Bay Area Family K-9 Training Union City, California

Cannot stress enough on how much this place should be avoided for any dog owners who really care for their fur babies. Think 100 times before choosing BAFK9. At this price, you can find much much much much better place for you dog's training. Your dog will come home with skin allergies, digestion issues, weight loss, kennel cough and others which you will discover over days after picking up from training. They don't care about any kind of vaccinations whatsoever. In fact, I was advised to skip Rabies vaccination and board my pup a month earlier than the date agreed upon. It's all about money. I cannot put into words how much I regret sending my pup to board & train here. I worked hard for almost 3 months with my puppy's diarrhea and skin issues. He was healthy as a horse when I dropped him. Within 3 days after that I had to pick him up for some personal reasons and had to pull him off the training. My husband and I were surprised to see how our puppy looked when I picked him up. Since, the day I picked him up, I had to see his vet for various health issues. In spite of informing James, that my puppy (5 months old) had skin allergies and sensitive stomach, he was made to sleep/lay/sit in damp places. Mostly unhygienic. He was starved for 3 days to make him food motivated (without even evaluating him, they decided to starve him so that he takes commands). This business has been in place for years, but they don't understand the level of nutrition a 5 month old puppy needs. Everything is generalized. They don't go by breed/behavior/health, nothing. - Trust me, they don't alter anything according to your puppy's needs here. Again, it's all about money. (James keeps reminding you that there will be "no refund"). Lol!! I feel sad to write all this. Because I had put all my trust in a place/people I believed would care for my puppy as much as I did. I was told there will be no refund because they had to set up some facilities for the puppy's training. I'm not sure what kind of facilities were set up for my 5 month old puppy - such that, when I picked him up, he had ear infection, damp fur, rashes all over his groin area, arm pits and chest, acid reflux due to food deprivation, symptoms of kennel cough and diarrhea due to stress. I met his vet before I wrote this review. She said the puppy has kennel cough and might be having flu as well. All of this, in just 3 days. I wonder what his state would be if I had let him stay there for 3 weeks assuming he would be fine. I'm not at all sad/angry about losing thousands of dollars. I'm guilty that I made my puppy go through this. BAFK9 will ask you not to contact them and that they will share videos and pictures of you dog on Facebook and Instagram. This does not apply to all dogs. If James does not like you or your dog, the dog will go through what it has to. Watch the videos and look at the pictures. The dogs don't even have an indoor kennel/crate to relax/sleep. They sit/lay and play on damp floor inside a huge playpen. They pee in the same place where they play. These environmental conditions do not suit all dogs/little puppies who will not have developed immunity completely. So think 100 times before choosing BAFK9. At this price, you can find much much much much better place for you dog's training and well-being. James runs a business. But, before taking the dog in, for board and train, he does not consider to call his client and the dog inside the facility, sit and understand how the dog is doing, if there are any concerns related to health or behavior. Your dog is picked outside and that's it!! And if you happen to pick the dog up in the middle of training, he will be returned to you outside and that's it!! No respect for either the dogs or the clients. And not to forget, you are never get a tour of the facility. Not sure what are they hiding. For sure the world does not revolve around me James. But every dog owner’s world revolves around his/her dog. Sending them to some place we think we trust and bringing them back sick, hurts any owner. You're a dog owner too :)

This place is a terrible. We tried to schedule a preliminary visit with our 10week puppy and were told we need to pay $50 before even scheduling, which we did in good faith. Then we had to wait for days for a response on when our visit would be. After we finally heard back and scheduled it, our puppy got sick the night before and we rushed him to the emergency which made us contact the place and inform them that we won’t be able to be there in the morning and would have to postpone the visit a bit so the puppy would feel better and be able to actually do the visit. They didn’t respond for days after we tried calling them and sending them multiple emails. Finally, they reached back to us and told us we need to pay them another $50 if we wanted to schedule a preliminary visit. We also found out that when enrolled in the classes you don’t get the attention your puppy really needs to learn the most. I would not recommend the place to anyone.

Our Boston Terrier recently completed the Bay Area K9 board and train program. Prior to enrolling in the program, we had completed ~10 weeks of training at a local pet store. Although our dog had learned some of the basic commands, whether she would do them when asked was inconsistent and always dependent upon whether SHE wanted to at that moment. She would walk well on a leash but the moment she saw something that interested her would ignore walker and pull vigorously. She would listen to commands if offered a treat with enough value, but would ignore or go the opposite direction if not. Most concerning were some of the behaviors we saw developing such as jumping on the couch and growling if you tried to remove her, chewing on furniture, and grabbing objects she shouldn’t and then running. After completing the board and train, James then provided several private lessons to teach me how to work with her. His methods were effective and different than what I had tried previously. We now have a much more well mannered and obedient dog. She eagerly obeys commands and quickly learns to follow house rules. Our family is able to include her in many more activities and trust her enough to provide much more freedom. She free roams the house and does not cause trouble. She will immediately drop objects from her mouth if instructed. We go on walks around the community without leash. We take her inside stores while shopping. We take her to restaurants and she lays at our feet while we eat. Our family is very happy with the results that were obtained. I highly recommend James and the crew at Bay Area K9.

Bay Area Family K-9 Training was exactly what our hyperactive puppy needed. Before training our puppy (Candy)was totally out of control. We were unable to leave her unattended even for a few minutes. Candy used to Bite,chew and destroy whatever she set her eyes on. This was our first time owning a dog and we had no clue how to tackle her behavior. Therefore we started to look for a trainer and got to know about James and his training institute via internet. We tried puppy classes in the beginning but it was difficult to communicate with our hyper active puppy. So we decided to go for board and train and after a few weeks of training we were surprised by the results. Candy was no more the destructive puppy we had known. She became more patient and obedient. Also, leash pulling came to a complete stop and we are now able to communicate with her and she has turned into a wise and adorable puppy. This was our best investment till date and worth every penny. We could not thank James enough for his contribution in making our puppy's life better.

Had a great experience with my last dog that went through training. Now sending our new puppy to the board and train program. We are excited!

No one can care for your dog like Bay Area Family will.

Took our dog to do the board and train, then a bunch of miscommunication happened between me and the owner to where my dog was there for a total of three weeks, but was only actually trained for two, THEN ended up getting picked up early. The owner had stopped all training without letting me or my significant other know. So she was sitting there for a little over a week with no training. When picking up our dog, it’s like she had no kind of training at all. She was also incredibly filthy, and very skinny almost being able to see her ribs. All together it was a very unprofessional experience. Had very high hopes with this trainer so it’s sad to say this definitely didn’t work out.

Putting our puppy through board and train here was the best investment we could've ever made. Our only regret isn't doing it sooner! Our dog went from feeling like a complete terror on walks and in the house to being well behaved and reasonable. Now, when we want to train a new behavior into her, it's extremely simple. We tried standard puppy and adolescent classes for almost a year with no results, and now after board and train it feels like we can finally communicate with our dog. We're so grateful we found Bay Area Family K-9! Seriously changed our lives.

We picked up Kona at 8 weeks old and was desperate for someone to help us. Anything and everything Kona could get her mouth into she would. My kids were terrified, we had to set up barriers in our living room but eventually our pup was smart enough to jump/climb over the gates. We came across Bay Area Family K9 and I read all the positive reviews. We set up an appt to go in and see what they had to offer. Without hesitation, as soon as the presentation was over we signed up right away and we noticed some other families did too. We signed up for the full board and train program. James is very informative and he really knows what he is doing. Each time we picked Kona up from training we noticed her behavior was getting better. They kept us updated with the training through social media. Kona is now 1.5 years old and able to roam free in our home ( this would’ve never happened if it wasn’t for James and his crew). No more barriers and kids love her versus being terrified of her. James and his crew are the best of best! We still see them occasionally for boarding when we go out of town. We are from SF and traveling to Fremont to drop Kona off is well worth it. We won’t drop her off with anyone else. I wish they were closer so we could do daytime drops offs. We are forever grateful to the entire team at Bay Area Family K9.

if you want a quality high class service to look after your K9 family member go to James and his team. Our dog was trained and regularly boards there. Highly recommend.

Very good training, also help with boarding as well.

James and the team at BAFK9 are the absolute best. They understand dog psychology and help train us humans to be able to communicate well with our pups. We brought our 2 yr. old hound mix rescue from Hawaii. We had no idea what he'd been through but he was extremely anxious and fearful. Walks were getting harder and he was becoming fear-aggressive. We brought him to James and they helped him to overcome his fears. They taught us how to be better leaders for Luca so that he wouldn't feed off of our stress and anxiety. On top of that, we went on two road trips-a few days each-and left both of our dogs there for boarding. Our dogs were able to play and interact with the other dogs and they had a good time. Both trips we had to drive out of our way to drop the dogs off and pick them up, but it was worth it in our opinion to leave the dogs with people who we knew cared and would look after them well. We are so grateful for the entire BAFK9 team!

We are extremely lucky to have had our dog trained by James and his crew at Bay Area Family K-9 Training! After taking the puppy training class we decided to to board and train him and that was the best decision for our dog and the family. James patented system WORKS!! Not only is our dog trained ,James takes the time to train us humans. The system is easy to use and our 8 year old daughter is able to use all the commands and our dog is not only the love able puppy hes always been but now he is extremely disciplined. Many strangers have stopped to ask where our dog was trained,we always tell them to go see JT at Bay Area Family K-9 Training.

I have known JT for over 20 years and all I can say is he has built his business from the ground up with blood sweat and tears. His team has been a blessing to my family and dogs, especially our puppy Coco who was a little wild one. We started with the puppy classes and graduated to full boarding and it has completely transformed our experience with our dog. We recently went on 2 weeks of vacation and they boarded our dog and she was treated as family. She is so much fun to be around now and we owe it all to Bay Area Family K9's team. I 100% recommend this company for all your dog needs and I have referred all my families and friends and will continue to do so. Thank you JT and Team!!!!!!!!!!

We adopted our pup in Nov 2018 and wanted to start early on training. My brother's German Shepherd had a great experience over at Bay Area Family K9 Training with James and his team, so we signed our dog up for the Board & Train program. It was so hard to have our new puppy away from us for 3 weeks (and then another 3 weeks a few months later), but it was totally worth it. James and his team did a great job teaching our pup basic obedience - sit, down, heel, etc. and more "advanced" things like stay, recall off-leash, etc. After the board and train, we came back for one-on-one sessions so we could learn how to properly communicate with our pup and reinforce the training at home. It's made a world of difference and our pup is getting better and better off-leash the more we practice. We love James and his team and definitely made the right choice for our family. Even with our brother's recommendation, we did our fair share of online research and after having gone through the Board & Train ourselves now (and we still board our dog with James when we're on vacation), we appreciate James' methodology. He is strict and has high expectations for your pup, but is kind and you can tell how much he cares for all the dogs in his care. We would definitely recommend him and his team for owners who can handle tough love.

We are so happy with Bay Area Family K-9 Training. We went through many trainers and different obedience classes but BAK9 is the best. The best of the best! We boarded Oliver and Kobe for about 8 weeks. Of course, we were skeptical about leaving them for so long with strangers. But after the course of 8 weeks, we took home two very different pups. Keep in mind, the training does not end there, it is up to us to reinforce the training. James teaches us how to speak/communicate to our dogs in a way that the dogs can understand. He reminds us often that the dogs are easy to train, it is the owners that are hard to train. We went home with the confidence to keep up their training. And it has definitely paid off and now we are able to enjoy them. James and his apprentices are really great! They all really cares about the dogs. It is so sweet, our dogs get so excited to see them! We plan on boarding them with James, while we are on vacation. We can take a vacation knowing they are safe and happy! We cannot say enough about BAFK9. Thank you BAFK9 for taking such good care of Oliver and Kobe! By far the best investment we could make! Strongly encourage any owners to talk to James! He will answer any of your questions and tell you his honest opinion.

Very nice place good for canines

James and his team are consistently top notch and have been a lifesaver for our family. Our very large dog is finally manageable which has made such a difference after years of trying to figure out what to do. The board-and-train helped to turn the corner. They also board dogs they have trained so we can take long vacations without worrying about where to take him and are easy to work with and accessible for dropping off and picking up. Thanks James

James and his team are incredible to work with. I brought a 4 year old Formosan Mountain dog with skittish and fear aggressive tendencies (when meeting new people or dogs) and James helped build her confidence. I was nervous that her personality would change after the boot camp but she's still our same beautiful sweet girl. More than anything, my wife and I changed in the way we communicate to our pup. Myla now understands what to do when she's in a stressful or confusing situation. She looks to us and waits for a command rather than being aggressive. Now, we can take her to dog parks, camping, and more off leash walks with confidence. Thanks James and everyone who worked with our Myla.

Our dog Roxie was one puppy that I thought No One Can Train . Roxie was a ball of energy the the problem was when she played she played very rough it's her way or no way .. she love to chew on my shoes and pillows Roxie would have had done anything for attention . So we went online and found Bay Area Family K -9 Training . Well let me tell everyone this ... This place is AMAZING. My dog Roxie loves coming here . Roxie came here for 6 weeks of training we warned everyone that Roxie is a ball of energy she does not listen I actually walked out praying for the workers that's how bad Roxy was . All I can say is this place changed Roxie life . Roxie is now obedient gentle the most sweetest dog I had ever known. Well trained like the show COPS . Thats Roxie now . lol.. Well as of today Roxie comes here when I need boarding. .. Yes Boarding this place is clean friendly atmosphere . I would never take roixe anywhere else but here . We love this place ..

James and his crew are awesome!

Terrible place and very overpriced for the lack of work thats done

This place is a joke. Yes your dog gets trained but yet they feed them dry old food and then james deosnt even train. He has his people and then you have someone living on property in a rv. In which i never saw a permit for overn8ght security. You are overcharged for ur dog to be choked and thrown in cages all day. So if u want someone qualified and th hey actually treat ur dog right go somewhere but here. THEY ABUSE YOUR DOG.

This training is amazing! Staff know how to train us humans so we can train our furbabies

Got my dog back. When i dropped her off she was happy as could be. But when i got her back she was skittish like someone was hitting her. So now i have a dog thats untrained and scared also im out 3500 bucks.

James is an amazing dog trainer. He can work with any dog and will work with you. If you are feeling like things will never work, or you have built anxiety about your dog and situations you will find James is very encouraging and gives you hope. Thanks to James we bring our dog anywhere with us and he is welcomed. James is helping us work with our second new dog as well. Read my full review on YELP.

I went to james when I noticed my 4mo old gsd was showing signs of unwanted behavioral issues. I started noticing these signs when I took my dog to the dog park for the very first time. He would growl and bark at nearly every dog that enterd the park. I tried to control it but, it was obvious I couldn't because I never had to deal with a dog like him before. I didn't know what to do so, in need of help I called james. Just a couple weeks after calling, we scheduled a free evalution and I enrolled in the puppy obedience classes. James showed me how to: - Properly socialize my dog with other dogs (this was big, being that my dog lacked good social behavior with other dogs). - Create a strong bond with my dog trough training - Properly correct my dogs unwanted behavior - Establish better communication grounds with my dog *********AND MUCH MUCH MORE********* James is hands down one of the best people I know. He truly cares about helping people and their dogs. From the moment my free evaluation was completed I had a good feeling about and was confident in my decision to enroll. I am gratful how much james has helped me and my dog. Thanks to james my dog an I have an amazing bond, I can communicate with him and he listens, and he shows better social behavior with other dogs. I start obedience 1 classes with james next week and I'm still looking foward to it. I recommend if you ever have trouble or just want to establish a stong bond and better communication ground between you and your dog go to James, he will help.