My Dog is My Rock, LLC

I would give zero stars if I could. We rescued our two shepherds from Westside German Shepherd Rescue, and one of our dogs became reactive after a traumatic surgery he went through. We took him to Emily a little less than a year ago, and I quickly caught on that she used very aversive techniques and follows a compulsion training method. Other clients coming into the group training session were yelling at their dogs and yanking the prong collars to the point where one of the dogs yelped. It was genuinely really hard to watch. The environment she fosters is one of punishment and fear. I remember one of our exercises she had us walking up stairs in a heel. One of the dogs was scared of the stairs and she had the gall to try and drag him up the stairs, resulting in a yelp. She then got down on his level and announced to the class that some dogs needed a gentle nudge and finally used some positive reinforcement. But of course the dog wasn’t going up the stairs- any chance of that was ruined immediately when she tried dragging the poor thing by his prong. Eventually our reactive dog was barking enough that Emily put a prong collar on him, with no prior introduction or conditioning. She walked him in a line and when he had a reaction to another dog, she pulled up so hard on his prong that his front feet came off the ground and he screamed. She had the balls to tell us that that scream was a good thing and was ‘pent up frustration’. We are never coming back to her. Please do not take your dogs here. Your dog will learn to fear you.