I've never received so many text messages insulting me and my wife and calling me an "idiot,"…read more"fool" or "moron" in my life. I've had breakups that didn't have this much drama.
We hired Fred to work our pitbull. She was difficult on walks and didn't always obey commands.
Right off the bat, we got a bad vibe from him. During our first phone conversation, he asked a series of questions about my dog, claiming that he didn't need to even meet her and would know all he needed to based solely on my answers. Hence, if I wasn't sure about something or if I didn't have the information he was asking for because I didn't know or the shelter hadn't said anything to us, he would belittle me or be sarcastic, asking me how I couldn't possibly know the answer.
Despite our misgivings, we decided to hire him for 12 sessions. During our first training session, our dog tried to attack him because he insisted on seeing how she would react if he tried to come into our backyard without an invitation. I panicked seeing her reaction and decided to fall in line, even after he insulted me and yelled at me for not being able to control my dog (even though he was the one provoking her) and threatened to quit. Looking back, I should have known better. Most dogs are not going to like someone trying come in uninvited, right? And maybe she sensed he wasn't a nice person and reacted accordingly. We've had plenty of people come to the house and she's been fine with them. Only Fred provoked that reaction. Go figure.
But we were willing to give him a try since he claimed to have over 20 years of experience. And believe me, he leans on that 20 year thing hard. If you don't do things exactly as he tells you, he will criticize and belittle you. His methods have been described as "archaic" by our subsequent trainer, and really boil down to making you show dominance over your dog. He had me jab, knee and even kick my dog, saying that she could take it. My dog is tough, no question, but I felt uncomfortable doing this.
Fred can be confusing with his teachings. He says that you have to be calm at all times since dogs pick up on emotions and will be tense if you are. But then he will constantly criticize you or question your commitment that one can't help but get stressed. He has cut short or cancelled sessions if he believed I was "projecting negative energy." And for someone who preaches consistency, he can be erratic when it comes to scheduling. Often, I would get a text on short notice asking if I could do a session later that day. Sometimes I could do it, but sometimes I couldn't. Sometimes, I would see him two times in a week. Other times, I would go weeks before hearing from him. He tried to do some instruction via video, which consisted of me recording him during a lesson and then recording myself and my wife doing the same thing. He blew up at us for not following his instructions to the letter and spent about 15 minutes berating me over the phone. He seems to think that I should have just been able to take it in stride, but he doesn't seem to understand that we hired him to be a teacher, not a bully.
Fred seems to honestly believe that he is the only person in the entire universe that can help you. That's not hyperbole. He constantly criticizes people who train dogs differently, badmouthing their techniques and saying that they don't work. He kept me line by warning me that he was the only person who could stop my dog from snapping and doing something horrible. And he always belittled my dog, saying that she was mentally disturbed or unbalanced. I don't doubt that she's potentially dangerous (hence why we hired him), but keeping me on edge around my own dog would not seem to be compatible with his central tenet of being calm all of the time.
Finally, after about five sessions or so, we decided to go in a different direction and he reacted like a spurned lover, sending me pages and pages of poorly-written text messages that were riddled with insults (when I stopped engaging with him, he even started texting my WhatsApp account to insult me some more). We had pre-paid for 12 lessons and he refused to refund us the balance of our money, despite previously offering to do so when he wasn't pleased with my effort. He even claimed that people like me were making him reconsider whether he even wanted to keep doing this. I mean, if he's having those kinds of doubts about something that he's devoted more than 20 years to and claims to love, then it makes you wonder what his commitment level really is. He wouldn't stop texting me, even after I stopped engaging with him. Two weeks after we broke things off, I received yet another message from him calling me a moron, so I had to block his number and warn him not to contact me again. And, of course, he sent all of those messages despite the fact that I told him he could keep my money. I just wanted to be done with him.
So for those of you who still want to hire him, good luck to you.
