Animal Behavior Specialists, Inc.

I should’ve posted this a long time ago. I made a reservation to board my dog at her kennel. I wanted a tour of the kennel and to see where my dog would stay. She kept making excuses as to why I couldn’t see the inside of the kennel, saying they were renovating. Two days before Christmas we showed up to drop my dog off. The single staff person came running out to my car to take my dog. I insisted again on seeing where my dog would be staying. She kept refusing to even let me in the building. I finally just walked around her and went in. I was appalled by what I saw! The place was very run down and dirty. There were 16 dogs crowed into a single room with a couch and a chair. The absolute worst was seeing a poor German Shepherd crammed into a tiny cage that was too small him to stand, sit, turn around or turn over. He looked horribly miserable. I walked out. I was going to cancel my Christmas plans rather than leaving my dog in that nightmare. I did report her to the ASPCA. I will never use her services for anything.

These classes are punishment based, with no positive reinforcement being given to the dog besides the occasional verbal "good dog". They are preaching outdated methods that were in vogue in the 50s. A class participant mentioned at one point that their dog was being dragged around "like a stuffed animal on a leash". This is not what learning should look like. If a dog is being forced into positions, they are not learning how to get *themselves* into the position you want. This is why teaching "sit" traditionally involves more cookies, and less shoving of the dogs hips. In our first lecture class, we were instructed to scruff the dog until they "calmed down". When someone asked how long this would continue, the instructor responded that he has personally needed to restrain his dog like this for over an hour before. This is ludicrous, confusing for the dog, and bordering on abusive. Restraining them won't teach them anything besides the fact that humans can be unpredictably violent and scary! These dogs will later fight restraint at their vets offices and groomers. An hour would be much better spent taking your puppy for a hike in the woods, so they don't have that extra energy :) When a five month old Aussie wouldn't down-stay in class for ten minutes, the clip of his leash (connected to a head halter, which was connected to a prong collar) was held to the floor by a foot so he complied for minutes on end. He was left flopping like a fish on a line, it was nauseating to watch. This was not a reasonable expectation for such a young active dog! I was the only one with a treat pouch in class, and (coincidentally) had the best behaved dog in the class. Food-based training has been around since the '80s, and Guide Dogs for the Blind started training service dogs using only food since 2006. Time for this trainer to brush up on their skills and get with the modern era of training before they do any more damage. To have a name like Animal Behavior Specialists and only use outdated debunked dominance theory is a disservice to both dogs and their owners.

We have been training with Karlene for almost 2yrs. It started when we needed reinforcements with one of our service dogs that was not fully trained. We were referred to Karlene by our atty. fast forward, we had to retire that dog because of the kids at my daughter’s school. I literally called Karlene in tears. She said I have the perfect SD for your daughter (Karlene was fostering him and was going to keep him as her SD. Karlene said she was willing to let us try him as my daughter needed him more than she did) we met the dog and decided to give him a chance. We have been through all the classes and have been told in public what a well trained dog he is. I drive over an hour for him to be professionally trained for my daughter. Karlene and her staff are amazing to work with. They are teenage friendly as my daughter was 14 when we started and now 16. It takes my daughter a long time to warm up to people. It only took a few weeks and my daughter absolutely looks forward to training even if it is at 8:00am. I highly recommend ABS to train your fur babies.