Going to BK9 was a last chance effort by my husband and me to help our 2yr old LH weim with behavior issues. If this did not correct his problem we were going to re-home him. This was the best decision ever! Lenny and Stephanie would be the FOURTH trainers we had him train with. (Sidebar-don't waste your money at Richmond's premier pet spa for training unless all you need is sit/stay/heel. Any behavioral problems and they ban you!) From first contact they were different. Their enrollment page allows for a lengthy explanation of issues and what one hopes to accomplish. Once we were set up to board train him, Lenny gave us homework, books to read, while our boy was training. I rolled my eyes at this but did dive into the books...we really needed this training to work! After finishing the books I was stunned that in 30 years of dog ownership and probably 8 trainers throughout the years, not one had truly impressed upon us, the way the homework and BK9 did, that the ultimate success of the training would come down to us and our dedication to maintaining his training. Lenny, Stephanie and their staff are the real deal. They clearly love dogs and are remarkable trainers. Lenny was very communicative, calling me several times with updates and sharing pictures (with permission) on their FB page. When we went to pick our boy, Lenny spent about 90 minutes with us making sure we understood what we needed to do going forward. BK9 works miracles! One added bonus is, if they train your dog, they will board him when you travel! We are a few weeks out and every day we are working to reinforce the good behavior he was taught. I am not perfect, neither is my dog but we are working as a team the best we can to make sure he stays a good citizen. I see a negative comment that while initially the training worked, a year out their dog has regressed to the same issues. THAT is an owner not keeping up with training/rules not a trainer issue. I cannot recommend these incredible trainers enough! read more

Lenny is rude and unprofessional, the facility uses barbaric training methods to the extent of poking a hole in my dogs neck with a prong collar. If you value your dog, take them elsewhere these people are untrained and unprofessional. read more

Lenny and Stephanie were there to help me through the entire process of getting my dog trained. From finding the right program to the go home session where they taught me everything that they taught my dog and how to maintain. I was comfortable with knowing my dog was in great hands. Their training results far exceeded my expectations! read more

Unfortunately, Breakthrough K9's training program did not work long term for my American Bulldog. My dog has reactionary behaviors, mostly in regard to bicycles. When my dog first came home from training, he did well. But, as time went on, he became less responsive to the training tools and we started to struggle. Now, one year after completing the training program with Breakthrough K9, we are back to where we started. He's gone back to Breakthrough K9 twice for 'touch ups' during this past year, which I paid for on top of the original $2,800 training program. The last time I contacted Breakthrough K9 for assistance, they suggested that I seek the services of an additional trainer, even though they had originally said they would do whatever it took for us to find success. I'm very disappointed. read more

Breakthrough K9 has changed our lives! Our Belgian Malinois used to be unbearable to walk due to his want to play with every dog and person. He was unresponsive to us and we were so nervous if he got out he would run. After training, he was a new dog! Breakthrough is so accommodating and our dog absolutely LOVES to come back for boarding!! read more

I have never been more disappointed by a business than I was with Breakthrough K9. My German shepherd has issues with reactivity towards strangers and I've been looking for a trainer to help with his behavior. I was excited when I found Breakthrough because Stephanie was so thorough in her explanations about what the process would entail. We set up a meet and greet which went very well and they happily agreed to work with my dog. We set up a date and time for a 4 week board and train drop off. About an hour after dropping him off, Stephanie called me to say that we need to come back and pick up our dog because he growled at their other staff member. Stephanie and Lenny, the business owners, are going out of town for the first week of what was supposed to be our training time and they said that since they'd be leaving him with their hired trainers and they wouldn't personally be there, that we'd have to pick him up and bring him back a different time. Normally, this wouldn't be a huge problem albeit a large inconvenience because we live an hour and a half away (which the trainers were well aware of), but we had very specifically picked our drop off date so it would overlap with our honeymoon and we wouldn't have to stress about our dog while we're gone. Not only did we not know in advance that Stephanie and Lenny were planning to leave during our dog's stay, but we didn't know that their agreement to work with our dog would be suddenly cancelled because of him showing aggression towards a trainer when that is literally the problem that we took him there to work on. Essentially, I was told that they can't take my dog to work on his reactivity because they have vacation plans and my dog was being reactive. Honestly a joke. They said they will refund us everything we paid including the non refundable down payment, which helps, But it doesn't do anything for the fact that now we have to find and pay for a solution for our dog while we try to enjoy our honeymoon in addition to the 6 hours total we spent driving him to and from their location. We are now left with an extremely stressful situation that we're not sure how to remedy and I simply can't understand how they could cancel our stay due to behavioral issues we very distinctly described to them. I don't know what kind of training they actually do if their behavior modification training gets cancelled for bad behavior. read more

We cannot thank the entire team at breakthrough k9 enough! We recently picked up our 5 month old Aussie,Ollie from his 3 week board and train session. We were blown away this last week at how much he has learned in that short amount of time. He walks SO well on the leash now (before he would just zig zag and play tug of war with his leash). He responds very well to corrections and makes better decisions every day! He has learned to be much better mannered in the home. He isn't nearly as mouthy or jumpy as when we sent him. We are still working on place, recalls, and some duration work, but feel that we have the tools to do this and see improvement. I would not hesitate sending your dog here...the training and staff are awesome! read more