Bark Busters Reviews

We have a 3 year old Lab/Rottie mix, Renin, which is my ESA Support Dog. We have owned him since he was 8 weeks old. ESA Support dogs are owner trained and we have taught him sit, stay, down, come (plus a few fun ones like shake). Renin would bark at other dogs on walks, get agitated around other people (unless he knew them) and was generally reactive including barking at knocks at the door.

Connie gave great explanations of what we, as owners, needed to do and demonstrated them effectively. She listened to our story and was able to come up with a plan that we could easily follow for our dog.

The plan that Connie came up with included simple tools that work. During the first session we saw results immediately. We were truly impressed to see how eager our dog was to learn. He has improved significantly, including very little to no barking at other dogs on walks. It has only been 3 days!

It is important to note that the owners are the ones that get trained by Connie, not the dogs. The tools and techniques she provides, allows the owners to be aware of how your dog thinks and learns and to provide the correct response in a given situation quickly. These responses have had a great effect on Renin and we could not be happier with our interactions with him.

With Connie, we did not feel pressured into any sales. We knew that we had to do something and contacted her for the first session. We knew, based on our needs and the effectiveness of our training that her service was invaluable to us. We recommend her highly and cannot give her enough praise for what she has done for us.

• #Aggression
• #Barking
• #Pulling

Donna was an excellent trainer. Calm and patient with both Mosby and I. When we started Mosby's training I had puppy marks up and down my arms and legs. What I learned was that Mosby's behavior was as much my fault as his. My body language, tone of voice and demeanor were all wrong. I have my homework ahead of me but now have the tools to refer to. I feel "bah" has become my life saver. Even though I may appear strange to my neighbors. I can't thank Donna and Bark Busters enough and will gladly recommend to friends and family. Mosby will be my shining example of a well behaved dog.

• #Aggression
• #Barking
• #Chewing
• #Hyperactivity
• #Jumping up
• #Puppy management

Our view of controlling bad behavior has dramatically changed ever since we met Bob and his Bark Buster techniques. We had the typical "Marley". The one that jumped on everyone who came to our house weather she liked them or not. She barked and pounced on the front door while clawing the wood away at every doorbell ring. She had so much energy, she couldn't stay focused enough on us to correct her or calm her. We tried walking her to wear energy down but she ended up pulling and tugging in every direction. It didn't matter what kind of collar/harness she wore or how many treats we brought along.
We would like to think of ourselves has good pet parents and did everything you hear about in books and animal shows to correct her at home ourselves. We read reviews and did research on our breed and consulted our vet.
We broke down and paid for a puppy class where we went once a week and felt like a complete failures when our Bella was more interested in the other puppies and pulling away from us during instruction. We were so busy trying to settle her down that we would miss half the class and felt like we were apologizing the entire time. It got to a point where we would walk through the door (Bella up on her hind legs, pulling all the way) and we got looks from the other puppy parents as if "oh great, here comes the wild one, please don't stand it next to mine." We went every class and on the last graduation class I said forget it... this did not work.
A year later we gathered up the money to send her away for a week. We thought "Hey, maybe he can do a better job and send her back fixed." ... nope... She did well while he presented all the calm walks she did for him and how she sat when he stopped walking. It seemed to have done the trick. She even did well while I held the leash and walked her in front of him. Everything seemed manageable until I brought her home. She went right back to her same behaviors. Feeling defeated we gave up and just went back to apologizing to our guest for our wild animal and had fewer gatherings at our house.
I would notice all the nicely behaved pets in the pets stores walking with there owners wondering how we ended up with the problem and everyone else's pup seems to listen. The excuses poured over me and I began to blame myself. Maybe it was because she was a runt and not with her litter long. Maybe it was because she was not a docile puppy and not a purebred. I feared taking her to a pet store it was more of a workout torture task than a fun day out and about. I decided I wanted that family pet I didn't have to apologize for, that's when I stumbled across Bark Busters searching on the web.
It intrigued me that Bark Busters came to your house, where away lessons had never worked before with Bella. Bob explained how changes come much more quickly and effectively in the home environment which was a bonus for us considering she learned that she had to behave this way with us here at home and not just in a class with instructors... where we all failed.
After a chat and about two hours of instruction we were set with the homework and tools to work with before a follow up. Bella showed how well she responded to the techniques Bob Williams had taught us and we were pleased. After a week of consistency even our guests and visiting family members praise her for her noticeable behavior improvement. The whole family feels like we accomplished what we we were aiming for and while none of us are perfect we know that calling Bob and Bark Busters is the last stop we have to make for lessons. Thank you Bob Williams for making our Bella enjoyable for everyone to be around and we will continue to use your tools and techniques on our future pets to come.

• #Barking
• #Hyperactivity
• #Pulling
• #Recall

I adopted my first pet this January. She is a Staffordshire Terrier Mix, so very similar to a pitbull. She is 7 years old and bears the scars of fights with dogs on her face and legs, and also the scars of being returned to the shelter twice before I adopted her. She is very very loving, but also very very aggressive towards other dogs. She also barked at everything and everyone that came near the place, or just at noises she would hear. And, she needed to be by me 24-7, followed me everywhere. After working with Deb, she explained how Bella was feeling, and why she was reacting the way she was. We have had two sessions, and really the second session was to show off how well Bella was doing. Don't get me wrong, she is not perfect now, but she is much more manageable in terms of listening to me, not needing to be around me all the time, walking by me and not leading me, and lastly, not lunging aggressively and barking at every dog we see. I don't think Bella will ever be a dog that can be around other dogs, but with Deb's training, I have learned to be more alert than Bella and calm her before her adrenaline kicks in to start barking or going after another dog. Deb has great skills and lessons to teach, but she is not teaching your dog, she is teaching YOU. You have to listen, and do the work, and with her lessons, you can have a well-behaved dog. I've gotten compliments now on the changes in Bella's behavior, and listening to me. I'm more confident walking her now, and now, she will only bark once when the bell rings, before I give her the command and she goes to where she is supposed to. Thanks Deb for all your help, and I am so thankful for the option of continual support.

• #Aggression
• #Barking
• #Jumping up
• #Recall
• #Separation anxiety