Ian Dunbar Top Dog Academy Review (2025 Upd.) Is it a Scam?

Last Updated on February, 2025

Dr. Ian Dunbar known for his reputation as the ‘father of modern dog training’ has his own online dog training course known as the Dunbar Academy which is extremely popular for its free course collection.

But what about its subscription based course that is the Top Dog Academy?

Is it perfect? Well, nothing is perfect, anyways, is it good?

This is a complicated answer, because from what I’ve found Dr. Ian Dunbar uses positive reinforcement training, however, according to many of his customers, the methods he uses are outdated and hard to train most dogs.

So if you’re having an idea to train your dog in the Top Dog Academy, I suggest you do it after reading this review.

Who is Dr. Ian Dunbar?

Dr. Ian Dunbar dog trainer is one of the most renowned Dog trainers until now, is a veterinarian and animal behaviorist too.

And has a veterinary degree and a Special Honors degree in Physiology & Biochemistry from the Royal Veterinary College (London University). 

Author of numerous books and DVDs all about dog training, he is the one who designed and taught the world’s first off-leash puppy socialization and training classes in 1982 which is now called the SIRIUS® Puppy Training.

Dr Ian dunbar and a Dog

After that, he went on and developed the San Francisco SPCA’s Animal Behavior Department and the K9 GAMES®, which took place in 1993 in San Francisco and continued as an annual event in France and Japan.

This was not all he hosted five seasons of the UK television series ‘’’ Dogs with Dunbar’’ which was so popular. 

Top Dog Academy Review

Top Dog Academy Behavior Problems Compendium Course page

Top dog academy has training programs for everyone including, breeders, dog owners, dog trainers, and even veterinarians.

After you hop into their website, you’ll get 39 courses to choose from, and 8 of them are entirely free.

At the same time, the others are paid, or else there’s a subscription-based system too, so it’s up to you on which you choose, subscription costs $20 / month and $150 / year where you can save a massive $90 only exclusive to Annual Subscription.

Meanwhile, standalone payments range from $30 to $500. While the subscription costs $20 / month if you tend to purchase each course separately, it could well cost over $1500.

For the people who don’t like subscription services, there’s another way, the ultimate Dunbar collection includes everything that you get from the subscription-based Top dog academy, the ultimate Dunbar collection costs $197, so this means you get to download and save the videos on your computer or mobile devices.

These are some of the main courses included with the Ultimate Dunbar Collection:

  • Behavior problems compendium 
  • Dr. Dunbar’s digital books and videos collection
  • SIRIUS dog training academy
  • Science-based dog training with a feeling
  • Reliability and games dog training workshop
  • Growl class- a workshop demo for reactive dogs

Plus with another ten courses which are pretty awesome for the value.

top dog academy authors

Apart from the courses let’s take a look at what’s included with this Top dog academy and the Ultimate Dunbar Collection training programs because it’s one of the key things if you purchase a Dog training program online.

This is one of the main takeaways when it comes to this training program, the program includes;

  • Dozens of Recorded Seminars and Workshops
  • Dozens of Dog Training Handouts and Worksheets
  • 13 hours of dog training podcasts
  • 100s of hours of Dog Training Videos

So these are the only things that are included for a training program worth $150 / year, and you know what these will be only accessible until you’re a subscriber.

After you end your subscription, it’ll no longer be yours, and the other thing is videos are non-downloadable if you’re on a subscription-based package, you can only download some audio files and ebooks.

And as I said before the Ultimate Dunbar Collection lets you download the videos, unlike the top dog academy. 

If you’re not satisfied with any of this, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee too.

Pros and Cons Ian Dunbar Top Dog Academy

Now that we know about this training program, let’s see what’s good and what’s bad.

Pros

You get to choose between subscription-based or one-time payments
The Ultimate Dunbar Collection has a good value
The Ultimate Dunbar Collection includes 16 courses
Has a training program for everyone
Wide range of courses to choose from

Cons

Prices of some individual courses are way too high
Lack of what’s included with each training program is hard to digest considering its prices
You don’t get to download anything if you’re on a subscription-based plan

Is it Actually Worth it?

not recommended tag

If you want bold tips and tricks to train your dog, then these training programs may disappoint, and the inclusion of just videos and ebooks seems a hard NO NO in the What’s Included department.

But the Ultimate Dunbar Collection seems a good choice if you’re ready to spend that $197 asking price.

After all the inspection, the Top dog academy and the Ultimate Dunbar Collection training programs seems like a missed opportunity with the stale content it offers, and it might not be worth it for what you spend. 

A Cheaper and Better Alternative

And the time has come to reveal one of the best-reviewed online dog training programs across the web, the one and only Brain training for dogs(BT4D) I would recommend this to anyone every day of the week this training program is something else.

I promise this program will take your training to a whole new level with its super high-quality offerings.

Brain Training for Dogs Program

This program checks every buck, and you will be amazed by what’s included with this program;

  • 21 high quality, videos that can teach you how to complete the exercises successfully.
  • Effective Behaviour Training for any type of dog.
  • Ask Adrienne Farricelli (this is where you can ask questions to the author).
  • Exclusive access to the member’s area on the official website.
  • Case studies: If you’re wondering what this is, here’s a small overview, Here, Adrienne shares her personal experience with her dogs and shows how she was able to solve her dog related problems so that you can apply the same techniques and principles to your pups.
  • The main manual to the Program.

All this stuff for just $67, which blew my mind when I first heard this… 

Still not impressed?

You’ll get lifetime access across all your devices, and There is a 60 Day Money Back Guarantee if you’re not happy with the program, but I’m pretty sure you will enjoy every moment of this training program.

If you’re still not impressed, then I don’t know what to say.

BT4D is a complete experience that you will never experience in any other online dog training courses.

Quick Update: Marcus from the comment section below found a working coupon code site for brain program at https://cheapcoupan.xyz/brain-training-for-dogs-coupan-codes-ian/ that will work until the end of February, 2023. This will save you some money if you’ve been thinking about buying this program.(Thanks to Marcus in the comments below)

Other dog training reviews:

Conclusion: Over to You

So I hope you might have made a good decision. At the end of the day, I’m not the one who makes the choices, it’s completely up to you, and you are the one who decides what’s best for your furry ball, but I’m 100% that BT4D will work wonders if you have chosen to go with it.

I hope this complete guide has helped you choose what’s best for your dog and thank you for taking your time to check out and as always Take Care:)

BETTER ALTERNATIVE
Brain Training For Dogs
brain training for dogs review
Effectiveness
Ease of Training
Price

5.0

4.9

5.0

Overall Score

5.0

visa-master-amex-paypal
Pros
Extremely Inexpensive
Easy to Follow
Positive Reinforcement Training
Professional Dog Trainer
Money-Back Guarantee
Get the BEST PRICE valid until the end of February
Cons
Tons of Reading Involved

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Author
Nicole Latorre
Nicole is a Certified Animal Behaviourist (ICAN), and she has tested numerous pet products and programs on her pet and contributed to publications for IPetGuides.

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