The Dog’s Listener (Sioux Falls, South Dakota)

John is very passionate and thorough in his training. He helped us with our 14 week old puppy as we were interested in laying a good foundation for our new family member. John provided instruction and guidance on leash training and walking, how to keep our dog optimally healthy, behavior issues like jumping up on our kids, and obedience. It was well worth the investment and I would highly recommend!

John worked with our dog (and us!) around six years ago. We had gotten Scout from the Humane Society when he was almost a year old and he had a number of issues that were making us wonder if we would be able to keep him. I couldn’t believe how quickly John had Scout in the palm of his hand! His demeanor just exudes a love for dogs. He showed us a number of techniques that had an immediate effect and have lasted to this day. One piece of advice I would have for anyone hiring John is to take detailed notes when he is with you. He’ll give you a lot of information and you’re going to want to remember it all! He is also a super nice guy. So nice, in fact, that I recently contacted him to see if he had any advice about an injury Scout recently sustained, and he called me and gave me some really good information all free of charge. If you’re having behavioral issues with a dog, I HIGHLY recommend John!

Transformational! I have been to obedience training with this dog, tried many different methods, and within 1 hour, John had dog walking beside with a relaxed leash for the first time. Now, four days later, and I am noticing a complete difference in the dog’s behavior on walks and at home. I agree with him that the dog doesn’t want to be the “alpha” but takes on that role if the owner doesn’t.

I wish I had done this a year ago when I first met John. Extremely effective and we are all enjoying much longer walks together, and looking forward to actually meeting other dogs in the neighborhood. Thank you John!

He arrived at our house at around 6 in the evening and ended up staying till nearly midnight, charging my parents for almost all of that time. He did teach us some very interesting and useful tips on how to train our dog, but the issue that we contacted him about did not get resolved. In fact my dog became aggressive towards me as well as continuing to bark at everything. I would recommend him for aggressive dogs as that seems to be where his strength lies, but for your average dog, I would first try other options unless you have a couple hundred and a lot of free time.

Unfortunately I did not have a good experience at all. He was 20 minutes late to the appointment. My dog has severe separation anxiety and I wanted to help her and be able to quit medicating her for it. After our visit with John, which was over 3 hours long and almost $300, she learned how to properly walk on a leash and not jump on people. During our appointment he would start trailing off on irrelevant stories for 20+ minutes (which of course, I got charged for the time regardless.) He told me to continue all of the things he taught me and her anxiety would be gone in 2-3 weeks. It has been a month and she is worse. I called him and explained the situation and I got excuses and he told me that maybe he guessed a little wrong and it should be 2-3 months not weeks.. That’s a huge difference!!! I was very upset but continued all the training with her.. only for things to get even worse. At this point I am back to medicating her so she does not hurt herself and have spent $290 and 3 hours of my time that I will never get back.. for nothing. Very very disappointed. The only positive thing I have to say, is he would explain why (psychologically) he was doing something a certain way with her.