Dog Training Now — Local services in Schaumburg Township

I’ve held off on this review for almost a year, knowing how it could impact a business, but I feel a responsibility. I took my 8-month-old Berner, Bentley, to DTN for their 2-week board & train. He weighed around 70 lbs and had issues like nipping, indoor accidents, jumping, and pulling on walks. Despite training classes since 8 weeks old, he showed little improvement, so I chose DTN. At pick-up, they train you for 2 hours on what the dog learned. Bentley didn’t perform a single task succesfully. He only went to "place" when Allison (trainer) used a prong collar to walk him to it, and he couldn’t stay still for “stay.” I tried, my daughter tried, and Allison did too—no success. The only part that went well was walking him with the prong collar. Allison then said she would talk to Dan about a discount if I did an additional 2-week board & train because that would give us better results. I didn’t respond at the time, but I couldn’t believe I had just spent nearly $3k and was being told to spend another $3k to get results. The moment we got home, Bentley jumped on me (this was caught on my Ring camera). I had emphasized that stopping jumping was crucial, but he was doing it the moment we got out of the car. Allison had claimed that he might not be performing well because he was tired from a long day, but that didn’t seem to be the case. 2 days later, Bentley was awful in line at the groomer’s—even with the prong collar on. A man in line suggested I take him to a board & train, unaware that he had just returned from one. I understand that follow-through and consistency at home are key for training to work. However, DTN assured me the skills would be taught 1st, and I just had to reinforce them. But Bentley didn’t seem to learn them in the first place. He kept nipping when we sat on the couch, a behavior I had asked DTN to address. Allison said he never did that with them, but when I asked if he sat on the couch, she said her dogs are "couch hogs," so Bentley stayed on a mat. One reason I chose DTN was their claim that the dogs live with trainers as part of the family, but Bentley clearly wasn’t allowed on the couch. They also promised to send pictures of the dogs at home, but when I dropped him off, I was told their system was broken. I got a few pictures, but it made me wonder if their system is always “broken.” After Bentley jumped when we got home, I reached out to Allison. She suggested using the 2 follow-up days and trying an e-collar. Though hesitant, I agreed. He improved with jumping on the refresher day (with ecollar), and walking him with the prong collar was easier, but putting it on was tough, especially for someone unfamiliar with Bentley. When Dan tried to crate him to show how easy it would be for others to collar him, Bentley refused, even after increasing the e-collar’s intensity several times. Dan eventually gave up, saying Bentley was tired. They kept blaming my size vs. Bentley's, but he wasn’t cooperating for them either. Supposedly when I wasn't there he was perfect for them, but whenever I was there he wasn't succesfully doing anything for them either. To give DTN credit, he was housebroken, and I was able to walk him with the prong collar. My partner and friends urged me to leave a negative review due to the minimal improvement, but I didn’t because housebreaking and walking Bentley were important enough. About a month ago, Bentley started having accidents inside again. The vet found nothing wrong. I called DTN on 9/19 for advice and got no response. I called again on 10/10 and was told Dan had just been out of town, but it’s now been a month since my first call and 8 days since the second, with still no reply. For nearly $3k, I saw minimal improvement, and now even housebreaking has reversed and I've not been contacted on tips to help get him back on track due to this out-of-nowhere regression. DTN claims to prioritize previous clients, but the lack of follow-up is frustrating. If anyone has advice for stopping indoor accidents, please reach out, as I’m on my own. Characters are...

Dog Training Now (DTN) has been such a blessing for us. My wife and I are both dog people, but it had been over a decade since either of us had a puppy, and we found ourselves needing help with our new female rottie, Charlie. We did some research and by luck stumbled upon DTN. In short, I cannot recommend this team enough. The results have been, and continue to be, incredible. The entire staff are friendly, diligent trainers, and I just cannot say enough good things about our experience. If you are considering enrolling your dog in any of the DTN programs, just do it. You will not regret it. We used their puppy training, 20-day training, and still use their post-graduate training. We could not be happier. If you want the full in-depth review of our experience, please keep reading.

We started Charlie in the puppy day camp, which I cannot recommend enough. In this program DTN exposes your pup to other puppies and general life experiences that they will likely run into. The exposure to the other dogs was instrumental in teaching Charlie bite inhibition, which improved substantially through this program. The exposure to the various experiences they simulate will give your pup confidence, which is crucial for avoiding unwanted behavior. DTN welcomes dogs who have age-appropriate vaccinations, which I found to be very rare. In my opinion, this stage of life is arguably the most important to build a strong foundation for your pup to build upon. If nothing else, I strongly encourage you to enroll your puppy in this program. This set the stage for many of the intangible behaviors our lovely dog now exhibits on a daily basis.

Once Charlie reached 4 months, she transitioned to the 20-day training program, which is the combination of a 10-day on-leash and a 10-day advanced off-leash training. This is where the tangible DTN results became abundantly clear. When we first brought Charlie into our home, she did not understand the concept of walking on leash. She would often plop or just sit and refuse to move in the direction we were targeting. After even just the first 5 days of the on-leash training program, we were able to take her on walks around the neighborhood. After the following 5 days, she was a pro at walking on leash. Able and willing to listen to basic commands in addition to learning “place”. I should mention that when you pick up your dog at the end of each day, a trainer will walk through that day's material, so you can take that home to practice. You also get trained :) You will pick up things that help beyond just the commands that were taught that day.

Charlie then transitioned to the 10-day off-leash program. This is where DTN takes the skillsets taught on-leash, and replicates them off-leash with the e-collar. You will be able to communicate effectively with your dog from a distance. At her age, I am thrilled with even just her recall ability. We go to the dog park, and she stays within a close radius to us and recalls on command. We get compliments all the time. We are still continuing to reinforce and train on all of the commands from a distance, but even just having the ability to have a pleasant dog park experience is a massive win. I would consider this program relatively advanced and a requirement for you as the owner to be continuously involved to keep these skills at a high level.

After graduating, we have continued training with DTN using their post-graduate program. In this program they generally refresh your dog on the skills they have already learned. I prefer this over sending Charlie to a “standard day care” as her skillsets continue to get reinforced and she does not pick up bad habits that would otherwise be more prevalent in those other day cares.

If you are considering enrolling your dog in any of the DTN programs, just do it. DTN is not the cheapest, but would you want your dog training to be? Would you send your children to the cheapest possible option? Same concept here. This is an investment in your little buddy who with any luck will be around a...

I honestly could not rave more about this company. Earlier this year, I adopted a 5 year old Great Dane named Jack. He came from a horrible breeding situation. He was not very socialized with people or animals, never walked on a leash, food aggression... the list goes on. After months of working with him on these issues, we noticed improvement but felt like he was capable of more. So we decided to sign Jack up with Dog Training Now for their 10-day, day training program.

We were definitely apprehensive at first - not with this company, but how well Jack would respond to training. We watched their videos of dogs graduating from programs and executing the commands perfectly... we never thought our dog could do the same???

And each day we were proven wrong. As Jack gained confidence, so did I.

From my initial inquiry, we noticed how attentive the staff is not only to our overall goals for Jack, but also to his mental state throughout the training process. If anything seemed out of the norm, we were notified. We got updates everyday. Pictures and videos. I admit, I constantly refreshed their social media pages just to see what Jack was up to!

The layout of his program was awesome. You drop him off in the mornings and pick him up at night. When you go to pick up, its like magic - he learned a new command. They explain the command to you in great detail, show you how to perform the command, watch you practice the command and answer any and all questions you may have. The following morning they look for updates on how practicing at home went, then iron out the "kinks" the following day. If there are any issues or concerns - they are BEYOND attentive. From my interactions with the staff, you can tell how much they care for the well being of Jack. They are truly here for support and guidance throughout the training program and beyond.

The ONLY recommendation I have for this company is uploading videos of how to execute each command onto the DTN user portal? I was given a packet of information on each command and sometimes it's just easier to visualize! This is especially helpful to family members that didn't pick up their dog in the evenings to get their one on one training :)

Overall I will forever recommend this company to anyone looking for a training program. Thank you DTN!! Jack...