While they may be a good fit for other breeds, I cannot stress enough that I would NOT recommend for German Shepherds or similar. We were originally referred to Killian's K9 Academy by our current group classes to assist with location based reactivity with our 11 month German Shepherd. We sent a large amount of information regarding the behavior, the household, and observations to Cherri before the meetup, however Rudy requested to meet our pup in his 'red zone'. During the meeting our dog was calm, however when Killians arrived they pulled up directly into the parking spot in front of where we were sitting, and proceeded to get out and hard stare at our pup. Anyone who has a shepherd will know this is a behavior that this breed does NOT do well with. He began to bark, and rather than allow us to give the command to stand down, we were told to let him continue, as Rudy continued to remain silent and hard stare at our dog. Once his barking began to calm, which if given time he will settle, we were told right away to take him inside because he didn't want to "stress him further". He then proceeded to inform us of how our pup supposedly was, without asking ANY questions, and most of this contradicted what we shared with Cherri in our email. He was extremely condescending, and tried to state he had been training for 40 years, although was not aware of what the leash type we use it, this tells me that while he may of been training this long, he has not kept up to date with advancements, especially given his claim that dogs have no memory. We were then informed by him that he would be sending a report to our current trainer, and that we were not allowed to go back until our dog was deemed 'safe' (Keep in mind our dog had been regularly attending these classes without issue). After this he proceeded to paint several scenarios telling my wife how dangerous our dog was at home to our children, and describe graphic wounds he had seen dogs inflict, all while insisting the dog has no structure, no rules, and always on guard - from about a 1 minute observation in his red zone after being triggered. We were then also informed that it was "His way only" when it came to training, and recommended a course of training that had we been less informed, would of actually caused the very same issues he was there to fix. Had we not been more experienced, his fearmongering sales tactics would of caused a potential rehome, or Behavioral Euth given it was aimed at causing us to fear our dog and seek his help as a result. I would also like to point out that as he found out that we are not new dog owners and are fairly experienced, his entire tone changed and even contradicted his earlier observations. We paid them for the consultation, and afterwards contacted our current trainers who have since removed them from their recommendation list. I would also like to point out shortly after this I took our pup up to Sheetz as part of his ongoing socialization, and people passed by without any issue - The supposedly never relaxing dog even initiated play while there. I would also add that while in the house he routinely lounges, and shows signs of a very relaxed, very well mannered pet that listens to commands - The complete opposite of how Rudy tried to claim to our faces our dog was after a 1 minute observation. They may not be as expensive, but spend the money to go elsewhere as his methods are the old school 'break the dog then remake it' type that does not work on all breeds and seems to have a very inflexible one size fits all approach. read more
