Before I tell others what happened to me and my family, I want to make it apparent that my review of Alpha Dog Training is the truth.
I adopted a dog not too long ago from a local shelter. As can be expected, he had some separation anxiety which was exacerbated by his high strung nature and pit bull breeding, but other than that, he was a total sweetheart. We brought him home and called some trainers due to him whining constantly in his kennel at night. Sadly no other trainer in the area would call me back or touch him with separation anxiety. I should note, that we have two cats as well and he was a perfect gentleman to them, sniffing them occasionally, but otherwise leaving them alone.
That's where the trainer, Carrie, at Alpha Dog Training comes in. She was the one that got in touch and told us she would help out. That she could "fix" him. She even came to meet us in our house with our pup. While there, she put his leash on (leather leash and collar) and when asking for anything from him, she yanked (not pulled) the leash. He reacted okay at first, responding to her, so we scheduled another session. She told us in the interim to go out and buy a choke chain. The kind with metal prongs that dig into his neck. She said it would help him listen better. Knowing nothing more, we did as told.
Her next session consisted of her continuing to use the prong collar and yelling at him in the house. When he didn't listen from the first pull, she would yank harder, sometimes causing him to be lifted off of his front feet and coughing when he came down. She would use positive praise afterward with a treat, which we learned later just made him confused.
He started getting worse in his kennel at night, so Carrie told us to withhold water at night (which we didn't do) and put a towel over the enclosure and lock him in his kennel even when we were home. We continued with a few more sessions. Nothing worked and his stress increased exponentially. He started ripping the towels that had been on top of the kennel by pulling them into the kennel and pulling them apart. He would start to bark and howl in and out of the cage. He started defecating inside the house and chasing/scaring the cats around to the point that they would hide on top of cabinets out of his reach. We stopped using Carrie at that time. He then tried to escape his kennel, causing massive wounds on his nose and paws and destroying the metal kennel in the process. There was blood everywhere. He would even growl at unknown people on his morning and evening walks, which he never did before.
When we confronted Carrie about it, she became abusive and harassing. Sadly, we had to return him before he could further hurt himself, our cats or someone else, which broke our hearts. We also contacted the ASPCA and spoke with an officer for a report. read more