I can't believe the review I just read the other review before mine, because it's very very similar to what we experienced:
About 2 months ago our dog started becoming leash reactive, we called this number and spoke to Juan, who seems to run the business. He was very talkative and very energetic. We explained our problem with our dog to him and he said he could board him and fix the problem. We were very excited and asked him if we could do a month boarding, 2 weeks first then 2 more weeks.
He said yes, and he said that his barking and lunging could be fixed with off leash training, at first we were a bit confused but since he was the trainer we trusted him.
As soon as he took our dog, the texts stopped. We would text and ask about our dog....an answer here and there. He also promised us videos of the progress. He only sent one during that week. About 3 days before dropping the dog he calls my wife and tells her that our dog is a new dog and that he is very happy with the progress, but in order to give the dog to us we are going to have to buy an ecollar, aka shock collar.
I was a bit upset that he didn't mention any of this BEFORE we sent the dog to training, but my wife was desperate and said fine. $250 later, we had an ecollar.
A couple of days before dropping our dog off, he sends this heavily edited video, with music playing in the background, and the number of his business. We see our dog with another dog doing sit, stay, down.
We were excited to see he was ok (since we rarely saw videos or pictures of him even though we asked) and I wondered why Juan never showed us pictures of our dog at a park or interacting with more dogs.
I asked him about this and he said "oh, your dog has been around chickens, horses, and many dogs. Once I drop him off, you will be able to leave him in one place and 20 dogs can walk by him and nothing will happen". He then said "And btw, you guys won't need the other 2 weeks, your dog is ready"
The day of the drop off, he asked to meet at a deserted place ( I should've known), I told him why not a dog park so we can see our "new" dog in action and he said he didn't want strangers approaching him asking him for his number so he can train their dogs ( Yes, call me gullible, but I swallowed this faster than eating oyster).
We met at a deserted parking lot, where for 4 hours he showed us how to command our dog to sit, stay, down and come. Mind you, our dog ALREADY knew this and he was aware of this. The only new addition was that this training was off leash, thanks to the ecollar, whereas the previous training had been on leash.
Once we were done (We took a good 4 hours) we parted ways, not before him asking us for our dog's semen. No, I am not making this up, I wish I was. Since our dog is a showline breed, Juan said that he taught our dog a little bit of heel and "attack" for free as long as we allow our dog to breed with one of his in the future. My wife and I were a bit taken back by this, but nonetheless, we were desperate.
After we said bye we went home all happy to see our pup in action. I took him for a walk, first dog comes out......"WOOF!!!", ::pulls::, now I am pressing the remote of the ecollar to control him, just as Juan had instructed us.
But something was new, now our dog was lunging the way dogs do during bite work!! At that moment it dawned on me, Juan had irresponsibly taught our dog the first steps of attacks when we couldn't even control our dog in the first place!!
As days went by, it got worse, the ecollar wasn't working, none of his training was working. Off leash worked, but it had NO effect on this whatsoever. I tried texting him and no answer. Until a few days later when he finally answered and we spoke on the phone. After I explained all to him, he decided to tell me that the dog must have a trauma and that can't be fixed. He did offer to take him back and train him more, but at this point, the damage was done, it was obvious that all he was going to do was shock the dog to submission. What truly infuriated me is he suddenly believed the dog had a trauma?? After the money had been paid, after we had trusted him, he purposely deceived us. Why do I say that? Because after more research, I have learned that leash reactivity needs more than just off leash training. He knew that legally he did what he promised he would do...off leash. But verbally we had told him what our issues were. This was further clear when I read that he had purposely omitted "barking" on the contract my wife signed when I was at work.
So be very careful before you go with these guys. The contract will be deceiving and DO NOT sign it until you know you are getting what you want on paper. Make sure you DEMAND pictures and videos of your dog and have him write that down on the contract too.
Now we are left with a dog who keeps on barking and pulling, and lunging, except his lunging is more dangerous now. read more