"Graham has always been one of my most reliable, talented, and dedicated colleagues. His main interest truly lies with the animals. He always goes out of his way to see that the needs of behaviorally challenged animals are being met. I feel that Graham is an excellent communicator. He is confident in his trainer abilities and expresses this well as he speaks to staff members and clients. His manner is concise and straightforward. He follows his detailed training instructions with explanations on why these directions are important for that specific animal. Graham is patient with clients and receptive to questions and concerns that they may have. Overall, I believe that Graham is an excellent teacher of dogs and dog owners. I have learned a lot about dog behavior and training methods from him and this has improved my ability to work with my animal patients. I am a demanding customer and client and I personally trust Graham to work with my pets."

"Ruby was a rescued 5 month old, 30 lb mixed breed puppy. She was literally flat on the ground, shaking - not quivering, from head to tail for 10 minutes when we met her. Two weeks later we met Graham Bloem. Having never been puppy owners, let alone a rescued pup with fear aggression, Graham was most helpful outlining her behaviors, how to build her confidence and what to expect as she became more confident. I am always impressed with Graham's patience in tone, manner, body language and expression even when Ruby is uncooperative. His style is always sensitive to the dog, yet always in control. He doesn't force. We have had 4 sessions with Graham in about 6 weeks. The change is incredible - not only in Ruby, but in my confidence in training her. After all, he is training us too! The most valuable thing I learned from Graham was the importance of building up Ruby's confidence and then the next step was obedience. Graham has a gift for training dogs, Lucky us !"

"We are writing to let you know how very much it mean to us that you came over to the house to help us with Skylar. It has been a very sad and very difficult decision this week, and your genuine concern, expertise, honesty, wonderful way with animals and personal interest have made a huge impact on our lives. You provide an invaluable service to the Helen Woodward Animal Center and the community (the world!), and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We have cried many tears about giving up sweet Skylar and are so grateful that you will be the one who will be working with her through her rehab and re-adoption because you are so genuinely invested, caring and highly trained (and Skylar likes you)....Thank you so much for taking wonderful care of our sweet Skylar so that she can have a safe, happy and love-filled life in another home. You are a blessing"

"We would like to commend Graham Bloem of West Coast K-9 on the behavior modification and training he provided for us. We adopted Arrow from a local shelter; over a period of a few months began to notice he was a dominant dog and becoming aggressive. Our dog would growl at our children, growl at neighbors and friends. He would not allow people into our home, and took a very intimidating stance. He would have brief moments of showing love and companionship though they were few. In January Arrow growled and made a lunge toward a child, and we knew something had to be done. I was referred to Graham Bloem through the local adoption center, and he patiently listened through my tearful explanation, that something had to be done, or we would have to get rid of Arrow. When Graham Bloem arrived at our house for the first visit, Arrow attacked him! My husband and I feared that our only answer would be to remove Arrow from our home. We watched as Graham Bloem calmly took control of the situation, never flinching, and always in control of the situation without any cruelty towards Arrow. Over the course of the training sessions we can gladly say that Arrow is here to stay as a part of our family! Graham trained Arrow, but he also provided my husband and I with the proper training. While Graham would be working with Arrow he was also explaining techniques to reduce Arrow's sense of dominance, and recognizing Arrow's need to protect and how to work with that to provide a safe environment for all of us. Arrow now sits away from the door, on command, while we let someone in the house; he lays down when people are over, no more intimidating! He is even lying on the floor with our daughters and playing with them! Arrow has grown from a dominant, almost out of control dog, to a loyal, much loved member of our family. Thank you Graham Bloem for your patience, knowledge, and determination."

 

Linda Keyes and Don McKinney-

" We were referred to Graham Bloem by a friend who works at Helen Woodward Animal Center and house sits for us. Tracey said that Graham was the best dog trainer there was and she was sure he could help us with Bogart, our 1-1/2 yr. old, 90-lb Bouvier des Flanders. Graham came to our house and explained the psychology of dogs. As he worked with Bogart, he explained the techniques he was using and why they were important. Bogart proved to be a very challenging student as he is very intelligent, athletic and stubborn. Bogart actually broke the training leash, had Graham airborne for a couple of seconds and dislocated Graham’s finger. Graham prevailed and did so without intimidating Bogart or us. Graham has a wonderful, calm, playfulness about him that challenged Bogart to respond in a positive manner. We can now take Bogart with us, with or without a leash, and people are dazzled by how well behaved he is. Graham accomplished this in a very short time and we can not thank him enough for sharing his gift with us. We highly recommend Graham Bloem, he is incredible."

Chris and Cliff Breining-

" Our 8 year old shepherd mix, Daisy, had become increasingly more aggressive on her leashed walks. She intimidated every human and dog we encountered by yanking on the leash, growling, and snarling. Our walks were no longer fun for us, Daisy, or our neighbors. I called Graham hoping that he could help us get Daisy back in line. (I had seen him work with some very difficult dogs at a local shelter with success) He immediately sized up our situation. We had, over time, allowed Daisy, who is an Alpha female, to take the lead on our walks. She felt she had the job of protecting us from other people and dogs. He never bullied Daisy but was able to let her know through patient repetition of his commands, what he expected of her. He then retrained us on how to direct her attention into acceptable behavior on walks by letting her know we were in control and we didn’t need her to protect us.

My husband and I are once again enjoying our walks with her. And Daisy enjoys her walks also.

" When we first called Kathlyn, we were really worried. Jessie would become completely uncontrollable around other dogs and some people. We got her from a shelter, and were worried that her behavior problems might be irreversible. I was really afraid she was going to bite someone. Even after one visit with Kathlyn, we felt so much better. She explained Jessie's behavior and showed us what to do. With each successive visit, we learned a little more and were able to make big improvements in Jessie's behavior. The training methods Kathlyn used were humane, practical, and very effective. We were impressed at how fast Jessie learned new commands once Kathlyn showed us how to work with her."