**DO NOT TAKE YOUR DOG TO DELTA K9 SOLUTIONS**
They are highly recommended, and even up to a year ago, they were fantastic. But the owner has since retired, and his daughter took over.
**Summary: What they claim to be tough training and having firm expectations could be described as animal abuse. They strangled my dog with a leash until he couldn't breathe, dragged him across the floor through his own feces, and picked nearly all of his limp body weight up off of the floor using nothing but the thin leash wrapped around his neck.**
We took our well-behaved, lazy bones, easy going puppy (7-8 months, 40lbs) there yesterday for a consultation. The vet had recommended them for behavior therapy with another dog for pretty extreme anxiety several years ago, but I couldn't afford it at the time. So now, I figured we'd talk about obedience training for the puppy, and doggie therapy for my other dog.
The consultation starts out perfectly normal. She explains the "ABCs and the 123s of dog training." She goes over common misconceptions, mistakes, etc. She explains that they use pressure on/pressure off training with a slip lead. Great. I've heard of that. Sounds fine. Well then we get to the demonstration. She slips the lead on Murphy and asks him to get up and follow her. Obviously, he's a good boy. He does it. Then things went very very wrong. She asked him to walk in a circle, and he didn't want to. The lead tightens. He starts thrashing about like I have never seen. He sort of yelps a time or two. This continues, and she holds strong. I'm still okay with it at this point, because I assume that the professional knows best. As the training continues, she starts pulling on the lead and tightening it herself, which she said she would never do. There are moments where Murphy wheezes and struggles to breathe, but then there's moments when it becomes apparent that Murphy cannot breathe at all. His legs are shaking. No sounds from his throat and his tongue falls limp out of his mouth. He evacuates his anal glands (she explains that this is normal, and it's a temper tantrum). He poops three separate times. She continues to drag him around in circles on the floor (through his own feces). There were also several times when she picked him up off of the floor (hind legs still dragging, since he wouldn't stand) completely with the lead. He couldn't breathe. She was intermittently hanging our puppy. She gave him breaks every now and then, but only for up to ten to twenty seconds. All the while, he's panting on the floor. This training was over the course of fifteen minutes. When she is done and gives my spouse the lead (we are seated on the other side of the room), Murphy scrambles over and hides his face behind my husband's chair. She gives him no water. He's panting and occasionally coughing. The whole time, she explained why this was okay. Every objection that I had, she had an answer. I asked if she was sure that he could breathe. "Trust me, he's fine. If he wants to be able to breathe again, he'll start to follow my lead. Besides, I've never had a dog pass out before."
Murphy pants, coughs, and wheezes the whole way home (32 minutes). We get home, and he vomits in the backyard. We ask my husband's aunt, who trains show dogs, about her training techniques and what she thinks of this. To sum up, "Unacceptable." His aunt has high expectations of her dogs, and she is strict, but they have never been so afraid that they poop themselves. Definitely not for simple obedience training with a non-aggressive puppy. And when she does leash training, the dog never stops breathing. I asked the vet's office today (who recommended them 3ish years ago) if this was okay. Again, to sum up, "Unacceptable." He shouldn't have lasting damage to his trachea, but if the inflammation doesn't clear up in a few days, we will give him a steroid. The person I spoke to said that she isn't saying this as an employee, but as a dog owner. "Do not take your dog back there," she says. "This will traumatize your puppy." I am the second person to come to them and ask if this woman is abusing dogs. There was another patient who said that after boarding and training, their happy dog was now afraid of meeting new women and was clearly traumatized. I bet the man who started Delta K9 Solutions would be appalled to know how his daughter treats even non-aggressive dogs.
In summary, this is not tough training. This is not having high expectations and getting results. This is wrong. As I type this, my puppy is lying next to me on the floor, coughing and wheezing. read more
