Robin's Dog Stars

Personally, if you have any experience in owning or training dogs at all, Robin wont be much help to you. I feel as though my time and money were wasted on her training session. We hired Robin to help us extinguish a specific behavior in our 7 year old Mountain Cur/Australian shepherd mix (growling at our children). During the session, Robin made several remarks that were borderline disrespectful, as well as, made us realize she is not the "expert" dog trainer she makes herself out to be. She came in unprepared (having to use our treats because she didn’t bring her own) and gave a feeling of superiority when it came to training. She spent a solid ten minutes at the end of the session telling me over and over again that I needed to take a break from all the chaos in my home (I have three kids), and that I should take a bubble bath more often. She suggested to use a clicker after every behavior (including bad ones), which is something you should never do. She also suggested that we speak to our dog as though she was a small child, and mentioned several times that my dog was in pain and that was causing her behavior. I mentioned several times to Robin that my dog has been to the vet and received X-rays, blood work and full examinations, and even the vet said that the issue was in fact a behavior issue, not a physical one. Later on, Robin said, “Wow, for a dog in pain, she moves pretty well”. Well, probably because my dog isn’t in pain…. Robin also quizzed me at one point about clicker training and what exactly it was. I explained to her that I had read Karen Pryers clicker training and was fully aware of how to successfully use it. I found her quizzing me about it very unhelpful, a waste of time, and disrespectful. Robin also spent a chunk of time trying to teach me to teach my dog Stay with the word “Place”. I spent a solid five minutes circling my dogs bed while she stayed put on the bed. Once my dog did finally move, Robin freaked out yelling free free and waving her arms around, while I said No, once firmly. My dog returned to the bed and She asked me why I told my dog no. I explained because she did a behavior that I didn’t want and she understands a firm no when I say it. Robin looked at me as though I had just said the craziest thing she’d ever heard. Robin mentioned many times how kind and well behaved my dog is, and when my dog did growl at one of my children, while she was backed in a corner, she said, "Hm, interesting. I wonder what just happened there and what she was trying to tell us. maybe she is hurting." My husband and I just stared in disbelief that she didn't understand that my dog growled at my child because my dog wanted space away from my child. Robin also asked me how I had trained my dog originally and I explained that my dog was just eager to please and willingly did anything I asked. She laughed at me and said, "Dogs don’t do things because we ask, but because there’s a promise of food.” Now this wording cemented to me that Robin wasn't very knowledgable in regards to animal behaviorism. If a dog is only responding to the promise of food (the stimulus) then they are not trained. When the behavior follows a command without any promise of food and with knowing there is no promise of food, then they are trained (Conditioned stimulus). Honestly, I don't think Robin listened to anything we said to her or understood what we were trying to get out of the session. There were several other comments made but I don’t need to go any further in explaining that I don’t believe my money or time was well spent with Robin. She was friendly and nice (in the beginning) but she is much better suited for people who know nothing about training or dogs. I would not call her an expert in training by any means. My husband and I said after she had left that we just spent $160 for a $3 clicker and something we could’ve gotten off youtube