Primepaw Dog Training: San Francisco's BEST! - San Francisco, California

Brenda Tucker

These guys are the real deal when it comes to amazing dog (and people) training. I met with James recently and was completely impressed by his knowledge, warmth for Greg dog and non-judgemental guidance. He is generous with his time and gave me specific homework to improve Greg's behavior, and mine. As possibly the only bipoc-led facility around, Prime Paw is the one place I'll be working with for tweaking our bad habits.

James communicated how to find out where Greg's threshold is to learn when confronted with large dogs and encouraged positive interaction with him during those frequent meetings. As a city dog and a rescue, I feel more positive about Greg's ability to learn and change a few reactive behaviors after meeting with James. Thank you!

Cara Kandangath

We've been using Primepaw for several years. Nilu has been going to Off-leash adventures since she was around 6 months old. Her recall improved dramatically once she joined. She waits by the door everyone morning and lights up when they arrive. She comes home nicely tired and enriched. She's a cuddle bug, so she's always there to cuddle all her friends and new dogs. We also use them for boarding and our experience has always been amazing. We never worry when we travel, it's like Nilu is going off to camp while we are away.

Meg Fitzgerald

I have been working with James, David, Dom, Steve and others at PrimePaw for going on 5 years now and they are an AMAZING team. They are very attentive to the special needs of our dogs and have helped us and our dogs so much. Their classes and training methods are highly evolved, extremely effective and FUN for us and the dogs. Our dogs are very fearful, which manifests in different ways for each of them. PrimePaw helped us train and and manage our two poorly socialized rescue dogs we adopted right before the pandemic. Through training, enrichment, boarding, and properly supervised socialization, they have helped us enjoy the process of training our dogs and enabled all of to have a happy life together. I am particularly impressed by how the PrimePaw staff has poured their heart, soul and time into helping us and by their professionalism and responsiveness. I trust PrimePaw completely. I am so grateful we were referred to PrimePaw by a veterinary behaviorist almost 5 years ago as I do not know what we would have done without their love for our dogs and their support. It's been fun!

Chloe Skelly

Prime Paw killed my 9 week old puppy on her first day of puppy school.

I picked up my mini longhaired dachshund, Olive, on Sunday May 19th, 2024. After some serious vetting of puppy schools, referrals from friends, and with approval from her vet, I was led to Prime Paw puppy school. They had rave reviews, and I have quite a few friends that had sent their 9 week old puppies to them as well with glowing reviews, so I reached out.

We had an initial consultation to discuss Olive's age, size, and weight, and what the puppy day school could offer for her. During that call, they guaranteed me she would only be with other puppies of the same vaccination rate (signed off and approved by her vet before anyone comes for me there), and that due to her size of 3.5lbs she would only be with puppies of equal sizing, constantly monitored, and kept away from the larger puppies at all times, only briefly exposed to them for socialization purposes. Everyone I had talked to including the vet and various trusted pet owners, agreed sending her to be socialized at this age was well worth the incredibly minimal risk of anything happening to her. This was my first puppy, and I did what I believed was right in the moment to give her a good start.

With endless reassurance she would be safe, I left her in the care of Prime Paw on the morning of Thursday May 30th.

I got a call about 2.5 hours later that there was an accident with another puppy and I needed to come to the SPCA vet next door to Prime Paw. On the way there, I called again to ask how serious it was and what happened. The owner, James, wouldn't give me any details. Just said they tried to perform CPR and that she didn't make it. When I arrived, they told me she had been playing with a nearly 20-25lb bernadoodle puppy and "we don't know what happened, we didn't see it". They only heard my girl yelp in pain, then crawl to a corner and stop breathing. The vet said she was dead on arrival from pneumothorax, essentially a collapsed lung caused by blunt force trauma + impact, presumably from this other much larger dog.

James, the owner, is completely incompetent to be running a business caring for puppies at this age or size. His bedside manner during the process in the vet's office was abhorrent, telling me he had a bad feeling about the day because his apartment flooded or something. He asked the vet to walk him through his 'procedures' and tell him he did everything right. I had to tune him out as I was in such shock of his comments while having to answer questions about my poor pups cremation and if I wanted her prints preserved. After I said I would be seeking compensation for the cost of the dog and all of her expenses and vet bills, he offered puppy classes for my next puppy 'when I'm ready'. An empty gesture, that only made me want to vomit at the thought. My puppy just died under his watch and he can only think about wanting my business back.

I feel this was completely preventable on Prime Paw's part, and they were truly negligent in their care for Olive. An anonymous employee who was there shared with me that the bernadoodle had been having problems with smaller pups in the days prior and the negligence towards the puppies was becoming an increasing concern. They assured me countless times she would be ok under their care with her age, size, and weight, and she didn't even make it past the first half day. Video posted to their IG stories shows my dog with a large cut on her back, one I did not send her there with. Why would they continue to let her play, let alone unsupervised, in a pen with a much larger dog if she was already injured?

They claim there are no videos of the incident as they do not have cameras, and again, 'nobody saw what actually happened'.

This has been a complete emotional distresser and an incredibly traumatic experience for me. Save yourself the same heartbreak and avoid Prime Paw at all costs

John Hayward

Prime Paw has been super easy to work with and they do everything they can to help your dog with your specific needs. They truly customize their approach to accommodate your dog. We’ve really enjoyed the group classes and trainers at Prime Paw.

Corrie Keegan

James and his team are amazing! We rescued a one year old Great Dane who was unsocialized around humans and dogs while also showing signs of abuse. She was untrained and highly reactive and within days James and his team had her getting comfortable with us and the city. It has now been 4 months and she’s like a new dog! Confident, attentive and well on her way to being comfortable with other dogs. She has turned into a wonderful companion and it’s all from Prime Paw’s and James’s great work. We tried a number of trainers and everyone had wanted to give up on her so we are thankful we found Prime Paw. We will always use them given their care and expertise.

Blake Paisley

Primepaw has really helped our puppy, Harper, an energetic and eager standard Schnauzer to be a calm, responsive, and engaged member of the household! Harper went to their puppy play school and adolescent academy. Every single time she hopped out of the car to walk in the door, she shook with excitement. The entire team gives excellent feedback on what they've worked on that day with Harper, how she did, and how we can best replicate and continue training at home. They're incredibly patient answering any and all questions we had. They also had terrific and creative suggestions to help with challenges we were having. If you've got a puppy, Primepaw is an excellent place to take them!

Lejla Delic

Prime Paw is the absolute best! This is our first puppy and we have been both excited and anxious about this entire process. Once we found Prime Paw anxiety melted and gave way to a pure joy of raising a puppy. Maddie absolutely LOVES going to school. She gets super excited as soon as we park in front of Prime Paw and then overjoyed when she sees her trainers and of course her classmates! Her days at puppy school are so well structured and filled with playtime but also valuable training lessons. It has been super easy to continue these at home and we noticed how quickly she picks up lessons at home. She is absolutely thriving and Prime Paw plays a huge role in this. We love our Instagram updates during the day while she is in school and report cards at the end of the day are super helpful and adorable!!! All trainers are so nice and offer helpful training tips/lessons every day. If you are getting a puppy, Prime Paw school is a must! We are excited to continue Maddie’s lessons at Prime Paw with their kindergarten and eventually puppy academy program.