I reached out to Yuppie Dog's behavioral specialist to get help with my two Pomeranians. They needed A LOT of work but I did let Mary know our biggest issues were excessive barking and overall obedience. They are aged 7 and 4, which I assumed was too late for help training wise, but I was reassured by Mary that their ages were not an issue.
I opted for the doggie day school option which was $550 each for two dogs plus you have to pay the price of daycare for the days they attend. Doggy daycare includes 8 training sessions of an hour length, over the span of 4 weeks. I overall spent about $1800.
The dog daycare itself seems good. They don't have cameras like some other facilities I'd used but my pups did not seem anxious at drop offs. Front desk staff were great.
Mary and the other trainer, Adrianna, were very kind but my pups did not get much from the training overall.
The main issue of barking could not really be addressed, as Mary said they did not typically bark at daycare. She gave me a couple of suggestions for home but barking is still a major issue at home. It is unfortunate to pay so much and not have my primary issue improve at all.
From the 8 sessions, both dogs came out knowing the commands "look at me" and "sit". I think they also practiced a bit on walking on the leash but one of my pups has an issue with leash reactivity and that did not improve either. I'm not sure if they ever tried practicing walking them with triggers around.
I'm not sure why the pups did not benefit much? If they were unable to help, I wish they had been transparent and not let me waste so much money. But after the sessions were complete I did have the concern that maybe they did not get their full time?
Doggy daycare is $550 for each dog and they both should be getting a 1 hour training session per day each. They opted to train them together, since they do live together that would make sense. But I don't think they extended the sessions at all and worked with them for 1 hour each day together even tho I was paying for two separate sessions.
There was also no discount for enrolling two simultaneously, which makes it unfair that their training times were basically cut in half.
At the end of the sessions, Mary suggested we join group classes. But after seeing how little they benefited from doggy day school and knowing that once again there would not be a discount for me having to work with them both simultaneously, it just did not seem like a good investment.
We've now switched to another training program with a different Houston company. It is costing the same price but I'm able to be present for every lesson and ensure they are getting their time. I'm also seeing progress much faster. The company also has a money back guarantee and a list of commands that most dogs have picked up by the end of the program.
Yuppie dog does send a daily report card with photos, videos, and what they went over daily. But halfway through the program, they were still struggling with sit. At that point, I should have moved on but they make you pay for the entire program up front.
I would just make sure expectations are made very clear from the beginning and there is a discussion on what will happen if expectations are not met. read more