About Toko Dogs

At Toko Dogs, we integrate traditional and contemporary methods to offer safe, humane, and customized training solutions.

our story

We are Toko Dogs, your source for expert dog training in the San Diego area, specializing in moderate to severe behavioral issues. Toko Dogs was founded on the principle that every dog is an individual with unique experiences, temperaments, medical histories, genetics, and behaviors. This belief necessitates a holistic approach to training, ensuring that the techniques and strategies employed address the root causes of each dog’s behaviors.

Meet Our Head Trainer Zach

Zach’s Early Affinity for Animals

Zach, the founder of Toko Dogs, was born and raised in a small agricultural town in Northern California, where he developed a deep affinity for animals of many different species. His childhood experiences with dogs included breeds such as Great Danes, Labrador Retrievers, Pitbulls, English Bulldogs, Akitas, and a Pomeranian.

The Beginning of Zach’s Dog Training Journey

Zach’s journey towards professional dog training began while in college at UC San Diego when he adopted Gaia, a white Boxer mix. Unlike the dogs he had grown up with, Gaia presented significant behavioral challenges, including destructiveness, reactivity, and aggression towards other dogs and people. The turning point came after Gaia was bitten by an off-leash dog, exacerbating her reactivity.

Discovering Effective Training Methods

Frustrated by conflicting advice and ineffective training methods, Zach sought insights from child behaviorists and psychologists, discovering parallels between training dogs and raising children despite the species and language barriers. This new perspective enabled him to transform Gaia’s behavior, achieving calm, reliable obedience both on and off-leash.

Transitioning to a Dog Training Career

Inspired by his success with Gaia, Zach decided to transition from a career in the financial industry to dog training. He mentored under Drew Hayes who understood Zach’s passion for dog training and helped him gain expertise in handling fearful and anxious dogs. Zach applied these skills at two dog rescues in Northern California, tackling some of their most challenging cases, before joining a dog training company in San Diego. During his tenure, Zach studied under Ted Efthymiadis where he gained expertise handling aggressive dogs eventually earning the title of Lead Trainer

Zach’s Role at Toko Dogs

Now, Zach is the Head Trainer and owner of Toko Dogs, spending his days training and rehabilitating dogs with some of the most difficult behavioral problems in San Diego. In his spare time, Zach enjoys indoor rock-climbing, making music, and spending time with his dogs.

Mission Statement

At Toko Dogs, our mission is to empower dog owners with humane, effective, and reliable training strategies and techniques to cultivate trusting and respectful relationships. We do so with unwavering integrity and a commitment to delivering unparalleled customer satisfaction.

core values

The core values that guide our business practices and training methods are:

We treat your dog as our own

Training is done in front of you

We are as gentle as we can be, as firm as we need to be

There are no bad dogs

We take a holistic approach to dog training

We follow your veterinarian’s recommendations

No unnecessary lifestyle changes

No one-size-fits-all training methods

Goals

What are the primary objectives Toko Dogs aims to achieve through its services.

We aim to be the preeminent Expert Dog Trainers in San Diego specializing in moderate to severe behavioral issues.

We want to provide the highest level of customer service so that each client feels safe, confident, and satisfied with every dog training program provided.

We strive to build loving relationships with our dogs built on a foundation of trust and respect.

We want to stop the unnecessary euthanasia of misunderstood and misbehaved dogs. We would like to educate owners about training methods that can improve behavior.

Why Choose Toko Dogs for Expert Dog Training in San Diego

At Toko Dogs, we are not your typical obedience dog trainers. We are behaviorists at heart. This means that we don’t believe that all problems can be solved through improving obedience alone. We seek to get to the root of the problem and build new behaviors through modern methods and techniques.