Exceptional Pet Newtown, Connecticut

They are great here. Always able to answer your questions and give great advice. Very friendly. Made a big difference with my puppy Bear.

We went here for an educational class for Girl Scouts. The dogs and owner were great and very helpful!

I finally got my first puppy/dog and decided to look for a great trainer to help me out in teaching my new dog. I came across a few different pet training places and after speaking with Christine from Exceptional Pet I was sold. After speaking with Christine she informed me that the best route to take would be group classes and three personal trainer sessions valued at $1,005 before taxes. My first group class I was told that I should switch up to a personal training class instead of the four group classes at the beginning because it would allow my eleven-year-old son to partake in the training as I have physical disabilities. Due to scheduling conflicts (on both sides) I was only able to get two personal training classes in and one group training in a matter of over a month. Long story short, the interaction with the owner, Abby, became very uncomfortable after she sent me a very long email that was way out of context and was condisending. The email was over a patch that said "service dog in training" on my puppies new vest. I had been talked to by Courtney there and explained why it is not good to have that patch on my dogs vest and I understood right away and removed it. Over a week later that's when I received the email from Abby that made me feel very uncomfortable about attending classes there ever again. When I inquired about taking my puppy out of the classes and discontinue training with Exceptional Pet due to the interaction with the owner Abby, I was under the impression I would receive the remainder of my balance, however that was not the case. I was even told by Christine when I asked if I was able to get a refund, Christine said yes and would get much more than half the money back due to the email issue. About 15 minutes after that conversation with Christine I received an email from Abby the owner very quickly with a refund of only $580 (a little more than half of the money I paid upfront). I tried to call Christine after this a few times and left messages yet never received a call back. So as I stated earlier, I had only received two personal training sessions and one group class session. I still had 12 group classes left and 1 more personal training class valued at over $700-$800. Exceptional Pet did not try to keep me as a client and Abby tried to justify the small refund back as if she was doing me a favor. If I ran a business and the person did not receive what they paid for and was made to feel uncomfortable about going back, I would reimburse them. Beware of this company as I was ripped off.

I was lucky enough to find The Exceptional Pet, LLC through people at my vet’s office and a friend who was a former trainer and was kind enough to look over their website for me. She told me to “run, don’t walk there and enroll Saffi.” That was my first good fortune. My second was finding that Christine would be able to work with me in finding an acceptable schedule for Saffi. My third was finding Donna and learning that this training was more for me than my puppy and that through every day training, the rewards would be beyond my wildest imaginings! Donna is just simply the most talented person I have ever encountered where dogs and people are concerned! She is calm, polite, and always willing to lend extra advice when needed - and believe me, it’s been needed! Then I enrolled Saffi in a puppy play date! Oh my goodness! Courtney was an amazingly engaging lady whose obvious love of dogs was apparent! Abby, the owner of this facility, cares not only about the facility and her staff, she is genuinely concerned for the safety and well-being of all of her students and their parents/handlers. I have never met a more cohesive and amazing group of talented and caring people. I will enroll Saffi is every single solitary thing that they host or offer! This is a quality place for your pets to be trained by CERTIFIED INSTRUCTORS!!! I could go on and on singing their praises because they are just simply that amazing!

Never responded to an email that I sent. Cannot in good faith use a business that will not respond to emails.

They are terrific, really know what they're doing

Excellent trainers, friendly atmosphere, caring staff. Clean facility with parking. Trained my puppy through their High School program - and loved, loved their extra fun classes like pups around town and agility! Highly recommend.

Abby has been a wealth of knowledge and very compassionate. As owner/trainer working with us (humans and dogs) she has an exceptional knowledge on what/how to train. Every Dog/ human can lean a new trick! The facility is huge, clean and set up well. I recommend her!

The trainers here are amazing! I started with my new Pup Toby who's a stubborn yet really cute frenchie, I plan on bringing the rest of the pack to the girls to tame. They are beyond wonderful and extremely educated. I never once felt stupid while they helped me learn to train my dog and correct behaviors. The facility is clean and large and wonderful. They also offer private lessons which I loved and we did a private lesson before the pre school started to get a feel for the place. As a business owner in town, I love to support other local business and boy did I pick the best one to support ❤️????

Love this place! They're great about personalizing training so every dog can succeed. My 11 year old retired laboratory beagle has passed his CGC (first try!) and is having fun with agility.

Great experienced trainers who care

Great staff and wonderful with my dog!

I have taken my puppy to several sessions now and I am very pleased. The class sizes are small so you get individual attention, but also have the benefit of having other dogs present for distraction. The trainers are very positive and caring. We see progress every week following our training classes! I highly recommend the Exceptional Pet!

Abby is Exceptional! You won't find a more knowledgeable or compassionate trainer anywhere. She is positive and encouraging. She helped build my confidence and my pup's and gave me the information and skills to work with my reactive dog. She really took the time to understand me and my dog as unique individuals, and gave us unique approaches to help overcome our challenges. I highly recommend Abby to anyone. She really is the best!

We have been meeting with Abby periodically for months. Now, we will be bringing our piglets every weekend for training. Missy is so much better behaved after our training sessions with Abby. Highly recommended.