Wonder Dog Training

I recently adopted a dog from a local rescue. Quickly I discovered our new dog, named Cora was sweet, loving, and UNTRAINED. I found Wonder Dog Training on Unilocal and decided to call. I’m so happy I did. Ariel came to our home and evaluated Cora. Ariel is super knowledgeable in animal behavior and we immediately knew she was the trainer for Cora. We had five training sessions and were pleased to see Cora’s progress as the training went on. I actually would get comments from neighbors and friends on the progress that they saw in Cora! Cora is well on her way to become a Wonder Dog — I would highly recommend Ariel to anyone looking for superior dog training.

We adopted our little guy, Koda, from a shelter in October of 2015. The poor guy was only ten months old and we were already his fourth (and forever!) home — he had a lot of anxiety, he would tear things up if left alone for even a few minutes, and it was impossible to walk him due to all the pulling. When I emailed Wonder Dog, I was kind of at my wit’s end.
Ariel Santa Maria called me back before the end of that day and we scheduled an evaluation. We went for seven sessions of private training, and not only is Koda a totally different dog now, but I’m a much better dog mom and our daughters are having a lot more fun with their little bro. Ariel is obviously awesome at training dogs, but what she’s really doing is teaching YOU all the techniques to be a good leader, which I really needed. Koda is a much more confident and relaxed dog, and going on walks and playing with him are now really enjoyable for all of us and not mentally and physically taxing.
More great things about Ariel: she’s punctual, flexible, and very communicative. Also — and this is important — she totally knows what she’s doing. She was firm but always very loving with Koda. I actually cried happy tears during one of our early training sessions because Koda was progressing so well and listening in ways I didn’t think I’d ever see.
We wrapped up our last training session today. I feel confident that we can continue and go even further with training (maybe we’ll teach him «beer me» next, heh), but occasionally I might need a pep talk to not feel bad about being «the boss.» Ariel has been able to read me very well, and even though today was our last session, she made me feel like I could text her any time if I had any additional questions or needed advice or a pep talk. The sessions were SO worth the investment!

Our puppy had previous 1 on 1 training sessions with other trainers with little improvement. The main issue we had was not being able to walk him. As soon as we let him out the door, he starts pulling and gets distracted with anything and everything he sees. He was pulling so much that he would choke himself. I found a Wonder Pet card from the vet and decided to contact them. I got a call back from Courtney and she asked me what my main concern was. I told her I wanted to be able to walk my dog without him pulling and be able to stay when someone is at the door (among other things) and not rushing to the door. I asked my husband if we could try Wonder Dog and he agreed as long as it will be the last one as we cannot keep spending money on dog training :-). Our first meeting with Courtney was dog evaluation. She recommended getting a gentle leader which they provide for free (I got it at the pet store and she reimbursed me). The next meeting she already took him out walking wearing the gentle leader. I was very surprised seeng him walking! It’s like a miracle! After walking him for a while, she asked if we wanted to try walking him. My husband and I got our turn to walk him which was impossible to do before. And we have been walking him everyday. We also worked (reinfoce) on come and stay command. What a difference! It’s like day and night.
Overall, we are very pleased with the result. Courtney was very patient, loving and caring. She is very sweet! No wonder our dog loves her! Well, we do too! :-) Eventhough the training sessions are done, she still reaches out to us to let us know that we can contact her anytime if we ever have questions or concerns. Thank you so much Courtney! We really appreciate everything you have done. When the time comes that we get another dog, we know who to call now for dog training.
We love and appreciate you Courtney!
You know who we are ;-)

We highly recommend Wendy! She is easy to work with, prompt, supportive, uses only positive reinforcement and knows her stuff! She helped us with our two big dogs and one auxiliary guy we adopted when we were working with Wendy. She gave us ideas and options for minimizing our dog’s protective tendencies.

My dog and I just completed a 7-​week course with canine coach, Ariel Santa Maria, and she was fantastic! My dog is a Boston terrier with boundless energy and she needed to learn manners and I needed to learn how to teach her. Ariel worked miracles with both of us and I couldn’t possibly be more pleased with her training. Plus, she is a delightful young woman who is fun to be with! I highly recommend Ariel. Call her!

I found Wonder Dog Training via Unilocal and chose to hire them based on their overall rating and reviews. I am so glad I did because the trainer we were paired with is fantastic. We opted for the 7 in-​home session package and definitely got our money’s worth. Ariel Santa Maria was punctual and ready to work as soon as she arrived. She listened to what we wanted to accomplish and helped us succeed in basic obedience, calming our dogs anxiety and we also learned fun tricks later like roll over, shake, dance, bang and others! The first session was great and each session after the first was just as successful.
Loose leash walking was another concern for us because our dog was always pulling and fighting to get away while walking. Ariel helped us address several bad behaviors, and indoor and outdoor manners.
Ariel seemed to know how to speak to our dog & our dog really loved working with her. She also knows how to change her approach based on the mood of the dog, it’s surroundings and the goals. This was what I was most impressed with! If my dog stopped progressing or got distracted, she immediately changed tactics and every time she was able to regain focus and attention from Keira.
Ariel trained our dog but she also was able to train us to be better owners. She explained how dogs learn and what negative social behaviors to correct. Overall, we had a fantastic experience with Ariel and Wonder Dog Training and I highly recommend contacting them!

Our dog Soshee is such a beautiful, affectionate, well-​mannered dog you would never know that she’d had such a terrible start in life.
Soshee was being kept in a concrete enclosure, no shelter from the elements, sparse food, water polluted by urine, and was repeatedly abused physically.
We brought her home after receiving an email from a local dog rescue organization that had learned of her situation, and was searching for anyone that would be able to take her in. She was so weak from her poor conditions; she couldn’t walk and had to be carried to the car and into our house.
My husband and I primarily rescue kitties, so neither of us had any idea how to help a dog whose spirit had been absolutely crushed. She was terrified of people, going outside, cars, loud noises… basically, afraid of life. We knew how to help her feel safe in our home, but had no idea how to help her feel safe enough to take a step out the front door.
Enter Jennifer LaBar from Wonder Dog Training. Within 5 minutes of her arrival, I knew I’d found the perfect person to help Soshee learn to be a dog and that life could be happy!
Jennifer very patiently began working with Soshee, but never pushed her too hard. Soshee really perked to her gentle methods and soon became secure enough to make eye contact with us! For an emotionally shut down dog, that’s huge! It also didn’t take long before Jennifer was able to coax her to take a few steps out the front door.
Five years later and Soshee is a healthy, happy, well-​mannered pup who loves people (especially children), walks, playing, and long car rides! I owe all of this to Jennifer! She has an amazing gift for helping animals and their owners!
I would highly recommend Jennifer to anyone that needs help with their dog. She was absolutely amazing to work with!

We had a 5 month old puppy who was very loving, but undisciplined to the point that we were going to find him a new home. We hired a trainer who was completely ineffectual. Them we hired Courtney from Wonder Dogs. After the first lesson we experienced an 180 degree change in our puppies demeanor. He was calmer and receptive to training. In a few sessions with Coutney’s guidance our dog learned to stay off the furniture, stop jumping on people, sit and stay, come when called and many other behaviors. He has made great strides in loose-​leash walking. Of course we were much happier but so was our loving puppy. We now cannot imagine our home without our adorable Maxie. Courtney is a great trainer who uses only dog-​friendly training methods. Of course Maxie’s schooling will continue now that the training sessions with Courtney have ended, but she has supplied us with all the tools we need to continue making Max the best dog he can be, and that’s pretty darn good. Between sessions Courtney was always available by phone, text or email to help with any issues that arose. She assures us we can still call her with any questions we have going forward. We couldn’t be happier with our decision to retain Courtney to educate our dog and make us a much happier family.

We have a stubborn malamute and Wendy was our trainer. Our Willow responded so well to Wendy and she taught us how to train Willow, which is usually the best because you learn to get the dog to respond to you. Our dog is better, but of course we are still working on exercises as it is a constant «battle of the wills» with this breed. I highly recommend Wendy for stubborn large breeds that need extra work.

we took Ariel Santa Maria’s dog obedience 7 week course and she was fantastic! very good at explaining why our dogs act the way they do. i admire the confidence she has with the dogs. we are now having private training sessions with Ariel. i highly recommend Ariel for both group training and private training. she is truly passionate about dogs and it’s evident through her work. she has the hands on experience and also the education. she is full of energy and really understands dog behavior. i truly appreciate the positive reinforcement of dog training and Ariel helped me understand my own dog better.

We just completed our basic training with our 4 month old German Shepherd puppy. Ariel was our trainer and she is FANTASTIC! The communication was great right off the bat. Our pup had a difficult time riding in the car. She jumped at the windows and barked at everything we passed by. This made it difficult to even get to class. Ariel gave us some great tips and this issue was quickly resolved. So thankful! Also, our girl learned lots of basic commands and a couple tricks. Ariel is very knowledgable with training. She is quick, efficient and effective. You can tell she loves what she does. Thank you Ariel! You are WONDERful!

Our training for our two dogs was EXCELLENT! With Wendy’s (Wonder Dog) assistance, we now have greater ability to positively and effectively curb the behaviors that led us to seek additional help in the first place. The excessive barking and darting out the front door have been curtailed. Our family has benefitted from the enhanced behavior we now see in our dogs as well.
We were also very pleased with how flexible scheduling was as we also have two elementary school children and their schedules with which to contend. We would recommend this program to anyone contemplating assistance. Wendy’s visits became something that not only the dogs looked forward to, but also their owners.

We received wonderful training for our Husky. Wendy was amazing. Very prompt, easy to get in touch with, and taught us how to train our dog. I would recommend her to anyone. We did training as a small puppy in our home and later went to her home to do some training in a group setting. So thankful we made the decision to train at such a young age, it had really paid off.

Jen is truly amazing! We have known Jen for 7 years as she trained our dog when he was a puppy and continues with some refreshers. She is a great trainer and has an amazing rapport with both the animals and their owners! She is loving and caring and truly understands the dogs, how they behave and why. Our dog was a rescue and is amazingly well-​adjusted and well-​behaved thanks to Jen at Wonder Dog training.

We reached out to Wonder Dog Training because my sister was preparing to go on her first deployment and she has two dogs that I was going to be responsible for. They both struggled with separation anxiety from my sister and on leash aggression. We were matched with Sonja and let me tell you it was a match made in heaven!
We only had 8 weeks before my sister left but Sonja dove in head first to help prepare us the best we could in such a short amount of time working with us in home and around our schedules. Sonja is extremely knowledgeable in her field and even in the short amount of time, after applying the techniques and tools Sonja recommended we’ve seen a complete 180 in our pups! We go on walks now and the separation anxiety has subsided. Sonja taught us how to be better and confident leaders for our dogs and for that we’re forever grateful. We can’t wait to see how they progress even more over the next few months of continually applying the techniques. Thank you Sonja and Wonder Dog!

I adopted a 5-​year-​old male poodle mix in January and decided to hire a trainer to help me. Sonja Baker was our trainer. She was wonderful: understanding, helpful, provided feedback after each session for my review, and loved Buddy. He was ecstatic every time she came. I’m so happy I found Wonder Dog Training and especially Sonja. She is amazing. If you’re looking for help with your dog, look no further.

We used their dog walking and their board and train. Everyone at Wonder dog did a great job. I recommend you use their services. They take care of your dog like its their own.

John at Wonder Dog exceeded my expectations regarding what he has been able to do with training our girl, Beulah! His gentle, caring techniques worked! He seemed to understand all the meanings of her quirkiness and once I followed his directions, she responded and excelled! He gave me lots of tips on how to help her focus and get her to pay attention to me with lots of love, praise and of course, treats! I would highly recommend Wonder Dog!, especially John!

Thelma, my border terrier trained by Jen, is still responding well to the lessons we have learned. Jen gave me some tidbits on how to keep my former shelter dog from being skittish and it has worked! She’s made trips to fairs, malls and has stayed focused, unafraid and calm.
Once again, don’t think about calling anyone else. Get Jen!

Jen is simply amazing! When we brought our puggle (Charlie) home at 10 weeks, we contacted her right away to get started on in-​home training. We did three session within the first two months and we were delighted with his progress and what a great dog he was. Charlie was potty trained within two months of being home — no more puppy pads and very few accidents. He also responded very well to her style of training — reward with treats and love — which is exactly the type of training we wanted to use. (no shock collars or other gimmicks)
We then had her come back when Charlie was 9 months old and had picked up a new game of «chase me» when he had items he knew he shouldn’t. She had just the trick to help us fix that behavior and one week later, there is already a huge improvement in him. :)
She has also worked with us on his jumping, biting, commands (sit, down, stay), walking, introducing him to other dogs and noises like cars, etc when he was little. She is great at giving recommendations for such things as doggy day care, flea/​tick medicine, treats, and much more — for us first time dog owners.
Jen is the best decision we made when we brought our Charlie boy home! We highly recommend Wonder Dog Training and her services! She is the complete package :)