Delightful Doggies

Laura is as good as it gets. She is extremely talented and knowledgable! I would highly recommend her and her team!

Laura has been the best thing for our household. She is patient with the humans that have a hard time catching on and knows exactly how to trigger the desired actions of the dogs. It took us some time to work through several reactionary stresses but with her guidance, detailed instructions and wealth of knowledge we got there! I now understand my dog’s better and know what to look for in their mannerisms in order to prevent the triggers from happening and I feel that my dog’s now have more trust in me to keep them safe. If I need any additional training in the future I will go straight to Laura.

Enormous thanks to Laura for her kind, patient, and thoughtful approach to working with our dog, Tillie. We’ve seen great improvement in Tillie’s leash anxiety, but most of all, we feel much more knowledgeable when it comes to strategies for easing her and our stress!

Laura is wonderful! She is knowledgeable, professional, and kind. She helped us train our 2 ½ year old boxer mix rescue! She really taught us how to work with our new dog – and we will continue using the skills she taught us. I know we will be using her again for even more refinement in the future! I would recommend Laura and Delightful Doggies to anyone who wants to bring out the best in their pup!

Laura was great. She really helped with my 2 VERY loving, playful dogs who had a hard time with manners. I noticed the walk-​n-​trains worked well as a great jumpstart to our training. Laura always sent a follow up email so I could keep record of all the tips and tricks that we discussed during our training. She was great about finding solutions such as dog toys, the right harness, follow up trainings, working with my dogs allergies, etc. It was very personalized. I think Laura will be in our lives years to come as we hope to check in with her as we learn new things. I am forever grateful for a happy, peaceful home with calmer dogs!

As you can see from the other reviews, Laura is a well-​respected dog trainer, very communicative, thoughtful, and good at what she does. She not only has a way with dogs but is also quite personable and good at training people. I’ve never owned a dog before, and Laura made it easy for me to understand the best (most scientifically sound) way to train my 18 month old rescue pup, who had some issues with fearfulness and reactivity. I have been very grateful for her help and am well on my way to having a much better behaved dog.

Laura is wonderful and gave us just the right homework to practice with our two year old rescue, Poppy. At the end of her six week Finishing School, Pop was a different dog than when she started. Now we know how to stop perpetuating her not-​so-​nice behaviors and reward the good ones instead. We hadn’t had dogs in our lives for many years, but now we all have the confidence and tools to keep working together toward a relaxed and happy future — even when strangers knock on the door or pass us on the street!

Laura is amazing! Charlotte is such a smart pup, but she had issues with impulse control and mastering basic obedience skills. She has a ton of energy, and that hindered her ability to learn.
I really liked that every training session was customized according to Charlotte’s needs. Laura would do a great job modeling how to train her, and I’d have the opportunity to try it and receive immediate feedback. I can tell that Laura loves Charlotte just as much as I do. My pup’s been having some mysterious health issues, so she’s on a very strict fish and potato diet. Laura would come by with sweet potatoes that she made just for Charlotte. She’d also let her keep some of the toys she used during training. Laura was concerned that Charlotte’s health issues may cause some of her hyperactivity issues, so she offered to call my vet to discuss our concerns.
She’s very professional. She always showed up on time, responded to emails, and referred me to many different sources (youtube videos, articles, etc) to answer the questions I had in between sessions.
I highly recommend Laura to train your dog. Everyone comments on how much Charlotte’s behavior has improved. Sometimes strangers comment on «what a good puppy I have» as they watch Charlotte do a sit-​stay as they walk by. It’s hard to believe that she improved as much as she did with 6 sessions. But do keep in mind that you MUST do your homework! I’ve been consistent and have applied everything Laura suggested. You won’t see the improvement you want unless you’re completely dedicated.

I’m really happy with my choice in dog training. I knew I had a smart puppy that just needed a little refinement, and Delightful Doggies was extremely helpful. I appreciated that Laura customized the training to meet Charlie’s needs as well as accommodating my own preferences. Charlie really enjoyed his training sessions and was so happy to see Laura.
It was really convenient to have the day training, and I trusted Laura to be in the house with Charlie and to take good care of him. The transfer sessions were a great way for me to learn everything that Charlie had been learning and we’ve already noticed the improvement when we practice.
We’re excited to keep practicing our new skills and plan on having Delightful Doggies/​Laura back as a refresher, but more so Charlie can hang out with his buddy.

My pup and I had a fantastic experience with Laura! She came over to my house for a puppy training consult, and we talked about my pup Chaco for over an hour. We created a customized, tailored training plan specifically for Chaco to work on some behavior issues like jumping and leash pulling. She came back for three in-​house training sessions, and she even brought her own dog over one day to work on doggy interaction techniques. She was wonderful and Chaco loved her. She provided me with some awesome additional materials and resources for continued training after we completed our sessions. Chaco is doing great and maturing into a very well behaved dog! Chaco and I highly recommend Laura!

Had a wonderful experience working with Laura through the six week Finishing School. I had tried out another place but opted not to go with it because the trainer was a bit condescending, courses were in large groups and my puppy also did not enjoy car rides — Laura comes to your house, awesome!
Laura was always punctual (even when the weather was bad) and answered any questions I had. My puppy had some particular noise phobias and really disliked car rides — to the point where she would nervously shake the whole time and inevitably throw up — Laura went the extra mile to do some research for ways to alleviate the problems AND they’re working.
As far as the classes, Laura shows you how to teach whatever command and you get plenty of time to try it yourself. If the dog doesn’t respond, she has some alternative methods up her sleeve as well. There is some homework involved, but it’s fun being able to see your dog progress so it never feels like a chore. In the homework, Laura has also included some helpful resources — it’s good to try a variety of methods, each dog is different after all.

We put our puppy through the Delightful Doggy Finishing School (six sessions), and it was a positive and enjoyable experience to work with Laura. We learned first-​hand the methods to positively and properly teach our dog, and our puppy progressed quite a bit after graduating.
For background — we have a small dog (maltese poodle), and she was about 16 weeks old when we started with Laura. Our puppy would not walk on a loose leash, would not stay, and would not listen when we asked her to stop biting or leave something be. We had read a fair variety of dog training books prior to using this service, but I would say this service was very beneficial for us and our puppy. Laura did an an initial consultation with us, where we communicated to her the obedience goals we were interested in achieving. Each session involved Laura coming to our home, where she would provide a packet for that week’s obedience lessons and homework. During the approximately 45min-​60min session, she would go over the literature in the packet verbally and demonstrate hands-​on, followed by letting us try it out. It was then up to us to practice with our dog (the homework) until the following session. Laura was prompt, knowledgeable, and patient. She introduced us to and gave us toys, treats, and snacks that we weren’t previously aware of. She also suggested a number of alternative techniques and resources if a primary method wasn’t working. By the end of the Finishing School, our puppy now walks great on a leash, will stay, and has started to respond to «leave it» and «drop it». It goes without saying, but all of above (and more) were achieved because we practiced with our puppy between sessions. I would not expect that just going through the six sessions (with no practice of the techniques) would yield results.
Overall, we recommend this service for first-​hand guidance on how to properly teach basic obedience to your puppy.

This is a long overdue review… Laura has taken care of my two dogs and two cats and my saltwater tank full of fish twice while I was out of town. It was so reassuring knowing that my fur babies were in their own environment with their normal routines. Laura sent me photos and updates throughout my trip both times while I was away. She is very knowledgeable and sensitive to the needs of the animals. I would highly recommend her. I can’t wait to try out her dog training service! Thanks Laura!

I have used both the pet-​sitting and dog-​training services and been entirely satisfied with the extensive knowledge and personal attention provided by Laura and her crew.
My two senior dogs and elderly kitty had some special needs including daily medications and some leash reactivity, and I was always assured they were in wonderful hands when I was out of town. I loved seeing their smiling faces pop up on Facebook and appreciated the written reports when I arrived home.
My new adopted pup exhibited some challenging behavior after the first few weeks and I knew I wanted an expert opinion and some helpful guidance, so I set up three sessions with Laura. Her positive training methods were in line with my own, and she offered a wide array of suggestions, resources and custom-​tailored training appointments where we worked with a variety of my dog’s triggers. Laura got me on the right track and I feel so much better equipped to continue work with my little spitfire, Ruby.
I would not hesitate to recommend Delightful Doggies to anyone needing a compassionate, well-​versed and educated trainer.

Incredibly awesome service.
I hired Laura to help us with some fear-​aggressive behavior our two small dogs were having. We had an initial consultation and three one-​hour sessions.
For a couple sessions Laura brought other dogs and taught me what signs to look for, and explained what behavior was good and what behavior we should work on.
She gave us tons of exercises and both dogs showed a lot of improvement. In particular, one of my dogs is not the sharpest crayon, but she was able to give us remedial exercises, and after a couple weeks he was able to move on to learning normal exercises.
Her assistant sarah also recommended a low-​cost nutritious dog food that is available on Amazon Prime (Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul Dog Food).
She is always prompt, always follows up with lots of detail and recaps as well as literature related to your dog’s problems, and she listens well so is able to get a good understanding of your dog.
She has so many different solutions that she can help you find one that will work for your lifestyle.
Highly recommended, great value and service.

I’ve been very happy with Sarah’s care of our dog. We met with her briefly before the first time she walked our pup, and it was immediately clear that she was great with dogs (and our dog loved her from the moment she arrived). Sarah and Laura have always been available when we have requested their help, and respond quickly to emails and inquires through the website. I also really appreciated the little report card we got after each visit, to let us know how things went and if the dog was acting (or pooping) strangely (sounds gross, but poop seems to be the first notification when something is wrong with a dog).
We had asked Sarah to stay overnight with the dog while we would be out of town for about a week, and it was nice to know that the dog would have company and be well cared for while we were gone. Our travel plans have changed, but I would absolutely entrust Delightful Doggies with our dog and home.

It’s easy for a business to give great service, but when a problem arises, a business will always show it’s true colors.
We have used Delightful Doggies services on multiple occasions over the past two years (despite other cheaper options) and have been satisfied with their service up to this point. However, we had to cancel a recent visit when our trip was cancelled at the last minute.
I had expected the business to be understanding because we had been loyal customers and had future services scheduled. However, this was not the case. Laura was not at all willing to even consider a compromise. We had to pay (and did pay 100% of the cancelled services) according to her «policy.»
It’s a shame that a business cares more about the profits of a weekend’s services than taking care of a loyal customer and future services and referrals. My wife and I are both children of small business owners, and something we both learned is that a business can never have enough customers. We feel absolutely disgusted and betrayed by the way Laura has responded and dealt with this issue. We have also cancelled all future visits and services and will advise friends, family, and co-​workers to look elsewhere.

By far, Laura has been the best caregiver to my dog in all of his 12.5 years on this Earth (besides me and his dogfather, of course!). As we have moved around the country over the past 5 – 6 years, we have had many doggie caregivers, and Laura is the first that we truly trust. She is so knowledgeable about dogs and has a great way with both doggies and humans.
Some things that make her stand out among the rest:
* A true love for animals
* Vast knowledge of dogs and doggie health
* Believes in continuing education for herself and her staff
* Flexibility in scheduling
* Lots of belly rubs for our dog son
* Takes photos of my dog while he is on his midday jaunts with Laura
* Leaves a detailed note about the walk
* When she and her staff pet sit our dog son at home, our house is always just the way we left it… no broken vases, weird stains on comforter, or plethora of empty wine bottles in the trash (as we have experienced with other overnight sitters)
We feel so fortunate to have Laura and Sarah as part of our ‘family’ helping to care for our dog son. We couldn’t ask for better people to trust with his care!

I have been a client since January and am very pleased with Laura’s services. I decided to get a dog didn’t have all the details worked out, met Laura a few days later and we were new clients the very next day. She is very reliable, never has she cancelled or left me in a lurch. She keeps incredible records and is prompt with invoices and returning emails, texts, etc.
As for Lucy, my collie, her actual client, she LOVES Laura! Laura takes great care of her, walking, belly rubs and having her do tricks for more lovin’. Laura also makes notes of every visit so I have no question as to what’s going on with my girl while I’m gone.
I highly recommend the services of Delightful Doggies for you and your pal.

I am SO glad I found Laura!
Before finding Laura, I had a terrible experience with my last pet-​sitter
So in looking for a new pet-​sitter I definitely had some requirements:
1) I needed to be able to trust them and not have to worry about something happening like what happened with my last sitter (they let my dog off leash and he was running around my complex in traffic until my neighbor caught him and I never heard about this event from the sitter; my neighbor was the one to tell me).
2) They needed to have experience with rescue dogs, especially those that need some extra love and understanding as both of my dogs are rescues, one with a more rough past than the other (she was used as a bait dog and is essentially scared of the world)
3) They needed to have experience with XL breed dogs, and even better if they had experience with Great Pyrenees since Pyrs have some unique breed traits not common in all dogs;
I cannot say enough good things about Laura! During the initial meet and greet she was fabulous with both dogs and very in-​tuned to my nervousness leaving them with a new sitter. Laura not only has experience working with many rescue dogs from her volunteering with a local no-​kill shelter, but she is also in school to become a certified dog trainer (what a plus!).
As the owner of a large dog, you sometimes worry that whoever watches them can handle their size. Having a 100+# dog chase after a rabbit while on leash is a little different than having a 30# dog do the same thing. Laura was absolutely fabulous with my Reg (Great Pyrenees)! I let her walk both him and Reese (Aussie mix) during our initial meet and greet so she could see what I was talking about when I said he likes bunnies… she handled him wonderfully, staying in control the whole time. Note: she already had at least one client with a Pyr, so that was also a plus!
I was gone 6 days and 5 nights… Laura gave me updates about my furbabies while I was gone via email (she also does text). When I returned, I had a very detailed daily log of what happened each day!
Also I would like to mention that Reg got extremely sick about a week and half before I went out of town and was still on antibiotics while Laura watched him. He had to take 3 pills in the morning and 3 in the evening, and Laura was very comfortable with having to pill him. She was also very attentive in watching him to make sure he continued to progress in feeling better.
I would absolutely recommend Laura to anyone who might be a little nervous about leaving their furbabies… she was very trustworthy, gentle, and just absolutely wonderful all around! I will definitely be using her the next time I go out of town!