Sandra and Andy are amazing! They really and truly love the dogs and have a wonderful set up…read more They have a property just south of SF, so they pick up the dogs and take them there for lots of free roaming and playing time. They also do boarding and our dog LOVES staying with them when we are gone. We even had a situation where our dog had emergency surgery but we needed to attend a memorial the next day and they took her in and gave her all the TLC she needed! I can't speak highly enough of both their dog walking and boarding service.

I've known Sandra for over ten years now. She spent seven of those years walking my cattle dog Sam…read moreevery week day, and taking care of him whenever he needed overnight stays or even multi-night stays when I went away on vacation. She's saved my life when I've been delayed on trips, or had to stay at work extra late and needed someone to get Sam, or keep Sam, or feed Sam. She's adapted to my changing schedule, financial situation, and relationship status, and stuck with us as we've moved house multiple times. Her parents even took Sam in after he had leg surgery and needed the gentlest of walks while recovering. My dog loves Sandra, her dog (the only dog he ever let come in our house), her friends, her parents, her husband, and his parents. He's happier to see her than he is to see me. I've had Sam for ten and half years now, and through all the stress and worry that comes with trying to fit an active dog into a city life, Sandra has been a rock. I really couldn't have done it without her.

I fell for the pandemic puppy trap earlier this year when I decided to get a puppy! Seeing my…read morefriends' dogs and cute puppies around, I only assumed it would be great to have a companion in my life. Little did I know that cuteness overload comes with a lot of responsibility and struggles, especially since I live alone, and have never had a pet in my life. In fact, as a kid, I was extremely scared of dogs! I knew I had to get a trainer when after the 2nd week, I started feeling overwhelmed with my puppy's energy and tantrums. Thankfully I found Diane! She has been a great mentor if I could use this word to guide me through my pup training journey. We had two formal sessions - 1st one was a 3 hour phone call where she patiently answered all my questions and gave me 100s of tools and things to buy and learn to build a "puppy training toolkit". The 2nd session was a 3 hour in person training session where she introduced training collar and other tools and showed me how to stop certain behaviors. The best thing is that Diane has been kind enough to answer stupid and repeated questions from me over text or phone at any time of the day. If I've felt overwhelmed, I've always had comfort to know that I have a personal counsellor/mentor available. Diane shared a lot of tools, tricks, and methods - most of them work great, some don't - some do, but not always - but that is just because each dog is different and each dog-parent relationship is unique. I am just glad to have all those tools and information available to tap into whenever I run into any challenge. I feel super confident in my puppy's training and the fact that I have all I need to train my puppy well, thanks to Diane! My puppy Zoya has been sleeping safe and sound in her crate from day 1, and sleeping all night from the moment I reached out to Diane. Zoya is fully potty trained, and walks on leash like a confident yet obedient queen! Diane is extremely knowledgeable about dog behaviors, illnesses, eating habits, and tantrums - and I always reach out to her first, before I reach out to my vet! I trust Diane, and I promise you will also!

When we brought home our 8 week Moyen Goldendoodle puppy, we needed help with so many things. We…read morelooked on Yelp and we're connected with Diane. The stars aligned in bring her to us because she is more than a rockstar dog trainer & coach, but she is a trusted member of our family who I hold at a high level of respect. She helped us organize our apartment so that our puppy could be introduced into our space over time, she taught us how to walk our dramatic doodle for the first time, she helped our doodle meet a pack of his own during his walks, gave us food, supplement, and toy recommendations. She walked us through what to do when our puppy was misbehaving and incorporates a firm, yet loving technique so the dog knows who is boss. I can still hear her voice in the back of my head, "Christine you need to be firm, he cannot win." Puppies test your patience and Diane truly is our advocate in learning how to not only redirect his actions but build confidence in being first time dog owners. I've learned more in the months with Diane than I could have ever learned through a book or online. I am forever grateful to her, the bond that she's helped us create with our dog, the bond that she herself has created with our dog, and the continued guidance she offers as we continue to grow. I would recommend Diane to my friends and family.

Shelley and Bright Lights have been a huge help to me and my dog, Blue. When we first adopted Blue,…read morehe was herding and mouthing everyone in the house, and getting destructive. After Shelley's initial 90 minute visit, we had not only basic obedience lessons, but also guidance for how to help Blue feel more calm & comfortable at home, catered to his (often high maintenance) personality. Within a few weeks we were seeing great improvement, and felt we had a clear approach. I asked Shelley to return to work on Recall so we could stay safe at the dog park. Blue was THRILLED to see Shelley again and was totally glued to her. Within minutes of our training plan, he was sprinting over to us, even when distracted. A week later we had a followup with Shelley in the dog park to make sure it stuck (it did!). I'm excited to keep his training up and I'm grateful for the guidance, encouragement, and feedback Shelley provided along the way. If any other behavior issues crop up, there's no other trainer I'll be using other than Bright Lights.

Shelley took care of our dog for 5 years across a number of settings including training, daily…read moregroup walks and overnight boarding. She is absolutely fantastic. Five years ago we were first-time dog owners in a new city with a traumatized, anxious dog who was too afraid to the leave the apartment. We were completely overwhelmed. With Shelley's dedicated help over many years our dog became the perfect, beloved pooch she is today. She can't walk down the street now without eliciting smiles and comments on how well-behaved she is and how nicely she walks, and so much of that is thanks to Shelley. Shelley was infinitely patient, and our dog really connected with her calm and engaging demeanor. She used exclusively positive reinforcement methods, which we really appreciated. As our dog grew with 1:1 training, Shelley brought her into her daily group walks and we could not have been more pleased. She was extremely reliable and trustworthy, and she always took care to drop our dog back home happy, tired and with cleaned paws. We took great comfort in knowing our dog was out with Shelley every day having fun with her friends on the beach (Baker beach, Ft Funston, Golden Gate, Presidio...they went all over), and Shelly would frequently send us the most amazing pictures of their adventures together. As for boarding, leaving your dog with someone else is never an easy thing (whether it's just for a couple hours or even a week while you're away), but we never had any concerns about Shelley, as we were 100% confident that our dog was well-cared for in her own home while we were away. For almost 5 years Shelley loved and cared for our dog like her own, and it really meant the world to us. It is no exaggeration to say we seriously reconsidered moving as we were afraid Shelley would not come to our new neighborhood across town. We cannot recommend Shelley any more highly, and your dog would would be extremely lucky to get to work with her!

PLEASE BEWARE OF THIS DOG WALKER! I'm a cyclist that came across Pint Size Pack Walks while on a…read moreride. The walker, Danielle, was leashing up 8 dogs and didn't notice one of the dogs had walked off into the street. I was on my bike when I noticed the dog walk into the bike lane then into oncoming traffic. Myself and another cyclist were able to slow down oncoming traffic by flagging cars to stop. Once all the cars stopped I chased the dog back across the street to the Crissy Field lawn where Danielle and the other dogs were. To my disbelief, Danielle was still turned around leashing her dogs and had no idea any of this happened. I called out to her but she was 50 yards away from the sidewalk. I walked over, frustrated and upset, and said. "Hey, one of your dogs walked into the street. Did you even notice?" She said she didn't notice and acted as if nothing happened. I was shocked by her lack of remorse and said, "You have way to many dogs, of course you didn't notice" and that is when she flipped out and started cussing at me. Once she started yelling at me I took a photo of her which upset her cause she then threatened to stab me. I strongly would advise against ever booking a dog walk with this individual. She is rude, threatening, and doesn't show any care towards the dogs she is caring after. Would you want your dog to be running around in the street while on a "pint size pack walk"?

I wish I didn't have to write this, but I think it's important to share what happened with our dog…read more Unfortunately, our 1 yr old rescue doxie mix Finn got lost on his second day with the pack. I got the call that no dog owner wants to hear - during a walk in the Mission, he had been momentarily unattached to anything and bolted, and the last place he had been spotted around 4:30pm was running down South Van Ness traffic. My state of mind was just total panic after hearing that, and we spent the next hours combing every inch of the Mission for Finn, trying to stay positive as it got dark but it was difficult to avoid imagining the worst (he's a small dark dog, impossible to see at night). One of us must have had some good karma, because Finn was eventually found nearly 5 hours later - in the Castro. He somehow crossed a ton of major streets/intersections and was ok! Maybe his childhood days of being a stray had paid off - who knows. My mom had driven in from the East Bay to help look for Finn, and she, my boyfriend and I were all in tears when we finally reunited with our terrified but somehow physically unscathed baby. We got SO lucky. We almost lost Finn forever - so leaving a star rating feels like a superficial reflection - but I know that as a dog owner, I want to see every single review (the good and the bad), so that's why I'm writing this. Since I have to add a rating on Yelp, I am leaving 2 stars instead of 1 because while it's table stakes that a dog isn't able to run away on an on-leash walk, Danielle did everything in her power to help find Finn after he got away. She stayed in the neighborhood with us searching all night, made calls to shelters and posted online, and even printed out fliers and put them up. I know that Danielle was devastated by what happened and that this was an unfortunate mistake - I am not writing this to make her feel bad or bash her business, but I do think it's important to share this experience - it nearly changed our lives and I can't just pretend that it didn't happened. Finn was able to run away because he was momentarily not attached or tethered to anyone or anything. This should never have happened. There are other reviews on this page that mention nervous pups who can't be off leash, so I trusted that Finn would be attached at all times. I'm hopeful that this will never happen to another dog again - I know it was traumatizing to everyone involved - but I just assumed that I could trust that my dog would always attached - especially on his second day of an on-leash walk in a really busy neighborhood. I really wish this had worked out for Finn - we were so excited about him joining the pack and building on all the progress we had made with his anxiety from his past life and building his confidence. Unfortunately now he has PTSD from getting lost and is terrified of being outside (I'm hopeful that with a little time and re-training, we'll get him back to his old self) - but all that matters is that we got him back. I'm torn about leaving a negative review because I can tell that Danielle puts so much heart into her role as a walker, but I would feel like an irresponsible dog owner if I didn't say anything about our experience.

TLDR Beverly's reactive dog training services didn't turn out like I thought they would. She said…read moreit'd be personalized, but this was the most cookie-cutter training I could've gotten. Most of the training is self-driven based on old articles and videos you can find on her website that she compiles into emails and tells you to perfect before meeting again. Yelp reviews seemed more aligned with my experience than Google fyi. ----- Even though Beverly was on TV before, she wasn't friendly like you'd expect from a "celebrity" trainer. I thought maybe her experience made up for it. But what she said her training would be like and what it was like were totally different. The biggest difference between my expectations and reality was that she effectively refuses to meet unless your dog has 100% perfected the homework from the previous lesson (which she doesn't really practice with you). This condition was never mentioned in the contract or in the consultation. Further, to get a repeat training of the first lesson, it took us 6 months of negotiating and literally hundreds of hours of self-driven training (I even sent her proof of our efforts and she didn't care). Another important thing to note for anyone else with reactive dogs is that Beverly did not ever see what our dog was like in the "real world". Our one and only in-person training was in her garage, so she only saw our dog "calm". She also never demonstrated how to do things correctly in-person and all of her feedback on our technique came from her watching very short videos we sent her. In-person session was mainly theory (see Yelp reviews for others calling this out). There was at most 10 minutes of practical training in the first lesson and none of it was related to addressing problems like reactivity that might make the homework tricky. So, there was never a good feedback loop to help us succeed. This was a major problem when we tried to do her homework. We literally spent 6 MONTHS trying to complete the part of the FIRST homework that required our reactive dog to lay down calmly in public spaces in less than 30s (this time requirement was emphasized on several calls, not an exaggeration). Over those 6 months, we had 2 feedback sessions virtually, but she continued to threaten to "fire us" if we tried to book an in-person session. In that time, she never proactively reached out to check in, even as months went by and she knew we were struggling. After 7 months, when I asked for more structured help (for a 3rd time) or my money back, she acted like I was asking for magic (her words). In the end, I was done with it. Beverly was not helpful and it felt like anytime we wanted her help it was inconvenient for her. The only two positive things I will giver her were: 1.) She was quick and responsive; however her replies were often rude, unfiltered and lacking the nuance we needed. If her communication was better, maybe her virtual-forward style could work, but that would require a lot of work on her end. And 2.) She invited us to a free group training session so we could get in-person help, but we were getting married that weekend, so we couldn't attend. She said she'd have more of those events, but she never told us about others. Next, Beverly's refund rules were crazy --she charged $395 fee for texts and emails, $395 fee for what was effectively a sales call and another $100 fee for re-reading our messages to calculate the refund among other fees. We completed less than 20% of the package we bought, but were charged over 50%. Thankfully, her prices were so high that the refund was enough to still get a trainer who is willing to meet with us regularly, as we requested from her. Speaking of which, before you sign the contract, ask her why she has a clause in it preventing people from posting bad reviews...most people wouldn't need that...

After seeing Beverly's reply. I do want to say that at the time of service, I was not unhappy with…read morethe training Beverly provided. I was also naive and didn't know what to expect from a dog training session as it was our first time hiring a private trainer. She was indeed very responsive both by email and by text and was gracious enough to help my fiance reschedule our lesson so he can propose to me. With that said, this is a hindsight review after having trained with other trainers. The first is the high rate Beverly charged. Looking back we paid over $3k for 6 sessions with 2 dogs. This is not six sessions per dog, this is a combined six ONE HOUR sessions with both dogs present. Which means if she had focused on each dog equally, we paid about $1500 for 3 hours of lessons with her for each dog (that's a rate of $500/hour). Compare that to other trainers who offer five sessions for $750 for each dog. We didn't think that her lessons were way better or more valuable at $500/hour than compared to other trainers at $150/hour. It is true that Beverly did instruct us to practice with our dog around dog parks, but this didn't quite translate over to walks itself. Maybe we didn't follow her methodology closely enough, but at the end of the day, another trainer was able to teach us successfully. I'm sure Beverly's methods work for many dogs and many owners, but it did not work out for us. It certainly wasn't worth the $3k we spent for roughly 6 hours of private instruction and a couple group sessions. Our current trainer is also very responsive and supportive via email/text/calls. He is also great about rescheduling. He has also met us at a park twice to show us how to manage our dog's reactivity in a real life scenarios. These are all baseline expectations I have for hiring a dog trainer now. We were not getting premier service at the $500/hour rate. Beverly didn't go out of her way to check in with us in between our sessions or after our sessions have ended nor did she extend support in any way after. Again, we were not unhappy at the time of service because it was our first time hiring a private trainer. It was only after we worked with other trainers that we realized we didn't get our money's worth in training with Beverly. Thank you Beverly for everything you have done for us, but I can't, in good conscience, recommend you to other struggling dog owners, many of whom may only be able to afford hiring a trainer once. I am also sorry that this review came at such an inopportune time.

Polina is truly a dog whisperer. She helped us turn our spirited Golden Doodle puppy into a well…read morebehaved little lady! We have done lots of dog training in the past, but she opened our eyes to new ways of understanding our new puppy. She trained us just as much as the dog, which is probably even more important in the long run. We have done Zoom Room and have worked with and interviewed several other trainers -- Polina is in a whole other league. If you need training help, there's no better option out there.

We were referred to Polina by someone who spoke very highly of her and her thoughtful, methodical…read moreapproach to dog training. Our 10-month-old maltipoo, Sarah, had her first session at our home where Polina took the time to understand our setup and answer all our questions about how to get started. Polina is extremely patient, and it's clear she truly loves what she does. After just a few sessions, we noticed real progress in Sarah's obedience training. We also appreciated the follow-up Zoom sessions, which were convenient and surprisingly effective for both Q&A and virtual training. We plan to continue working with Polina as Sarah learns more commands and as we gain a better understanding of her behavior. We've already recommended Polina to friends and would highly recommend her to anyone looking for a dedicated and effective dog trainer. Thank you Polina!!!

sara took great care of our 4 dogs while we were away for a week. She sent updates provided lots…read moreof pictures daily of my dogs. They went out for lots of walks and i could tell they were having so much fun, it's a comforting feeling to know you're fur babies are being taken care of. I will definitely go back to her for future trips.

Sara is the best! Our dog has really bad separation anxiety and the only place he's happy to be…read morewithout us is Sara's. We tried dog daycare and he's absolutely miserable there, never settles down or interacts with other dogs at all, but at Sara's he plays with the other dogs and even settles enough to take naps. She sends tons of photo and video updates and it's such a relief to see him having fun with the other dogs and running around at the park, and know that he's not stressed out.

We have been clients of The Animal Au Pair for almost four years and our dog LOVES Rebecca. We…read morealway know our dog will be well taken care of and get the exercise she needs. When we travel, we love the fact that our pet is treated like a member of Rebecca's family and we don't have to worry about her. We highly recommend the Animal Au Pair!

I have been using the Animal Au Pair for close to 10 years now and love how they care for my…read moreanimals. I have both a cat and a dog so I utilize all their services. When I go out of town I know my cat is comfortably resting at home while my dog, Jasper, boards with Rebecca. Jasper also enjoys Monday thru Friday romps at the park with their dog playgroup. He always comes home happy and tired. As our cat aged and needed medical treatments, such as fluids for her kidneys, Rebecca was able to take care of all her needs. She also gives nailtrims while we are away. I can't say enough about how comforting it is to go away and know 100% our furry family is in the loving care of The Animal Au Pair.