Bark Busters Home Dog Training

Barbara Gazley was a Godsend! We rescued a Belgian Malinois Shepard mix without realizing they are very spirited. I was at my wits end trying to train my puppy. Barbara gave me many tools to school her. It worked! She is now a mature, 3 year old. Well behaved and very protective. Barbara has been available for follow up sessions whenever I’ve asked. Well worth whatever price she asks!

Barbara is amazing! She was recommended to me by a friend who also used Bark Busters. I have a 12 week old black lab mix who I want to train before he gets to be too large (he currently weighs 25 lbs and is growing). I purchased the lifetime training, which is nice especially since he’s a puppy. Only after a few days of training, he’s already taking pretty well to it. If you train your dog for the 20 minutes a day it really helps. I have to do mine in spurts since my dog is still a puppy, but he’s been more attentive, and is actually walking with me in the house and in the backyard with a leash (before he would run if he even saw a leash coming near him).
He’s going to be a great dog and I can’t wait for more sessions with Barbara, plus she’s available for you anytime with the lifetime package, which is awesome because if I have an issue after 5pm, I can call or e-​mail her and she responds very quickly. Thank you so much Barbara, from me and Mr. Spock! ^_^

Barbara is amazing! She is helpful, friendly and her methods are pain-​free for your furry friend. I’d recommend her to anyone experiencing leash pulling, digging or any negative behaviors.

The short story: Expensive, didn’t work for our dog
The long story:
The main reason we decided to pay for a trainer was because our American Bulldog mix was having serious resource guarding with aggressive behavior if you got to close to him or if he felt threatened. He bit my husband guarding a bone when my husband was just going to pet him (not take his bone). This aggressive behavior became exponentially worse after we had him boarded for about 3 weeks while we were out of town. It was like he was a wild animal and even if you just tried to pet him he reacted aggressively, especially towards my husband. He also would get aggressive if you woke him up or tried to move him from where ever he was laying down. He started resource guarding things like our bed and our couch. So we called up Bark Busters and met with Barbara.
Barbara was very nice but I was overall disappointed with the whole Bark Busters program. I probably signed something saying I cannot reveal their secrets or they can sue me but I will say it is very similar to the tactics of Cesar Milan except instead of a more discreet «Tsst!» correction they basically want you to growl at your dog so you can «speak their language.» Felt really ridiculous implementing these tactics in public. It might have been worth it if it actually worked for my dog but being a stubborn bulldog he would just continue doing his bad behavior. And we kept having to make our growls and corrections louder and more absurd in to get any kind of response from him at all.
Overall I feel like maybe we learned some useful tactics from Barbara and Bark Busters but watching a few episodes of The Dog Whisperer would basically give you the same knowledge. Mostly I was really disappointed with the cost and the way the program worked. It was $ 695 for 3 training sessions and «lifetime» follow up. Meaning, if the dog continued having issues the trainer would come back for no extra cost. The thing is, they wouldn’t tell us anything about their tactics (including the whole growling bit) until after our credit card was swiped. Barbara gave us all these brochures and stuff and I just felt like, «Really? This is it?» We actually didn’t ever have our third session with Barbara because I felt like it was just a huge waste of time since our dog LOVES company and aside from jumping and rushing the door he has always been well-​behaved when company comes over.
I also was skeptical of the Bark Busters program when I think in our second session with Barbara we were just kind of chatting and she mentioned some naughty behavior that her dog does. It seems to me that if the trainer’s own dog is having issues. .. maybe the methods are not effective.
Frankly, what finally ended up helping with my dog’s behavior issues was a shock collar to teach him to recall consistently. So now when he is guarding something and we say «Come!» he actually comes rather than continuing to guard the item. I don’t like that we resorted to a shock collar but his behavior was dangerous and the Bark Busters «BAHHHH!» and clapping our hands would not snap him out of it and just make us look like idiots.

We moved 400 miles to the area. Our husky was not adjusting very well, especially when it came to us leaving home for work. He destroyed our home, especially the front door. I called a vet who recommended Bark Busters before going to extremes such as bark collars or pills. Barbara had her hands full, our pup was stubborn and wasn’t going to bend. She didn’t really seem to know what to do. After an hour, she continued to ignore our complaints of the barking when we left, the concerns for his safety, etc. Her only advice she seemed to really be good at giving was walking him on a leash, and my favorite «ignoring him.»
We paid a big fee and we expected more than just a visit to tell us to ignore our puppy. But she was the «expert» so we went with it. Well, imagine how that worked. We had to send him back home, 400 miles away because after 2 days of merely only feeding and walking him. He went crazy and destroyed the house further than we had imagined.
Now we are out $ 900 and our family member. I would not recommend her for anything beyond sit and stay commands. She’s an overpriced Petco/​PetSmart trainer with no real animal behavior experience.

Very nice women. And she’s great with dogs! She is lots of help when it comes to training my 10week old husky. Recommended! And better then Petco or pet smart because your pet learns at home.