We dealt with two trainers over a 2 month period of time. Both trainers were pleasant, friendly people that were clearly dedicated to their craft. We found them to be involved and genuinely interested in the progress of our dog. It’s unfortunate that the training methods just didn’t work. Oh, and it cost well over $700.Oh where do I start…1.Training “bags” were a complete joke. After having these thrown at her half a dozen times, she couldn’t be bothered. We followed all instructions, i.e. not picking them up in her line of sight, not treating them as a toy, soaking them in bitter apple, etc. 2.“Bahing” at our dog. After literally months of growling at our dog, the results were negligible. On top of this, it’s completely embarrassing. 3.Told not to use commands. Commands are a “crutch”. Apparently so are treats/toys or any other item you may use to gain the attention of your dog. Ironically, the only method they taught that actually worked used commands (sit, stay). 4.Continued from point 3: training routines didn’t work. Methods to stop pulling, methods to focus on master, methods to stop scratching = failure. After months of a dedicated, concentrated effort we noticed only miniscule improvement.5.“Purchasing ______ (expensive) food will help calm her down”. Well, false in our case. Feeding our dog $70 "premium" foods has made no recognizable impact on the behaviour/energy level of our dog.The worst part about all of this is that their “life time guarantee” is total BS. In the life time of the dog you can never seek outside assistance. And there is NO refund if it doesn’t work. Furthermore, after 5 sessions our trainer kind of threw up her hands and said “oh well”. She seemed genuinely frustrated and at a loss for words at what was happening. She said everything but “this doesn’t work”. She admitted that our dog was an extremely hard case and that this had never happened to her before. It’s a shame. So we paid over $700 to find out that our dog was a hard case. I’ve since done some research, and the general consensus on the internet is that their methods don’t work with large dogs. It seems to intimidate, startle or scare smaller dogs into submission. However, exerting dominance and control over a larger dog seems to require a different approach. Again, I don’t blame my instructor for everything. I also know that there are areas we could improve in. But overall, it was very obvious that the passage of time could change our dog’s behavior as much as this program did. And that wouldn’t require a $700 deposit.
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