Sit Stay Come Dog Training

John was a big help in not only training our puppy Gus but was great in getting our other older rescue dog Annie comfortable with her new family member! John went above and beyond getting Gus to listen and control his chewing/​biting and teach him numerous commands. John is patient with both owners and pets. John will help you through the tough puppy training and teach you how to continue the training yourself. We would highly recommend John to help get you and your pet on the right path.

Let me just say that this review is LONG overdue. (I’m sorry John! Forgive me!)
First off: before I get into the bulk of it —
John is worth Every. Single. Penny.
Go with him for all your training needs! And I’m not specifying just your dog… He trains YOU! Don’t waste your money on anyone else.
My background with two mini Doxie pups:
My husband and I have had dogs growing up our whole life — and we decided to get these two little loving doxies together back in ’08. Needless to say, we’ve tried everything under the sun (so we thought) to train them.
— Baby gate in kitchen
— play pen in living room
— crate training: both in one crate
— crate training: in their own crate
— leaving them to run around in the house alone. Or crated.
— pee pads — hundreds $ spent
— weeks of SD humane society training: with clickers, call commands, etc.
NOTHING WORKED.
Over 7 years fly by with countless battles of dog anxiety vs. human anxiety and STILL NOTHING worked.
SOME PROBLEMS WE FACED:
— uncontrollable barking in any situation around other dogs — not angry or aggressive barking, but the «I’m so excited and slightly nervous to see you! Bark bark bark!»
— #1 and #2 IN the house. In their crate (when used). On the couch!!! Anywhere, and only when we left the house WITH barking and some destructive behavior.
RESULT:
–Called John
–had an interview over the phone
–John visited our home: told us A, B, and C
YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW ALL OF JOHNS RULES: trust me. We were moving during the time of the training to Greece (which is where I sit now) and I was so worried I wasn’t going to get all the training I needed to help with my two dogs uncontrollable barking or severe separation anxiety.
LET ME TELL YOU: everything, except for the separation anxiety, worked perfectly. My husband and I were able to sit down at an outdoor restaurant in downtown and actually enjoy a meal with our two dogs– without them going crazy! it was amazing! We had our lives back and we could take our loving pups with us!
Then finally, after we moved to our new home overseas — we worked on the separation anxiety: leaving them uncrated in the house with no accidents! We did everything that John had told us to do remembering every single lesson.
AND JOHN… IT WORKED!!!
No accidents. No uncontrollable barking. We all have our lives back to where they should be!
It’s perfect! Thank you so much John!!!
5+ stars!

Our dog Remo needed some fine tuning and John amazingly got him to start obeying commands on the first visit. He also taught us how to control him from jumping on guests and to stop pulling on his leash. By the time we were done our puppy was even going to his bed when the doorbell rang and waiting for a release command (Although that is still a work in progress but it takes a lot of repetition).
He guarantees his work, checks in often and it really was a pleasure working with John!

Sit Stay Come is a great!
We recently adopted a 8 week old Coton de Tulear named Larry David. We were instantly in love with the little guy but noticed that he came to us a little timid and shy. We also wanted to make sure we raised Larry properly from day 1 so he would grow up to be good with people and other dogs. We found John and he came to the house to school us on how to train our pup — he set us up with the proper food and potty routine and excellent puppy training. The neatest thing about this process is that we were able to teach Larry how to learn. Larry is now a happy, smart, social 4 month old pup who knows how to sit, stay, come, lay down, roll over, go to his bed, is accident free, and he is learning new things all the time!
John was aware of our pup’s unique personality and tendencies, and helped us help him become a confident little guy. Thanks to John and Sit Stay Come!

John is awesome!!! We have an eight month golden doodle and although he is an all around good dog he is a lot to handle at times. Like many other spoiled dogs he thinks he is in charge at times and would pull the leash any direction he wanted as if he was waking us. We had trouble with him jumping on us and our guests when we would walk in the door and overall just thought the house was his to do as he pleased. My wife and I are expecting our first child in June so it was definitely time to train our dog.
We signed up for two, two hour sessions. The first session was closer to four hours, at no extra charge or up sell. That is the kind of dedication that John gives you, he truly cares about his clients and especially the dogs. During our time John spent just as much time training my wife and I as the dog. He gave us the tools to understand better how to communicate with our dog.
I am not going to act as if two quick sessions with John is all you need to turn your dog into the perfect animal that does whatever you want whenever you want them to. With that being said he provided us with the proper techniques to train our dog effectively. The key phrase is train our dog. Outside of the time spent wit John in our home we were given homework sheets to conduct daily. So like anything you get what you put in. We spent about an hour a day for four weeks training our dog. Our new training techniques were very organized effective and easy. It was amazing how quickly our dog responded to the training.
Our golden doodle is still a living breathing creature with his own thoughts and ideas on the way things should go sometimes and just like humans no one is perfect, but with that being said he is 1000% better than he was before meeting John. When we do need to train and discipline him we now possess very effective techniques that he quickly responds to. Thank you again for all the help John!!!

Sit Stay Come is fantastic! We called John for some assistance to help prep our two little buddies for the arrival of their human brother. Ollie and Teddy are both rescues, 6.5 and 6 years old, and have been with us since they were each about 11 months old. They are excellent dogs and are very loving, but they had developed a few bad habits over the years. Some of these habits that we wanted help with included:
–excessive barking,
–jumping on everyone who comes to the house,
–testing the limits (Ollie)
–not listening to commands when it wasn’t appealing
–thinking that they owned the entire house, neighborhood, park, etc.,
They are loving dogs and a huge part of the family, but after 6 years of being spoiled, we knew we needed some help in changing some of these patterns, and also some help in our own approach if it was going to be successful.
After speaking with numerous trainers, dog training services and doing quite a bit of research, we decided to call Sit Stay Come. John came to the house and wanted to meet Ollie and Teddy before we decided the best approach.
As John approached the door and came to the house for the first session, our boys didn’t disappoint in showcasing some of their «habits» for John to witness firsthand. They barked wildly as he rang the bell, jumped on him as he entered, and Ollie even tried his best to hump John’s arm as he sat on the couch! While it was a little embarrassing as my wife and I pleaded with our two small dogs to stop barking and acting like maniacs…5 minutes after arrival, once the commotion and barking died down, John calmly said «This stops today» and smiled. He spent some time getting to know the dogs, and spoke with my wife and I in detail about what to expect, both from the dogs and what would be needed from us. As opposed to lots of other trainers he is a big advocate of positive reinforcement, which we liked, but he was also clear that our involvement was huge.
Ollie and Teddt are awesome dogs, with a few not so awesome habits, so we decided on the Awesome Dog program that John offers, for both Olllie and Teddy. In the first session we worked specifically on problem barking. John knows his stuff. His expertise with dog behavior and psychology, especially helping us better understand things from the dogs’ perspectives was extremely helpful. In addition to working with Ollie and Teddy, he worked with us just as much. He helped both my wife and I establish a very simple, but different approach, in how we handled the dogs’ excitement, and it worked! In literally the first two hours our problem barker, Ollie, was like a different dog… it was unreal!
After a few hours, the dogs were more relaxed, but also were responding positively to the new commands. John gave us homework, and made us grade the dogs each day for specific areas we were working on. He also checked in throughout the week to ensure that we were doing our part. Second session dealt with teaching them to stay and also leash pulling. Another two hours, and another week of progress.
The best part of the whole process so far is that the dogs seem happier, are listening much better, and truly seem like they understand the new norm. With a baby coming, this has been huge and we are excited to continue working with John on fine tuning.
John is excellent with the dogs. He also follows up with us frequently to check progress and makes himself accessible, when we have questions throughout the week, or just need additional support. We highly recommend John and Sit Stay Come and are excited for our next session!

Two weeks ago I got my first dog ever, and she is a dutch/​german shepherd mix named Kahlua. She is a year old, and an overall awesome dog. A few issues have been noticed in the last two weeks, mostly public behavior and loose leash walking. She can’t keep focus during her walk, and would pull tremendously. It would be a hassle to get her to walk comfortably. That was when I noticed I needed a professional dog trainer. I contacted John due to the happy customers and reviewers on Unilocal.The very first session I had with John was an amazing session for me and Kahlua. In a matter of minutes, she learned to sit, wait and stay next to my side while we were walking (all done outside and inside on a leash). He gave me some advice for future references, and told me what equipment to use. He built my confidence as a dog owner, which is great since Kahlua is my first dog. Kahlua seems to be more obedient already and it has been a day since I saw John. John is a very friendly and patient guy, couldn’t have been happier to get a session with him. Thanks John!

This is Scout and he is a Good Dog!
My husband and I rescued Scout, a 2 year old lab-​shepherd mix, at the beginning of January. Scout was well-​behaved inside, but once we brought him outside he would drag me along like he was a sled dog! We tried bringing him to dog parks to burn off his excess energy (because being dragged behind a running dog just isn’t fun) but he would snap at the other dogs.
Because of his fear of other dogs and anxiety about being abandoned again, we did not want to bring Scout to a group dog training class and preferred to do training in our own home. Otay Pet Vets recommended John, so we called him up and enrolled Scout in the Good Dog program. In the two visits, we learned basic commands (sit, stay, come (obviously!) and down), walking on a leash (with John’s guidance, we switched to a prong collar… the difference was amazing!), door manners, and meeting other dogs. John was also great with responding to problems over the phone. I called him a couple of times during the month with concerns about Scout’s behavior and John guided me in how to help him. Scout’s anxiety has greatly decreased and we both enjoy walks now! Every day he gains more confidence and his loving, cuddly personality has emerged :)
We highly recommend John and Sit Stay Come Dog Training!

We recently moved into a new condo building with our two terrier-​mixes, Ben and Brightly (3 yrs old and 1 yr old.) Very quickly after moving in, our dogs started showing signs of anxiety. Any time we tried to leave the apartment, they’d bark and wail until we returned. Even when we were home, they’d bark at every single noise they heard and anything they’d see outside. Going for walks was horrible because the dogs would feed off each other’s energy — if Ben saw another dog a block away, Brightly would go nuts too. It got to the point where we weren’t able to go to work because of the separation anxiety, so we started trying everything — «leaving» exercises where we’d just let them bark and bark to «get it out of their system,» spray bottles, even bark collars. Nothing worked, and because we didn’t have any kind of proven strategy on our side, we were just aimlessly and desperately trying to force change. Within 3 weeks of moving in, the HOA had given us two warnings for violating the noise policy, and we were already preparing ourselves to have to move out. At that point, we knew we needed to hire an expert.
We found John on Unilocal,and from the first phone call we were put at ease — even before he’d met our dogs, John instilled confidence in us that he could help. He came by for the first of two appointments on a Saturday afternoon, and using the techniques that he taught us, we were able to go out — alone! — the very next day for a meal for the first time in weeks. «Relief» is an understatement.
Now that we’ve completed both of the training sessions that we purchased, Ben and Brightly are better behaved than before we moved. They’re more calm, more affectionate, and we’re all much happier. John helped us correct behavior that we didn’t even know was possible with small terriers like these!
We would confidently recommend John to anyone who is frustrated with their pet’s behavior, or anyone who simply wonders what’s possible when it comes to training their furry friend and becoming a better pet owner.

I called John after rescuing Sophie as I was told she was good with cats but after getting her home she wanted to attack my one year old Maine Coon who was almost as big as her. I was worried someone was going to get hurt. John came out and accessed the situation and gave me great advice. Sophie is doing so well now with the cats and isn’t doing any bad behavior with either of them. She also now knows to sit, stay, come, lie down, and wait for her food, it helps that I have a very smart little girl but John was a great trainer and I think trained me just as much if not more than her. :)

As a first time dog owner adopting a rescue dog, I didn’t quite know what to expect. In the first day or two of taking our dog, Tucker, home, it was pretty clear he had never had any obedience training. Never having owned a dog before, I wasn’t confident enough in myself to teach Tucker everything based on YouTube videos and online articles. Based on reviews, I decided to give John a call, something I will never regret.
From the first visit (where John confirmed what we thought — Tucker never had any training prior), John was patient with me and Tucker as he explained the work it would take to get Tucker to a good level of obedience. He carefully showed my exercises to do with Tuck and gave me detailed instructions of what to do each night. 2 days after John’s first visit, Tucker was sitting, staying and coming consistently. Further visits with John led to more and more obedience from Tucker, including sitting and staying outside, fetching, returning and dropping and learning to quell his barking.
Anyone who visits our apartment is very quick to note how well behavior Tucker is compared this dog or that dog they’ve encountered. I can pretty confidently say that would not be the case if we hadn’t met John.

Working with John was a tremendous learning experience. John’s Sit, Stay, Come training was invaluable in showing us what we were doing wrong with our puppy! He gave us the tools, guidance, to better relate to our little guy for a more effective training experience. We as BRAND NEW doggie parents are indebted to him for his knowledge on how to be better parents and most importantly, on how to provide structure! Thanks John…

After having a puppy for two weeks and feeling like we were instilling more bad habits than good (potty training wasn’t getting better, biting was getting worse, etc.), we decided spending money on the front end would save us much more money and stress down the road. John was incredibly helpful. He is calm, efficient, and to the point. He helped us understand our puppy so we could manage our expectations and help us stay sane until she’s developed enough to get it. He explained how to communicate with her. And he got her to have a working understanding of sit, stay, come, and down on the first visit! Not only are those commands helpful, but having training to do with her when she’s crazy helps calm and focus her. Very very appreciative! We’ll definitely use him again once she’s developed more and is ready for more training!

John is an amazing trainer… Come Sit Stay… perfect name… that’s exactly what I needed my sweet Mazie to learn and working with John made it so easy! He is patient, positive and wonderful at giving constructive feedback. After four months, Mazie immediately remembered him and couldn’t wait to give him kisses. John is a true professional, always punctual, returns calls and works with you until you are complete for that session. I would recommend him to anyone with a new dog… he knows hat he is talking about and his style of teaching is lovely!

This was my first time hiring a dog trainer and I am so happy that we went with John at Sit Stay Come. Marley is my 7 year old dog who had a handful of issues we needed to address — anxiety being tied up, whining out of boredom, and licking people non stop. John gave us the tools to verbally control her and fix those issues. This is the first time since I’ve had her that I really feel confident and that I am in control (not her). The training has helped us let Marley know that we are in control and that she needs to listen to us; because of that, she seems to have less anxiety and is generally calmer. She’s learned her place in our family and it’s been better for everyone.
When we first started looking at dog trainers we couldn’t decide between the one year programs (what we have with John) or hiring a trainer hourly. I recommend the one year program so you have a trainer that is invested in you and your dog and it’s in their best interest to teach you as efficiently as possible. And, we have the peace of mind knowing if more issues come up we can call John at anytime. So far we’ve had 3 meetings with him (two at home and one at my office). We probably don’t need another one unless additional issues come up or we need a refresher.
100% recommend hiring John to train your dog (more importantly — train you). I wish I didn’t wait this long!

We found out about John K. through our Vet. Having his expertise has been a complete life saver. He understands the unique qualities of our breed and her particular personality.
Our dog is 8 months and has shown behaviors we haven’t know how to deal with. He has had answers to all our questions, education on normal dog behavior and encouragement. Strategies and techniques that have worked.
Knowing that we can have ongoing assistance with John for us and our dog is a positive relief. We’re working toward the best possible relationship we can have with our dog. Not sure where we’d be if we didn’t have John as a trainer for us and our dog.

I’ve always loved my dog, but until John came, I had forgotten how much. Ollie wasn’t aggressive– far from it! He was friendly, REALLY friendly! 14 months and 85 lbs, he had so much energy, he would immediately and unrelentingly accost anyone who came over — friends, our young children (3 and 6 yr old) ‘s friends, and strangers alike. He just wanted to be UP. IN. THEIR. FACE. Nibbling arms (playfully, but those are still big teeth), licking faces and climbing on laps (remember, 85lbs) was not exactly welcomed by all. And if we put him outside? I should post a picture of our door frame… chewing, scratching, whining, it sounded like he was being tortured out there. On leash inside? Tug of war, chewing the leash, hurling himself toward the visitors.
It was to the point where our friends had stopped coming over, and we dreaded inviting them. Anything to do with people and Ollie put me in a huge ball of stress. Trying to interview babysitters put us over the edge. Were we going to have to pay to board him every time we wanted to go on a date?
Enter John, through the miraculous portal of Unilocal… and: 20 MINUTES! It took John TWENTY MINUTES and three simple commands to transform Ollie from hyped-​out crazy monkey into a docile dog who LISTENED to us and responded when we told him what wasn’t appropriate human greeting behavior. Two walks around the block and not only did his problem behavior stop, but John gave us something that had Ollie walking like a police dog! Heeled perfectly, walking right in line with my hip, slack leashed.
Now Ollie is a new dog and we’re new owners. I actually LIKE and OFFER to take him for walks now! We LIKE inviting our friends over, and they have all been blown away by his 180 degree change.
Most of all, I’m glad I could trust John. He sees a lot of aggressive dogs, and I wanted to make sure he knew that wasn’t Ollie. I didn’t want anything harsh or harmful, and was reassured along the way that a little negative reinforcement to back up the positive reinforcement training we’d done with him as a puppy was going to be helpful not harmful. His techniques were certainly humane and Ollie responded very well. We could have done more, but this was perfect for us.
Thank you, thank you, thank you John and Sit, Come, Stay; you’ve made me love my dog again!

My dog and I started working with John a little over three weeks ago. My dog has severe anxiety, which has limited many normal activities for us, such as going for walks. After our first training session with John, I was able to take my dog for a walk without her having a meltdown.
Not only has John helped me to build my dog’s confidence, he’s built my confidence. We still have a lot of work to do, but in the past few weeks, I have noticed significant improvement. Even my vet said, «WOW, she’s a new dog!»
John is straightforward, sets expectations, and has reasonable prices. But most importantly, John gave me hope that I could rehabilitate my dog. I appreciate his patience and kindness. He is amazing!

We are so glad we hired John the Trainer! When searching for a dog trainer, I selected John since his payment plan was straight forward and he was able to answer my questions and concerns directly (rather than having an admin speak to me). I also liked that he had awesome reviews on Unilocal!
Our dog had issues with aggression as well as misbehaving on the walk. We opted for the 1 year plan and found that John was patient with us, provided clear instructions and homework. Most importantly, he was adaptable to what we were comfortable with. Almost a year had past and our dog had some issues again. John came back to coach us — no problem!
I am happy to report that our dog is doing great and has become a model citizen!
Thanks, John!

I’ve been meaning to write this review for a few months now, but it needs to be said: John is amazing! My mom had used John as her trainer a while back and recommended him to my boyfriend and me when we got our furry friend. By the time John came our way, our little Anatolian Shepherd/​Lab mix was a wee pup of 11 weeks old. Cute, but a potential menace. We made sure we had some guidance before he had any «behaviors» crop up. For our appointment, John reinforced what we had already been teaching him and gave us innumerable helpful tips and pointers. He recommended books, treats, appropriate toys, when we should be doing what, and gave us a basic training schedule. Cooper adored him and fell asleep on his feet while we were reviewing the non-​interactive material.
I can now proudly say that Cooper is a well behaved gentleman at 5 months old. He sits, stays, lies down, comes, and goes to his «spot» (i.e. crate) on command. When we are feeding him, he makes direct eye contact and waits to be released from his «stay.» We learned a lot from John about the best way to work with your pup to make sure that everyone involved is happy. I recommend him to all of my pet-​parent friends, and I truly believe that if you choose John to be your dog trainer you will be extremely pleased. If we ever need any other guidance with Coop I can confidently say we will go to John. He is the best!