Portland’s Premier Dog Trainer

Kate Gantner · 5★ · 2020-07-24

During quarantine, I adopted a sweet little 6 month old Staffy mix that made a long journey from Texas to the PNW through a Second Chance Dog Rescue Program.\n\nI was new to dog ownership on my own (had dogs growing up and had partners with pups in the past) and was looking forward to the training part. I watched lots and lots of videos and felt that I was really finding a method that was going to suit my lifestyle.\n\nBut alas…there were just some things that I couldn’t seem to nail it all on my own.\n\nI found Nicole through a quick google search for a dog trainer and was excited to see that she was also based out of NW Portland. I reached out to her through her website and was excited to hear back from her the next day.\n\nMy pup was struggling with building up confidence on walks. Our first obstacle was getting her down the stairs in the building on her own. I tried all the tricks in the book.\n\nI’m not kidding - after one session with Nicole, not only could I get my dog to walk down the stairs without luring her with treats, she could also now walk down the end of the street without freezing to panic as we passed other dogs/people. it seems so simple but this was a huge break through for us!\n\nAfter that first win, I’ve been working with Nicole to just continue to finesse different things that come up with my dog - i.e: not jumping up to greet new people, staying in the “lay down” command and not popping right back up, etc.\n\nI can’t say this enough - working with Nicole has been fantastic. She has the right balance of tough love in her training exercises. If anything, I think a lot of the training she has helped me with has been around how I can be a better dog owner! :)

Dana Giese · 5★ · 2024-02-25

Nicole Flowers is an excellent dog trainer. I highly recommend her services for any type of issue you and your dog are facing. I am with a Weimaraner rescue organization and we have hired Nicole to help us help dogs in foster and adoptive homes, and even to help dog owners who were considering surrendering their dogs to us when what they needed was a good trainer to help them. Common issues we hire Nicole for are leash reactivity, dog aggression, over protective with human, and obsessive/compulsive behavior (with people and food).\n\nNicole's strengths are:\n* Experience - she has seen it all and been involved in animal training for many years.\n* Creative solutions - she does not presume to have the immediate solution; she spends time with the dog to understand the issue and then considers what will most likely work and modifies the training as she goes along. The results to her approach are amazing!\n* Professionalism, reliability and communication. Nicole listens very well to each detail the dog owner provides and explains her training approach so it is easy to follow for someone not familiar with dog training.\n\nI can truly say that in several cases where we hired Nicole, I do not know what we'd have done without her. In every case she made a positive impact for the dog and the people involved. 100% success in every case.

Meagan Herndon · 5★ · 2023-11-16

I’m so happy we found Nicole! She’s helped us for the past 1.5 years with our English bulldog rescue. Every session she makes suggestions that lead to immediate progress for our pup- it’s amazing! She’s easy to talk to and get in touch with, and gets creative in helping us with all sorts of things (potty training, leash walking, dog and baby). We will definitely continue to work with her and highly recommend!

Chelsea Bushnell · 5★ · 2020-07-23

Nicole is super knowledgeable about dog training and behavior, she a fantastic listener and shes got great solutions for behavior issues that actually work! It was amazing to work in real life situations (by our front door, walking in our neighborhood, out at a cafe) where we could acknowledge the exact issue and work on resolutions. I’d done plenty of classroom dog training which didn’t always translate to our daily activities, so this was a fantastic way to put the existing skills to work! I highly recommend Nicole and appreciate her creative and direct approach to training.

Charles Manis · 5★ · 2020-12-06

Nicole was patient, clear, and flexible!\n\nNicole helped us with the first step in training a fearful rescue who wouldn't willingly leave her crate or bed. Nicole was very clear in helping us understand her instructions. And she was very patient with us as we learned to train our first dog. She was also flexible accommodating our request to do this session online (during social distancing protocols). Our scared rescue dog is now super snuggly and eager to play and train. Nicole helped us make the first steps in that relationship. I can't recommend her highly enough!