S.M.A.R.T. Dog School

I invested thousands of dollars in S.M.A.R.T Dog School for “All-inclusive lessons for the lifetime of your dog.” After only a few lessons, the trainers who were truly making progress with my dog left the business, reportedly due to poor treatment and other issues. On August 13, 2025, the owner, Randy Byrd, announced the school’s immediate and permanent closure. My attempts to contact him have gone unanswered, and no refunds have been issued for the undelivered services. This experience has been extremely disappointing and a costly waste. I strongly urge others to choose a training program that upholds its promises and treats both clients and staff with respect.

When we joined in March 2025, we were optimistic, but the program has been a major disappointment. We were told different things in every Phase 1 session and never got to work on our main concerns. We were assured that we would get to them in Phase 2, which completely contradicted our initial consultation. Communication from the owner is nonexistent. They do not answer phone calls and ignore text messages when we ask questions. The instability of the staff is a major problem. There have been two complete staff turnovers within a month and a half, which led to us receiving incorrect information about when classes would resume. The biggest issue is the drastic change to the schedule. We were guaranteed that classes would be offered after 5 p.m. and on weekends. However, with the latest staff turnover, the owner is now only offering classes from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., four days a week. This change makes it impossible for us to continue and feels like a complete breach of the initial agreement. The lack of consistency, poor communication, and unprofessional changes have made this a very frustrating experience.

Within the last 4 months, the entire training staff has quit twice. We paid $4,000 for our dog to have training, and he has regressed tremendously due to the lack of consistency within the staff and the program. They had an amazing group of trainers who all left and were quickly replaced by inexperienced trainers, who then also quit. They are running the business from 10-4, which is not what was promised. We chose this school because of the scheduling and promises of later scheduling. There is no real transparency on what is happening within the program and it has been a HUGE waste of money and an absolute scam.

I was with the school in 2019 for one dog and came back later with another pup around 2022 (all trainers I’ve never met before). I was a consistent client and the trainers were all amazing. A couple months ago the ENTIRE staff walked out for moral reasons. I can’t speak to all the new trainers that Randy replaced in a hurry, but one of the 3 was a recently new client who was just learning to train her own dog. Long story short, I later learned that this is fourth time the entire staff has walked out at once. I will not come back here. I am following the good people who were obviously not being treating right (why else would an entire staff walk out on the same day). They were all very experienced and my dogs will go where they go.