is that it wasn't hard to get follow up appointments. In addition, Justin is easy to reach through texts if I have questions in between appointments.
PermalinkHis methods work really well and he takes the time to make sure I'm doing it correctly (half the battle is me implementing the corrections correctly lol) and is patient and good about correcting me when I lapse and do something incorrectly. When one method doesn't seem to work well, he's got another one we can try. My aunt even commented that she noticed a huge difference in Chloe's behavior when she saw her. She hasn't seen the others yet but I'm sure she would say the same for them. I'm super glad I went with Bark Busters and Justin and I'm definitely going to be working with Justin again for any future pups!
Mariah M.
3 years ago
— Encinitas, CA
It has been about 1 year since our first training session, and we are still using and loving the tools today' It's not like a one time lesson and our dog was instantly fixed. In fact, we fell off from using the tools we'd learned for a few months, then realized we needed to get strict with our behavior so Koa could go back to his relaxed state of mind. The onus is on us as Kia's humans to do the work so he's a happy, healthy pup, and that was one of the biggest lessons from Justin. A year later I still think the training was worth every penny and I recommend it to anyone even slightly interested.
PermalinkThank you again, Bark Buster's!!
Eugene S.
8 years ago
— Greater San Diego
CESAR MILAN WHO?! ITS ALL ABOUT JUSTIN "The Real Dog Whisperer"
PermalinkI am going to keep it short and simple if you haven't ready the hundreds of reviews below and been convinced then read this one!! We have a 80 pound Argentino Dogo puppy named Chance who is a absolute bolt of lightning! His issues included pulling on the leash, jumping on guests, attacking the front door when mailman or delivery drivers or just about anyone knocks, stealing food, jumping on counters etc... What I can tell you is that is true its all true, the session took about two hours start to finish, and within minutes Justin had our puppy acting respectfully and fully under our control. I was skeptical like everyone else about having to pay a large amount of $$$ and getting no results in return. Justin is worth every penny and to be honest I would have paid more!!! His techniques are simple, easy, and effective. No shock collars, no physical abuse of any kind to our puppy. Everyone suggested we use a shock collar simply because the breed is massive and normally cant be controlled by someone small or passive. However my 135 pound wife had our puppy walking by her side like a champ no pulling no lunging just a focused and controlled puppy! I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND JUSTIN TO ANYONE LOOKING FOR A REAL HONEST EASY GOING TRAINER!!! DONT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY LOOKING FOR ANYTHING BETTER! There is a reason it takes two months to get an appt with him, so book now you wont be sorry! Justin you are the man, and we are glad that we have you in Chance's corner! Now as for you the reader pick up the phone and call the darn number, should not take you more then 10 awesome reviews to make a decision and in the meantime your dog is probably eating your shoe! SO GET TO DIALING!! ;-)
Jenna F.
8 years ago
— San Diego, CA
Justin has been amazing with my rescue Pit. She was a little devil on a leash - pulling, chasing cats, zig zagging everywhere; unwalkable for me. She is the SWEETEST dog but on a leash she was a nightmare. Justin fixed my issue within minutes of working with me. Indie was a different dog - controlled, focused, and calm. Justin has changed our household and the energy that Indie now has. She is relaxed, patience and actually has manners :) Jusitn was so understanding, patient, and responsive throughout the entire process. He really took his time to get to know Indie and her background of abuse and neglect. THANK YOU JUSTIN - Jenna and Indie
PermalinkKylee E.
11 years ago
— Greater San Diego
Where to even begin? Justin deserves every single 5 star review written here and more.
PermalinkMy dogs are my babies. I have 2 boys, a 2 year old dachshund I've had since he was a pup and a 1 year old chihuahua mix I got from the humane society about 4 months ago. They are wonderful additions to my little family, but they both barked consistently, walking them was like flying kites and they completely ruled our house.. Which is why I called Justin.
We have now had 2 sessions with him and even just a few minutes into our first session they were different dogs. He teaches how to properly correct the dogs behavior and it's actually effective!! Finally, I feel like we're getting through to them and not just consistently speaking another language to them, which is frustrating to us and the dogs too.
They don't bark or bombard guests coming into my home any longer, they walk by my side, come when called, and so much more! It's amazing!!!
Having these tools to communicate with my boys is priceless and so rewarding when your dogs show you respect and treat you like the alpha that you are.
I love my dogs to pieces and having them so well behaved is only making my bond with them stronger. If you are even thinking about getting a trainer, look no further! You won't find anything better than Justin.
Grace F.
11 years ago
— Greater San Diego
Needless to say we were the classic case of SRDS (Spoiled Rotten Dog Syndrome), luckily we did find a cure... Justin from Bark Busters! He is seriously one of the best investments we have made for our precious lil' boy. Rudford's "SRDS" made him an unruly dog, he was very aggressive: barking at and jumping on people. He pretty much ruled our house. Justin really brought to light what we were doing wrong, why Rudford was doing the things he did and how to EFFECTIVELY correct it. After just the first session with Justin it was like we had a new dog, the results were immediate! It has been a month now and we feel more at ease anytime strangers are around. Thank you Justin for all your help, you definitely earned the Dog Whisperer Badge of Honor!
PermalinkMary M.
12 years ago
— Greater San Diego
When we decided to take on an adorable 9-week-old puppy (that would eventually weight more than us) we knew we were going to need some guidance. What we didn't realize was that most of the advice out there seemingly contradicted the next. Our heads started to spin as our little puppy, Alfred, started to grow. After trying many different methods that never quite felt right to either us or Alfred. We started our search for a personal puppy trainer. Yelp lead us to Justin at Bark Busters and the transformation began! Within 5 minutes of meeting Justin, we knew he was going to be the perfect match for us. He is genuine, kind and compassionate. He has an obvious connection with dogs and a real passion for his profession. We were so relieved to be given tools of non contact, non violent training. Our puppy never responded well to poking or physical correction but instantly surrendered to Bark Busters' techniques. Justin is truly committed to all aspects of his training. We have already taken full advantage of the "call me anytime" :) I am so glad he will be guiding us through a life time of Alfred's development. It has been worth every penny and more! Thank you, Justin, for being our life saver and Alfred's role model and best buddy!
PermalinkMario C.
12 years ago
— Greater San Diego
My wife and I adopted a shepherd-mix puppy at 8 weeks last year. We quickly realized we were in over our heads and immediately signed up for obedience classes. Simultaneous to these courses - we "enrolled" Kazi in doggie day-care because we knew we wanted him to be socialized with other dogs. Neither of us wanted to have a dog that didn't get along with other dogs.
PermalinkWe never anticipated that he would become a dog that showed aggression towards PEOPLE!
We began to notice at about 5 months, Kazi not only was becoming fearful of a lot of things he had never been fearful of before (our friends, neighbors) but that he was becoming aggressive in general. He also discovered his bark - a bark that sounded 'cute' initially eventually became explosively aggressive In general - he was exhibiting these signs towards men, tall people, children. When he saw something he was afraid of hi hackles shot up, his ears shot forward, and his body stance appeared ready to attack all the while with maniacal barking and baring of his teeth. It was scary even for us! Worse we never knew when they would occur - so we were tense any time anyone approached us.
I kept telling my wife he would outgrow it, but eventually it just got to be so stressful for us that she insisted we find someone to help. I humored her, but I did not have much hope that anyone would be able to fix this behavior especially since it has escalated to this level.
She did a little research via yelp and decided Justin at Bark Busters sounded promising. She left a message, and we scheduled our first visit within the week.
Justin's ad promised results in the first visit. We had our doubts - but we were just desperate for help.
When he arrived at the house, Kazi had to be contained in the backyard while Justin explained his background and methodology. The entire time Kazi was barking like Cujo and throwing his body against the sliding doors/windows trying to get in the house. We just remember barely being able to focus on Justin's words because of how Kazi was acting. And we both recall thinking: Good Luck Justin! This dog will never change!!!
After less than hour Kazi was on his back, begging for belly rubs from him! It was nothing short of astonishing then and to be honest even today we marvel that Justin's simple and kind training methods /tools could get results like these. We felt like we were given the best kept secret for getting Kazi to listen, obey, and understand his position in our 'pack.'
The change was immediate and amazing. We felt utterly drained from the initial stress of not believing he could help us to nothing but joy that he gave us our home and peace of mind back. Justin told us that Kazi was going to be a lot happier now - now that he wasn't trying to be the pack leader and not having to protect us - and we see that he was right about that every day.
For us - apart from his complete flip to a docile personality - the best part was that Justin does not use any methods that hurt/choke/shock your dog. We had trainers tell us not to hug on Kazi or love him as much - which really bothered us - what's the point of a dog that you can't hug on and love?!
If you're having a very difficult time with aggression/fear/not listening to commands/pulling on his leash/not coming when you say to - Justin is your guy to turn to! His training is simple yet incredibly effective!
Kazi has turned into the World's Best Dog Overnight! THANK YOU JUSTIN ! - Mario / Amy / Kazi
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