Journey of Misfits

If you are concerned about COVID, this is not a safe place! The training room was small, considering there were 12 students, and only 2 of us were wearing masks. Angela, the instructor, never wore a mask even though she would often be within a foot or two of the participants. She never recommended to the students that they wear masks. The instruction itself seemed fine - that is not what this review is about. We dropped out after 2 sessions because of our concerns about COVID infection. I tried 3 times on 3 different days (via email and phone) to contact Angela about our concerns, and she did not get back to me for 5 days. When she did finally call me back, Angela refused to give a refund even though we only went to 2 of the 6 sessions and alerted her about our concerns before discontinuing. We have since registered at Animal Inn Training School, in Lake Elmo. They take their COVID precautions seriously there. This is what they had to say at Animal Inn Training School: "We have taken and are taking a number of precautions against the spread of COVID19. Everyone in and around the building are required to wear masks (when in the agility ring - outside - you can take your mask off to run. You should put it back on before you leave the ring." (Animal Inn Training School) "We reduced the number of rings from 3 to 2. So the ring is larger and there are fewer classes going at the same time. We made the aisles larger. We reduced our class sizes. We are asking that there be only one trainer per dog (some exceptions include minor children training should have a parent present). We removed a majority of the chairs. We are wiping down the chairs and gates and handles between classes. We changed the front door to an entrance only and the side doors are used for potty breaks and exits. We added plexi glass to the check in desk. We changed to on line registration and on line payment processing to reduce contact." (Animal Inn Training School) "In addition to these physical things we treated our customers with respect. We refunded or credited all customers who did not feel comfortable coming back when we reopened. We refunded all rentals we had scheduled during the shutdown. We took the down time to clean and reset the building." (Animal Inn Training School) These are the sorts of precautions that should be taken by professional organizations. If you feel comfortable risking your health and that of your family, feel free to take the class at Journey of Misfits.

Angela is an amazing trainer. We went to her 12 years ago with our first puppy, and she is still well trained to this day. I cannot recommend someone enough. She has an eye for the nuances in dog behavior and gives you great tips on how to improve your own behavior in order to get good results. We are currently attending classes with our new pup, and are already seeing the benefits of a good obedience trainer.