I took my dog Piglet to the PAC for the 3 week board and train from November 10th- December 23rd
I first sought out the PAC due to the overwhelming positive feedback from Adoreabull. I've been told all the pitties go there, and assumed her breeds specific needs would be understood. After the first check in, there seemed to be a lot about piglet that wasn't understood. Several mentions of weird or strange behavior , and I felt like piglet wasn't truly cared for the way she needed.
The lack of communication throughout the process was disheartening to say the least. We established a weekly call day on Wednesdays, but two of the established call days were missed. For paying $2500, I expected better quality customer service.
After watching the cameras, it looked like piglet didn't sleep much except at night while she was there, she seemed restless all day. Also she was out of her crate max 2 hours a day. I was under the impression there would be actual walks, not just 10 minute potty breaks. No real exercise for almost 2 months seems cruel for such an active breed, not to mention the muscle atrophy.
In the first week she was terrified of everything - noises, us, wants nothing to do with her brother Sampson & snarled at him - very unusual behavior for her , no interest in toys at all - again very unusual. A lot of this has lessened, but she definitely is not the same dog.
She also had Bruises on all her legs and scabs which took a month to heal.
Lost 14 pounds & ate her dinner ravenously like she hasn't had a full meal in a while, ate like I've never seen her. When we mentioned she looked skinny at pickup Scott said she didn't eat the first week. Seems like she wasn't eating for much longer than that to lose that much weight. Shouldn't a 13% weight loss be concerning for your facility? It didn't seem to be so. She is still gaining weight back now. She also steals her brothers food now - never happened before. She also begs for food now constantly, again a new behavior she aquired at PAC.
She's doing well with basic commands indoors on leash but once outside she goes straight back to her old habits, pulling, and heels intermittently. She's also already shown her old aggressive behavior charging at a cat. No change in this behavior whatsoever. I'm curious why there was no training in an outside environment because this is an area the commands are most needed and have been most problematic thus far.
I was led to believe this was a 3 week program, it ended up being 7. This was quite misleading and I'm worried with her being there so long there may be permanent damage done with the psychological trauma.
Most of all I feel like I paid 2500 only to get my dog back malnourished and beat up, and her personality is changed. Her condition was not communicated accurately - no mention of weight loss or bruising. And my main concerns in taking her to the PAC have not changed.
I worry that piglet may not be fully trained since she was never able to express her true personality while at PAC. Piglet doesn't bark often, but hearing that she never barked even once in 2 months doesn't sound like her normal self. I've never known her to be fearful of other dogs, people or loud noises, but she obviously was at PAC and is now. Again these are not typical of her.
I paid for the full 14 command off leash training, and then come to find out she can't do 2 commands at all, and can barely do roll over. She will do all the basic commands while indoors. We haven't been able to get her to do most of the trick commands except bang, but you have to have treats at that. Also we were able to teach her the speak command in a week after we got her back without treats, yet you were unable to in 7. I understand each dog is different however I was guaranteed 14 commands. And my understanding was I would be picking her up completely off leash trained, otherwise I would have paid less and done the on leash training with less commands, which is the level she seems closer to currently.
If piglet wasn't a good fit for the program, I would have appreciated being recommended something that would suit her personality better and less detrimental to her health such as the group trainings with owner involved. Aggression was my main concern and because this issue is connected to myself and our other dog, it seems like the board and train wasn't the best fit. read more