Dogovation

We hired Lisa for her puppy training services and met with her for three consultation visits. It was the BEST CHOICE EVER. She is really wonderful. We have a busy household with three young kids and we added a puppy on top. Lisa helped us square away on the puppy’s routine, house breaking, and basic training — making the whole experience feel very manageable, smooth, comfortable. We knew how to work with our pup from day one, and we’ve built a great foundation thanks to Lisa. She was also really quick to all our questions in between sessions. Her approach to training is very cool — she brings a lot of passion, knowledge, and love to her work.

Lisa Caper is a miracle worker.
Our experience with her was — has been — truly outstanding. She helped us understand better what our new 8 week old puppy needed, so that we could succeed in bringing out the best in him the first month: cozier crate; more regular schedule; closer supervision; firm clear boundaries; lots of love and encouragement.
From the get-​go, Lisa was — is – very communicative, quick to understand our dogs needs AND my needs, and explains things clearly, with demonstrations and consistent focus.
(I keep changing the tense because we worked with her almost a month ago, but she still checks in to make sure we are doing OK, and encourages us to ask questions — so I think of it as the ongoing maintenance phase of her customer service.)
This is my first ever dog, and even before we got the puppy, I was panicking a little, so we decided to invest in a personal consultation right away. Lisa had excellent reviews, and although it was an investment ($ 495 for three nice long sessions), it was completely worth the money.
Lisa obviously has some kind of dog magic, and she got us past three huge hurdles — our own ignorance — the puppy’s needs and psychology — and setting the foundation for good manners. In fact, Lisa spent 15 min on the phone with me before we even got the puppy, in order to set my expectations somewhat; and we hadn’t even hired her yet. And in between sessions, we were encouraged to ask questions in email, which she answered quickly and thoroughly. And afterward, she has followed up a few times to see how Boomer is doing.
We want to turn our cute fuzzy impulse puppy into a steady, well-​mannered family dog. Knowing I can reach out and hire Lisa again for a refresher course, I have faith that we’ll be able to get there one day. Thank you, Fairy Dogmother!
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Some more details, which if you are a new dog owner and considering hiring Lisa, you probably don’t have time for anyway:
— I am a grown-​ass woman, but when Lisa said sit to my dog, I almost sat down myself!
— She is trained as a psychologist and it shows. In a good way.
— I didn’t want her to leave. But after our 3 sessions, Lisa encouraged us to take Boomer to a regular puppy manners class, see what kind of dog he grows into, before doing more work with her. So bonus points for not letting me hire her for the same thing twice. :)
— She is also available to do focused training like going into public places and making sure he keeps his good manners in a distracting environment.

I just thought it would be a good time to update our review since I just recommended Lisa to a friend! Almost 1 year after finishing our training, we are still so glad we invested in Lisa’s services. We recently moved into a new place and since we didn’t have to worry about our dog’s noise (went from an apartment to a house) we kind of slacked with our house rules. Things got crazy quick and it was clear we needed to get the dogs back in shape. We pulled out our book and started «boot camp». And since we were so well trained the first time, we didn’t have to call Lisa back! After re-​establishing the boundaries and using the skills Lisa taught us, the dogs are back under control! Thanks again Lisa!

my people got a damn puppy and Lisa really helped us iron out a few“technical” difficulties. Her no nonsense manner and encyclopedic knowledge of of dog behavior did the trick. he’s pretty good now. But I’m still miffed.

My husband and I worked with Lisa earlier this spring to help us with our dog-​fearing shepard/​lab/​we really don’t know what he is mix, Sawyer. I’ve been meaning to write this review for a while, because Lisa is a life saver! Sawyer was very reactive, on leash and off, to other dogs. Barking, snarling, lunging, the whole ordeal. This was stressful in any public walking situation, but especially after we moved into an apartment complex where many owners let their dogs run off-​leash around the grounds. After Lisa’s help, Sawyer is calm and listens to us, and we can walk by other dogs without incident.
Her program is organized to give the dogs (and the people!) the skills they need to be successful before throwing the dog into his stress spots. I hadn’t realized how lax my house structure was for Sawyer, and that implementing the crate and resting place really helped him to calm down right away. I’ll admit that the prong collar did make me nervous at first, and I would NEVER have used it without Lisa’s lessons first, but it really does provide a safe tool for dog training and building a stable relationship with your dog when used correctly. Sawyer is now a leash walking rock star, and strangers now actually compliment him for his leash manners!
Lisa’s program is definitely an investment, but we love that if Sawyer has any issues in the future we can call up Lisa and she’ll put us back on track. If your dog needs training beyond the basics, Lisa is a wonderful trainer and I’d highly recommend working with her.

My wife and I adopted Toby, a beautiful and rambunctious shepard-​mix just before his first birthday, and although sweet as can be, he was a handful. Extremely difficult to walk on leash due to his strength and curiosity in nearly everything, and just an overbearing level of puppy energy. During my first call to Lisa to explore her services, he literally ate a hole in our wall. Lisa was hired on the spot!
In our first lesson, LIsa gave us tools to establish the appropriate roles with Toby — we were able to create boundaries with him, establish a «place» for him which he quickly became glued to when we told him to stay. He learned the art of heeling on our walks and nearly overnight became an easier and more pleasant dog to walk.
Lisa is great with both people and dogs. Toby learned immediately that Lisa was the alpha, and he looked at her with clear respect. It took Toby a little longer to take us seriously since we lacked Lisa’s clear show of authority, but we learned quickly and so did he.
Whenever we had a question or ran into something unexpected, Lisa was available to us to help. She was extremely professional in terms of setting up and keeping appointments. She’s also just a really nice person to be around.
We can 100% recommend Lisa to any dog owner who is trying to find the right level of balance with their pup. Thank you Lisa — you really made a huge impact on our family!

I almost hate Lisa because my dog, Homer, is so wonderful now I never want to be away from him!
My husband and I had gone through two puppy training classes and one other private trainer before we found Lisa. And thank God we did.
We came to Lisa because Homer was being a bossy jerk. While he could sit, stay, rollover and come with the best of them, he was so high energy and whiny and obnoxious the other 99% of the time. We’d wake up in the morning to him whining and pacing, demanding attention. He needed three walks every day before settling down for the day. And, worst of all, he was getting into quite a few kerfuffles at the dog park — namely snapping at any dog who would come near me. This was not okay.
Enter Lisa. We were skeptical as we’d been through the trainer rigmarole before and since Homer was well trained in the obedience sense, we figured we’d done all we could do. But we tried it and all I can say is that the investment was well worth it for a lifetime of the dog we want.
Basically, Lisa’s training rules are pretty simple. She gives you foundational behaviors and a few weeks of «boot camp» which basically means your dog can’t do anything unless you tell him to. It took a week for us to get used to it, but Lisa was available for phone calls and emails. She came every week and we would practice his skills, she would train us on how to train him better, catching our mistakes, then would take us out to cafes and the park to test him out in real life.
It’s only been a month but Homer is already the perfect dog. Turns out he doesn’t actually need three walks ago in order to behave. He never whines. He does what he’s told the first time instead of us needing to repeat ourselves five times. And, thankfully, his goofy personality hasn’t changed. He’s actually even more affectionate and sweet than ever before.
Best of all, I feel confident that should he ever backslide or get obnoxious again, I have the tools in my back pocket to get him back into shape. Lisa did that. I’m beyond thankful that we found her.

Lisa is a lifesaver! We have a very anxious Brittany Springer Spaniel mix and she has helped us to identify some key attributes in him in addition to providing us with the tools to train and manage him. We saw positive results after one session with Lisa. She is gifted when it comes to understanding and training dogs. Lisa is very responsive to our needs and we enjoy working with her on a personal level. Highly recommend!

I truly cannot say enough great things about Lisa and her gift for working with dogs. We have a Portuguese Water Dog puppy named Newman who is very, very strong-​willed. He is the sixth PWD my family has owned, and so I was confident that I knew the ins and outs of the breed and could train him successfully. I finally realized I couldn’t and needed help. Newman was being a total jerk.
I am so thankful that we found Lisa to work with us to train Newman. He is now a very sweet, very obedient dog. It’s honestly like night and day. He is now the dog we hoped we would have.
Thank you, Lisa!

We loved Lisa. In fact we still do! We hired her to help us with our new standard poodle puppy acclimating to life with our ten year old of the same breed. She has the perfect nature for a dog trainer… firm, kind, clear. She is easy to communicate with, punctual and extremely helpful. Lisa is smart, a psychologist by training, and her overall understanding of life and human dynamics is great. After all, it is US, she is training. We may call her in again, but for this round, Lisa helped us have a very nice beginning with our new puppy.

Lisa is absolutely the best. We adopted a very smart, pretty young lab/​border collie/​greyhound mix, totally energetic and completely ball obsessed. He also had a history of separation anxiety — barking obsessively when the previous owner would leave. Within ONE lesson (I swear, I am not exaggerating) she had him sitting, staying, going into his crate, going to his «place» and pretty much staying there. She taught my whole family (four kids, husband) and our babysitter/​house sitter how to have him walk nicely on a leash, not jump on people, not to bark at the doorbell, etc.
Lisa is a MIRACLE WORKER. We haven’t had ANY problems with our dog — no separation anxiety, no jumping, no leash pulling, no barking at balls or people holding balls — since before the first few lessons!

Lisa helped us with our Rescue Riley– he is still basically a puppy that we believe is part Aussie, border collie and maybe Saint Bernard. She has been instrumental with showing us how to relieve his anxiety and take control of the situation. Since Lisa’s help, Riley understands many new and positive commands.
I highly recommend not only hiring Lisa but reading her booklet as well. It explains how she trains, her reasonings behind them and to never ask «why» to your dog. You will drive yourself crazy asking it! :)
I will continue to use Lisa and Dog Ovation whenever we need additional help with Riley and consider her to be friendly, knowledgable, caring and intelligent.

We had issues with both our German Shepherd and Pomeranian. Lisa did an excellent job with both!

We were having some pretty serious problems with our rescue pup Lyla. We were working so hard to get her under control but it wasn’t working. Everything compounded one day when she got stressed downtown and bit someone! We called Lisa that same day and she talked us through the situation and calmed us down. We laughed when she said we would have a dog who would be sitting politely at a café by the end of our sessions. I would have been happy if she would have just been able to sit on command! Last week we had our final training class. This consisted of my now sweet and gentle little pooch sitting at a café for over an hour while we talked. Lisa was a godsend. She worked with us around our schedule, when we needed it, and allowed us to reclaim our lives! Now Lyla comes everywhere with me and I’m not worried about her behavior. We still have more work to do, but it’s just going to come with experience, plus Lisa has given us all the tools we need to keep going forward with her. I can’t thank her enough.

Lisa worked with our dog, Lolita, for about 4 months, as we had a lot of issues with her chewing stuff, excessive barking, counter surfing, and over excitement (that last one gets pretty annoying for you and your guests when your dog is super strong!).
The first time she came over to observe Lolita’s behavior and diagnose what is wrong with her. She then told us that Lolita had elevated anxiety and was «destructive» because she was trying to be the alpha dog. Made sense! Everything she explained that was happening with Lolita had an explanation and we really loved to learn about Lolita’s behavior.
After that, she suggested doing a «doggie boot camp» were she would teach us how to control our dog so we can all be happy with each other. Lisa first made us read a small sized book (which we still go back to) with the theory behind her method and the tricks and tips she suggests to use. Then we set up a schedule for her to come once or twice each week to have an hour one on one session where she would teach us and Lolita activities to do so she would learn recall, relaxation, place, etc.
It really changed our dynamic! We now know how exactly to react to an unwanted behavior and our mutual communication (Lolita-​us) is WAY better. We understand what she needs and she understands what is not acceptable.
In addition, when the program is over, you can always contact Lisa with questions and she can even come over to your house if something is not working out.
Also important to mention she is SUPER flexible with her schedule!
We still have a smart, funny and mischievous doggie who opens every door in the house, but we now get along so well and understand each other.
Last thing, she is pricey because she is worth it!

We adopted 2 year old Maggie from Humane Society and immediately found her to have some behavioral challenges. After hearing glowing reviews of Lisa’s work from a friend, we decided to hire DogOvation to help with Maggie’s serious house-​training issues and with her overly exuberant behavior (jumping up on everyone, not staying in place). Lisa was incredibly patient and professional as she trained both Maggie AND us — our habits were probably as hard to break as Maggie’s! Thanks to Lisa, we are now the proud guardians of a very sweet, fully house-​trained and very well behaved dog!

Lisa Caper came to us through a friend when we got our 2 month old lab puppy Kona. Even though we previously had 2 labs as puppies we were quickly reminded that we needed a refresher course in dog training. Lisa literally came over week after week to ensure we were following through with her directions so that our already chaotic lives with 2 young children did not get totally out of control with the addition of a puppy. Her firm but gentle actions worked so well with Kona who is now a rather large 80 pound dog! I highly recommend her to anyone with a puppy or a dog. She is amazing!

I met Lisa Caper last year when I called her to help me prepare my golden retriever to become a therapy dog.
Lisa worked Trooper, and me for several months. Initially, she came to my home and then the three of us went to several local parks to work in unfamiliar and distracting environments. I was impressed with Lisa’s interaction with Trooper. She was very loving and caring while being firm and clear in what she expected of him. Lisa also ‘trained’ me — an important element in building success. She was very patient with me and also set clear guidelines, including ‘homework’ assignments!
Trooper totally enjoyed being with Lisa as did I. Because of her guidance, Trooper and I are now a Pet Assisted Therapy Team, volunteering at the VA twice a week. I share his success as a therapy dog with his professional trainer, Lisa Caper.
For anyone seeking professional guidance, I strongly recommend Lisa. She is very knowledgeable regarding animal behavior and is an excellent trainer!

Lisa was quite helpful with Mookie, a very energetic yellow lab retriever. She was extremely patient and was easy to work with. Her directions and advice was simple to follow and helped in developing a solid foundation. There were days when working with Mookie was a bit challenging, yet when he eventually decided to cooperate, things went well. Mookie would give four paws up to DogOvation.

We relocated to SF with a beautiful, 6 month old white German Shepherd puppy who tends to be anxious, excitable and protective. Upon on our first meeting I liked Lisa Caper’s calm manner and I really appreciated how she explained her methods of training and what she expected of not only the puppy, but more importantly of my husband & I. With Lisa’s help, we were able to learn how to handle Venta when the doorbell rang, when we had company or when she would try to «guard» me. It has been a very challenging experience, as Venta is a super smart dog who likes to test boundaries… learning to cultivate patience, along with consistency, has paid off! It has been rewarding to see Venta blossom into a sweet, calm young girl. I was so pleased that I referred Lisa at DogOvation to my neighbor who is another happy client! I would highly recommend Lisa at DogOvation!