George & Friends Dog Training Portland, Oregon

Risa is amazing. She is so intuitive with the animals and I'm so grateful we found her. I'm actually going to hire her for more sessions to give my dog even more discipline as we go through some major life changes.

Risa is outstanding at understanding both dogs and their humans. She is incredibly patient and made a world of positive difference for our family. We'd tried other dog training programs when our dog was a puppy with little success. Before meeting Risa, our dog was barking a LOT, extremely difficult to redirect, and even harder to walk. We now have a trained and socialized dog that we can confidently walk around people and dogs and that we can redirect when needed. Thank you, Risa!

Risa was wonderful! She helped me with a Mom and pup duo that were rescued from the streets of Texas. She seems have a great understanding of how the dog mind works so she was very in tune with their needs and understood the root of their behavior. I highly recommend her services for anyone who is struggling with behavioral issues, and/or dogs with trauma.

Updated Review:
After moving back in the area, we decided to reach back out to Risa for more dog training. She was a great resource & suggested that my dog would greatly benefit from anxiety medication from the vet. With Risa’s behavior modifications & guidance, it’s like I have a whole new dog! She’s way less anxious & I’ve learned so much on how to read my own dog.

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Today was our first training session with Risa. We briefly chatted over the phone with some follow up texts/emails as well. I got the supplies that she recommended and they worked wonders in our training session. Risa is so knowledgeable, patient & reassuring.

My dog has a lot of anxiety & OCD so I was shocked to see how quickly she responded to Risa. There is definitely going to be a lot of growing on both my dog & my side but it’s great to know that we’re getting awesome help. Risa really understands the psychological side of anxiety & helps reinforce the power of non-verbal communication.

So if you’re hesitant to start behavior training with your pup or just trying to find a great trainer, you can’t go wrong with anyone in this company!

Risa is observant, knowledgable, and incredibly easy to communicate with. She picked up on signs and behaviors that helped us better understand and read our pup. Risa is a fountain of information, so be ready to pay close attention because all of it will be helpful. You and your dog will definitely leave each session with new lessons, action items, and write ups of progress and recommendations. We also got to meet and work with George, who sets a great example for our own pup.

A special shoutout to Zack, who graciously filled in for a few sessions and was just as clear, informative, and helpful.

Risa is an outstanding trainer and also a wonderful human being. We started working with her a couple months ago with our very reactive dog, and are seeing a marked difference already. We had worked with an online trainer for 9 weekly sessions to no avail. Risa is not only good with dogs, but also with humans and their struggles when their rescue dog turns out to be different from what the rescue said. We are so happy to have found Risa and look forward to continued progress with our sweet, troubled dog.

Risa definitely know what she is doing. She will read you dog behaviors and personalize a training plan based on your dog and what you want out of it. We have seen great results with young adults dogs and following the methods she uses!

Risa has been so helpful working with our anxious dog Buster. He's unlearning a lot of behaviors and replacing them with new ones. It's great to see his successes. Risa makes the lessons easy to understand for us and we feel like we have a partner in making Buster a calmer dog. Thank you!

Risa is a fantastic trainer, taking the extra time to get through whatever issues you have. We have made huge amounts of progress with our reactive dog, and we have recommended Risa to our friends who have their own dog challenges. Her scheduling is top notch and she follows up on the things being worked on. Contact her if you need help with your dog!

Risa is fantastic! We had a new dog (Lucy) join our home in September of 2021. She came to us with a series of anxiety issues and behaviors. Risa gave us the tools to help Lucy become a happy and loving dog-sister to Lily (our other dog), and a calm, well-behaved friend to Sarah and to me.

Risa even made predictions about the time it would take for Lucy to adjust that came true. Her training method works, and she understood Lucy (and Lily too) in a way that made her assistance seem tailored to our needs. She and her other trainer go the extra mile to meet your dog’s needs.

We have told others about George and Friends and are really glad to offer this review.