Urban Dawgs

When we got our puppy, my wife said she heard about this place and their «puppy kindergarten». I thought this sounded ridiculous and probably expensive. In retrospect, enrolling our dog in puppy k (followed by the intermediate class) was the best possible thing we could have done, and we now have a well trained, well adjusted dog as a result.
Totally worth the time, not nearly as expensive as I thought something called «puppy kindergarten» would be, and Drayton and Vyolet are totally professional, and are happy to explain the «whys» behind everything they do in the classes, which was huge for me.
As a side note, they also did 1 on 1 training with our neighbors who had some ill-​behaved dogs who were too old for the puppy k class, and we all saw the dogs’ behavior improve pretty quickly.
I would totally recommend to anyone, totally worth it to have a well trained dog.

I took my dog here in the summer of 2013. She’s a mixed breed rescue that looks primarily like a lab. After you attend their puppy kindergarten class, if you pay attention and do a lot of work at home, you’ll have a dog that will understand commands and obey based on the expectation of a treat (reward based training). You can use the tools that they teach you and apply them to teaching your dog any command you can think of (mark good behaviors with a «yes» and treat it). You can also use the tools to communicate when they’ve done something wrong (ie: mark something negative (like counter surfing) with an «oops, too bad» promptly followed by a time out). These are very effective techniques that you use with patience and will allow you to retain your sanity while training your puppy.
I giving them a high rating b/​c I truly believe they are the best dog trainers in the area. They’ve put a lot of thought into their program and put a lot of time into transferring their knowledge to you.
I take off a star as a warning to people attending their class for the first time. They are fantastic dog people, but not the best people people. You may leave there feeling inadequate and chastised (I felt that way after every class). They’re in no way mean, but they should perhaps put more thought into applying their positive reinforcement and reward based training (in the form of kind words or even encouragement) towards the people. After all, we’re really being trained as well, and I’m sure the technique is transferable to humans.
That said, I’ve referred both family and friends to their program, and firmly believe they are the best dog training program in the area.

We are in week 4 of puppy kindergarten, and I find this technique and experience remarkable. Our puppy is learning, and loves the class.
Vyolet and Drayton are pros– kind, organized, knowledgable and caring. This is our fourth puppy and while experienced we can always learn. You can teach old dogs new tricks !
This is by far the best training experience I have had, and plan to continue with further training at Urban Dawgs.
Highly recommended.

How I came to Urban Dawgs was through a referral. We took our 16 week old puppy to take his picture with Santa to donate money to our local shelter. Imagine my surprise when he started lunging, growling and hackles up every time and a dog barked or looked at him too long. I was stunned; this is when bad things about the future run through your head. Then owner Karen, of Jakes Pets in Wayne, approached me to offer guidance and a place to wait instead of the line to avoid such a heart breaking experience. Having owned a dog that had an aggression issue I instantly thought the worst. Karen was nice enough to share a story about her Pitbull and the trainers at Urban Dawgs. I left that Sunday knowing the Vyolet and Drayton where my answer just from hearing about their positive reward based training. Cody is a sensitive breed and I knew at his age this could either become a memory of puppyhood or a permanent part of his personality. The choice was mine, I opted to think of Cody’s best interest and drive the hour past hundreds of typical trainers (those who use choke collars and tough consequences, etc) to offer a positive experience we both could grow from, not one that breaks him down for me to build him back up. We enrolled and paid for the puppy kindergarten class that started the following Saturday. We could not make the intro class and because of Cody’s behavior we thought it best to have private session first. We soon learned Cody was too big and lost all his puppy teeth so it now became a single private session we paid for. Having two dogs is great but trying to get a puppy to pay attention to you, you’re commands, even his name instead of, Buddy, the other dog… HA fat chance! We learned how to get Cody to acknowledge his name, come when called, sit, down, leave it, take it but most importantly how to focus on us. We learned a lot in those couple of hours but naively focused on what we just spent not what we learned. This was an interesting ride home to say the least. Once home we committed to continue with what we learned and Buddy enjoyed a stay at grandmas so we had no distractions. It has only been a week and the difference in Cody and our relationship is 100% different. Even with Buddy home Cody looks to us first, comes when called and has made huge improvements when on a leash. Urban Dawgs has taught me how to be the person I need to be for Cody. I appreciate the 10 page follow up from the visit and have my lessons in place. We look forward to our next session to show off our new skills! Having a well-​adjusted puppy who appreciates his marker words is priceless!!! So many thanks