All About Dogs

What a great resource for DC area pet parents! Pam, the owner, is caring, professional and exceptionally skilled at reading dog behavior and body language. As a colleague, I routinely refer clients to her for group training and behavior consults. I always get excellent feedback and I can trust that clients I refer will receive top notch service from Pam and her staff.

We took our chow chow Izzy to the Rowdy Rovers training class this past fall and couldn’t have been happier. We adopted Izzy a year ago and as a senior adopted dog, we wanted to work on training her while resolving some of her trust issues. Chows can be stubborn and Izzy is particularly difficult around some dogs, so Rowdy Rovers seemed perfect for her. They did a great job keeping each dog in their «condo» (which is their sectioned off area in class) while still giving each one individual attention. The concepts build on each other, and before you know it, your dog is outside their condo doing tricks with another dog right by them, with each dog focusing on their owner, not the distractions around them. It was a great opportunity for Izzy to learn in a safe environment, and we’d highly recommend it!

I could literally write a book about how amazing EVERYONE has been at AAD. We found AAD in our quest for puppy training and socialization. Due to illness, our puppy wasn’t permitted to attend group classes. We decided to have two private lessons in our home and cannot say enough about our trainer Lana. She has been amazing going above and beyond to help us learn our puppy’s cues and learn ways to tailor training to his needs. Unfortunately, as our pup has grown, he’s started to show signs of aggression and extreme resource guarding. Lana continued to answer our many questions regarding this new behavior and offered many different suggestions on how to redirect it. Lana communicated all our questions and conversations with Pam and both recommended a behavior assessment.
Pam and Colleen came to our home to assess our pup and after lengthy discussions about what they observed, we came to the conclusion that our pup would best thrive in a more experienced household without children and plenty of space to run around and release his huge amounts of energy. Pam and Colleen let us come to that conclusion on ourr own, but supported us and offered honest and detailed information and feedback on all our options prior to our decision. Throughout this very difficult time, they have maintained communication and supported us even offering to help us find a new dog sometime in the future. Their unwavering support and compassion has been wonderful in a very emotionally challenging time. We HIGHLY recommend them!!! Worth every penny and more!

We are repeat customers for private training with Vicki Gotcher of All About Dogs. Vicki has helped us build a multi species household with our rescue dogs and house rabbits, including our newest rescue, Moonpie (a senior dog with a rough history, who needs house training work and anxiety work). Vicki is frank, clear, and also caring. We recommend her services highly! Well worth the investment!

I’ve only had one private lesson, but Vicki did a great job. I was at my wits end with our new puppy. She gave me so many practical, easy to implement hints! Thank you for saving my sanity. It is pricey, but my sanity was worth it.

My dog and I have been enrolled with All About Dogs since April 2013, and are currently students in their Thursday Night «Relaxing Rowdy Rovers» class for reactive dogs. Prior to signing up with All About Dogs, they took a ton of time answering my questions and allowing me to observe a class and talk with their trainers to make sure the class would be an appropriate fit for him. Most reactive dog classes would disqualify him because he is reactive to strangers, and that human reactivity is something we have found many trainers will not work with. I was, and remain, impressed by their thorough and honest assessments of each dog as an individual, their ability to see the potential in their students, and their celebration of every milestone reached along the way.
Pam and Colleen also have worked with us individually to do a behavior assessment with my dog and determine his needs within and outside the classroom setting. We received an 8 page document from that assessment, full of straightforward and thoughtful insights, tips, and continued management strategies. The trainers are kind, compassionate, and never push my dog farther than he can go for the sake of seeing progress or immediate results, which has been critical to genuinely helping him get better. We consulted with several other trainers and did a few private sessions with others before finding All About Dogs, and my only wish is that I had found them sooner. My hope is that we will be able to continue making progress and eventually «graduate» from Rowdy Rovers to their Levels Training, and I do feel confident that with time and continued work, we will be able to.
Dog Training is an unregulated field, and anyone can call themselves a trainer. The difference with All About Dogs is they have years and years of science based education and certifications to support their passion for helping dogs and their people. Both Pam and Colleen hold CPDT-​KA certifications and all their methods are positive and force free. I am so grateful to have found them and look forward to continuing learning with them. Another interesting note is that both Pam and Colleen are regular presenters at the annual APDT (Association for Pet Dog Trainers) conference, a testament to their knowledge and experience in the field of dog training!

We took our puppy to All About’s puppy socialization class and would recommend it. The classes — about an hour a week for several weeks — had two principal goals. First, the class is designed to allow the puppies to meet and play with each other appropriately. Essentially, this was a self-​policing process but fun for the owner’s to watch. Second, the class teaches puppies basic obedience training. The class was a lot of fun, and our instructor, Pam, was great.

Amazing staff and program! We have been taking our high anxiety dog for almost two years and she has made drastic improvements! She literally shook, trembled and wet herself constantly when we first started and now she focuses on me and happily follows my commands in class. She is so much better on the leash and on walks and is better socialized around other dogs and people. The staff has been patient and so encouraging, we definitely recommend this place to everyone!

We took our puppy to puppy socialization classes at All About Dogs. They are completely based on positive reinforcement training. No shock collars, choke chains, alpha rolling, etc. If you are looking for that kind of training technique, look else where.
The two trainers running our group were really great. Pam and Megan were their names. They really know their stuff!
They offer puppy socialization classes through advanced training. They do also offer private training sessions as well, and behavior evaluations, etc. $ 150/​session-​private. The group classes range depending what package you buy.
We are currently doing one on one with our puppy since she is super reactive on leash. Otherwise, we would be doing group level classes.