We just completed our sessions with Gary for our rescue Benny. Benny was struggling with leash manners and his fear of men. Gary took such an empathetic approach to training in order to build trust with our dog (an us!) and make sure Benny was always comfortable and also having fun. We really appreciated how much Gary explained not just the fix to the behavior but the underlying causes and how we can be better handlers and advocates for our dog. Benny has grown so much through this process, we’ve learned a ton, and we are eternally grateful. I can’t say enough great things about Gary’s approach to training, his engagement with our dog and just who he is as a person.

Gary helped my dog and I be better best friends (other than my wife of course)! He was communicative, flexible and professional to our needs.

I recommend with no hesitation!

We just completed our sessions with Gary for our rescue Benny. Benny was struggling with leash manners and his fear of men. Gary took such an empathetic approach to training in order to build trust with our dog (an us!) and make sure Benny was always comfortable and also having fun.

We really appreciated how much Gary explained not just the fix to the behavior but the underlying causes and how we can be better handlers and advocates for our dog. Benny has grown so much through this process, we've learned a ton, and we are eternally grateful.

I can't say enough great things about Gary's approach to training, his engagement with our dog and just who he is as a person.

We have a very hyper 1 year-old Golden Retriever, Cooper. We were at a loss to control his excessive energy. Gary really understood the breed and his needs. Gary guided us in obedience training, showing and telling us each lesson, and outlining our "homework" each week. He also gave us ways to focus Cooper's attention in appropriate ways. Gary approaches training in a way that reinforces respect and care rather than dominance. After Gary's six-week program, we've noted a world of difference. We highly recommend Gary Maria's Professional Dog Training.

Gary Maria is outstanding. We just finished with training our 21 month old Goldendoodle who is having issues with fear aggression and basic listening skills (because we learned he had NO idea what we were saying). We have seen an incredible difference in our little man in the six short weeks we spent with Gary. He is a wealth of years of knowledge and you can just tell how much he loves what he does. He's teaching humans to speak to their dogs how the dog understands with plenty of examples and data to explain why it works. We felt like super proud parents when Gary would handle him after we practiced all week. Gary gives explicit and basic homework to work on each week...and then builds upon it slowly and methodically. It was PERFECT. We will not stop what we learned. Consistency and "saving the behavior" is something that will continue until our dood can sit still when someone comes in the house - which we've been told is when "we've arrived" at a relaxed and well mannered dog. Thank you, Gary! You are incredibly good at what you do and make it SO easy to follow a program. We enjoyed our Wednesday mornings with you...and will, most likely, see you again for next level! Hands down, Gary is who you want to use to teach you how to communicate with your dog.

I wish we would've found Gary earlier! He really helped us strengthen our bond with our pup, Zuki, by helping us understand her needs and giving us the tools we needed to set her up for success. The training sessions were really for us, as dog owners, to make sure we could confidently train at home. Gary held us accountable which is exactly what we needed. Highly recommend!

Gary Maria was enormously helpful with our puppy. She was nervous, easily frightened by other dogs, unfamiliar people, and loud noises. It was hard to enjoy a walk with her because she would often come to a halt at a spot where something had scared her days before and refuse to continue. Gary introduced us to quite a few practical techniques for use in tough situations such as that. More importantly, he taught us how to understand our pup’s thoughts and feelings, and respond in a gentle, sympathetic and effective way-- he trained us to how to train our dog. He is astonishingly alert to what is going on with a dog from moment to moment, and resourceful about ways to stimulate self-confidence (ours as well as our dog’s). In addition, he’s a very interesting and pleasant person to be with—we looked forward to our sessions with him. Worth every penny, and a memorable experience with a remarkable person.

Gary is so amazing at what he does! He taught my husband and I the skills we needed to make our dog the happiest she could be. He truly understands dogs and what they need. Incredible!

I just finished Gary's basic obedience training with my now 7 month old Golden Retriever puppy. Gary is a true professional. I'd highly recommend him. Before seeing Gary, I did weekly virtual training sessions through dog training mobile apps and like many other dog parents do, scoured the internet for free resources online. The vast amount of information out there (oftentimes conflicting) can make dog training somewhat overwhelming, especially to a first time dog parent. These methods worked for a while and got my puppy to a decent place obedience-wise (or so I thought), but I really wanted to take her training to the next level. Gary's system was exactly what I needed. His training methods are unique in comparison to other cookie-cutter methods I have seen. It's all about understanding your dog, why they do the things they do, and what that means for you, the owner/handler. Throughout his course, you'll learn about dog psychology and will develop a greater understanding of how to effectively communicate with your dog. Gary's obedience course isn't about teaching your dog useless parlor tricks; the training program is all about building a solid leader-follower relationship with your dog. You'll learn how to get your dog to trust you and look to you as the protector and pack leader. But of course, with these foundations, you can teach your dog pretty much anything. At the end of the day, Gary teaches you, not your dog. You'll have daily homework after every session and each session builds off of the last. In conclusion, this course was worth every penny and my relationship with my puppy couldn't be better. I plan on coming back for the advanced obedience training in a few months.

With a new labradoodle puppy joining our family, we knew we wanted to employ the services of a professional to make the best of our new family member. We had heard of Gary and joined his waiting list.

When it was our time, Gary came to our house and our dog responded almost immediately to his presence. As a first-time dog owner, this was really cool to witness. After the initial meeting, we decided to become a customer and we spent the next few months meeting with Gary once a week.

Gary was amazing. He reinforces a number of key things over and over that really helped me understand what would work and what would not. His techniques absolutely changed the dog's behavior in a good away. Ultimately, your dog learns to trust you and natively learn to behave in the ways you want.

I would make sure that you take good notes and film the first few sessions as they will be helpful to reference in between sessions.

Gary is the best - he's a fun time for both the dog and the owners.

It was outstanding to work with Gary. I appreciate his patience and helping set up my Aussie shepherd Leo and me for success. Gary's years of experience, understanding, and love of his work shines through. I can't thank him enough for training me and helping to strengthen my bond with my dog. Months after we completed the on-leash training course, we are still going strong. I have recommended him to my friends and to anyone that is looking for help to set up you and your dog for success. Thanks Gary!

I hired Gary to work with my daughter and her dog as she moved out on her own. The difference in the dog's behaviors from the beginning to the end was incredible. This was a rescue dog with severe anxiety, who became a dog who was calm and secure enough to lay down in public and stay there - anywhere - with my daughter. His kind, calm approach and his rapport with dogs and owners is unparalleled. I would recommend him to anyone who wants to have a better behaved pet - with the added bonus of becoming even closer to their furry best friend in the process.

I got my schipperke puppy when she was 14 weeks old. By the time she completed her shots she was past her socialization period and she had developed anxious traits. Gary taught me how to relate to and help my Roxie get past her anxiety filled outbursts. Now our walks are quiet, Roxy is relaxed and responsive. I didn't think it possible. Gary is a fabulous trainer.

Gary is amazing with dogs. And dogs love Gary. It is clear he has a passion for them. He has an incredible ability to understand their body language and pick up on any behavioral signs they are giving off, and explain what those signs mean. We learned at our first lesson how to spot an under-socialized dog and what signs of stress/anxiety can look like. Now I always pay attention to other dogs when we're on walks. Stanley, our golden retriever puppy was 20 weeks old when we started working with Gary. He is full of energy, and VERY easily distracted by everything outside (wind, leaves, sticks, birds, anybody passing by... the list goes on). He really needed help controlling his impulses and to understand that my husband and I are his pack leaders. It became clear at our first consultation with Gary, that we were the ones being trained, not so much Stanley. Gary would demonstrate simple but effective techniques on Stanley-- using positive reinforcement, and then we would practice in front of him until we had it down. It was then our job to do the homework and practice twice daily (if not more) before the next training, as each week builds upon the previous week's technique. If you want results, you have to put in the work and practice those skills regularly at home/on walks with your dog. If you do, it really does work! We have seen incredible improvement with Stanley over the course of our training, and look forward to seeing him continue to improve with ongoing daily practice. We highly recommend Gary's on-leash training course. We feel we can understand Stanley's thinking so much better now and therefore are better equipped to set him up for success. Thank you so much Gary!

Gary has been excellent.We just completed the basic obedience training with our now 11 month old, female Cane Corso (Italian Mastiff). The difference is night and day.Having a solid foundation to grow from, has made it so much more enjoyable to go on walks and even just spending time at home with her.The skills Gary gives can all be completed in the course of a normal day with your dog and then you have them for the rest of your life.

Gary is a life saver! We rescued our 2 year old Shepard mix 6 months ago. She was initially very timid and quiet but as she became more comfortable in her new home she became rather scary. Nipping, jumping and snarling at stranger. No control on walks. She was jealous and aggressive with our 18 month old baby. We started with some corporate training, which was a fine start but in hindsight a waste. We thought about a "boot camp" but found out that most of these programs are NOT reward based, something Gary helped us understand. We also hired a behaviourist for 1 session that was marginally helpful. Once we arrived with Gary we were in desperate need of progress. From session one we felt better about the direction of our training. He has such a love for dogs and is fiercely protective of their growth and happiness. That means he will not cut you any slack for not being precise in your training. The training appears simple but each session is a progression of activities and as we practiced there was a world of change in our dog. Beyond the act of training we felt her start to calm. She started to understand there were boundaries and that my wife and I were the pack leaders in the house. We have now completed our sessions but the practice continues. As we continue to practice we are able to branch out to more and more distracting environments. We are getting much quicker responses. And we have not worried about our wonderful dog around our baby since training started. Thank you Gary!

I'm finally writing this review after we've had a chance to apply all the lessons and training we received from Gary. The wait was worth it! We have our new puppy and have always been convinced we both needed and wanted general training for our new addition. We contacted Gary Maria and started with his puppy training program when our dog was 12 weeks old. We knew this is a critical time in a dog's development for initial training. Gary worked with us weekly, using purely positive reinforcement techniques to train us so we could train our puppy.I was having a bit of a disconnect, in that I didn't think our puppy was progressing adequately. After going through the initial 6 weekly training sessions, I was expecting better results. I wasn't allowing for my puppy's development and maturity (or lack of). We continued the training program well after our lessons with Gary and as she matured, we could actually see the results taking shape before our eyes. Gary's technique is all about long term developmentally appropriate skills based training (my description). Each step builds on all the prior steps. I really like the accountability built into his program. Roles and responsibilities are always clear. Gary is a total professional and worth every penny we invested!

Gary is a life saver!We rescued our 2 year old Shepard mix 6 months ago. She was initially very timid and quiet but as she became more comfortable in her new home she became rather scary. Nipping, jumping and snarling at stranger. No control on walks. She was jealous and aggressive with our 18 month old baby. We started with some corporate training, which was a fine start but in hindsight a waste. We thought about a "boot camp" but found out that most of these programs are NOT reward based, something Gary helped us understand. We also hired a behaviourist for 1 session that was marginally helpful.Once we arrived with Gary we were in desperate need of progress. From session one we felt better about the direction of our training. He has such a love for dogs and is fiercely protective of their growth and happiness. That means he will not cut you any slack for not being precise in your training. The training appears simple but each session is a progression of activities and as we practiced there was a world of change in our dog. Beyond the act of training we felt her start to calm. She started to understand there were boundaries and that my wife and I were the pack leaders in the house. We have now completed our sessions but the practice continues. As we continue to practice we are able to branch out to more and more distracting environments. We are getting much quicker responses. And we have not worried about our wonderful dog around our baby since training started. Thank you Gary!

Gary is a true professional. Hearing how he has adjusted his trainings throughout the many years of his career is proof that he constantly is looking to improve and innovate in his field. He worked with me and my 16 week old puppy, and right away I knew it was going to be a great fit. I appreciated how he was willing to be straight up with me and explain what I was doing wrong, and what I was doing right. I'm a firm believer in that people should be trained in these situations, not the dog. I can't thank Gary enough for working with me and helping me further my bond with my puppy. If you're looking to have someone hold you accountable and show you how to best work with your puppy/dog, Gary is the trainer for you. Invest in the future of your new family member.

Gary Maria showed me that my "stubborn" golden rescue was shy and sensitive. With a set of training sessions premised on gentle and consistent commands, Ray will now sit, down-stay and come on command. Gary is a pleasure to work with. Our sessions were fun and worthwhile. I highly recommend Gary - he is a super trainer!

We recently completed a training circuit with Gary and we could not be happier. As a life long dog owner I thought I knew it all but I learned far more than I could have expected. Gary was responsive from our very first inquiry, clearly understood the needs of our dog and ultimately delivered results. I would recommend Gary not only because he is professional, knows his stuff, and is great at what he does but additionally he is a fantastic listener and really understands the needs of both dog and parent. After completing our training we got multiple comments from friends, family and even our vet on how much better behaved our energetic dog was. Thank you Gary!

We reached out to Gary to help us with our 6 month old puppy starting last year to get her trained as quickly as we could while she was still young and we were very satisfied with the way that Gary provided tips and training techniques along with his reward system. Our puppy adapted very well, with lots of practice in between sessions and we've been so incredibly pleased with his training!! He gives a few things to work on each week and the key is consistency. I'm so happy we made a connection with Gary, he has a great personality, makes each session fun and has a tremendous passion for training dogs!

Gary was absolutely amazing in helping train my dog. My dog, Amadeus, is sensitive and has fear-based aggression (which I also learned through Gary). Gary was positive, optimistic, and completely helped lay down a template to properly train and lead my dog. He also made sure to go at my dog's pace, didnt overwhelm him, and helped me see signs of anxiety in my dog that I had absolutely no clue of previosuly. I learned so much from him. Training is going to be a life-long journey for my dog, so Gary really helped provide guidance and I feel that I can take over and continue to train my dog, now that I have this proper training foundation.I highly, highly recommend him! He' an absolutely outstanding dog trainer and encourage anyone with sensitive dogs/aggressive dogs especially to go with Gary.

My dog is 13 years old today and I am still so grateful to Gary Maria. I have a dog who is more than obedient. She trusts me, looks to me for direction, and I have learned to take the very best care of her that I can. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Gary Maria. What he brings in knowledge and expertise is truly lasting and so worth it!

Gary is a true professional. Hearing how he has adjusted his trainings throughout the many years of his career is proof that he constantly is looking to improve and innovate in his field. He worked with me and my 16 week old puppy, and right away I knew it was going to be a great fit. I appreciated how he was willing to be straight up with me and explain what I was doing wrong, and what I was doing right. I'm a firm believer in that people should be trained in these situations, not the dog. I can't thank Gary enough for working with me and helping me further my bond with my puppy. If you're looking to have someone hold you accountable and show you how to best work with your puppy/dog, Gary is the trainer for you. Invest in the future of your new family member.

We worked with Gary with our lab puppy. His deep understanding, long experience, and passion for dogs was clear from the start. His clear, structured lessons laid a solid foundation for our pup. Dog training is as much about training owners as it is about training dogs, and we always appreciated Gary advocating for the dogs and working with us to strengthen our relationship with our dog!

I rescued a 14mo. old German Shepherd (Chase) in June and though I had Shepherds in the past, wanted to make sure i spent the time training and working with him. After reviewing several other trainers, I contacted Gary and set up the initial consultation. It was immediately apparent when Gary arrived that he had a passion and knowledge for all dogs, especially Shepherds. Chase was very responsive and Gary spent a long time just answering questions and explaining the process. Over the following 6-8 weeks we met with Gary I was impressed with his approach and how well Chase has responded. I couldn't be happier with the decision to work with Gary, and have found that both Chase and I have missed our regular Saturday sessions. If you are looking for a trainer that will work with you and your dog using incentive based training, and learn the proper way to work with your buddy, then Gary is the obvious choice.

After searching around multiple dog trainers in the Walnut Creek area, we found Gary Maria and are truly satisfied by his training techniques/experience. In a manner of 6 weeks, our 21 week year old Aussiedoodle has learned so much, from attention commands to leash training. In the beginning, our puppy's impulse control was high and all over the place. Throughout our training experience, you will see a continuous evolving progression with Gary Maria's knowledge and training. Highly recommend!!!

We, but most importantly our dog, love Gary! Our dog Dewey went through basic puppy training when he was a very young puppy but we started noticing he was stressed and anxious and we also wanted to correct how he was acting around strangers and other dogs. He was experiencing a lot of anxiety after a recent move - chewing things around the house, accidents, etc. and Gary helped him so much. We looked forward to going to our training sessions every week because our dog was improving so much. He doesn't only help the dog but he helps you as an owner be a better communicator and truly understand what your dog is feeling. It's as much of a training for you as your dog! After 6 weeks of training, our dog is so much calmer and less anxious. No more chewing or accidents! He lays by us so calmly and has become such a cuddle bug. He is so much better on his walks now too - he no longer pulls or tries to jump on people as they walk by and pays attention to us. Gary has given us the tools so we are able to help him continue to improve when he sees other dogs and we've seen steady progress. And, even after the training sessions are complete, he's there for advice and to help you for as long as you need it. He is so patient and caring with the dogs and truly wants you and your dog to have the best relationship possible. Dewey loved Gary and the training sessions. Can't recommend him enough!

Our experience with Gary was wonderful! When we first sought out Gary, our American Brittany, River, had run out of the dog park and into the hills chasing after a bird. We could not get him back for quite some time, which scared us to bits. Gary took his time with training, ensuring us that although our main goal was recall, River needed his foundational skills. This started with charging markers, proper sits/downs/stays/etc. Gary was very clear that training a dog is really about training the owners to know how to train the dog. Gary was great in that he combines Positive Reinforcement and, if the dog demands it, Avoidance training styles. He is very knowledgeable on using other tools such as prong/e collars. I was apprehensive about using these tools, but once we exhausted all other options and River was still at risk of injuring himself in certain situations, it was wonderful to know that we could learn to use these tools appropriately. Three months later, the culmination of River's training was when we took him to Shell Ridge Hiking trail. River was running through the hills, chasing birds and truly enjoying himself. The best part was we knew if we told him to come back, he would without a shadow of a doubt. The most meaningful part of this process has been learning about River's psychology, which has created a level of trust between us that we never would have imagined. Thanks Gary!