The Puppy Academy — Local services in Hermosa Beach

Our 6-month-old puppy graduated from The Puppy Academy (TPA) last month. He started in May and he is not the same dog now. My husband had had older puppies in the past, and I adopted stray cats and dogs when I was a kid but neither of us had any experience raising a young puppy. I watched some YouTube videos and was able to teach Tahoe the sit and down commands, and begin some basic potty training but we needed professional help. He was nipping (especially me), jumping, pulling on walks, ignoring people when called, frapping (aka a case of the zoomies) twice a day, refused to go near his crate, would not poop with distraction, and was showing early signs of separation anxiety. We looked all over the area. Most places would not take him because he had not had his 3rd round of vaccines and / or had horrible reviews. Most places also require that your puppy is fixed by 6 months of age. We were about to do a board and train when I found TPA. My husband and I both work from home so we discussed it then scheduled a consultation / evaluation. Tahoe slept through it but we were completely stoked after speaking with Ricci and Marco. TPA offers mental and physical stimulation as well as socialization while equipping pet parents with the tools needed to continue this at home.

We had to wait 2 weeks but that worked out for the best (our poor guy had a few health issues right before and during his admission). Tahoe mastered all of his commands, is 100% potty and crate trained, is no longer poop shy, willingly goes into his crate, and no longer sleeps in our bed. He only fraps 2-3 times a week and his separation anxiety never fully developed. His nipping was replaced with licking (and that’s when I knew we were making real progress). I was able to additionally teach him look at/watch me, let’s go, and potty bell (he rings the bell when he needs to potty and does so appropriately when his schedule is a little off). He still struggles with jumping, barking, and staying on place but we have the knowledge and confidence we need to help him, especially since he’s going through adolescence now. TPA and its staff are comprehensive, thorough, caring, responsible, and knowledgeable. Because of the time they spend with the puppies and their attention to detail, we learned even more about our dog (i.e. he’s a humper and plays rough). Other examples: The day before one of his school days, we’d hired a Rover sitter for the first time. He took our pup to a dog park and Tahoe’s harness was dirty. I didn’t have time to wash it and when we picked him up from TPA the following day we realized it was missing from his school bag. I called TPA to let them know and when we picked Tahoe up the next school day it was returned clean. He also got sick during a walk one day. Josh informed us, took pictures, and provided more details for me to pass on to the vet. Julia, Sparky, Rebecca, Megumi, and Kimberly are also amazing (sorry if I misspelled anyone’s name).

Our puppy was always ecstatic to go to TPA and would cry with excitement whenever we grabbed his schoolbag (though training has since helped with that too). On the drive back to Glendale, he would sleep and be mellow for the rest of the evening. And yes, I said Glendale. It was worth the drive and we are seriously considering doing it all over again for the grad program in a few months. Tahoe claimed me the moment he laid eyes on me but thanks to the TPA crew we have a stronger bond based on respect, understanding, and...

Update 12/1/24: My last update, unless something changes. To close the loop - as soon as I said my review could not be bought, I never heard a word from Marco again. We never received the additional training we were offered and accepted. We never received the refund we were offered and accepted. Given our experience, I have no choice but to believe the vast majority of the reviews were bought. My recommendation is to save your money and find another trainer. We'll take our $5k loss and lick our wounds. So many ways this could have been addressed and remedied and they went the shady route.

Update 11/6/24: Google Reviews has a character limit, so please see my full review on Yelp about how the owner of Puppy Academy tried to buy me off to change my review and then ghosted me when I informed him I would only update, rather than change my honest review of our experience. ——— We are incredibly disappointed in our experience with Puppy Academy and I find it strange there are ONLY five star ratings, except for one stars from people who didn't pass evaluation. Incredibly suspicious.

We enrolled our 4 month old Saint Bernard in Puppy Preschool, which was a three day a week, three month program for $5,000. A ridiculous amount, but we were told they would be spending most of the day training and received a list of all the commands they would learn. We would then have four owner sessions, ostensibly to teach us what to reinforce.

We became worried in the first month when she had learned NOTHING. I brought it up to PA and they assured me the next month we would start to see improvement. Then we got to the "homework assignments". They instructed that we should be spending AT LEAST 90 minutes a day training her on the days she wasn't in class. Um, that's LITERALLY what we were paying them to do.

The lead trainer kept exclaiming how great it was that she will sit on "place" for four hours at a time, which is when we realized we had paid $5000 for her to sit on a bed. I kept bringing up concerns that she wasn't improving and just kept getting notes to "keep practicing."

After the three month program, she learned to sit and lie down. That's it. She has NO recall at all. The only reason she walks decently at all on a leash is that they had us put a prong collar on (which we were fine with, as she's incredibly strong).

I'm beginning to expect, especially after seeing only five star reviews from people with no other reviews, that we were defrauded. We are very consistent and experienced dog owners and have no issues remaining consistent with training. But basically they took $5,000 from us to make us train our own dog. I wish there was some guarantee or refund policy because we now have to pay for a second trainer. We will never again go to a trainer that doesn't let you observe either in-person or on video.

There are 30+ dogs there at a time. That is an INCREDIBLE amount of money to be getting to have dogs lie down most of the day and have the owners do...

I WHOLE-HEARTEDLY RECOMMEND THE PUPPY ACADEMY to EVERY HUMAN who has a PUPPY!!!!

Three months ago I came home with two 7-week-old lab siblings and felt completely exhausted, defeated and overwhelmed by puppies and had no idea where to start.

We quickly realized we needed guidance, support and relief. That's when I reached out to The Puppy Academy and after speaking with Sparky, meeting with one of the fabulous trainer's for a tour and chatting with Kimberly I just knew this place was special and got on the waiting list right away!!!

The all encompassing program is so well thought out and customizable to your needs. The team/ staff have truly poured their love and energy into our puppies, held our hands every step of the way, problem solved our endless questions, gave us our life back and gave us such a great schedule for both my human family and our puppies to be set up for success.

They instilled such a strong foundation, with everything from potty training, crate training, manners, obedience and combatting littermate syndrome (if you're not familiar look it up - I promise you it’s a real thing - and if you’re thinking of getting two at once - I highly recommend you don’t) aka surviving two puppies.

The dedication, thoughtfulness and care each team member has shown our family will forever have a special place in my heart. THANK YOU PUPPY ACADEMY from the bottom of my heart!!!! Moose and Lily thank you tooooo!!!!

P.S. The only word of warning I'll give, is you'll get out of it what YOU put into it (like anything in life)! But, if you trust the process, remain open minded, ask all the questions, try your best to follow their expertise and most importantly be patient with yourself and your puppy... you will have truly a super star puppy!!! I can proudly say I have 2 SUPERSTAR PUPPIES because of The Puppy Academy!!! Stay positive and do your homework... trust me it's worth every bit of your energy and every penny. And tell...