Mason Erwin & Esteffany Olivares
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Efficient, Holistic, and Results-Oriented Dog Training
Are you experiencing behavioral issues with your dog? Our dog-friendly training methods can help you overcome these issues quickly. We train in your home where you and your dog are most comfortable. With our efficient, results-oriented training program, you can achieve the communication and leadership you want with your dog. Live a happier life together with your dog!
Dog Training Services
Common Dog Behavioral Issues We Address:
- Aggression
- Barking
- Biting
- Change in Address
- Chewing
- Destruction
- Digging
- Focus & Listening
- Housebreaking
- Improving Confidence
- Jumping
- Leash Pulling
- Marking/Peeing
- New Baby Preparation
- Obsessiveness
- Respecting Other Pets
- Running Away
- Separation Anxiety
- Sibling Rivalry – in House Tensions/ Fights
Not sure where your dog could use improvement? Take our free behavioral quiz today.
Meet Mason & Esteffany, Your Local Professional Dog Trainers
In-Home Dog Training in Greater Houston!
Welcome. We are Mason Erwin and Esteffany Olivares, your Bark Busters Dog Trainers and Dog Behavioral Therapists in Houston.
About Mason Erwin
I have always had a passion for helping animals. Growing up, we had seven dogs and to me they were always family. Joining Bark Busters and being mentored by some of the top dog trainers in the country, and the world, has shown me how much I can contribute to my clients and their families. Working with dogs and their owners truly brings a sense of joy and fulfillment to my life. I look forward to showing you a better way to a better dog!
About Esteffany Olivares
I grew up in a very small town in Mexico where stray dogs are very common. This provided me with the opportunity to start helping dogs at a very young age. My grandfather and I always made sure that the dogs in our neighborhood had food and shelter, especially when storms would come through. At the age of 10 my family and I began to move back and forth between Mexico and the United States, so I never had the opportunity to own a dog in childhood.
Now, my partner in life, Mason, and I have an amazing Belgian Malinois mix, Honey, that has taught me the true meaning of love between a dog and its owner. And that is the reason why I do my job with so much joy and passion. I learned how fulfilling helping dogs can be and just how much they give back to us. The opportunity to join Bark Busters provided me with the ability to help families and their beloved dogs live a better life. This was the start of an incredibly rewarding life journey that gives dogs a second chance to live a stress free life, and their owners a sense of hope and relief.
In addition to "speaking dog," I am also fluent in English and Spanish. I look forward to helping the Houston community and reaching even more families with my bilingual service.
Client Reviews
See what our clients in Houston have to say
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Connect with us Call 1-877-500-BARK (2275)or enter your zip code.
Is Your Dog Barking Excessively?
Barking is a primary way of how dogs communicate with humans and other animals. They might bark to alert, attention seek, or greet. Barking for a dog can cause stress in their life as well as ours when it’s excessive.
Understanding Why Your Dog is Barking
- Stress and Anxiety: This can be due to various reasons such as separation anxiety, fear, or changes in their environment. Barking becomes a way to express their discomfort and seek attention or comfort.
- Lack of Leadership: When a dog perceives a lack of clear leadership, it can become confused about its role in the household. This confusion can lead to stress and anxiety, which in turn manifest as excessive barking. The dog may feel the need to take on a protective or alert role, barking at anything to ensure the home's safety.
- Boredom and Lack of Stimulation: If they do not receive enough physical and mental stimulation, they may bark to release pent-up energy.
- Attention Seeking: If a dog feels neglected or ignored, it may bark excessively to get its owner's attention.
Addressing Unwanted Barking
It is important to establish yourself as a calm and confident leader while providing consistent training and positive reinforcement. Make sure your dog receives plenty of physical and mental stimulation, and address any underlying anxiety or stress through behavioral training or by consulting a veterinarian.
Bark Busters Houston can help you reduce your dog’s excessive barking to create a more balanced and happy environment for your dog. This means it will also help create a stronger bond between you and your dog.
Is Your Dog's Behavior a Symptom of Separation Anxiety?
Separation anxiety in dogs occurs when they become distressed and anxious when left alone or separated from their owners. This condition can manifest in various behaviors such as:
- Excessive barking
- Destructive chewing
- Urination/defecation indoors, even if the dog is house-trained
Regarding the concept of pack leadership, dogs are naturally pack animals and often look to their owners as leaders. When a dog experiences separation anxiety, it may indicate that the dog feels insecure about its role within the or household. This insecurity can stem from a lack of clear leadership or structure, leading the dog to feel anxious when the leader (the owner) is absent.
Strategies to Begin Soothing Your Dog's Separation Anxiety
Establishing a consistent routine, providing clear boundaries, and reinforcing positive behaviors can help mitigate separation anxiety and reinforce the dog's understanding of its place within the pack. Creating a sense of separation even when you are home is important. Don’t allow your dog to follow you everywhere.
Seek Professional Dog Training
Bark Busters Houston will help you create a well-structured pack where each member understands its role and feels secure in it. When a dog lacks this clarity, it may exhibit anxious behaviors as a way of coping with the uncertainty. Overall, addressing separation anxiety involves both behavioral training and ensuring the dog feels secure and understands its role within the household.
Is Your Dog Showing Destructive Behavior?
Have items around your home become your dog's favorite chew toys? Are you spending more money than ever fixing chewed up baseboards or chair legs? Have you taken your pup on an emergency vet visit because they decided your sock would be their chew toy of the day? At Bark Busters Houston we will help you understand where this behavior is coming from.
Dogs Chew and Dig for Several Reasons
- Boredom: Lack of exercise and mental stimulation can lead dogs to chew and dig to entertain themselves.
- Natural Instinct: Digging is an instinctive behavior in many dogs, especially in breeds that were bred to hunt or burrow. Some dogs dig to find a cool place to lie down or to bury and unearth food.
- Anxiety or Stress: Dogs may chew and dig when they are anxious or stressed, as a way to release tension.
- Exploration and Play: Dogs use their mouths and paws to explore their environment. Chewing and digging can be forms of play and exploration.
- Teething: In puppies, chewing helps to relieve the pain of teething.
Training Can Help Curb Destructive Behavior
Managing your puppies environment and crate training them is going to be crucial to avoid your dog from chewing on items around your home. Provide your puppy with chewing toys that will help soothe their discomfort while teething. Now, if your dog is no longer a puppy but continues to be destructive, make sure you are providing it with enough mental and physical stimulation.
It’s also important to have clear and precise communication with your dog on what are acceptable or unacceptable items for them to chew on. Bark Busters Houston will teach you how to speak dog to properly communicate this to your dog.
Are You Struggling with Dog Aggression?
Dogs can become aggressive for various reasons, including a lack of leadership or stress within their environment. It can also be a defense mechanism stemming from past traumatic experiences. In many cases, aggression becomes a learned behavior. For dogs, aggression is a form of communication, and when it succeeds in making a person or animal back off, the dog learns that aggression helps them get what they want. Understanding the root cause of this behavior is crucial to effectively addressing and helping your dog overcome it.
Causes of Aggression
- Fear or Anxiety: Dogs may become aggressive if they feel scared or anxious. This can happen due to past traumatic experiences or lack of socialization.
- Territorial Protection: Some dogs become aggressive to protect their territory, whether it's their home, their owner, or even their toys and food.
- Pain or Illness: A dog that is in pain or sick may react aggressively to avoid being disturbed.
- Lack of Leadership: Dogs are natural pack animals, and if they don't feel there is strong leadership at home, they may try to take on that role themselves, which can lead to aggressive behavior.
- Frustration: Lack of exercise, mental stimulation, and training can lead to frustration, which can manifest as aggression.
To manage aggression, it's important to identify the underlying cause and work on it. Providing clear and consistent leadership, along with sufficient exercise and training, can help reduce these behaviors.
Resolving Aggressive Behavior
Bark Busters Houston can help you address this behavior starting with helping you understand the underlying cause of this issue and provide you with a personalized training program to make you the strong leader that your dog is seeking.
Proud Houston Small Business Owners!
We're proud small business owners in Houston! Find us out on the town regularly with our dog and if you see us, say hello - we can't wait to meet you!
What Makes Bark Busters Houston Unique
Bark Busters is the worldwide leader of in-home dog training, helping over 1 million families and their dogs around the globe since 1989. We wholeheartedly believe in our methods and 30+ years of results. At Bark Busters Houston, we clear up the miscommunication between dogs and humans at the root of many behavioral issues by teaching everyone to speak the same language – dog!
Our nurturing, dog-friendly approach teaches you, the pet parent, the same natural communication methods that dogs understand instinctively. Our efficient, results-oriented, training program prioritizes clear communication and leadership while addressing issues in the locations they occur.
This means faster, longer-lasting solutions for you and your dog.
Dogs learn best in a familiar, safe environment, free of outside distractions and disruptions. That is why we come directly to your home, on your schedule to build an effective foundation for better behavior. We work first to build an effective foundation for better behavior. We teach you how to communicate with your dog. Dogs naturally live in families and look to their family leaders for guidance, safety, and love. Most people don't know how to appeal to a dog's natural sense of leadership or communication. We teach you how to use friendly, canine leadership and to "speak dog" using your body language, voice tones, and timing so you and your dog communicate better! You will see results. You want to see a change in your dog’s behavior, preferably sooner rather than later.
Any Breed. Any Age. Any Issue. Get Started Today!
We customize our training sessions to achieve your specific goals and meet your dog’s unique needs. When you learn to "speak dog" the Bark Busters way, you get real results – and nurture positive relationships and lasting emotional bonds with your canine family member.
Our Services
Bark Buster trainers conduct the one-on-one training in your home, without the distraction of other dogs or the stress of being sent away for dog obedience training at a kennel. After learning in your home, our behavioral therapist and trainer will work with you as needed outside and around real distractions, once you and your dog are ready.
Life of Dog Support Guarantee
Bark Busters Home Dog Training provides a Life of Dog Support Guarantee that is unique in the industry. It is designed to help owners resolve their dog's behavior and obedience problems and to provide customers with the satisfaction of ongoing support and peace of mind.
Tips & Advice
We're here to help. From general dog training tips, to puppy toilet training best practices, to learning about various dog breeds we've worked with, Bark Busters offers our free tips and advice on common dog behavior problems and more.
Professional Dog Training Near You!
Servicing: Baytown, Bellaire, Channelview, Crosby, Galena Park, Galleria & Uptown, Highlands, Houston, Houston Heights, Humble, Memorial City, Midtown, Montrose, Pasadena, River Oaks, South Houston, Stafford
Stay Connected
Learn more about Bark Busters in Houston Central, Texas!
Get Started Today!
CALL 1-877-500-BARK (2275) OR ENTER YOUR ZIP CODE TO SEND US A MESSAGE.