Behavioral Dog Training

Alyssa has truly helped me better understand how to communicate with my dogs and is an amazing dog trainer. She has been training my two dogs Tin Tin and Sandi for about 3 months. Tin Tin is a Belgian Malinois and I had a hard time taking him on walks because he tends to lash out at dogs, people, leaf blowers, and almost any sound he hears. After these 3 months of training, I am able to control him and calm him down so that walking has now become fun and a pleasure. Tin Tin was also scared of going to the vet. He did not let anyone touch him, including me, so it was hard for him to get his shots. With Alyssa’s help, I was able to train him to be more calm. Last week, I took him to get his dog influenza vaccine. At the doctor’s office, they even complimented him and said he was much calmer. We were out of the doctor’s office in less than 2 minutes. Alyssa is also kind and patient. She takes extra time with her clients and my dogs truly love going to training. She takes the time to answer any and all of my questions. She also thinks about my questions and comes up with solutions that may better work with my dogs. I cannot say enough. She is absolutely great.

“Alyssa is just incredible! She is a mix of a therapist, and a dog trainer. She is very knowledgeable, and an excellent clear communicator. She doesn’t waste your time, and always has helpful visual aids to enhance training. I started “zoom” training with her last year to work on my dogs’ separation anxiety. I tried so many short-cuts before: thunder vest (check!), time release treat dispensers (check!). Nothing worked – until Alyssa. She breaks every session down into concise manageable steps — strips it down to the essentials, so it’s easy for you and your dog to follow. We started with simple foundational training – at first I was like, ‘How will this help separation anxiety!?’ But now I know every step is essential. Slowly over time I started to see real long-lasting change in my dogs’ behavior. After feeling for so long that change wasn’t possible, the whole experience with Alyssa has been so empowering. Trust the process! Trust Alyssa! Your dogs will thank you!”  

“We cannot recommend Alyssa enough. As first time dog owners, our adopted 7 month husky-lab mix was a huge challenge. She exhibited over-excitement and over-arousal behaviors, and loads of puppy energy. We found Alyssa through San Diego Humane Society’s dog training classes and she was randomly recommended to us by a neighbor who was a past happy customer of Legends Dog Training. We ended up taking a total of 2 online classes (6 weeks each, 1 hour zoom meetings each week) as well as a private 1:1 consultation. In our private 1:1 consultations, Alyssa patiently guided us to understand what our dog needs and how we can use management / prevention / training to establish foundational behaviors. She has so much knowledge to share. Through the online classes, we saw even more improvements in our dog’s behavior throughout our 12 weeks together. At first we were skeptical about taking an online dog class but it turned out to be a great option for our dog and during covid-19. We’re safer at home. Our dog is in our home environment where there are minimal distractions so she can learn at her own pace. As she excels at a behavior inside our home, then we gradually make the environment more and more challenging. The classes are structured and exercises naturally build on the skills we learn from previous sessions. Our dog started out as the dog who couldn’t sit still for class. (honestly she probably would have failed an in-person class….) We constantly had to ask Alyssa for class recordings because our dog would be acting up (barking, mouthy, demanding attention, potty breaks) during class. By the end of the two classes, our dog became so calm that she can even sleep through the entire class if we didn’t wake her up for the exercises. While our dog still struggles with some things outside the house, she’s learned to be calm inside the house, love her mat and dog bed, and these days barking at the mailman is not even interesting. We are thankful and grateful to have found a positive reinforcement trainer like Alyssa. She has changed our relationship with our dog for the better. Choosing Legends Dog Training is choosing so much more than basic obedience. Legends Dog Training uses 100% positive reinforcement training to help improve your relationship with your dog. We adopted a dog to be our best friend; this was exactly what we got as a result of training with Alyssa!”

We saw a noticeable difference in our dog’s behavior after just one session. Strongly recommend! Alyssa is awesome! We have a 10 month old 70 pound blue nose Pit Bull who really needed a strong trainer. We were boarding him in a cage free facility once a week just for socialization. When we mentioned that we were interested in a trainer, one of the handlers recommended Alyssa at Legends. Alyssa is incredibly personable and understanding. She listened to our concerns and really worked with us to reinforce what our dog was learning during training. We were even able to watch some of the training sessions on YouTube. The bottom line is that you pay for results.

We came to her with an issue of reactivity on the leash and a situation that required a flexible trainer, Alyssa fit the bill.  Even though I only worked with Alyssa a few times there was a noticeable difference in Saria [our German Shepard] from the first session, and watching the training sessions made me see the type of dog Saria could be.  She was always calm and patient while training Saria, and used positive reinforcement to let her know what behavior was worthwhile. We were in a situation that forced us to re-home our dog, and Alyssa made it an easy process to transfer the training to the new owner.  She was even kind enough to give advice to the new owner to make Saria’s transition easier.

As my husband succinctly said after our puppies’ first session with Alyssa, “She is the most competent dog person I have ever met!”  We are experienced dog owners, and we adopted two puppies (littermates–shar pei/lab mixes) earlier this summer.  What makes Alyssa superior to other dog trainers we have used is her ability to EXPLAIN the rationale behind her behavior modification techniques.  For example, she suggested that we tell our young children to stand still (“like a tree”) when the puppies jump on them in enthusiastic greeting.  This was counterintuitive to us–our instinct was to correct the puppies immediately.  But Alyssa explained that even negative feedback may reinforce the jumping, because it is still attention.  Sure enough, after several days of the kids channeling quiet oak trees, the puppies stopped jumping on them.  Incredible. We highly recommend Alyssa!!

Our male Maltese mix (Wally) was bitten by another dog when he was less than 1 year old.  Although the bite was minor (no blood), the bite was very traumatic for Wally.  Ever since the day he was bitten, he was extremely fearful of other dogs. Alyssa helped Wally get re-socialized with other dogs.  She worked with him every week for several months and he slowly began to tolerate being around other dogs.  We can now take Wally for walks where he is exposed to other dogs and he’s slowly getting back to normal. We found Alyssa on her YouTube channel where she has lots of self-made videos about dog training. Alyssa is an excellent dog trainer and her videos really highlight her skills.

I’ve been working with Alyssa on separation anxiety for a few months now. I’m only at the beginning stages of his training, but I’m so impressed by Alyssa’s professionalism, insane knowledge, incredible structured weekly plans, and her ability to customize a work plan just for my dog, Kevin. I’ve worked with MANY trainers to remedy our issues, but she is far superior to anybody I’ve ever met or worked with. Her approach to behavior change is methodical. My underweight dog is challenged with health issues and in a very short time she’s improved his appetite with her behavior plans, and he’s gained a pound! She takes detailed notes and studies the weekly behavior patterns and aligns with a base mat training method. Her approach has the dogs best interests in mind, ensuring I’m able to understand him better and only go at the pace he’s ready for. Additionally, she provides the option to do video training so I don’t have to drive. It’s so helpful. I will update my review as my training progresses, but she’s legit – everybody needs to work with her.

I was seeking training services to develop a better relationship with my hyper canines (2 yo blue heeler and a 4 yo German Shepard) as their reactive to dogs while on leashes.  Alyssa’s foundational training has worked wonders in changing or implementing new behaviors. I highly recommend Alyssa and will continue using in her in the future when in need of assistance! Thanks Alyssa!

She took the time to learn all about my rescue and then we worked together on a solid training plan. My girl Moana had received training in the past but I strongly suspect it was with harsh methods. I did not want “Mo” to behave in a certain way because she was scared of being hurt or fearful of me. Alyssa’s knowledge and patience in retraining Mo in a healthy manner built a strong bond between us and helped my scared rescue understand that I love her and won’t hurt her. If you are looking for a patient, knowledgeable, kind, loving, effective and practical trainer, connect with Alyssa. You and your doggie will be so happy you did!

We came to Alyssa when we struggled with our dog Kayla showing aggressive behaviours towards our cats, and came away not just with a wealth of training methods and results, but also with a much richer understanding of what she was going through. What was especially valuable was how she taught us to simply gather information without labelling any behaviour as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. It carried on into every aspect of our lives with Kayla, and we are grateful beyond words for what Alyssa has taught us. Thank you!

Having the right trainer is so critical to your dog family’s success and she is the one! Most trainers wanted to use shock collars and negative training techniques which, of course, may work, the dog is scared to death of being punished. Not what I wanted to give to a rescue dog. We are working on teaching him basic social skills, as well as having her help us integrate him with our other 2 at home and so far, so good! If you are having problems with your pup, don’t give up, just give her a call ASAP, she will help!

After researching trainers we decided on Legends Dog Training specifically because of their philosophy. We are located in Charlotte NC and trained our pit-mix family member via online sessions with Alyssa. We couldn’t be more happy with the results. Maxx has made tremendous progress. Utilizing online sessions has facilitated training for Camille and I so that we better understand Maxx. Alyssa is very diligent, highly competent, and comprehensive/holistic in her approach. She’s patient with us and has a genuine interest for the well being of Maxx. She understands how to achieve desired results via positive training rather than consequence or negative reinforcement. This was a critical differentiation for us in choosing Legends because Maxx was adopted and had previously been mishandled and/or abused. We would recommend Alyssa with full confidence. The change in Maxx is astonishing.