The K9 Training Academy

STAY AWAY PART 1. PLEASE SEE FULL REVIEW IN YELP I would like to start by saying that everything I will say here is backed up by written evidence. Except for one phone conversation, I can back all claims with screenshots or copies of what was actually written to me. My only intention is to write the kind of review I wish I would have read before leaving my dogs at K9 Training Academy. And just a clarification, all this was triggered by me daring to make a grand total of two enquiries about their progress in 25 days. The issue that triggered all these below was Rick saying that he needed to use a “stubborn dog collar” for one of my dogs. I have been using an ecollar on her to correct chasing. Level 25 out of 100 will stop the chase immediately and she would vocalize at 40. This is a dog that spends 2 hours daily at an unfenced dog park with children, bikes, skateboards, BBQs and goes to the off leash beach every weekend. What does he use with an aggressive, red zone dog? The electric chair? I would like to think that this was just a dishonest sales gimmick to sell me a new $500 system I do not need. I really do not want to think he has been shocking my dog at level 100 and higher. But made me concerned enough to want to take my dogs back, or at least see in person how they were doing. Well, his reaction to this was literally “it is my way or the highway” and the options were: a) leave your dogs here until I decide their training is finished or take them with you after paying the balance in full. A long story short, I took my dogs out after 26 days and after thousands of dollars, I asked Rick to please update me on what he had done with them and which commands he had taught them. After 3 tries I finally got a response. I will copy his exact words here as I believe they deserve an exact quote: “Susana, sorry for the delay, we are real busy here. Your dogs were worked in the following commands (it's on your contract) : Heel. Sit. Down. Stay. Come. Crate. Place. No.” Not only I paid thousands of dollars for this but: The dogs were already trained on Sit, No and Down and had a 99% come response. They do not respond at all to Place and Crate after the 25 days. One of the dogs was already leash trained, in all honesty, the other one is marginally better on her leash manners, none can do heel. Maybe they were not shocked enough or with enough force. This profile is public, this is not an anonymous review, please feel free to contact me if you would like evidence or more information before making a decision on dog training. I am sure there are plenty professional services in the South Florida area, you do not need to subject yourself and your dog to aggression and bullying.