Kindred Spirits Dog Training

I've been with Kindred Spirits and Liz Palika for more than 30 years. I've trained 6 dogs and 2 kids with the philosophy that "you can't just tell them when they're doing wrong, you have to tell them when they're doing right." Kindred Spirits' training philosophy is wonderful, the classes are fun and the trainers are engaging, knowledgeable and friendly.

Loved the trainers. They know what they're doing. The class was more for ME than my dog LOL. We both learned a lot to take home and put into practice. Great location too! Nice facility. We want to go back!

Loved my experience with kindred spirits program for basic obedience. The trainers are so kind and very helpful when you have questions. They really care about the health and care for you and your "puppy dog" (Kate always says). The basic class is great for a puppy of 16+ weeks to learn basic commands that will be used throughout life (sit, down, stay, come, leave it). Affordable too! We will be coming back for intermediate classes.

Phenomenal team, Kate has helped us with a very unique fearful dog and we were ecstatic to bring our more or less normal puppy to her team for more conventional dog training. I cannot recommend Kindred Spirits enough, they understand dogs and possibly more importantly they understand how to help you understand your dog.

I've been using these ppl for training for almost 20 years. Several different dogs obviously. When we get a new puppy, first place we look for training is here. Always puppy class, then basic and finally advanced.

Kindred Spirit dog training has been a lifesaver for us with a recently adopted adolescent dog. She has learned so much with their common sense gentle techniques. The new facility is gorgeous, and we can't wait to get back to classes once quarantine is over. Meanwhile we work with our girl using KS techniques everyday. We are now fostering a second dog and he will be joining us at class soon!

Kindred Spirits Dog Training has been an invaluable experience for me, my family and our German Shepherd puppy. All the trainers are supportive and understanding of what us new pet owners are going through. They have given us the tools to train our dog in a way that is loving and without stress and constant frustration. Not only are we learning how to manage our pet, but we learned the value of good nutrition, health care, and how to look out for dangers we were not aware of.

The classes teach everything you need to know about being a responsible and caring pet owner. We completed puppy class and went straight into basic obedience. We look forward to continuing our education with Kindred Spirits and recommend them to any pet owner; the amateur (like us) or a veteran dog owner. Thank You Kindred Spirits!

I went to their first class with our new pup, and thought they might be able to help us with our problem dog who we had already done 2 rounds of training. We enrolled both our new pup, and our problem pup. They worked with us, helped us when we dealt with 2 females who were fighting for dominance, and we have found every class worth it. Having done other training they are cheaper than most, and have a better quality of training.

One of the things I like best is they don't do the 1 size training fits all. They bring in and use a lot of methods. For example, we were having issues with heel, so we started doing the drop food per their recommendation. That lead to both heel and catch it. My problem pup heels with me for miles now. I never thought that would happen. Now we are looking at passing the good citizen K9 test for both. It's amazing the progress.

Kate is a true dog whisperer! She's so calming, patient and extremely knowledgeable!

I took my Border Collie puppy here for their puppy training class. I did quite a bit of research before selecting a puppy class, from the advice of our breeder I knew I wanted to find a place that did balanced training because Border Collies tend to respond best to that. Most puppy classes in the San Diego area are 100% positive, so it was difficult even finding a class like that.

When I found Kindred Spirits, especially with all the articles and information on their website, I finally found what I'd been looking for and I decided to take the drive from Carmel Valley to bring Henry there. All the trainers at Kindred Spirits are extremely knowledgeable and experienced, and I always learned something new coming to class. It was also really cool that a lot of the trainers had herding dogs like mine, they even would bring their dogs out to meet my Henry since they looked so alike!

They're definitely strict and if they see a dog (or an owner) not doing what they're supposed to, they aren't afraid to call it out, but they really care about the dogs and doing what's best for them. I really like that the puppy class also has a weekly "puppy play", it's basically like a supervised dog park so puppies can learn to play well with each other. It is also great to support a business owned and operated entirely by women. I definitely recommend Kindred Spirits, especially if you have a herding dog!