We just had a consultation with Shay and Lindsay and I am...just, appalled. I rarely write online reviews but felt so compelled to step in here and let anyone thinking of training their canine family member(s) with this company. I am a psychologist and my husband is a trial attorney so our life's work is understanding people, their minds, their behaviors and decision-making processes. My interaction with Shay was so uncomfortable that I had to ask him and Lindsay to leave my home. Shay was combative, argumentative, condescending and completely impossible to work with.
To add some context, we have a thriving 8 month old female pitbull/lab who is as sweet and as gentle as can be. We were hoping to get her involved in some advanced agility and intelligence training so that she could live life to her full potential. Please let it be known that she swiftly and successfully completed a full obedience course with a private trainer prior to this. She is delightful and has had absolutely no behavior problems since we rescued her in September. We have three other (small) dogs in our home, one of whom is a 5 pound teacup Pomeranian, and her best friend. Khaleesi plays SO kindly and gently with him - check out my instagram for videos . After explaining all of this to Shay and letting him and Lindsay know our goals of enriching her life through possible obstacle courses in the backyard, sniffing games etc. to exhaust her physically and fulfill her emotionally and intellectually he demanded a protocol of negative reinforcement including prong collars, shock collars and other forms of punishment to achieve our goals. He fought me tooth and nail on the term "negative reinforcement," saying that these tactics are not negative. It was so uncomfortable for me as he condescendingly spoke at me, shut down any ideas about positive reinforcement, and said he did not have the time or patience to do any sort of positive reinforcement plan and to "go research someone who uses a clicker and treats". I understand the debate within our community about the use of negative reinforcement and I completely believe everyone has a right to their own opinions but the manner in which this man could not conceive of training our sweet little girl in a more gentle and rewarding way to build her confidence and let her live a life of love, respect and canine-human companionship absolutely brought me to my knees. In my opinion he is narcissistic, fiercely unreasonable, egotistical and borderline cruel. I would not let him lay a finger on any of my dogs and I hope anyone considering retaining their company carefully considers our experience with them. read more