Bark Busters Home Dog Training Northern Virginia Ashburn, Virginia

We originally signed up for BarkBusters in Savannah about 2 years ago for some behavior issues we were having with our Cockapoo puppy. We moved up to NoVA a little over a year ago. , and We didn’t feel like we ever had really addressed / …

We keep asking ourselves why we waited so long! Mark was able to teach me why my little Morkie was constantly barking, acting aggressively towards my kids and visitors, and overall just unable to listen. In one day, Mark was able to give me the tools to work with Milo. His behavior changed immediately. We were stunned. We are now implementing Mark's techniques daily, and have a new dog. We can't thank Mark and Barkbusters enough. We highly recommend to anyone who is having any trouble with their dog. Mark is truly a master at what he does.

We have two dogs, age 12 and 4. We reached out to Mark Renshaw at Bark Busters NOVA after several years of unsuccessfully attempting to mediate their sibling rivalry, consistent barking, jumping on visitors, and aggressive resource guarding. Our only regret is not calling Mark sooner! In just 3 short hours with Mark, we were able to completely change their behaviors. Their demeanor is much calmer knowing that they are not the leader of the household and they do not need to compete with one another. They no longer jump or bark at visitors and they listen to our commands right away. Mark not only taught the dogs so much, but he greatly increased our knowledge on dog behaviors and tendencies which allowed us to better understand and connect with our dogs. We are so grateful and so are our pups, we cannot recommend Mark enough!

Mark Renshaw is a miracle worker!!! After contacting several dog trainers and dog behavioralists who told us that they could not help us with our 3 dogs, we found Mark. We have 2 females and 1 male. The older two are rescues and we added a female puppy to our pack 11 months ago. Recently, the 2 females have had several altercations, one of which resulted in bite wounds. We were worried that we would have to re-home one of our beloved female dogs. Along came Mark Renshaw from Bark Busters, who changed our world in "ONE" training sessions. He is a dog training genius!!! As it turns out, we had created a sibling rivalry situation unbeknownst to us and our training methods were exacerbating the problem. Mark taught us how to train our dogs properly as "pack leaders" and restore harmony to our home. Mark's training methods completely eradicated unwanted behaviors and sibling rivalry in 1 session. I cannot speak highly enough of Mark! Mark is brilliant, incredibly friendly, sincere and patient. Even though we were creating the problem, he educated and empowered us to be better owners kindly and patiently. He provided us with reading materials and taught us to communicate with our dogs in a language that they could understand. He also taught us to eliminate unwanted behaviors such as barking at the front door, jumping up on guests, begging for food and pulling on the leash. We have been blown away by his training methods and the results in such a short time. Our three dogs have been getting along seamlessly and behaving remarkably since our time with Mark. Mark is truly a miracle worker. 5 stars is not enough stars for Mark. We give him 20 stars!!!

Mark is amazing! We were skeptical that our dog's issues could be corrected, but Mark proved otherwise. His techniques proved very effective and she responded immediately. We are very excited to continue practicing with her and see her progress. Mark is so easy to work with and has lots of patience - with us and the dog! I highly recommend Mark at Bark Busters!

This is an amazing company. Mark Renshaw is so incredibly experienced and patient! I felt like I had different dogs at the end of our first session. Can't say enough good things! Highly recommend!

Mark was extremely knowledgeable and helped us to train our puppy. We were amazed at the results in just a few hours. He is better behaved and doesn’t jump or ignore us. I can keep him out of my kitchen now. Our puppy is motivated by snacks and we don’t need them to get him to behave. We were able to ask a lot of questions, received resources, and are able to schedule additional training if we need it. Highly recommend.

I got to say, i did not think anything would ever have worked for our dog. She was the most spoiled, rotten cute, pushiest dog i've ever had. When Mark arrived at our house, Stella (dog) was very jumpy, mouthy, barking, her typical behavior when someone enters the house. After three hours with Mark, we had a completely different dog. No mouthing, racing to the front door, following us up the stairs and into the kitchen. Complete 360. We even left her alone for an hour the day after, no crate this time. We come home to her sitting on her chair, laying down and not barking at all when she usually barks the whole time we are gone. I was amazed what he was able to do with Stella's behavior, especially her walking. I used to absolutely hate taking her for walks, literally would dread it. Now, i actually get excited when she wants to go for one. I would have never thought. If you need your dog trained and cant do it yourselves, contact Marks office. You will not be disappointed. You'll feel better, and so will your dog!

Mark was awesome! He changed our dog’s attitude completely in 3 hours. He was a non-stop barker when Mark came and then was a completely different dog after 3 hours. I literally can’t believe that our dog Beau was able to catch on so quick. I highly recommend Mark and Bark Busters!

My puppy was very hyper all of the time and wouldn’t listen me very much, doing stuff he shouldn’t be doing. After 3 hours with Mark I had a totally different dog who saw me as the leader. Totally recommend!

My dad just moved in with us and brought his three dogs, so we are now a four-dog household (!) One of my dad's dogs is aggressive and neurotic and bit my dog when they first met. We were concerned that it wasn't going to work out. Mark helped us immensely. After 2 weeks the dogs can all be together and there is barely any barking. This was truly life-changing for us. His techniques really work. We have since had Mark out again to help us learn better walking techniques. All follow up visits are free and I was able to get a follow up appointment with him easily. Highly recommend.

We were so excited to rescue and adopt our hound mix Bailey, but quickly realized we needed help! As she got more comfortable with us as her forever family, she also got more comfortable jumping, nipping, mouthing, chewing (on everything!!), and generally running the household! We loved her so much but felt like we couldn’t really enjoy her company. We new she needed training, but I wasn’t looking forward to what I thought would be weeks or months to get her under control. Then we scheduled our session with Mark at Bark Busters of Northern Virginia and within an hour of working with us, Bailey was like a new dog!! She was our same sweet girl, but she immediately knew she was no longer in charge and we, her pup parents, would be making the decisions! The transformation was incredible, and most importantly simple and easy for us to maintain moving forward. We can now truly enjoy our Bailey. I highly recommend Mark to anyone with a dog!!

We started working with Mark at Bark Busters in November after techniques from a previous trainer had failed to help our rescued pup from separation anxiety. For 9 months she would consistently bark for 30-40 minutes after being left alone. We tried positive reinforcement and random/increasing time intervals along with pheromones and bark sensors but nothing minimized her stress. We met with Mark on a Friday night and after working with her all weekend finally had a morning with 0 bark alerts from our Furbo camera. We were persistent with our training and are so pleased that for the past 3 months Shelby has only barked for 2-3 minutes intermittently when we leave. We are so thankful for the skills Mark taught us and how we’ve been able to help Shelby through her separation anxiety. We highly recommend Mark and the Bark Busters method!

I recently had a session with Mark. I have a pitbull pup that is very sweet but also very energetic and strong. He used to pull me and his siblings often during our walks, completely losing control when seeing another dog. Mark spent an afternoon with us. His techniques are simple yet extremely effective. Eager to see results, I took Aquiles for a walk that same evening putting in practice the exercises recommended by Mark; I was astonished by his behavior, the change was immediate! Aquiles walked by my side the whole time, when we encountered other dogs I only had to remind him once, afterward he took a look at the dogs, then at me and calmly kept walking. I couldn't believe it! I was so happy I wanted to cry. We even got to enjoy a game of fetch which prior to Mark's visit was extremely frustrating as Aquiles loved to fetch the ball but refused to give it back; now Aquiles just drops the ball like nothing. It is really amazing how easy and effective his recommendations are and how fast the results are seen. Thank you Mark for sharing your knowledge with us.

We are the owners of a very sweet, but high energy golden doodle. He is over 80 pounds and spoiled. He pulled so hard on his leash that none of us were able to walk him. With just one lesson online, our family learned tools that helped us get our boy under control. At the follow up lesson, we got him to heel on a leash. I never thought he could be trained so quickly! This method works and Jeannie was lovely to work with. We are so grateful for the help with our gentle giant.

I have a 1 year old GoldenDoodle. He is fantastic when he is alone with our family...but the second he would go for a walk or someone comes to the door he went BONKERS. I called Bark Busters because I have tried 2 other in person trainings and a paid online class and saw no results. Our dog was a real annoyance. Within 15 minutes of Mark being at our home, our dog was calm! I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it! Mark didn't use treats or raise his voice, or a clicker -- he did simple techniques that I could easily do. By the time the lesson was over I was so confident. I was able to walk our dog and it was easy! Now, just a few days after our lesson, our dog is doing great and when the doorbell rings he raises his head but lays back down! I highly recommend Bark Busters!

We have a 15 week old puppy (shepherd/hound mix) that we adopted a week ago. He's a very sweet and very good boy, but he has some undesirable puppy behaviors (eating mulch, door crashing, jumping, nipping, etc), and we wanted to learn the right way to teach our pup to be the best dog he can be. Mark came out YESTERDAY, and 24 HOURS LATER (!!!) our pup is no longer eating mulch, sticks, berries, etc., he waits at the bottom and top of staircases until we have gone up or down first, he has not stolen or chewed a single shoe/sock, and he waits patiently 4-5 feet away while we fill his food bowl (he is incredibly food-motivated and before today, it was almost impossible just to get food into his bowl because of the jumping and bullying while we tried to get it out of the food bin in the closet). He also now stops what he is doing and comes running across the yard when called (which is great if I see him getting ready to get into trouble). AND, no more counter-surfing or bothering us while we try to eat. It's ... crazy. But wonderful. I mean ... those changes in just 24 hours. We (humans) are still learning to master the techniques, but even in our very imperfect state, they have worked absolute wonders already. I know that might sound fake or like exaggeration. I read the reviews of Bark Busters Northern Virginia, and to be honest, I was super-skeptical, too. I've had dogs all the way back to 1987, and have tried various training methods, and they were frustrating, tiring, etc. But I took the plunge, based on the reviews (which, as I said, I didn't believe). I am a 100% believer. It's amazing. I'm so excited to see what our little baby is like in a year!! (but I also don't want him to grow up!) Just awesome. We couldn't be happier. Mark is The Dawg. :-)

We had our first training session with Mark a little over a week ago and we are thrilled with the immediate results we've seen - it has truly been a game-changer for us. Our almost two-year old rescue showed signs of separation anxiety, food aggression and resource guarding, and we were worried that some of these behaviors couldn't be changed. When Mark came over, he immediately noticed that our dog had been running the show and he gave us several tools and techniques that we were able to practice during the session in order for us to start gaining back control. Before Mark left, he put a plan together with daily tasks for us to complete so that over time the training becomes second nature to us. Overall, we are very pleased with the results so far and we are looking forward to continuing to work with Mark.

Our family cannot say enough about Mark Renshaw and Bark Busters. Mark started helping us train our first dog, a slightly over-exuberant Yorkie several years ago. Mark was patient, professional and kind and his techniques were extremely effective. He helped us fix the behaviors that were most annoying and we were so pleasantly surprised! From the day Mark started working with him, we saw our little Rocco‘s behaviors improve dramatically! The results were nothing short of amazing. Sadly, Rocco passed away about a year and a half ago, but we recently welcomed a rescue from St. Croix, Virgin Islands named Dakota to our family. (A huge shout-out to the Island Dog Rescue organization for being so incredible!) Within the last several weeks, Dakota became afraid of outside noises/lawn mowers/tractors (there are a lot where we live) and would NOT come out of her house when we called her. She also began chewing on the bottom edge of her house! We called Mark/Bark Busters again to help us understand and fix those behaviors and AGAIN, we saw results right away! Mark really takes the time to teach you how dogs think and what it means for YOU to be the pack leader. After just one lesson with Mark, Dakota came out of her house for the first time when we called her and has been coming when called ever since. She has also stopped chewing on her house. Wow! Thank you, Mark and Bark Busters for your outstanding work. You are a gift to our dogs and our families!

I read the reviews and decided to give Bark Busters a try for my two dogs, Bella (a very rambunctious Aussidoodle) and Cappy (a lab mix). I was very skeptical especially for Bella. However, very early in the training we were seeing two …

My husband and I just adopted a 13 week old puppy whom we were having some frustrations around his nipping and jumping up and just general not listening to us. We decided to go with Mark at Bark Busters after speaking with their office and reading other online reviews. I am extremely happy to report that the reviews did not over sell him. Mark first came in and went over how dogs communicate and why. And then this led into our specific rambunctious pup and what he was trying to get across with certain behaviors. Long story short Mark helped correct how my husband and I interact with our pup without treats or “punishment” and now our pup is listening to us. I am also grateful that Mark sat with us after the training to answer any further questions we had and talked about next steps while also encouraging us to call him directly should we get in a jam. My impression of Marks program is that he will show us how but we have to be committed to it. And if we are committed then we will be able to get the results from our pup. My husband and I agreed he is worth every penny. :) if you are on the fence about training your puppy I highly recommend using Mark as you will get him for the life of your dog.

I rescued my 2 year old Labrador Retriever a year ago and have been struggling with how to manage his anxiety. A tightly wound dog characterized by his previous owners as "high energy". I've had much of the same experience and while he has socialized well with other dogs at daycare and at the dog park, walks have been less than enjoyable with his flight or fight responses and pulling on the leash. Whether it has been another dog, person smoking a cigarette, trash truck, or person running and laughing, my dog would freeze, be alert, and bark, even at times lunging. Mark Renshaw spent 2.5 hours with my yesterday and I feel like my whole world has changed. Mark taught me how to "speak dog" and within a very short period of time, my dog understood that the leadership in our family lies with me. He is calm, relaxed, and happy and so am I! I'm blown away at how simple Mark's training exercises are and know that it will be easy to keep this going. I'm so grateful for his support and as a result, will have a great life with my pup in his forever home!

In just a couple of hours I saw that our dog could actually learn and respond! No jumping, no charging the front door and barking non stop. We are committed to practicing but are also amazed at how well this process worked in just one lesson.Priceless- Thank you Mark!

We’ve been working with Mark on our 4 and 5 month old puppies since January. In such short time, we’ve made huge strides. The simplistic approach Mark has equipped us with is easy to implement and has us very confident we’ll have well behaved dogs as they get older. Can’t recommend Mark highly enough!

Mark was an excellent trainer! He understands how dogs are wired and how they respect dominant behavior and how critical it is that it's established. He spent a good amount of time working with our puppy and then came back when she was older to train her on a few more things. We even had an emergency training over the phone since my dog was exhibiting concerning behavior over night. Everything that he suggests (if followed by the pet owner), genuinely works and almost immediately! I HIGHLY recommend him to anyone who wants to have a well-trained dog. P.S. it's more about training the owner, than it is about the dog. Dogs will follow the lead of their owner. :)

I’d heard this was the best way to go in training pups but wow! Cali barked as she normally does when we get visitors but the change in her behavior after the first training was amazing!! Even leash walking drastically changed immediately. …

Training our pack the BarkBusters way has been literally life changing. Mark spent a few hours with us, training us to train our pack. We've gone from a chaotic house where the fur-babies ruled the roost, to regaining our alpha status: peace now reigns. I highly recommend Mark. You will not be sorry!

I wish I could add stars for what Mark has helped us achieve with our two dogs. Before we tried Bark Busters we tried three prior trainers, including in-home and one that boarded our dog for training for over a month. Unfortunately the results were not there and I could not find any peace being around our dogs. Within an hour of Mark coming into our house we had both dogs being responsive and completely changed our own mindset on training a dog. Within the last two weeks our dogs have become well behaved, obedient, and a joy to be around. It takes work and consistently but the results are truly incredible and the program is worth every penny. Mark is a pleasure to work with, punctual, patient and a life saver. We could not be happier.

Amazing progess and results after just one visit!! Mark Renshaw at Bark Busters, Northern Virginia was our trainer. After explaining the leadership roles between humans and dogs and providing us huge insight on a dog's behavior instincts, …

My wife and I recently welcomed a puppy into our home and he's been a handful. We wanted to make sure he would get the best training we could find, and we're glad we found Bark Busters and Mark. We had a very productive first session and it was a fantastic experience. Mark is extremely knowledgeable and patient, he was able to answer and address all of our immediate concerns, and really gave us the framework on interacting with our new dog. We look forward to working with Mark in the future!