Positive Approach Dog Training & Daycare

Not going to use these folks again. My other half and I have had bad experiences thinking that it was just a fluke. This time my other half had a chaotic time trying to get our two dogs. First, there was blood all over the place because one of our dogs got cut and she was still bleeding when he got her home. The associates let her loose and she ran all over the place, then making things even better, they opened up my other dog’s kennel and let him roam free.
The older lady just stood there and gave the stank eye to him. Got the dogs home, and my older dogs nails were shredded, like they just ripped off the access nail.
This is ridiculous. They used to be good and now they do not deserve a cent from us ever again. I recommend to go somewhere else before they do this to your dogs.

We recently got a puppy and are dealing with typical puppy behavior issues. My 4 kids and I had a one hour private session with the trainer and our puppy to talk about how to handle her and teach her the right way. Lee was fantastic and very helpful. The store was stocked with all sorts of treats, food and other dog related items.

An update: Since I can’t get anything done around home to get ready for our upcoming move on the 9^th, Jackson is in daycare and boarding starting today, Monday. He was getting so upset and stressed watching me pack and pick up! I kept telling him he was coming too but all the activity was just too much for him.
He’s having fun now and not having to think about boxes. I miss him already and at the same time I know he is in great hands and being well cared for

I was finally contacted, and they made ammends. I brought my pup in for an eval and I Like Their training style and will be setting up a private, as he didnt get along with two of their dogs, but not even people like everyone. So we will see what happens next!!!

My fiancé and I were gifted a very strong willed and energetic Akita/​Bulldog puppy. After looking into multiple training options we decided upon Positive Approach. We found the 6 week puppy classes to be very informative and helpful. Keep in mind that you get out of it what you put into it.
With the training package came a daycare coupon and that was truly a godsend. It was reassuring to be able to see our dog on their live webcams. And for the first time our puppy came home and was too tired to get into anything. A weekly daycare visit is now part of our routine.
It’s been amazing to be able to get just about everything we need taken care of in one spot. Quality dog food, grooming, boarding when needed and knowledgable staff have made for a very positive experience. (:

I have been taking my two dogs to Positive Approach for daycare and boarding for almost a year and there is no other place I would take them. I am also taking one of my dogs through a fun training class now and I like the individual attention and tools I am receiving.
When I moved to this area, I took my dogs to another place in Gig Harbor and both of my dogs got bit on the back end when the staff was trying to move them out of the room. Accidents happen; however, my dogs have been going to daycare regularly for 6 years — they have never been bit. I decided it was time to change when I dropped them off and saw my shepherd’s legs shaking (and not with excitement). The manager of the place shared that the reason why they were both bit was because they didn’t have enough staff on the daycare floor that were properly trained. Not my problem.
HOORAY — I found the team at Positive Approach after taking a tour of all the places in Tacoma that were on the «Best Of» list. 3 things that separate them from the rest — service; transparency and training.
When you arrive to check out the place, they will give you a tour — of the entire place — even the rooms behind the closed doors so you can see what is going on. They pride themselves on sharing what they are about with their customers. They have webcams throughout so you can always see what is going on (I can watch them on my phone — great when traveling). I met the staff on the daycare floor and saw them interacting positively with the dogs. I observed one of the «meet and greet» sessions. It makes me feel good as an owner that they want to get to know my dogs; their names; what they like; how they play and how they respond to other dogs. They pay attention and they help me be a better owner by showing me tools I can use with my dogs using positive training methods — and how I can continue using them at home (example — polite greetings)
My dogs love coming here and I feel confident leaving them for the day or over a vacation. They get excited to see the staff when I drop them off. The staff has daily activities planned to keep the dogs engaged (which you can also see on the webcams) and when they get home — they are tired and happy.

This place is SO Amazing. Our dog Woody has been going there for grooming and doggie daycare for 2 years now, and they treat us like family. We we were gone for a little over a month on vacation with our dog, and when we returned everyone cheered «Woody, you are back!!!» You could tell that the employees genuinely care about the animals and our dog is well cared for here. Our dog always wags his tail, and is super excited to play with his Positive Approach buddies (people and doggies!). I would also like to note that they do keep the play areas immaculately clean and the cleaning pails are hung on the walls where the dogs can NOT drink from them. My dog gets plenty of clean food and water here… they even feed them special treats like bacon flavored popcorn!!! The owners invest a lot in their own employee’s happiness. You can tell everyone enjoys working here and they have a really low turn over rate. They also do a lot in terms of community building. The groomers are also terrific. For $ 50 my dog gets a bath, anal glands expressed, nails trimmed, a cute bandana, and Advantage flea medicine. The groomers do a fantastic job and I’ve never had issues with nails being trimmed too short.

I took my new puppy Oly to Positive Approach for the puppy class and then a few times to the «Monday» puppy day. I am incredible impressed with the amount of information received in the one puppy class and also the love they give my puppy while I am at work. I also enjoy that I can watch him on the web cam. After he is at puppy daycare he is a happy tired pup, making the transition from the weekend to the work week so much easier for him. The folks who work at Positive Approach seem to love dogs and I feel very comfortable having him there without me.

An amazing group of people! I have gone to them for training, pet daycare and boarding for my 2 dogs and they have been wonderful. My dogs are always excited to go there and happy when I pick them up.
My husband and I have two rescue dogs — one is about 14 and the other around 1 year. We rescued the one year old recently and she has a ton of energy and needs some work with training and getting along with our other dog. Positive Approach has helped us on both accounts — she now knows basic commands and we have the tools to work on getting her to bark less and get along with our senior dog. We also take her to pet daycare — it is a wonderful tool to get her energy out and they have been great at working with her as she gets used to playing with other dogs. She was a stray and did not understand play when we first got her. She has gone from hiding and being scared of other dogs to progressively playing more and more. They gave her lots of attention as she got acclimated and always take great care to watch all the dogs. I can even check them out on a camera throughout the day to see how things are going. I have also been very pleased to see that they keep the facility immaculate. Whenever there is an accident in class everyone tethers their dog and the mess is immediately cleaned up. The same quick response is seen on the daycare floor.
We also took advantage of their boarding recently. I was especially happy to discover that they stay the night with boarders and don’t just leave them on their own at night. I am always very nervous when leaving the 14 year old as she needs more care and attention. She is not able to go on the floor with the pet daycare group so they accommodated her by keeping her in the employee lounge and giving her tons of attention and treats. They even took her for a day a couple weeks before we left to make sure she would be comfortable. She has abandonment issues, from being left at a shelter a couple years ago, and is nervous when we leave her, but when she came back she was happy and content. It is a great feeling to have a place I can leave her and know she will be happy and taken care of. I did not worry at all while we were away — leaving me to enjoy my friend’s wedding all the more.
As someone who worked training dolphins years ago, I can tell you that training is only as good as the person who trains the animals. Positive Approach gives you the tools you need to work with your beloved companion and I have seen many people happy with the results and getting along much better with their dogs. Without them many dogs would be returned to shelters as they are not able to figure out how to modify certain behaviors such as incessant barking. But if people do not work with their dogs outside of training sessions the dogs will not magically learn how to get along in their household. I believe if any dogs have left Positive Approach not having learned the behaviors they were taught it is only because they were not able to put in the time it takes to make it to every session and work outside of those sessions. I know that as long as I put in the effort and the time, my dog has responded very well to their training techniques.

Positive approach trainers appear to have no education on dog behavior. What an incredible waste of time and money!!!

I have 3 dogs that I have taken to Positive Approach twice now. Both times I have had issues.
The first time, one of our dogs they cut one of his nails too short and it was bleeding (something they didn’t bother to tell us when we picked him up).
It wasn’t until after we got home that I noticed that a nail was bleeding (after he had jumped up on some furniture. Then I had to tend to him after cleaning the drops of blood on the furniture. I also went out to the car to see if there was blood on the seat (and there was)…and both are still there.
I thought it was something maybe they overlooked and figured it could happen. I then took them back a few months later (right before Christmas) and told them of the first incident.
They didn’t seem very concerned or apologetic, but I just chalked that up to the clerk not being the one who groomed them last time.
I was told that they would be ready in 3 hours (an hour for each dog), which I’ve found to be typical.
However, I received a call within 2 hours telling me that they were all ready. Which surprised me, because that was a record for anytime we have had them groomed.
No problem, I thought. Maybe they paid extra attention to them after my first experience.
I could not have been more wrong. After picking them up and taking them home, I noticed first that their pee patches weren’t groomed/​trimmed and after a few days one of my dogs was spinning (he does this when his anal glands fill up).
I took him to the vet and sure enough, they said his anal glands were full (something the grooming package I purchased was supposed to have done).
Needless to say, I paid $ 120 for grooming and I can only assume that since the pee patch of both dogs were not done, and one of the anal glands not done, that the other two didn’t get theirs done either.
I should note that I only paid $ 116 of the $ 120 because they discounted $ 4 for the first incident. Something that surely didn’t cover the cost of cleaning up after the bloody nail.
I truly wanted to support a local small business, but this is one I don’t think I can no longer support. People ask about our dogs all the time and I will certainly never recommend Positive Approach.
If anything, I will deter people from going there.
*UPDATE 1÷17÷11: I took the dogs back after the owner called and they groomed the dogs for free. This time, I received a grooming report (something I had not on the two previous visits). I really see that they went out of their way to make sure that I was satisfied. I felt that it was only fair to raise the review from 1 star to 3 stars because they did try to make things right. They told me I had a «couple» free groomings, so I will see if they call to schedule another one.

I took my dog here twice a week for day care for about 3 months but the service wasn’t quite as good as I expected.
Most of the employees were very nice and you could tell how much they loved dogs but there was one employee that I saw a few times screaming at the dogs to be quiet. The first time I thought maybe she was just having a bad day but I’ve seen her yelling several different times. I don’t bring my dog to day care to be yelled at when she barks!
It also seems like they don’t have enough employees monitoring the daycare and cleaning up after the dogs. Often when I would pick my dog up at the end of the day I would see several puddles on the floor and while checking the web-​cam during the day I would see dogs running and slipping and sliding through puddles. Even though this place is very close I’m going to take my dog somewhere else

I took my dogs here for an evaluation because I was thinking about putting them in daycare a couple of days per week… then I changed my mind.
The staff was really friendly and they seem to like dogs. They also seems to clean a lot, but that was the main problem… I noticed they leave the huge mop pails out in the play area after they have cleaned! I saw a couple of dogs run over to one and put its head in the pail. I don’t know if they use any cleaners, etc, but I don’t care. All I know is I do NOT want my dogs drinking dirty or contaminated water.
Maybe that’s why I saw a couple of dogs go over to the mop pail… I didn’t see any drinking water anywhere. When I picked my dogs up from their evaluation (where they were kept separate from the other dogs) I noticed my dogs seemed ready to get out and they made a bee line for water…
I just didn’t get a good impression there and I want whomever is taking care of my dogs to be top of the line.

Positive Approach is AMAZING! We have went through a puppy class for our lil one, Toad. She’s a Rott/​Pit mix. And it was SOOO helpful, she’s a well rounded lady now! And my husband and I are THE pack leaders of our home!
We’ve also sent Toad to doggy day care! I was a neurotic mom, and checked on her 20 times a day on the live puppy cam, from work. Which was awesome! She slept literally for days afterwards!
We also went through one on one behavioral counseling with, Suzie. With a previous dog of ours. It was very educational, and we valued her telling us the utmost truth when it came to our situation! She didn’t hesitate to let us know that we had a dangerous dog on our hands, and she was so helpful. Even though it wasn’t what we wanted to hear. But it aided us in making responsible decisions.
All in all, the whole staff at Positive Approach were always eager to help, and loved our dogs! Super friendly atmosphere!

Positive Approach is almost your one stop shop for dogs — this and a good place to get food and grooming supplies and you’re set. They offer doggy daycare for socialization and boredom relief, but the real big deal is the dog training they offer.
We’ve just started a basic course and they’re nothing short of fantastic! If you’re debating between this place and somewhere like Petsmart, don’t be cheap — the trainers here know their stuff, have so much more experience and the whole operation just has heart, rather than an eye on the all-​mighty buck. Though, I guess, it should go without saying that they’re actually training you as much or more than they’re training your dog — even though you’re probably housebroken already.
Oh, and, they have a fantastic selection of training aids and good-​for-​your-​dog chew toys that’ll last and stay interesting for your pooch!
UPDATE: I really wish I could give them 10 stars — our puppy started to show some serious behavior problems — she was scared of her own shadow and decidedly not good with other dogs or new people… so we talked to the folks at positive approach and after 2 all-​day sessions where we left our dog with them to be gradually introduced to socializing well with other dogs, she’s a whole different dog! She went from being scared and hiding from dogs half her size to playing with dogs twice her size! And each of the two days cost us $ 65 apiece — all in all, this was a bargain for what was nothing short of a miraculous change because of many hours of personal attention from their excellent and expert staff.