McKelvey Kennels

Some of the advice this woman offers is decent-- and could potentially create greater discipline in my dog. The fact that she could not address the actual reason that I came to her, was ludicrously expensive, and then had the nerve to claim she had to told me that on the phone-- when I had expressed doubts DURING THAT CONVERSATION and she had insisted that something could be done over time-- so that I would drive an hour and a half each way to see her, was egregious. Along with her constant plugging of products that I didn't need (and she conveniently sold)-- and her suggestion that almost 2 hours of walking my dog a day isn't enough-- really what I got in this encounter was a $200 lesson on how to get my dog not to pull on a leash. I was told everything about my lifestyle with my dog is wrong, without her even asking for specifics on my dog's behavior or what is realistic given our setup. One size fits all approach, and the BONUS that changing all of it cannot improve his chances for safety or an improvement of behavior where it matters most. Chris didn't check that I understood how to do what she was saying. I repeatedly had to correct her on things that she had assumed about my dog. She put my dog in a situation with an unknown dog without asking me if it was okay or even warning me. Still most importantly at the end of the day, her only solution to my dog's behavioral problems was 24 hours a day policing or physical separation-- in other words, something I could have worked out on my own without shelling out a whole day and a couple hundred bucks. Chris is skeptical about "new school positive training" for dogs and maintains opinions that fly in the face of new research--- like tug of war being "practice" for aggression-- when studies have shown that isn't that case. She seems to think that nothing is wrong with making your dog lay in a confined space for hours on end with no stimulation. Honestly, the entire thing felt like a racket with her going through everything I said and saying it is wrong, and then at the end of the day telling me it wouldn't make any difference unless I could commit to keeping my dog locked up. it is so much easier to go through and nit-pick everything someone is doing to make someone feel like they are "getting advice" than it is to actually train a dog to think or behave in a different way. And frankly, although expressing greater dominance over a dog may have value, expressing no affection for and treating your dog like a freaking inanimate object to "establish first position dominance" is not the reason most people have dogs. I will be using the leash technique, something I had already heard but she fine-tuned, and one or two other pieces of advice, but as for an actual way to change his behavior I'm going to have to do a lot more research since she was unable to help me and unwilling to admit that help was possible. Frankly, I left her place discouraged, hopeless, angry, and annoyed at having to back down a 100 yard driveway that is inexplicably bedecked with an obstacle course full of cones. She also tried to charge me $30 for a collar, which I am mailing back to her after realizing it is half as much on amazon.