The Pooch Coach - San Francisco, California

JT

Hard to recommend.

Not the warmest bed side manner while competent. Her home based training environment is not fantastic. Pricing very high for training sessions and cannot really say $200 an hour is warranted. Detail oriented training advice is effective but nothing you haven't already read if you actually picked up a training book. Does give useful insight on how to implement training techniques not easily conveyed via the written word. Does not sugar coat advice, trustworthy.

Seems to see dogs more as working than family. Her advice is reasonable but the less risky path; we as rescue fosters are willing to put more time and effort into a dog than we get back while still managing the risk of failure. She is very black and white in her analysis.

Update: 3 years later; our foster found her forever home. Long journey but glad we didn't take the advice to give up. Our deaf Australian Shepherd mix deserved her second chance.

Torin Edwards

TLDR Beverly's reactive/aggressive dog training services didn't turn out like I thought they would. She said it'd be personalized, but, in my opinion, this was the most cookie-cutter training I could’ve gotten. Most of the training is self-driven based on old articles and videos you can find on her website that she compiles into emails and tells you to perfect before meeting again. Yelp reviews seemed more aligned with my experience than Google fyi.

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Even though Beverly was on TV before, from my experience, she wasn't friendly like you'd expect from a “celebrity” trainer. I thought maybe her experience made up for it. But, what she said her training would be like and what it was like were totally different.

The biggest difference between my expectations and reality was that she effectively refuses to meet unless your dog has 100% perfected the homework from the previous lesson (which she doesn’t really practice with you). This condition was not mentioned in the contract or in the consultation from what I could find. Further, getting her to agree to a repeat training of the first lesson took us 6 months of negotiating and literally hundreds of hours of self-driven training.

Another important thing to note for anyone else with reactive dogs is that Beverly did not ever see what our dog was like in the “real world”. Our one and only in-person training was in her garage, so she only saw our dog “calm”. She also did not really show us how to do things in-person, all of her feedback on our technique came from her watching very short videos we texted her. She knew effectively nothing about us or our dog otherwise.

The one in-person session was a lecture on theory and diet (see Yelp reviews for more on this). There was at most 10 minutes of practical training in the first lesson and none of it was related to addressing problems like reactivity that might make the homework tricky. So, there was never a good feedback loop to help us succeed.

This was a major problem when we tried to do her homework. We spent 6 MONTHS trying to complete the part of the FIRST homework that required our reactive dog to lay down calmly unprompted in public spaces in less than 30s.

Over those 6 months, we had 2 feedback sessions virtually, but she continued to threaten to “fire us” if we tried to book an in-person session. In that time, she never proactively reached out to check in, even as months went by and she knew we were struggling.

After 7 months, when I asked for more structured help (for a 3rd time) or my money back, she acted like I was asking for magic (her words).

In the end, I was done with it. Beverly was not helpful and it felt like anytime we wanted her help it was inconvenient for her.

The only two positive things I will give her are:
1.) She was quick and responsive when we reached out; however her replies were often rude, unfiltered and lacking the nuance we needed. If her communication was better, maybe her virtual-forward style could work, but that would require a lot of work on her end.

2.) She invited us to a free group training session so we could get in-person help about 2 months in, but we were getting married that weekend, so we couldn’t attend. She said she’d have more of those events, but she never told us about others.

Next, Beverly's refund rules were ridiculous —she charged $395 fee for texts and emails, $395 fee for what was effectively a sales call and another $100 fee for re-reading our messages to calculate the refund among other fees.

We completed less than 20% of the package we bought, but were charged $1670/$3000. Thankfully, her prices were so high that the refund was enough to still get a trainer who is willing to meet with us regularly, as we requested from her.

Speaking of which, before you sign the contract, ask her why she has a clause in it preventing people from posting bad reviews…most people wouldn’t need that…

Jacqueline Bennett

I have nothing but positive things to say about Beverly.

I am currently training two eight-month-old puppies with her and we’ve been attending training session for about three months. I’ve lost count of the compliments I’ve received on how well-trained my pups are. Restaurants that don’t normally allow dogs (even outside) allow my pups to sit next to me on the patio. People can’t believe they are only eight-months-old!

At the consultation, Beverly was able to assess each dog’s personality almost immediately. The dogs learn so quickly from her and she has never been aggressive or mean to them.

The bottom line is you have to do the work. This is not some place you drop your dogs off for two weeks and expect them to come home fully trained. Beverly know dogs and knows what they respond to. She teaches you the methods but you have to practice them with your dogs on a regular basis. And you do it at your own pace. She isn’t going to be hounding you with calls making sure you’re doing your homework; it’s up to you to complete the tasks she demonstrates for you and then call her to set up another appointment when you are ready to move on.

There have never been any communication issues. Beverly always makes times for any questions I may have, whether it be training or even their general health. I’m new to dog ownership and one of my little guys has been sick twice; both times I turned to Beverly for advice and she responded immediately, even following up the next day to make sure everything was better.

I highly recommend Beverly!

Alana Cloud

I've been working with Beverly for several months now, and have seen a huge improvement in my previously aggressive and fearful Jack Russel/Chihuahua mix. He is infinitely happier and has a far more positive relationship with other people than ever before in his 6 years! Beverly is incredibly knowledgeable and insightful about all things dog psychology and has a very sensible approach to her training. I've found each of the trainings to be somewhat academic in structure, they are easy to follow and each lesson builds on the previous one in a logical way. Beverly provides a clear, customized written breakdown after each lesson with resources to review what we covered and help with homework. Since ALL dog training depends on consistency on the part of the owner, her course is self-paced, and she's great at setting milestones along the way to measure progress. We've recently moved away from SF, but are excited to continue working with Beverly remotely as my dog's training continues to progress! I HIGHLY recommend working with the Pooch Coach!

Boogee Griswell

I attended a seminar at Babies "R" Us in Colma on Introducing your baby and your doggie. Beverly, The Pooch Coach was the instructor. I've seen her on TV a couple times and I liked her training style. I learned so much from Beverly. She provided some great tips on introducing your baby and your dog, many things I hadn't thought about before. Beverly made me think about how the baby affects doggie from the dogs perspective which I think is important to understand as well. Everything she said made sense. Beverly was funny too. I really enjoyed this seminar. If I have any problems introducing my four legged family member to my baby, I'll be calling The Pooch Coach!

Adrian Hoffman

Beverly has been very helpful with training our puppy out of separation anxiety. We're just starting but I feel strongly that we have a solid program in place. I appreciate the extra effort by Beverly to answer questions and do a bit of follow up training with us. I feel very comfortable recommending her services.

Melissa Griffiths

Beverly is an outstanding trainer. We first came to her with our year-old Vizsla who was proving to be quite a handful. He was stealing things around the house, barking when anyone walked past the window and was difficult to walk on leash. Beverly made a huge difference in our lives. Her positive training methods aligned with our philosophy and very quickly we were able to train him not to steal items, to walk calmly on leash and to relax in the house.

When I found out I was pregnant we worked with Beverly to help prepare us for the arrival of the baby. She was a wealth of knowledge in what to expect and what to do to anticipate any change in the dog's behavior.

I would highly recommend Beverly, not just to dog owners with behavioral challenges but to anyone who has a dog they are looking to train (and who doesn't?!). Her passion for training is almost tangible and she will make a tremendously positive impact to your lives.

Brad Powell

I've known and watched Beverly in her dog training sessions for a year now. Every session I have witnessed, I have learned something extraordinary. Her advice is always spot-on, and insightful. Beverly takes the time to get to know the people and
dogs that are placed in her care.
The dogs as well as the owners take to Beverly quickly and form a bond that lasts. She teaches the owners how to create and nourish this bond with their pets, so whatever is learned by both owners and canine companions becomes simple and natural. Beverly teaches care and trust, so that when the owner and their companion finish training it is a life long lesson that they take with them to enrich their lives together.
When you see the mutual love between Beverly and her own personal best friend; Kompis, you will want that sort of bond with your own pet. An amazing woman, and an amazing companionship.
The free training video's are also great reference for any dog owner or for anyone who needs help with a problem canine companion.