Bark Busters

Waste of money. I should have known when I read their website reviews and there was no button to actually «write a review» that they obviously are either writing the reviews themselves or filtering out the bad ones.
When I first spoke to the administrative assistant for the trainer in my area, he said that the Barkbusters methods were not fear-​based and they didn’t condone the use of physical discipline or choke chains. The trainer then shows up at my house with a water bottle and a semi choke chain. I went along with everything he told me to do because obviously he’s the expert and I’m the one who’s doing something wrong. He gave me bags full of noise making coins to drop when they would bark at the door, and it scared my dog instead of help her since she was used to being abused. I later learned that the use of spray bottles are actually considered quite an outdated method in dog training; but I guess that’s up to your own success rate. The only thing I got out of Barkbusters was a new collar, which I paid extra for on top of the 650 dollars I paid for a lifetime trainer that works with my dogs until the issues are resolved.
I’ve seen my trainer twice. Once for our initial visit and once for a check in. He has never called to check up, since he knew we were struggling with potty training her. His answer for that? He printed me out a puppy potty training page (my dog is a year old, by the way and does not have the bladder of a puppy) which he then sat down and basically told me not to follow what was on the page… eliminating the need to give it to me. I expressed my concerns with the potty training and at one point he actually directed me to google and said «that’s something we’re going to need to figure out.» We? I felt tricked. I just paid you over 650 to hand me a sheet and tell me that I’m going to need to figure it out.
I’m so disappointed in myself for thinking that these people were worthy any monetary compensation. All of the training tips that I found useful were those I found myself, online after I felt that our trainer could not care less about our issues. It’s been months since we heard from our trainer, and judging from him rushing me off the phone the last time we spoke he won’t be contacting me again.

In my life, I have never wasted money in such a spectacular fashion as I did when handing $ 650 (yes, you read that right) to Lisa Marshall at Bark Busters. The lifetime guarantee seems comforting, but be warned: you will never see your money again. The guarantee provides only that the company will continue to work with you and your dog to resolve the problems that you are having. This means that if you want your guarantee to remain valid, you are bound by the trainers and methods that they teach, whether you like them or not. In my case, this was an issue: I found Lisa to be a weak teacher that had difficulty in addressing and maintaining focus on the core problem that I was facing with my dog. She failed to develop and follow through with a plan to address that problem. Overall, it seemed that she was more concerned with the growth of her franchise than in my success as a dog owner.
Here’s what I got for my money. On my first visit with Lisa, which was about 4 hours, she went through the company’s worksheets that explain their methods and the logic behind them. She worked with my dog for about a half hour and gave me homework. Lisa was quite effective in working with my dog. So far, so good. Second visit, about two weeks later, for an hour. I was having trouble with the homework, but my dog behaved well in front of Lisa. It seemed that from Lisa’s perspective, «problem solved». Rather than helping me address the problems I was having, she sent me emails asking me to publicly endorse her on her Facebook page. Following my failure to do so, all communication (save bulk emails from the company) dropped off completely. Trying get a follow-​up appointment (expect to wait two days for a reply) was a game of phone tag followed by a litany of excuses. There was no more homework, no follow-​up. At one point, I actually had to remind her of who I was. After hours of diligently practicing the techniques taught by Lisa and two more frustrating visits that yielded few changes my dog’s behaviour, I gave up on begging for help from this dog trainer.
The news isn’t all bad. During the last several months (since leaving Bark Busters) I have continued to train twice daily for half-​an-​hour with my dog, and over time I have been successful with some of the techniques taught by Lisa. However, the core issue that brought me to Bark Busters remains unresolved and I will need to spend more money to hire a trainer for this purpose. Needless to say, I would not recommend Lisa Marshall or Bark Busters to anyone.
*Update* It’s been two years since my Bark Busters experience. I’m happy that this review has been helpful for so many. Since then, I found a trainer that was able to resolve my dog’s core behavioural problem, and the peace that this has brought us is indescribable. I look back on that moment, two years ago, as one of frustration and hopelessness. The message I want to send to you is that it is really easy, in that state of desperation, to fall for a trainer that may be preying upon this vulnerability. But there’s a flip side, too. When I said to my new trainer, «I think my dog is untrainable!» he laughed at me. Of course, they all are trainable. So be cautious, but also keep up the faith that the problem can, indeed, be solved permanently. Best of luck to you.