The Dog Guru

This dog trainer cares so much about his rescue dogs, both the ones he rescues and those he trains. My dog is aggressive to strangers but shows Raja utmost respect when he is around. This past weekend Raja went with me to the vet so my dog could get a checkup and his yearly shots. The dog was soooo well-behaved during the visit that the vet was wondering if he was sedated! umm....NO! That is thework of an effective dog trainer. I will most definitely continue to use Raja Shah! :-)

The reason I am giving a 1 star is that I've got bit by a dog that was trained by him. We tried to rescue a dog 2 years ago, and went to see the dog. The dog was staying at a boarding place at the time. When I pet the dog, the dog bit me hard that I was bleeding and also got several halls on my hand. I screamed so loud, shaking and crying after that. After it happened he called me and asked me if I was ok. He apologized and promised me to find a new dog and will offer me trining for free as an apology. I thought he was a nice responsible trainer. But he never called me, so we found another dog to rescue. We called and e-mailed him to ask him about training for our new rescued dog. He ignored everything.
Responsible person wouldn't do this kind of things.

I'm an animal behaviorist, there is no such thing as a dog guru, I have a Ph.D in animal science, I have seen what this guy can do and what he uses is not real, he doesn't have a certification or degree in anything, I advise anyone that uses him not to, he took three dogs to the animal care and control for nothing, use shock collars on all three dogs why, (shock collars are not to be used for aggression, they are used for hunting or long leash training for recall NOTHING MORE)

I have saved many dogs in my 10year career, and have never put a dog down nor said a dog needed to be put down, I have seen four of his clients and he used shock collars and leash whipping, because a dog ran after a squirrel. And it's normal for a dog to do that, and yes it's something train out of but not his way.

Please I advise if you want a trainer or behaviorist, please make sure you look up backgrounds.

-3/9/11 update
2 days ago I went to visit my friend dog guru about some correction for my 2nd dog, he did an amazing job on my first dog, I thought with the technique I learned from my first dog I can easily to train my 2nd dog myself. But turn out it didn't work and in my opinion, its better to leave it to professional in the beginning for at least 3~4 times (its like kids go to school, they behave better when there are other kids around, I guess?!)
Of course I learn a lot when we do the session, I realize one thing I didn't do right is my tone, I need to practice more so my dog can get clear signal when I give her order.
During the conversation, he seems little stress out with the one star reviews here, and I really feel bad to see a good trainer got such bed reviews, so I want to say some of my personal opinions:
1. seems like everyone is attacking him to put 3 dogs down
I am not sure its true or not, but even it was true, I can understand how hard it was for him to put those dogs down, I mean, a while ago, a whale was killing his trainer! We saw it from news, same whale kill 3 people already and I cant help but wonder, why no one put him down or send him back to big ocean when he did it the first time, ok, you have lots love so give him a second chance, turn out he killed again. And you have more love to give him the 3rd chance, turn out, another trainer die.
What more can we do? They are animals, we can try to communicate with them but when they gear up to do something bad, what you do? Wild animal life rule #1, Protect yourself first! So if guru need to do what's best for all, he need to do what he has to do.
2. he doesn't have a certification or degree in training
I am not sure in NYC/NYS you need a certificate to teach a dog or not but one thing I know for sure is he went to school for training for a long time cause we were the first few customers he got, he was practice his technique from training school (and it was good!)
And for real, go ask Cesar the goddess of dog training that he got a certificate to train dogs or not, if he does have one, good! If he doesn't have one, who cares? As long as you can train my dog to behave when I need them to behave, that's all I ask for and that's all dog guru has to do!

The way he trains dogs may seems violence, shock collars and leash whipping, hey!! Remember! You are dealing with pit bull here, not chiwawa or yorkie terrier, they have the 2nd most powerful jaws in dog after wolf!
Ok, you say all the dogs are the same, as long as we give them love, they love you back, I can understand that! But have you ever try the shock collar on yourself? So funny when Raja mentions to use shock collar to my 25lbs BT, I was like, really? She is so small and she is only 2 yrs old! Then he asks me to feel the shock collard myself, it was just a pinch, and it works very well!
There are millions way to train your dog, its up to the owner which way they choose, and me as a dog lover with 2 BT, I choose the trainer that I trust and if he need to use shock collar on my baby, let him do his thing!
3. all 3 bad reviews seems to made between 2/24~2/28 this year and 2 of them are from the
same day - Rayner and PittieLove, and both of them only have one review in their profile which gave one star to dog guru, I don't call it scam, I guess they from "haterville" doing their hating job!

If you really like your dogs, try to communicate with them with "the language" they can understand, such as giving orders with different voice tone and signs so you and your dog can be happily ever after! If you can learn from books, great! You are a good DIYer, if you can't, pay some$$ and leave it to professional, your life is busy enough, let them do what they do the best and save you some headache!

Hope my review is helpful~


Knowing dog guru Raja makes my life easier.

As a new dog owner, we were very exciting to welcome the newbie to our life but with lack of experience, we decide to hire professional, and we found Raja.
He is not only teaching you the technique to train your dog but also the "mind" to understand your dog. We have our first dog Irie, she was wonderful from day one but the potty training part also she scare of everything made lots blue days, lots things got chew up, pee on wooden floor... etc. puppy's job, you know!
But with Raja's instruction, those accidents eventually got fix. We can leave her at home free without to worry a bit.
Later we become friends of Raja and to see he got his own kennel is such a wonderful thing, pass by today 7/20/10 and check it out!

Oh, by the way, happy b-day Raja!

About 6 months ago, my husband and I were at our wits end with our new dog, and heard about the Dog Guru as it's close to where we live. We were thrilled with the owner's professionalism and knowledge about dogs. After the training, we were able to communicate with Rocco (our dog) better and his temperament became more even and more reliable.

We highly recommend The Dog Guru and are so happy we were told about the place.

I recently got my first puppy (15 week old Havanese) and was having difficulties getting him to walk. He refused to move while on the leash, which was making housebreaking difficult. After one 1 hour session with the staff at The Dog Guru I took him home to practice what we had learned and by the next day he was walking on lead around the block!

I had my dog trained by the guru himself and couldn't believe how fast my dog listened! Lol, I thought my pitty was a lost cause until they showed me how easy dog training really is! Rajah and one of his trainers came to my house and were super patient with us. They taught us step by step what to do and what not to do. I would highly recommend these guys to all dog lovers!

I had the pleasure to train with The Dog Guru today and got to see his training facility. it was awesome, he has 40 rescues at his facility for adoption. All the dogs range from friendly to aggressive red zones. Once a dog is friendly he puts them up for adoption. There were no signs of abuse or leash whipping - his facility was nice, clean and quiet. He was able to work with my pitbull who has been showing aggression towards strangers, and in one hour I saw great improvement. My dog did try to bite him and he never even got angry. What he did do was just continue training and in a matter of minutes - my dog was his best friend. He has a way with dogs. I asked him about the reviews on Yelp, in regards to his certification and such. He showed me his Master Dog Trainer Certificate. He did his undergraduate studies at City College and did some grad work there also. He's an intelligent guy who has a passion for saving as many dogs as he can. Unfortunately he is not able to save all the dogs and has MANY dogs abandoned on him by these "rescue groups" and other rescue groups do not pay their bills. So he does have serious financial problems because of the such. He said he does not go on the internet to defend himself because he rather spend that time saving dogs! We did talk about the electric collars and he explained that he uses them for advanced obedience (off leash training). He brought out a few of his personal "working" dogs, they were AMAZING! He showed me how he can use the collars for safety when the dogs are off the leash and when they are playing. Thank you so much Raja for spending time with us today and taking the time to explain things to us! Keep up the good work and don't worry about the haters!

I am so glad my husband and I came across "The Dog Guru" in Sunnyside a few months ago. Our little dog was suffering from separation anxiety - or so I was previously told by my vet when I questioned his protective personality - and experienced bouts of anxiety. Raja met with us weekly and gave us a set of simple instructions to calm our doggy down and prepare him to accept a new baby in our family. We witnessed a 180 in our dog after the very first session. When The Dog Guru took our dog's leash from us the the strangest thing happened... Our dog submitted and trusted Raja completely! Now, three months later, our dog is so happy and trusting because of the boundaries and behavioral techniques Raja and his team established with us. For example, when we go outside to walk our dog, we are actually walking him and not the other way around. We say "heel" and he stays by our heels. He actually "sits" and lays "down" when we tell him to do so. Not only are we happier, but I can tell our dog is less stressed and more joyous too. He desperately needed structure and The Dog Guru gave that to us. We still go back from time to time for refreshers in training and we are just so grateful to this facility.

It isn't often you come across people like Raja. He's compassionate and has such a big heart. His entire team is very knowledgeable and eager to help. They're just good people. I highly recommend him to anyone having issues with a dog of any type or size.

hi i am zita the foster mom for a dog named joe.joe had lived on the streets of east harlem with his owner for 3 years. the owner was not able to accept help from many of us who tried to gethim and joe out of harms way. in aug. of last year he died on the streets with joe trying to protect him,we took joe out of the city pound.he was very sick and depressed.raja came to our rescue and offered to board joe and train him to be sociable,this man is an angel in my books, joe remains with him as a village of friends of joe try to find him his forever person and home,please tell raja and his wonderful staff that we are so lucky to have people like him helping us rescuethe little ones,ifyou would like to meet joe he is at the centre in queens , thank foster mom z