Best Paw Forward

Valerie is hands down the best trainer I have ever worked with, and I’ve worked with four or five over the years. She literally saved our rescue dog’s life, who came to us as a two year old mostly untrained afraid, and smart enough to get into trouble. We couldn’t leave her alone or take her most places when Valerie met her. Fast forward four months, and she is running off leash at the beach, happily greeting strangers and playing with other dogs. Valerie understands dogs, including fear aggressive dogs like ours, and calmly teaches the techniques that allow you to understand and train your dog. She never judges and has an answer for everything. We are eternally grateful, and recommend her to everyone we know with dogs. Thank you, Valerie!

We had the pleasure of working with Valerie at our home for one session to get help with our dogs pulling. She spent a great amount of time getting to know our Biggie and showing us how to walk him. We now enjoy our walks and hikes. We then signed him up for her 6 week group training and they were so educational. Our dog had previously failed group classes somewhere else because of his high energy so we were nervous but she accepts all dogs and he ended up doing great this time around thanks to her. Highly recommend.

Valerie’s dog training is wonderful. She pays such attention to each dog in the class, and has lots of fun (even with difficult dogs). I commend her for her patience, and support of helping train my English Springer Spaniel…..highly recommend Val and Best Paw Forward!!! Sally and Abby

We rescued a dog that had been raised for meat overseas. She had obviously been abused and had some serious and concerning “triggers”. She stayed with Valerie for a couple of weeks and Valerie was able to work miracles. Leah is now a happy, smart, funny and confident member of the family. Valerie’s calm, loving, positive and professional training style is amazing!

We adopted two rescue dogs who were badly in need of some training (or was it us :) Valerie helped us with private training which was a great success, some noticeable changes even after the first lesson. We continued with a course of group training which was also beneficial and fun. Result we have two well trained young dogs.

Valerie came to our house to help us with a few issues we were having with our new dog. She showed us several techniques that we will continue to practice on our own. The dog made amazing progress in an hour. Valerie uses positive reinforcement techniques.

AAAAA++++++ Valerie took an out of control 80-pound "puppy" and an overwhelmed owner and created a loving, easy-going home. She did it by reminding me to be firm first and show appreciation next. Where other dog trainers had relied on me giving the puppy treats (the equivalent of giving my children candy right before bed), Valerie taught me that my affection was my dog's greatest treat. We have developed into a calm home and have now added another large puppy to the pack using Valerie's methods and some additional private training. IF YOU'VE TRIED EVERYTHING, CALL BEST PAW

I found a rescue Chihuahua who turned out to be a stubborn little guy when it came to utilizing the doggie door. I called Best Paw Forward and spoke to Valerie. Rather then just trying to get money from me, she initially tried to give me training tips over the phone which I tried with no luck. Eventually Valerie came over and within an hour she had him going through the doggie door, sue made my life easier. I highly recommend Best Paw Forward for all your dog training needs.