Bay Area Family K-9 Training LLC - Union City, California

Xirui Luo

We got our rott when he was 8 weeks, very energetic and headache, pee and poop everywhere, and kept biting us and everything he saw. We finally find James to train him. At the beginning we just want to find somewhere board and train closer to our house. And we found out it s so worthy to drop our Rusty to James. Rusty started to listen to orders, and not walking in between our legs anymore, not making mess like before, he turned from a little devil to a cutie, we really appreciate James trained him so well. He told us, we cannot use human thinking to make dogs understand us, which they wont. We need to use their ways to make them understand. Our Rusty has a huge problem of eating his own poop. After the board and train, he is making a big improvement of eat it right away to he walks away and gives us time to clean it up. We dropped Rusty at he was 4 months old for about whole month and 6 months old for about 2-3 weeks, the length of stay sometimes it may varies on how the dogs pick up from training. Also plus he has private lessons after the training. He gave us the collar, dog food, remote collar and other accessories to help with the training with no extra cost. We paid once and that s it. No hiding cost during the whole training. Maybe because majority is by James himself, he does the training and answer phone calls and return emails and msg by himself, that s why it make him delay of responding, but usually he will reply as soon as he is free. I dont have any problem of communicating with him. We are so happy that we dropped Rusty to him and Rusty loves him very much too.

Joshua Smith

James has trained our dog since she was adopted as well as boarded her during many vacations. First off, James is straight forward trainer who expects a high-level of effort from his clients. If you don’t have time to put the training steps and methodology to practice, this may not be the program for you. We set aside time every day, hours every week, to train our dog and we saw the benefits of well-behaved dog from the insane squealer she was a few months before. Hard to recommend anyone but James for dog training since he made life and relationship with my dog so much better.

Marissa Gracey

Bruno became a part of our family in October 2022. Several of our family friends who went through Bay Area Family K9 highly recommended James and his programs. I left James a message and he returned my call immediately. We were set up for the group puppy training classes the following week.

In the group classes, we briefly socialize with other dogs and then get down to business. Every week we shared the hour with others in class. We only had approximately 15 minutes or so to work directly with James. We learned new commands and received our weekly homework. DO NOT...I repeat...DO NOT come to class WITHOUT doing your homework! It will show when it is your turn to demonstrate what you practiced at home. Do not waste your time, your classmates' time, and especially James'. Do not go into the classes expecting James to train your dog for you. You need to put in the time and effort in class and at home.

After the puppy classes were over, we decided that Bruno needed to partake in the board and train program. As a Cane Corso, we could not take the chance that Bruno would overpower us and/or possibly hurt anyone he would come across. After 5 weeks of the board and train program, talk about a drastic change! Bruno was more attentive, actually listened, and responded appropriately to the commands on and off-leash. Can I just tell you that his recall is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! We learned how to communicate on his level and collectively work together. Bruno has become THE most well behaved dog everywhere we go. Especially when we take him to the softball fields people are amazed at how obedient he is. He rarely barks, is always at our side, and is nonreactive and unfazed towards other dogs. He just plays fetch, naps, and watches the kids play!

If you are still on the fence, do not procrastinate any longer and just do it! It will be the best investment you will ever make for yourself, your family, and mostly your dog. We are truly thankful for all that, James has done for Bruno. If you are looking for the best dog trainer in the Bay Area, we whole-heartedly recommend Bay Area Family K9!

Jennifer Bustamante

We boarded Milo with James for 4 weeks. Milo was between 4 and 5 months old when he started. Milo learned so much self control and attentive listening. He is now a week shy of 12 months and he is still well behaved. Wherever we are with friends with dogs or in public people get amazed at how good Milo is compared to their own dogs. We always recommend James and his system! It's always great to hear people praise our boy, makes us feel like proud parents. This was the best investment we could have done for our boy!

Quynh Smith

James is amazing! It all started when we had a puppy who was teething, jumping, and just would not sit still! James was able to get us in that same week for a quick lesson. By that weekend, she became very obedient. We then went to his puppy classes, which were nice because she got to meet other dogs. The puppy classes are great for socializing and for learning a few basic tricks, but we got a lot more out of the private classes, especially since we can pick the days that are most convenient. James will go at your pace, and even in between sessions, he is always available by phone and email. His schedule is flexible so were able to come in on weekends as well! We made a lot of progress with the private sessions, but we ultimately decided to do board and train for our puppy when our baby daughter was born because this was by far the fastest and most effective method. James was flexible and able to incorporate the training she did thus far and gave us a very reasonable price. Our daughter ended being born early James was able to fit us in his schedule for an earlier-than-planned drop off. By the time our daughter was a few weeks older and we were ready to pick up our puppy, we met with James and the puppy and were astounded by her progression! She was obedient and able to sit still for several minutes, was calmer, had stopped nipping, and walked without pulling. She has been wonderful around our daughter. Every now and then an issue may come up, and even though we are done with the board-and-train, James continues to be available. I would highly recommend him !

Deepak Kanchan

We have put our lab for both boarding and training with James and had a pleasant experience! We’ve seen a drastic change in behavior as our dog now loves his crate, he’s more attentive and listens to commands better. James is very responsive to any questions you may have during training or boarding.

Highly recommend this place!

Frances B

We picked up Kona at 8 weeks old and was desperate for someone to help us. Anything and everything Kona could get her mouth into she would. My kids were terrified, we had to set up barriers in our living room but eventually our pup was smart enough to jump/climb over the gates. We came across Bay Area Family K9 and I read all the positive reviews. We set up an appt to go in and see what they had to offer. Without hesitation, as soon as the presentation was over we signed up right away and we noticed some other families did too. We signed up for the full board and train program. James is very informative and he really knows what he is doing. Each time we picked Kona up from training we noticed her behavior was getting better. They kept us updated with the training through social media.
Kona is now 1.5 years old and able to roam free in our home ( this would’ve never happened if it wasn’t for James and his crew). No more barriers and kids love her versus being terrified of her. James and his crew are the best of best! We still see them occasionally for boarding when we go out of town. We are from SF and traveling to Fremont to drop Kona off is well worth it. We won’t drop her off with anyone else. I wish they were closer so we could do daytime drops offs. We are forever grateful to the entire team at Bay Area Family K9.

Raji Sahota

There isn’t enough that I can say about James and his training program. Me being a first time dog owner…I went to him in tears because my puppy Goose an American Pocket Bully who was about 8 months old at that time was a nightmare. He was impossible to train and was very aggressive. I had gone to various other trainers who just threw in the towel and told me that my dog was just crazy and not trainable. Even my vet told me that maybe he should be put down because of his aggressive behavior. My first meeting with James shined a lot of light on the issues at hand with my puppy…he was very honest and straight forward. But the one thing he said to me that stuck was that “every dog should be given the opportunity to be trained.” So I left his facility and while driving home I thought about all the things he said and I wanted to give My Goose a chance to be the best dog ever. That evening I spoke with James and he got Goose scheduled in for a 5 week Board and Train for February. This 5 week program was a total game changer. Goose came back a completely different dog for the better. All the follow up training sessions we have been doing have made us better dog owners because now we can communicate with Goose like never before. James is seriously a God send for us and Goose. We can’t thank him enough for all he has done for us and Goose.