K9 Optima

"Josh has been such a help to our family! His stance on how to training was the perfect fit for us. We brought one of our dogs to Josh when we believed our dog was showing aggression signs. He quickly was able to identify that our dog wasn't aggressive, there was dynamics playing out in house between all dogs that created a level of tension. He provided us with tools to diffuse the house when we noticed signs that he identified that would lead to a scuffle. We saw no further aggressive behaviors from any of our dogs. We started focusing more on ensuring our dog that Josh saw was receiving one on one attention. This dog has never been one to listen to commands. 1 hour with Josh and she was trained on how to sit, lay down, and "place" with hand motions only! He has opened our eyes to the unending ways we can work with her. I can't thank him enough. I highly recommend K9 Optima for anyone experiencing aggression issues. He is kind, compassionate, and truly does this to enrich the lives of the dogs he works with."

"We first heard about Josh and K9 Optima from a neighbor who had booked a board-and-train stay for their mastiff. We have an 18-month-old Dalmatian, and were very excited to hear that they were so happy with the results of their dog's stay. It worked out perfectly because we had a trip planned. We contacted Josh and were impressed right away. He told us about his positive training methods, described the busy, stimulating environment our dog, Jazz, would be in, and asked questions about our goals. We set up an appointment for Jazz to meet Josh, and even in that short session, Josh began teaching our energetic, hyper-social boy how to politely greet one of his (very patient) dogs. We knew right away it would be a good fit. Jazz stayed at K9 Optima for 11 days. Josh kept in daily contact with us the whole time, sending us emails and even videos so we could see how Jazz was doing. When we picked Jazz up, Josh shared his observations about our boy - what motivated him, his natural tendencies, how to use his innate nature to help us further his training. Since he's been home, we've noticed Jazz is much more attentive to us. Through Josh, we learned the best ways to work with him, and the results have been exactly what we hoped for. We're very happy, and we wouldn't hesitate to recommend Josh and K9 Optima."

"Josh is responsible for my dogs happiness! Little bit of a long story, but worth it. Ruby is a golden retriever who was surrendered by her owner and while being fostered showed some behavior that could have possibly made her a questionable adoption into a home with kids. K9 Optima is a trusted resource that the rescue from whom we ultimately adopted Ruby. They made the call that they wanted josh to spend some time with Ruby to make sure that she would be a good fit for a home with kids. Josh did his thing, and signed off on the adoption and the rest is history! She's the sweetest dog ever and I would trust her with a newborn. Josh really nailed it. And in the process, Ruby and our dog Rooster have become the closest bonded dogs I've ever had. And even though one is a mutt and the other is a golden, we are constantly asked if they're litter mates!!"

"Josh is an educated, empathic and deeply trustworthy trainer who understands dog (and human) behavior in a way that makes working with him such a joy as well as very effective. Without him (and all his helper dogs!) we wouldn't have been able to keep our Leia due to intense fighting between her and our Rocco. It wasn't fixed in one session - we worked with both dogs individually on their issues and did sessions together over several months. Behavior change takes real effort and time - both in session and then applying it every single day at home. To go from attacking each other on-sight to being cuddle buddies that played all day and had no issues around food, bones, toys, etc felt like nothing short of a miracle - but what it really was was understanding dog psychology and behavior and working WITH them to help them both move past the issues. None of that would have been possible without Josh. After Rocco passed and it was time to rescue a new dog, we had such a better understanding of how Leia thought and what signs to look out for that we were able to integrate a new dog without any issues. We will be forever grateful to all we've learned from Josh (and Boo, Waffles, Juju & Gigi, of course!) and will continue to go back to him whenever new issues arise."

"Josh runs an online training community called K9 Optima On-Demand where he shares case studies, tailored challenges, and his assessment of videos posted by users. It’s incredible how much he’s been able to change my dog just through that community. My dog’s leash reactivity has made enormous progress by implementing Josh’s outlook, tones of voice, commands, posture, and more. He has also taught me how to train my dog through play and keep her engaged with me. In addition to the community, Josh also does TikTok lives Saturday-Sunday (almost) every week that I look forward to and pay close attention to. During those lives he assesses and/or trains up to 8 dogs in a row in full transparency. In summary - he has taught me to be a more empathetic, effective and exciting trainer for my dog instead of just a regular “dog mom”. (Pic of my dog chilling in a sit while dogs are walking behind me on the other side of the camera)"