Two Paws Up Dog Training, Inc. - Waukegan, Illinois

Haley R.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our classes at Two Paws Up! Our puppy has learned so much and just adores coming to class. The class has a great balance of socialization, play, and obedience training. Jen has been so great at offering us tons of support and has made training our puppy an enjoyable and rewarding experience. Cannot recommend enough! We are so excited to continue taking classes.

Jackie B.

Stephanie is absolutely wonderful, and we had a very good experience with her private reactivity training sessions. Our dog, Gouda, is very reactive to other dogs, and it was definitely becoming a problem.

Stephanie was upfront and honest at the beginning, noting that it would take some time for our dog to make significant progress. We had 12-13 sessions which started at home and eventually progressed into training at the Paws Up center.

She gave us tips and homework, and little by little Gouda was seriously improving! It was a lot of work and patience, but everyone has noticed a huge difference in his temperament and listening skills. He can now be distracted and ACTUALLY LISTEN during walks. Before the sessions, we had to pick him up when a dog was anywhere in sight, as he would absolutely lose his mind. I’m really proud of our little guy, and we’re very thankful for Stephanie’s help.

I just wanted to add that she is very easy to work with too! She worked around our schedules, sent us detailed emails after every session, and was very understanding if we had to reschedule a session. Gouda was always excited to see her as well, which obviously made the experience even better. Thanks, Stephanie!

D R.

Took my puppy here for classes and grooming and its been a great experience. Highly recommend!

Kamryn H.

To anyone with a very reactive puppy or dog considering taking classes through Two Paws Up to solve this issue, I strongly suggest you go a different direction. We started taking classes in general for obedience in November of 2023, then moved on to trying three different reactivity-related classes through them, and unfortunately the only class that we had a decent experience with was the obedience related ones. For context, we have a very high energy, working line dog breed that struggled with on-leash reactivity to dogs, people, and anything moving. This is due to her high-prey drive and the frustration that being on the leash causes her. We, as first time dog owners, thought that an all-positive training approach was appealing and sounded like something that we liked and would work. We enrolled in three reactivity classes, two being very similar to each other and one being a drop off class. The first class, we honestly barely passed because it was a room with three other dogs only separated by barriers. After that class, Two Paws Up recommended that we move on to the next level of class. We joined that class and only made it a day because it was an open room with six dogs, while using completely unhelpful “management” techniques that I will get more into later. The last class we took was the drop off course, two times a week for four weeks. This was the class that ended up making her behave worse, and I honestly have no idea how they managed to do that. After each class, we were advised to move on to the next level, having to spend more and more money for little-to-no improvement. After taking those classes, we communicated to the owner, Stephanie, that the classes did not help her and rather made her reactivity worse. We communicated that our dog needed a more structured, balanced training program that communicated what we wanted from her. Then, she continued to insult the two of us as dog parents, accused us of moving into “punishment-based training”, and telling us that we did not commit enough to the training program. This was not the case, but the email thread from the owner continued to be incredibly unprofessional and accusatory, despite my polite statement in the first emails that simply tried to communicate our problems with the program. For anyone who is looking into the reactivity programs, just know that every single class has the same commands and the same management methods that do not work, and the owner will advise you to “keep your windows closed to avoid triggers, don’t go on walks in populated areas”, and more instead of solving the issue that we paid them to fix. They use “find it”, and throw food on the ground for the dog to be distracted, but does not offer anything to counteract the reason for the reactivity. They say “this way!” to the dog and go a different direction also as a distraction, rather than solving the dog’s issue and lack of confidence with triggers. Every single command they use is food-based with no other more reliable method. If your dog is not food-motivated, I would bet that they would have an incredibly difficult time making any changes to your dog’s behavior. It is truly unfortunate that I had to write this, waste thousands of dollars of my money, and end up with a dog whose reactivity got worse despite our commitment to the training. I do not write bad reviews because I don’t think they are worth it, but I am only writing this in hopes that dog owners with high-energy breeds with the same issue do not make the same mistake that I did.

Patricia L.

All the staff of Two Paws Up are warm and caring to our fur loved ones. Their training programs are comprehensive, and they provide detailed instructions on how we can continue training at home. I highly recommend both their general classes and their two-week day training programs.

Jerry B.

It's nice to have a training center relatively close to home with instructors who know how to train without using an iron fist.

Mark S.

The dog trainer who teaches the dog classes Julia is very nice & knowledgeable. She does a great job teaching the various lessons each week in a thorough manner.

Joan A.

Two Paws Up is the best investment you can make for your dog. The trainers are top notch. The variety of classes offered not only support a well behaved dog but a well rounded dog. You will not only learn how to positively teach your dog good manners, you will learn how to have fun and play with your dog while teaching them great skills. You will enjoy your dog but others will too. The training center is safe, clean and you will feel the positive vibe as soon as you walk in.
I continue to have a fantastic experience with the variety of classes and workshops offered. They are always offering something new to the curriculum to help develop both the owner and the dog.
Thank Two Paws Up community for sharing your passion, expertise and love of training great dogs.