Jackie's Basics and Beyond Dog Training

My dog, Phoebe, and I have been training with Jackie and her team since 2021. When I moved up to the Raleigh area I looked at several training places but many of them used e-collars or was not knowledgeable about therapy or service dog training. When I found Jackie's, they were and continue to be extremely knowledgeable and offer almost any class for your dog that you can think of. I have taken classes with Lynn, Rebecca, Meredith, and Jackie, and they are all amazing. I have worked personally with Jackie the most and at one point, had private lessons with her. Here is my advice/recommendation: I would highly recommend Jackie. She is truly amazing. If you want a truly well behaved dog who is happy but knows rules, you have found the right place. Every person who meets or sees Phoebe comments on how wonderful she is and how they wished their dog would be as well behaved. I always respond that it takes a lot of work and commitment, but it's worth it. If you follow what Jackie says to do, you will see so much improvement; however, you can't do it half way. You have to be really willing to change your own habits. One thing I have learned is that often it's more human training than dog training. Phoebe didn't know how to truly relax on her own and would constantly take things in my house (socks, shoes, etc.). To stop this I needed to put her in a crate so she would learn to relax. I'll be honest, I didn't like the idea at first. So, I was trying to find ways around it and more problems started happening. Eventually, I started to put her in a crate for about 45 minutes while I was home. This, along with some other solutions, caused all of the bad behaviors to stop. Today, Phoebe goes in the crate willingly and relaxes when she is tired. It's annoying, but many owners may find the behavior she exhibited to be cute and leave the behavior uncorrected. So let me tell you, Jackie is a trainer that wants to help correct issues rather than work around them. If you are trying to avoid some things and only listen to half of what she is advising she will call you out on it. I love her so much, but I know people that may not like her training because they want a dog they can spoil rather than a well-behaved dog. You need to come in with an open mind. Everyone here knows what they are talking about and a lot of it is science/vet supported. Phoebe would not be as wonderful as she is today without Jackie and her team. I cannot say enough great things about this place. Dogs are just like small children, they want structure. If you believe that, this is this place for you!

I recently enrolled my 14 week old puppy into Jackie’s Basic and Beyond class. This review will be lengthy but if you’re looking to skim, the cliff notes are that Jackie harmed my dog giving her a correction in which she yelped in pain, and is now refusing to refund my money for a 6 week program I won’t be utilizing for obvious reasons. I warn anyone looking for a safe class utilizing positive reinforcement against doing the same. I will start by saying multiple red flags happened and I genuinely should have just left, but didn’t have time to process and my biggest regret is staying when I had a bad feeling. Before class, all materials by Jackie’s state they do not allow on leash meetings between dogs. I arrived early assuming there was some protocol for waiting for class and making payments that allowed the dogs to safely enter without interacting (based on their own statements and previous training experiences, as this is the fourth dog I’ve owned in my adult life). To my surprise, as multiple other dogs entered, no trainers or employees made any effort to distance us to prevent on leash interactions. I ended up picking Sadie up to insure this didn’t happen. To the other owners credit, all seemed to know enough to make attempts to separate their dogs to the best of their ability. But this tiny room was holding three adult sized dogs, two puppies, and all of their owners with trainers filtering in and out to get payment with no system to distance them or safely have them enter training? (Response to this concern from owner is their lobby is under renovation as if there is no other system that could have been worked out, staggered entrances, waiting in cars or parking lots, lol) Fast forward to being in the actual training, my 14 week old lab was identified as an “alligator” meaning she takes treats hard/bites hard. I don’t dispute that at all, it’s something we’ve been working on. (When I mentioned we were working on it, Jackie laughed at me saying that was like her working with her child on not playing paintball in the house???? I don’t know what that means but she asked nothing of my background of going to training or what I was doing to work on this). She approached my puppy and asked if she could show me how to correct it, I said yes. (That’s literally why I’m in this class, why would I say no). Imagine my surprise when she grabs my dogs head and pushed her back by her loose skin until my 14 week old puppy literally yelps in pain. I was shocked and confused, and went through the rest of the class to their credit, with no other incidents related to my dog. I will say that they brought in an adult dog who had graduated from all of their programs, and had him demonstrate some tricks. When he went to be placed on a table, and chose the wrong one (there were two tables) his owner gave him a “no” command and went towards him, and the dog flinched. That coupled with what I had just seen with my dog told me as full a story as I needed. After discussing with my partner, I reached out to the business and told them based on this incident, this training didn’t align with what I wanted for my puppy. I offered to pay a pro rated amount for the class I did attend, and asked for a refund for the rest, and to part ways. I’ve attached screen shots of the responses from the business here, lol. You’ll see in the first email, while yes my dog did yelp in pain, it was quieter than her bark?? This seems to be Jackie’s personal measurement of dog pain based on decibels. That’s the only thing I can discern. They offered for me to transfer to another trainer- the entire business is called Jackie’s training?? And I was with Jackie?? In the second email you’ll see that in the same video as the first email, magically, there is no yelping!!! What a relief that is, as in the first email, we got into what pitch level the yelping is. Amazing to see it never happened! Jackie firmly believes she had the right to hurt your dog and charge you for the pleasure.

We have been working with Jackie since she was running the number one dog training program in the nation for Pet Smart and rejoiced when she set up her own dog training shop. We had 2 Golden Retrievers, Lexi & Ella, that became therapy dogs through Jackie's training. We now have 2 new Golden Retrievers that are litter mates and 9 months old, Chloe & Olive. We mistakenly had them e-collared trained. That did not work for us and thank God, Jackie & Rebecca were willing to work with them and they are now doing so well. Could not recommend a better dog training facility. Mike Jones