Dapper Dog Training

Where do I even start?! Jessica and Dapper Dog Training has been a huge help in Oski’s development and training. Oski is a shetland sheepdog and he is filled with energy and sometimes he harness that energy into barking at other humans and dogs. His behavioral problems have made it super difficult to go on walks or even meet new humans. He loves making new friends but he is very cautious and afraid which translates into barking and darting back and forth. This is where Jessica comes in!
Personal training: Jessica’s personal training sessions have also been such a helpful experience. She sees how Oski acts in his own territory and gives us a lot of helpful pointers on what might be causing such behavior etc. She is one of the most intuitive trainers I have ever met and truly loves and understands animals. Oski really grew very fond of her and I highly recommend anyone with a new puppy or a new dog to have a few sessions with her because you can really correct some of the stubborn habits that your dog might have.
Oski is still a working progress but Oski would have been a huge recluse without Jessica’s help!
Puppy class: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Jessica taught us so many valuable lessons and also helped corrected some of our bad training habits. Looking up how to train your dog on the internet or youtube can sometimes be a double edge sword because you think your dog is retaining what you are teaching it, but in reality Oski was just guessing and not really learning how to do certain things. Being in puppy class gave Oski a chance to meet other dogs and learn how to play in a friendly and safe environment.
The classes are small (with 1 – 2 other owners) and that personal experience really makes it worth every penny.

This review is for the 5-​week puppy class. Jessica and Eric were great, and we had excellent results. We also had a phone session with Jessica early on after adopting our puppy because he was having trouble sleeping separate from us. Jessica walked us through an exercise that ended up solving the problem. Highly recommended.

Jessica is highly recommended! We signed up for a few private sessions with Jessica to help train us, as well as our Norfolk Terrier puppy. With only using positive reinforcement, we taught Scrappy the basics — to sit, lay down, stay, wait for her dinner, leave things she shouldn’t go after (mostly…), house training, etc.
A year or so later, we emailed Jessica because our sweet puppy was becoming aggressive towards other dogs on the street. Jessica again helped us modify that behavior. We haven’t been able to entirely train that our of her, but we definitely know what to do and how to handle it much better. She also helped us do so without the clicker, which Scrappy somehow became scared of since her initial training.
Most recently Jessica helped us again — this time with keeping Scrappy calm while having the TV on. She watches TV and aggressively barks/​jumps at the TV during certain stimuli (not just other dogs/​animals, but insurance commercials, cable providers and some other random things — without fail).
Jessica always summarizes a visit with a detailed email. She suggests checking with our vet if she recommends any vitamins/​dietary supplements. Jessica knows her stuff. She’s patient and articulate. We’ve recommended her to friends with new dogs, and will continue to do so.

Jessica is fantastic!!! As a first time puppy owner, I did a lot of research prior to bringing our adorable pup home. We knew early socialization was very important to us, as well as consistent, positive reinforcement behavioral training. That is where Jessica came in. We first spoke over the phone and discussed Alfie’s breed, age, temperament, etc, then she came to our home to meet Alfie and further assess our needs. We had regular weekly sessions during which time she taught us invaluable techniques that tackled common puppy topics like chewing, biting, getting puppy to settle down, house/​potty training, loose leash walking, as well as basic commands like sit, stay, come, down, leave it, drop it, roll over, etc. She e-​mailed us written notes after every session and included ways to progress before our next meeting. Her appointment times were flexible and accommodating.
I cannot stress enough the importance of Jessica’s role during this time. It is well worth the time and money. The result is a happy, healthy, well-​socialized, sweet companion and overall great pet. As other reviewers have noted, Jessica also helped us identify areas where my husband and I were not in agreement, and how to move forward without confusing Alfie. We also found that we had different priorities and enjoyed a different type of walk with Alfie. Jessica observed us both walking with him and gave pointers so we all, Alfie included, enjoyed our walks and bonding time. As Alfie matures and other questions arise, Jessica will be the first person we call.

Jessica is the best! We have a very precocious, independent, and stubborn goldendoodle that is probably way smarter than we are. We knew what we were getting into before we got our little girl, and wanted to make sure we laid a good foundation for her training. Jessica was not the first trainer we used, but she’ll be the last. A few things about us: we believe exclusively in positive reinforcement, and would never do anything to «punish» our dog. We want to teach her how to behave well and be a part of our family, but we do not want her to behave out of fear of punishment.
We had to let go of our first trainer because he had a series of «exercises» that made us very uncomfortable (and after googling the «exercises» made us infuriated). Basically, in order to control our puppy’s very independent and stubborn personality (our dog thinks she’s people!!), our OLD trainer made us repeatedly put her in an alpha roll IN THE MIDDLE OF 23^rd STREET until her will broke (google «alpha roll» if you don’t know), and also play what he called an «energy game» where we would menacingly walk towards our little puppy and corner her in a corner of our apartment where she was expected to cower and stay until we gave her a release command. My wife cried that night at the fear in our little dog’s eyes. We IMMEDIATELY let him go, and he flat out told us that we could never have a well behaved dog unless we acted more «alpha» like the ways he suggested.
We got Jessica’s name through a referral (from our dog walker) as someone who works exclusively with positive reinforcement. We had a series of puppy oriented obedience classes with Jessica, and they were wonderful. Our little girl loved her training, learned how to be a good member of our family, and we did not have to strike the fear of god into her to do so. In addition to making really basic commands rock solid (sit, stay, down, etc), Jessica taught us how to stop our little girl from counter surfing, from stealing and eating our shoes, and any number of other naughty puppy things. And once again, we did all of this exclusively through positive reinforcement — the training makes your dog WANT to be well behaved, as opposed to being simply scared of the alternative.
That was maybe a year and a half ago. Our little puppy is now 2 years old, and is going through a teen phase where she is starting to bark at other dogs on the street when she’s on her leash. Jessica was the first person we called, and after only ONE session, we have laid a foundation to stop this behavior before it escalates. We’re not there yet — we have more sessions with Jessica to address this issue — but after seeing the progress we made after just 1 hour, i am 100% confident that by the time we are done, our dog’s leash barking will no longer be an issue.
The final thing I have to mention is that with any kind of «dog» training, the focus is really on training the humans. Jessica is a great «human» trainer, and even if you were to call her because you want to address a single issue with your dog, at the end of your training, you walk away with the tools and knowledge to help you deal with any number of other issues/​tricks that may pop up in the future.

Jessica has been working with our rescue mix, Dixie, for several months now. I was on the fence about hiring a trainer because we are both dog people and fairly good at training, but yet we couldn’t overcome Dixie’s most persistent hurdles on our own: leash pulling/​lunging and jumping up on humans. Wish Jessica’s help, we mastered clicker training. It seems easy and there are plenty of videos online, but I cannot stress enough how helpful it is to have someone teach you live, correct your form, and spot inconsistencies between the approaches of two owners. Most importantly, Dixie responded beautifully to the clicker training and is an obedient walker that ignores stimuli and trots alongside me glancing up to check in. The stuff dreams are made of for someone that’s been dragged around on walks for so long! I highly recommend Jessica for your dog training needs.

Jessica helped us train our dog in preparation for the arrival of our first child. we were very concerned about our rescue mini schnauzer being safe around the new baby. it has been a week since we got home and so far our dog has done incredibly well. We seriously could not have done this without Jessica who gave us the confidence to know we could mange this huge transition in our lives along with the great training has made this time so much more wonderful for us. All the techniques she taught us have been great, mostly all the distracting items like using peanut butter kongs and rawhides, having designated tethering stations in the apartment, making sure to keep her on a lead in certain situations – are all being used in full effect.
Can’t recommend Jessica enough especially for any expectant parents with dogs