Handle With Care Dog Training

This lady lives a few houses down from me. She keeps a handful of dogs at her house, I don’t know if she’s dog sitting or what, but they bark all day, every day. She’s not there. They are left home alone, outside. Complaints to the city go nowhere. Then I see the irony that she has a dog training business! If this lady knows how to train dogs I’m the Queen of England. I’ve seen her around walking the dogs a couple times, too, and they lunge on the leash, etc. and she’s totally overwhelmed. I think she has a good heart, but this isn’t right. Leaving a bunch of dogs home all day while you go out is not good for the dogs, and I mean locking them outside to bark and fight with each other. Stay away.

A friend in Los Feliz was looking for recommendations on dog training and sudden memories of Lezlie came back to me from around 2001.
I decided to join a sequence of sessions with her and they were fine, but I wasn’t making a lot of progress so I stopped. No big deal. My Shiba Inu was headstrong and in retrospect everything came out ok, but at the time she was an escape artist rivaled only by Houdini.
About four months later, I ran into her outside the Silver Lake dog park entrance. I had arrived there with Hunter, and a friend, and Lezlie asked how I was doing with Hunter. Before I knew it, Lezlie had grabbed my leash at a midpoint and was attempting to get Hunter do do something. Maybe it was «sit» — it’s been a long time. Hunter didn’t know what to make of the stranger taking control and began to back away, so much that she pulled out of her collar completely and was loose, on busy Silver Lake blvd, before I could stop Lezlie. Hunter’s head was always a little smaller than her neck, oddly, so I always had to make sure I was behind her, not in front so she could tug herself out.
I never said it then, just glad to have grabbed Hunter on time, but lady, you have no right to touch my dog, her leash, anything at all without my permission, months after our business relationship ended. This could have gone very bad, you are lucky it didn’t. I’ve ensured none of my friends will ever use your terrible training service ever since.

We just completed a group training class with Lezle, and couldn’t be more pleased. First of all, we have a pit bull, and people are very negative about the breed, even trainers. Lezle has worked with ALL kinds of dogs, mine didn’t faze her a bit. My dog is fear aggressive, afraid of everything. The confidence he gained in class has really changed his posture — he’s happy and less afraid, he understands his commands and knows what I expect of him. What more can I ask from training? Lezle was great, positive, fun — for dogs and their people too.

Flashback to the Summer of 2006…
I enrolled with one of my dogs in Lezle Stein’s basic obedience class, it was a 6-​week course I don’t recall the exact price but it was about $ 20-​$ 25 per class, I’d say a little on the pricy side.
Lezle while a nice person tends to ramble on about how she works with different animal shelters to rescue dogs, «which is a great thing» BUT it’s not what I’m paying you money to hear!
I appreciate those who want to rescue dogs, adopt from the shelter BUT it’s NOT for everybody… don’t preach to me how I should Neuter my Pure Breed dog, I’m a responsible dog owner and it’s my business what I want to do!
Oh, did I mention how she likes to talk, talk, talk, talk useless nonsense eating up your hour of learning time.
At the end of the 6-​week course you get a cheesy certificate of graduation, unfortunately your dog will not know all the proper obedience commands, I was disappointed, thought it was a waste of my time and money.
this is the way to go!

We have had such a great experience with Lezle’s training that I’ll be signing my dog up for another round of classes when they are available.
First, I want to disagree with a couple of the things that Scooter mentioned (sorry, Scooter). If you’ve looked at other dog training classes in the LA area, you know that $ 160 is cheap. Some of the places we looked charged 80 bucks per class. Paying $ 160 for 6 weeks of classes was completely worth it. We went to the group class at Hermon dog park, and our entire group was there from start until finish. Some dogs did better than others but it seemed to me that all of the dogs improved and all of the owners were better at handling them afterwards. Yes, Lezle spent some time talking about foxtails (which I’d never heard of) and ticks (we found one a dog in our class), but it’s a beginner level class, and I think that assumption is that most of the owners are beginners too. I thought it was all helpful info and didn’t take away much from training time. Also, Lezle seemed to pretty consistently cover all of the planned topics each time with our group.
Now about the training. Most of the class is around teaching you to train your dog simple things. I had zero idea how to train my little guy, and even though he knew the word «sit», I could only get him to do it about 50% of the time before the classes. Lezle teaches you how to work with your dog, and Wile has learned a ton of words and his favorite time of day now is «practice.» I actually get compliments on how well-​behaved he is when we are out (which never happened before). Just going to the class once a week isn’t going to train your dog– you have to practice every day– but its a great motivator and Lezle can help whenever you hit any roadblocks.
This class might not be right for every type of dog or every type of owner, but it was perfect for us, and I’m really glad that we found Lezle.

First the positive: Lezle is a nice person who clearly loves dogs and is not out to rip any one off. Our dog did learn at least one thing (the ‘leave-​it’ command). A bit much for $!60, but it’s something.
And the negative? Just some facts. The first week of our class began with 10 – 12 owners and dogs. By week four and five it was down to three or four owners, and frankly as one of those still showing up we wondered why we bothered. And, in fact, we won’t be bothering for the last (pre-​paid) session, as there is just no point. The bottom-​line is this was almost a complete waste of time. Lezle is distracted, disorganized and loves to talk, talk, talk. Unfortunately, she does very little training.
So, why do so many who have paid good money in advance end up blowing off Lezle’s classes? Can only speak for ourselves, but:
–distracted: to give one example, taking phone calls during class.
–disorganized: to give one example, after saying class would be about one thing («coming»), a friend of Lezle’s came by on horseback. After having already spent ten minutes talking about how the training session would unfold (Lezle starts the class late, and then repeats everything she has already said as soon as someone new shows up late), class was immediately diverted to showing the dogs how to handle being calm around a horse — this meant basically aimless walking of our dogs around the horse. So much for «coming»…on which we’d still like to have a session.
–talk, talk, talk: to give one example, entire class sessions are spent as Lezle reads from hand-​outs she has on things like fox-​tails or dangers of snakes. All worth a note and great to have a hand-​out on such topics — but an ENTIRE class session with no training on something that could be reviewed at home? That was the last straw.
Could give more examples under each of the above categories. But the bottom-​line is there is little training that goes on.
So, no malice toward Lezle, but we won’t be returning for our last session. Spending an hour with our puppy doing exercises out of a book is far, far more effective (and cheaper).
Live and learn.

Lezle is incredible! She was recommended to me by a friend after I rescued a Norfolk Terrier/​Dachsund mix last year. When we first adopted Huxley, he was so terrified of punishment/​pain that he had completely shut down. We enrolled him in Lezle’s basic obedience class and he blossomed under her direction. She covers all basic commands, as well as basic health care. Most importantly, she teaches the people in her classes how to handle their dogs through clear, reward based training.
After basic obedience, we did Lezle’s clicker training class. It was so much fun! Huxley now knows a ton of tricks: sit pretty, play dead, roll over, give me five & give me ten, high five, jump, crawl… and his tour de force… he can turn our floor lamps on and off by hitting a push button on the floor. It’s the cutest thing in the history of cute.
Huxley is without a doubt the best dog I have ever had. The bond we share is so much stronger because we are a team, we can communicate clearly, and we have Lezle to thank for that. You will not find a better trainer anywhere, especially not at such an affordable price. Lezle will also follow up with you on the phone if you ever have any questions.

Lezle is an amazing dog trainer as well as animal rescue advocate.
She is totally passionate about what she does and that commitment to excellence translates to great classes and great one-​to-​one work with a trainer who teaches you how to work with & train your own dog. (instead of your dog training you). She is simply the best! Also a great person to consult before you get a dog. She can evaluate you and your family and help you find a dog that fits your needs. This way you will avoid doing what I did and you won’t wind up with a crazy Jack Russell Terrier (I love my dog madly but she’s so much work!). Go see Lezle first!

Just finished Lezle’s basic obedience class, and it was great. Lezle is great with dogs and their owners. She believes in letting dogs be dogs, and keeps her class small so she can tell you the best way to work with your dog’s personality. I’d never taken a training class and was worried that the trainer would push all kinds of products and training tools and unnecessary grooming on us, but Lezle is super low key about that stuff. Overall a great experience and I highly recommend to anyone who’s ready to commit to training their dog.

Lezle is the best. We were pretty clueless with our dog, as she was our first, but Lezle whipped us into shape, and I feel that our dog now understands english fluently. It kinda freaks me out sometimes!

Lezle (the proprietor of Handle With Care) was recommended to me shortly after I adopted an adult pit bull, Maybelline, from the LA City Pound. Maybelline was darling but it didn’t seem she had ever been trained. Lezle came to my apartment to meet the dog and make recommendations about toys, diet, and training I could do at home. Then Maybelline and I took Lezle’s six-​week behavior training course in Highland Park. I learned that dog training is just as much people training as it is dog training! Lezle really showed the class how to interpret dog behavior and how to modify our OWN behavior in order to better communicate to the dog what we wanted. We learned everything from the basic commands of «sit» and «stay» to how to keep your dog from pulling on a leash, to special tricks. She also gave us information about dog first aid and aggressive dogs — it never hurts to be educated on those topics.
After the class was over, Lezle was great about responding to emails and phone calls when I had additional dog-​related questions. I found her to be extremely knowledgeable, and hands-​on. Additionally, her prices are very reasonable. I was thrilled at how much Maybelline learned and I will definitely take another class with Lezle the next time I get a dog.