San Diego Pet Training - Rancho Santa Fe, California

P Chang

I highly recommend Rob for both group obedience and in home training. Rob has a great system and approach to dog training. He has helped us understand and train our highly energetic puppy with a practical and gentle approach. Our puppy quickly learned key commands and boundaries. Rob is awesome to work with and provides great insights and solutions!

Jennifer Finkelstein

Do not take your puppy here!!! I went to one class which was taught by a women who works for Rob. To teach sit she tells you to force the bottom of your dog down. When you could just use just treats to actually teach your dog how to sit. Then to ‘teach’ your dog how to walk next to you she brings out this contraption that pulls on your dogs neck and want stop pulling on your dogs neck if your dog doesn’t walk next to you! And asks if anyone would like to try it on their dog or she asks whose dog pulls a lot so she can try it on their dog! I’ve taken puppy classes before and you can teach your dog to walk next to you by walking in different directions so they follow you or putting a treat in your hand so they follow. She just used a loop leash that basically strangles your dog if they keep on pulling! Then to ‘teach your dog how to lie down’ she tells you to step on the leash close to the collar of your dog so you are basically hurting your dog. Most the dogs it didn’t even work they just stood there looking hurt standing with a huge amount of pressure on the leash. My dog already knows how to lie down which I taught him in 10 minutes with a treat from a YouTube video. And to start the class off she has two dogs play together and if one seems a little too excited she pins them down! The humane Society’s puppy class has puppy’s just do short play sessions so the dogs don’t get over excited from playing long. She kept them playing too long so they were tired and started playing a little less perfectly so she pins them down. Stay away from here your puppy will not learn and could get hurt and traumatized!! Find a puppy class that uses positive reinforcement! I went to one class and never going back! Also, San Diego Pet Training (Rob Kuty) is NOT part of Helen Woodward. I called the Center after taking the one class and they confirmed that with me over the phone. So when someone thinks they are taking a Puppy class with Helen Woodward they are not!

P G

Rob came to our house to train our 2 dogs. He is gentle and explained how his methods and tools work. Training both our dogs and us. Immediate results after 1 session. I was so impressed and in awe at how skilled Rob is regarding dog training. Finding Rob changed all our lives and I am so grateful we found him. He IS the best dog trainer in San Diego!!

M M

This review is for the 4-week Basic Obedience Training group class for $170. If you're wondering what that class is like and if it's worth the money, you need to read this entire review.

First I'll start with the positive. Rob is an amazing dog expert and a very kind man, as many have said before. He answered every question I had and met every request. He is incredibly respectful and punctual and he's a true professional.

So why only 3 stars? It's all because of the course's value. The class was held once a week for 4 weeks. Each week was only 1 hour long and during the first 30 minutes of every class, the dogs (there were usually 5-7 dogs) had a chance to socialize by running around off-leash in the gated area chasing each other. That was cool and fun to watch. However, Rob split the dogs into 2 groups (bigger dogs and smaller dogs), only allowing each group to play in the training field one at a time. This means that for 15 minutes, all of us at some point had to stand outside of the gate watching the other dogs play. This happened every week, meaning out of 4 hours of total instruction, 1 hour was spent literally standing idle. There were three other empty training fields that I thought he could've let the other group use simultaneously. I'm sure Rob has his reasons why he doesn't allow that, but in my opinion, this was time and money wasted.

The next thing we didn't like was that every week the lessons were exactly the same. For 15 minutes, everyone rotated through stations for sit, stay, come, and lay down. In the last 15 minutes, we practiced heel by walking our dogs in a large circle. This was the entire curriculum each week. I understand repetition is key for dog training. However, the lessons weren't progressive, as in he didn't give new tips or make it more challenging as the weeks went on. Overall, I felt this was somewhat lazy on Rob's part and perhaps it's time he re-evaluates his curriculum.

The last thing we didn't like is that we surprisingly received very little to no hands-on help from Rob. For example, during two classes, Rob literally stood under the gazebo as he watched everyone rotate through the stations. He spoke through the megaphone to give advice, but it was all from a distance. Seldom did he help us individually or show us what we were doing wrong or right. Sometimes, he walked away in the middle of class to go to his car or do something. With only 20-30 minutes of actual training taking place, not only was this unfair but the class occasionally became unorganized. I'm not saying Rob doesn't care anymore, but I got the feeling that because he's been doing this for so long, maybe a little complacency has set in.

One really important thing you should know is that Rob has a set of online videos that are included with this course. Had I not had access to Rob's videos, I definitely would've felt ripped off. They allowed us to practice and retain the info during the week, and they go into more depth than the in-person class. Surprisingly I felt this is where we got the most value.

Before we signed up for this class, we were wondering if it was going to be worth it. In some ways, it was worth it, because dogs can't learn how to socialize without actually being around other dogs in a safe environment. But in more ways, it wasn't worth it. I felt that there too much wasted time during the 30 minutes of socialization, that the class structure was too repetitive, and that Rob didn't give everyone his full attention during the formal training. Additionally, we needed the videos to supplement the in-person training and then again, there are plenty of good YouTube videos for free that teach the same thing that Rob teaches. Yes, my dog learned down and stay from Rob's class (he already knew come and sit) but that was only because we practiced at home A LOT since we wanted to get the most out of the class. And maybe that's the beauty of paying $170?

Sheryl Orrs

This was the Christmas critter drive-through at Helen Woodward Animal Center. Such wonderful ppl, a wonderful event & a wonderful experience. Thank you HWAC & a very Merry Christmas n a Happy New Year to you all ?

N. William

Rob's been great to work with! We're working on some behavioral changes with our dog, and Rob helps us understand what our dog is thinking and why, then how to guide him to the right behavior. He always explains things fully so we know why we're doing something, not just what we're doing. He's been supportive, always happy to answer our questions, and has followed up with us to make sure things are going well. He went above and beyond with us and we'd definitely work with him again!

alice chen

We had Rob come over for a private at home training to really help us correct and train very specific behaviors we wanted to change for our two dogs. We've done regular obedience training with Petco before but its just not the same with at home training. With at home training, we were really able to address specific behaviors that'd be hard to replicate elsewhere.

We loved our experience with Rob, he started training literally the moment he stepped into the house with our dog's jumping on guest behavior and we saw instantaneous change in behavior!

Our little puppy likes to tug a lot on walks to get next to our other dog, and Rob asked if we were comfortable trying out a prong collar explaining to us the right way to wear and use without endangering our dog in any way. I was a little uneasy about the prong collar, but he assured me that when used properly its very safe and its meant to be a temporary training tool that we can eventually ease off of. I'm sure he has other methods if you're not comfortable with it as well!

We loved working with Rob so much, we're looking to enroll our dogs in his agility training courses!

Highly recommend!

Alan Zimmelman

Recommended them 3X j-u-s-t this week! Fun and helpful with dog training.