Bark Busters San Francisco and Marin County Reviews
Reviews
54 Reviews ★★★★★(Average 4.88 out of 5)
Allen C.
5 years ago
— San Francisco, CA
Adam is awesome!! We can't say good enough things about him. Before finding Bark Busters, we had used other highly recommended dog training companies and spent so much money on hourly session here and there, where we saw such little progress with our very energetic pooch.
In as little as one session with Adam, we saw huge progress (we have an 18 month old Lab/Dachshund mix). Before working with Adam, our pooch would skirt the tabletop, chew at everything and bark at everyone that walked by the house. Adam taught us techniques for effectively communicating with our dog. Within one session, our dog was listening to us and following our commands.
We particularly love how the techniques used can be easily incorporated into daily life, without the need for a big time allotment for training every day. Our dog seems like a calmer happier pooch, who knows the pecking order and is much better behaved.
If you have a high-energy dog who needs some training, call Adam!!
I vetted and called literally dozens of trainers before settling on Karen. Getting the right trainer is important to me. There are some trainers in the bay area that charge you thousands of dollars to just basically use shock collars. No way was I ever going to use a shock collar with my little guy Mr. Pickles. Karen is different. I went with her because she uses dog/human psychology to make sure she is effective while keeping the bond strong with my dog.
Karen is a genius!
Training with her was worth every penny. She is patient, direct and effective. I have a high-energy Australian Shepard and she tailored the training to be effective for his breed and energy level.
Overview:
- easy to schedule
- patient
- non-abusive
- the techniques she was teaching me were effective within minutes (you still have to be consistent and keep them going)
- you see results within 1 day
- in-home training and practicing to make sure you can do it once she is gone
Adam is a lifesaver! My dog Chase was afraid of everything ... men, dogs, his shadow, and me leaving him. He had horrible separation anxiety. When I would leave, he would almost hurt himself. I was at my wit's end. Adam to the rescue. In just one lesson, he taught me how to communicate with Chase and calm him down. He trained me more than the dog! I especially liked that he didn't use any harmful methods ... no prong or shock collars. It was really tone of voice. I would highly recommend Bark Busters and Adam!!!
I've had my dog Merlin since he was a puppy. He has always been an absolute sweetheart,or so i thoughtt.. but he had a lot of behavioral problems. My dog was, dog aggressive, would bark at anything that would walk by our porch, he would try and eat his leash, he would pull on his leash so bad that he has actually made me fall down the stairs and pulled me down. I was at my ultimate lowest when he tried to attack and kill two dogs. I was absolutely stressed, and overwhelmed and scared. I was terrified taking my dog out to go to the bathroom, I was terrified that something bad was going to happen and I would have had to put down my best friend. At Merlin and my all time low, my mom found Karen. Merlin and I have only had one session so far, and got the lifetime guarantee. But all I can say is Karen is wonderful! I saw improvement in my dog with the first 45 minutes. I was able to walk him around the neighborhood with a loose leash, and him staying right by side. His attitude has changed, he is back to being my sweet boy I used to know. Earlier today he watched another dog walk by on the porch and did nothing about it. This morning I've been able to leave the sliding door open to my porch, while dogs have been walking by, and he has continued to stay by me instead of running out there and barking. This was all in the first session! I'm so happy to see such improvements in my best friend. I'm very excited to see what the future holds for me and Merlin and I look forward to more sessions! Thank you so much, Karen! I recommend her to anyone that thinks that their dog is un-fixable, I thought mine was, and now I finally have hope!
We called Karen after our dog Elko started showing signs of aggression to other people. We had rescued him just 2 months previously and noticed things about his behavior that concerned us and we wanted to fix it quickly before it escalated into something more dangerous. Elko would not let people enter the house, would bark and lung at strangers in the street when out walking on his leash, would chase and bark at everything that moved including people, dogs and cars and it was becoming very stressful. Karen was very calm, professional and patient as she explained everything to us and put our minds at ease. She talked us through why Elko was behaving the way he was and the techniques we needed to use to help eliminate these unwanted behaviors. She was patient and kind as she taught us and within 30 minutes Elko was a different dog, he was the happy, relaxed little guy we had been hoping for. Just 30 minutes previously Elko was throwing himself at the patio doors and growling and barking at karen as she arrived. Within a very short time of working with Elko, he sat on her knee and had made a new best friend. It was fantastic to see Elko behaving this way with a stranger. By the end of session 1 we couldn't believe the positive changes, Elko was walking nicely on the leash without pulling, ignoring other people and dogs we passed, he was calm and relaxed in the house and would allow people to enter through the front door. I was surprised and delighted that these changes happened almost immediately. Its been 6 days since Karens first visit and we are continuing to practice the techniques daily and pleasantly surprised every day by Elkos progress and positive changes. Karen is the real deal and we are very pleased with our decision to work with her. SHe is the best!!!
From the moment Karen came to the house it was clear she was evaluating us and our fur babies. 2 generations of guardians and three generations of dogs! She was great! Seems to know exactly what the dogs needed while recognizing the challenges that we have as 'trainers'. We know there is no miracle cure, but we are confident in the tools that Karen shared with us like effective voice commands and establishing our roles! We are all excit d for lesson number two and are seeing some changes already. She gave me tips for the new puppy and gave mom some ideas for a barking Pomeranian!
My wife and I were very pleased with the training we received to help our dog behave properly. Our instructor Karen was insightful and very knowledgable in the manners of dogs and how to break them of bad habits. We have been working on her techniques so far and in our next training we hope to have Millie behaving like she should. Thanks Karen.
The Barkbusters Training is the most successful and BEST training method we've experienced! And we have tried many!! We really shortchanged ourselves by going to several trainers after thinking Barkbusters was out of our financial scope. Turns out we wasted alot of money and time and subjected ourselves and our loving dog Elvis to methods that were not a good fit for our family. With one Barkbusters training with Karen, we saw IMMEDIATE improvement in Elvis and were better able to understand the motivation behind insecurities that read as aggression. Karen Gaines has dramatically improved our family life by giving us so much insight as to what we were doing to sabotage our communication with our dog, and was able to offer common sense advice and all kinds of support... And with a sense of humor! Elvis instantly acclimated to her and from the moment we opened the front door, we felt comfortable trusting in her expertise 100%. We just returned from a successful outing at the beach with Elvis and thanks to Karen's amazing training every trip to the beach is more enjoyable than the last! My wife and I swear by this method! Thank you Karen, you're the best!!!
Karen provided a calm productive environment and gave me some effective training tools to establish pack leader mentality to practice with our year old lab mix with a dominant personality. I met with Karen two more times and made significant progress with the dog. Karen helped give me the confidence to maintain the leadership of the "pack". Really enjoyed working with Karen and would recommend her to anyone needing help training a dog.
I/we - cant thank Karen at Bark Busters enough. My mom is probably much older than most of the clients Karen works with, but she assures me she is not. We decided that as a widow, she needed a companion and get motivated to be more active. So we rescued an older labmix we named "Tripper". Unfortuantely, Tripper is more active than any of us imagined. The vet thinks he may only be 4 years old and he is "lively" to say the least. What were we thinking! She was ready to give him up after 2 weeks but had fallen in love with him. He was so hard to handle - Tripper, (as he was appropriately named) loved to jump on her to give her kisses, (he loves to cuddle only he is 45 lbs), he would try and drag her out the door when going for walks, would rush right past her anytime he thought she was getting up to leave without him almost knocking her down. Mom did not enjoy any of this. SO instead of taking him for walks, she started to leave him in the back yard. Even though we had dogs growing up, she didnt remember them being this rambunctious.
A co-worker of mine overheard me on the phone distraught that my mom may want to give Tripper back to the rescue so she gave me BarkBusters telephone number. She had just used Karen and said she was incredible. SHe said karen was very direct and would offer the best advice as to what to do.
Well, that was 7 weeks ago and Tripper is not going anywhere. She met us for a consultation and said she would work close with my mom and she felt confident that Tripper and my mom were a perfect match. She felt that my mom was capable and that Tripper wanted some guidance. Karen stated up front that she trains people, that is the methodology and that she would have to lay off giving Tripper so many cookies. She knew she could teach my mom to be the "pack leader" not with cookies but with love and consistancy.
She taught my mom simple techniques that were not difficult for her to remember, in fact made them even fun for both.
So far Tripper hasnt jumped on her since Karen came that 1st day. She waits at the door until my mom gives her permission. Now they go on 2 walks a day at least 30 min each time. My mom is building up her stamina to take longer walks and Tripper seems to have calmed down a bit and mom is so proud of how far they both have come. She loves telling her friends what she and Tripper have been doing and where they have been going. They love doing errands together.
We are so happy for Tripper and even more, thankful to Karen for being patient and instilling the confidence in my mother that as my mom says, "you can teach an old dog new tricks". My mom has a new best friend and we owe that to Karen at BarkBusters.
Allen C.
5 years ago
— San Francisco, CA
Adam is awesome!! We can't say good enough things about him. Before finding Bark Busters, we had used other highly recommended dog training companies and spent so much money on hourly session here and there, where we saw such little progress with our very energetic pooch.
PermalinkIn as little as one session with Adam, we saw huge progress (we have an 18 month old Lab/Dachshund mix). Before working with Adam, our pooch would skirt the tabletop, chew at everything and bark at everyone that walked by the house. Adam taught us techniques for effectively communicating with our dog. Within one session, our dog was listening to us and following our commands.
We particularly love how the techniques used can be easily incorporated into daily life, without the need for a big time allotment for training every day. Our dog seems like a calmer happier pooch, who knows the pecking order and is much better behaved.
If you have a high-energy dog who needs some training, call Adam!!
Debbie L.
5 years ago
— San Francisco, CA
I vetted and called literally dozens of trainers before settling on Karen. Getting the right trainer is important to me. There are some trainers in the bay area that charge you thousands of dollars to just basically use shock collars. No way was I ever going to use a shock collar with my little guy Mr. Pickles. Karen is different. I went with her because she uses dog/human psychology to make sure she is effective while keeping the bond strong with my dog.
PermalinkKaren is a genius!
Training with her was worth every penny. She is patient, direct and effective. I have a high-energy Australian Shepard and she tailored the training to be effective for his breed and energy level.
Overview:
- easy to schedule
- patient
- non-abusive
- the techniques she was teaching me were effective within minutes (you still have to be consistent and keep them going)
- you see results within 1 day
- in-home training and practicing to make sure you can do it once she is gone
Theresa Z.
5 years ago
— San Francisco, CA
Adam is a lifesaver! My dog Chase was afraid of everything ... men, dogs, his shadow, and me leaving him. He had horrible separation anxiety. When I would leave, he would almost hurt himself. I was at my wit's end. Adam to the rescue. In just one lesson, he taught me how to communicate with Chase and calm him down. He trained me more than the dog! I especially liked that he didn't use any harmful methods ... no prong or shock collars. It was really tone of voice. I would highly recommend Bark Busters and Adam!!!
PermalinkFran B.
6 years ago
— San Francisco, CA
I've had my dog Merlin since he was a puppy. He has always been an absolute sweetheart,or so i thoughtt.. but he had a lot of behavioral problems. My dog was, dog aggressive, would bark at anything that would walk by our porch, he would try and eat his leash, he would pull on his leash so bad that he has actually made me fall down the stairs and pulled me down. I was at my ultimate lowest when he tried to attack and kill two dogs. I was absolutely stressed, and overwhelmed and scared. I was terrified taking my dog out to go to the bathroom, I was terrified that something bad was going to happen and I would have had to put down my best friend. At Merlin and my all time low, my mom found Karen. Merlin and I have only had one session so far, and got the lifetime guarantee. But all I can say is Karen is wonderful! I saw improvement in my dog with the first 45 minutes. I was able to walk him around the neighborhood with a loose leash, and him staying right by side. His attitude has changed, he is back to being my sweet boy I used to know. Earlier today he watched another dog walk by on the porch and did nothing about it. This morning I've been able to leave the sliding door open to my porch, while dogs have been walking by, and he has continued to stay by me instead of running out there and barking. This was all in the first session! I'm so happy to see such improvements in my best friend. I'm very excited to see what the future holds for me and Merlin and I look forward to more sessions! Thank you so much, Karen! I recommend her to anyone that thinks that their dog is un-fixable, I thought mine was, and now I finally have hope!
PermalinkMaureen H.
6 years ago
— San Rafael, CA
We called Karen after our dog Elko started showing signs of aggression to other people. We had rescued him just 2 months previously and noticed things about his behavior that concerned us and we wanted to fix it quickly before it escalated into something more dangerous. Elko would not let people enter the house, would bark and lung at strangers in the street when out walking on his leash, would chase and bark at everything that moved including people, dogs and cars and it was becoming very stressful. Karen was very calm, professional and patient as she explained everything to us and put our minds at ease. She talked us through why Elko was behaving the way he was and the techniques we needed to use to help eliminate these unwanted behaviors. She was patient and kind as she taught us and within 30 minutes Elko was a different dog, he was the happy, relaxed little guy we had been hoping for. Just 30 minutes previously Elko was throwing himself at the patio doors and growling and barking at karen as she arrived. Within a very short time of working with Elko, he sat on her knee and had made a new best friend. It was fantastic to see Elko behaving this way with a stranger. By the end of session 1 we couldn't believe the positive changes, Elko was walking nicely on the leash without pulling, ignoring other people and dogs we passed, he was calm and relaxed in the house and would allow people to enter through the front door. I was surprised and delighted that these changes happened almost immediately. Its been 6 days since Karens first visit and we are continuing to practice the techniques daily and pleasantly surprised every day by Elkos progress and positive changes. Karen is the real deal and we are very pleased with our decision to work with her. SHe is the best!!!
PermalinkMaura H.
7 years ago
— Novato, CA
From the moment Karen came to the house it was clear she was evaluating us and our fur babies. 2 generations of guardians and three generations of dogs! She was great! Seems to know exactly what the dogs needed while recognizing the challenges that we have as 'trainers'. We know there is no miracle cure, but we are confident in the tools that Karen shared with us like effective voice commands and establishing our roles! We are all excit d for lesson number two and are seeing some changes already. She gave me tips for the new puppy and gave mom some ideas for a barking Pomeranian!
PermalinkDale G.
8 years ago
— Novato, CA
My wife and I were very pleased with the training we received to help our dog behave properly. Our instructor Karen was insightful and very knowledgable in the manners of dogs and how to break them of bad habits. We have been working on her techniques so far and in our next training we hope to have Millie behaving like she should. Thanks Karen.
PermalinkTal M.
8 years ago
— Novato, CA
The Barkbusters Training is the most successful and BEST training method we've experienced! And we have tried many!! We really shortchanged ourselves by going to several trainers after thinking Barkbusters was out of our financial scope. Turns out we wasted alot of money and time and subjected ourselves and our loving dog Elvis to methods that were not a good fit for our family. With one Barkbusters training with Karen, we saw IMMEDIATE improvement in Elvis and were better able to understand the motivation behind insecurities that read as aggression. Karen Gaines has dramatically improved our family life by giving us so much insight as to what we were doing to sabotage our communication with our dog, and was able to offer common sense advice and all kinds of support... And with a sense of humor! Elvis instantly acclimated to her and from the moment we opened the front door, we felt comfortable trusting in her expertise 100%. We just returned from a successful outing at the beach with Elvis and thanks to Karen's amazing training every trip to the beach is more enjoyable than the last! My wife and I swear by this method! Thank you Karen, you're the best!!!
PermalinkKate M.
8 years ago
— Novato, CA
Karen provided a calm productive environment and gave me some effective training tools to establish pack leader mentality to practice with our year old lab mix with a dominant personality. I met with Karen two more times and made significant progress with the dog. Karen helped give me the confidence to maintain the leadership of the "pack". Really enjoyed working with Karen and would recommend her to anyone needing help training a dog.
PermalinkBeverly C.
8 years ago
— San Rafael, CA
I/we - cant thank Karen at Bark Busters enough. My mom is probably much older than most of the clients Karen works with, but she assures me she is not. We decided that as a widow, she needed a companion and get motivated to be more active. So we rescued an older labmix we named "Tripper". Unfortuantely, Tripper is more active than any of us imagined. The vet thinks he may only be 4 years old and he is "lively" to say the least. What were we thinking! She was ready to give him up after 2 weeks but had fallen in love with him. He was so hard to handle - Tripper, (as he was appropriately named) loved to jump on her to give her kisses, (he loves to cuddle only he is 45 lbs), he would try and drag her out the door when going for walks, would rush right past her anytime he thought she was getting up to leave without him almost knocking her down. Mom did not enjoy any of this. SO instead of taking him for walks, she started to leave him in the back yard. Even though we had dogs growing up, she didnt remember them being this rambunctious.
PermalinkA co-worker of mine overheard me on the phone distraught that my mom may want to give Tripper back to the rescue so she gave me BarkBusters telephone number. She had just used Karen and said she was incredible. SHe said karen was very direct and would offer the best advice as to what to do.
Well, that was 7 weeks ago and Tripper is not going anywhere. She met us for a consultation and said she would work close with my mom and she felt confident that Tripper and my mom were a perfect match. She felt that my mom was capable and that Tripper wanted some guidance. Karen stated up front that she trains people, that is the methodology and that she would have to lay off giving Tripper so many cookies. She knew she could teach my mom to be the "pack leader" not with cookies but with love and consistancy.
She taught my mom simple techniques that were not difficult for her to remember, in fact made them even fun for both.
So far Tripper hasnt jumped on her since Karen came that 1st day. She waits at the door until my mom gives her permission. Now they go on 2 walks a day at least 30 min each time. My mom is building up her stamina to take longer walks and Tripper seems to have calmed down a bit and mom is so proud of how far they both have come. She loves telling her friends what she and Tripper have been doing and where they have been going. They love doing errands together.
We are so happy for Tripper and even more, thankful to Karen for being patient and instilling the confidence in my mother that as my mom says, "you can teach an old dog new tricks". My mom has a new best friend and we owe that to Karen at BarkBusters.
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