The Canine Coach - St Louis Park

I didn't want to write this review but after a few weeks, I felt it important to warn other people before they spend $1,500. They don't do clicker training (as is touted on their website). The bootcamp consists of a lot of time in a crate. Our trainer was incredibly kind but often she was visibly stressed out and exhausted. Despite doing our assigned homework, our dog really never connected with the training. Each week is supposed to teach a new set of skills, before "dog walking week" even started, our trainer suggested we use a prong collar. I know many people use negative reinforcement in training, and that is their choice, but the whole reason we chose The Canine Coach is that their website repeatedly states they only use positive reinforcement. At the end of the 4 weeks, our dog hadn't really mastered any of the "12 reliable behaviors" that he didn't already know. Lastly, the additional in-home training was absolutely beyond unprofessional. The trainer showed up and was--for lack of better description--uninvested. When we asked for suggestions regarding our dog getting excited about squirrels during walks, his first and only suggestion was to use a shock collar. He didn't ask what we had tried or anything, he just immediately went for "shock collar." Again, I understand that some people choose to use a shock collar, but we deliberately chose The Canine Coach because they allegedly only use positive reinforcement. The trainer then half-heartedly did some recall practice before checking his phone repeatedly and then cutting our session short by 20 minutes. We haven't booked our second in-home training session. tl;dr No clicker training. Repeated suggested use of negative reinforcement. Sessions cut short. Dog didn't learn anything new.