The Puppy Academy

For anyone thinking of paying $5k to have their dog trained...do not choose this place. My husband and I are glad we were warned before enrolling our puppy. There is a reason they rarely let pet owners inside. There are up to 30 dogs at a time, sometimes more and for most of the day they sit in crates. They take the dogs out for shorts amount of time for walks, and short bursts of training. If your dog is considered reactive they put it in the "zen room" which is actually a back closet where it's pitch black and where they store cleaning supplies. It's a small cramped space and they cover the dogs, presumably so they don't bark. That's what people are paying for. $5,000 to have your dog in a dark crate all day. If your dog isn't reactive, it'll be in the main room, but still in a crate for most of the day. Ask to tour the ENTIRE facilities, including the zen room. We had friends who asked to tour it and were denied...wonder why.

Update 12/1/24: My last update, unless something changes. To close the loop - as soon as I said my review could not be bought, I never heard a word from Marco again. We never received the additional training we were offered and accepted. We never received the refund we were offered and accepted. Given our experience, I have no choice but to believe the vast majority of the reviews were bought. My recommendation is to save your money and find another trainer. We'll take our $5k loss and lick our wounds. So many ways this could have been addressed and remedied and they went the shady route. Update 11/6/24: Google Reviews has a character limit, so please see my full review on Yelp about how the owner of Puppy Academy tried to buy me off to change my review and then ghosted me when I informed him I would only update, rather than change my honest review of our experience. ——— We are incredibly disappointed in our experience with Puppy Academy and I find it strange there are ONLY five star ratings, except for one stars from people who didn't pass evaluation. Incredibly suspicious. We enrolled our 4 month old Saint Bernard in Puppy Preschool, which was a three day a week, three month program for $5,000. A ridiculous amount, but we were told they would be spending most of the day training and received a list of all the commands they would learn. We would then have four owner sessions, ostensibly to teach us what to reinforce. We became worried in the first month when she had learned NOTHING. I brought it up to PA and they assured me the next month we would start to see improvement. Then we got to the "homework assignments". They instructed that we should be spending AT LEAST 90 minutes a day training her on the days she wasn't in class. Um, that's LITERALLY what we were paying them to do. The lead trainer kept exclaiming how great it was that she will sit on "place" for four hours at a time, which is when we realized we had paid $5000 for her to sit on a bed. I kept bringing up concerns that she wasn't improving and just kept getting notes to "keep practicing." After the three month program, she learned to sit and lie down. That's it. She has NO recall at all. The only reason she walks decently at all on a leash is that they had us put a prong collar on (which we were fine with, as she's incredibly strong). I'm beginning to expect, especially after seeing only five star reviews from people with no other reviews, that we were defrauded. We are very consistent and experienced dog owners and have no issues remaining consistent with training. But basically they took $5,000 from us to make us train our own dog. I wish there was some guarantee or refund policy because we now have to pay for a second trainer. We will never again go to a trainer that doesn't let you observe either in-person or on video. There are 30+ dogs there at a time. That is an INCREDIBLE amount of money to be getting to have dogs lie down most of the day and have the owners do the training.

Where do I start....I ended up with COVID 12/2023 and had several new onsets of health conditions that have been completely debilitating. I am a registered nurse who has been off work for over 10 months now. 3 months into my leave, my counselor and primary MD decided I needed an emotional support animal, (ESA). I knew I didn't have the stamina to train or even take a dog on walks. I needed time to heal and rest so I purchased, on a limited budget, their unlimited package which is 6 days a week up to 12 hours a day (their normal program is 3 days a week). The program was worth every penny. Although I had limited income, I knew this program was vital for me to make this ESA work, which I needed so desperately. Fast forward....I'm still very sick and off work, however, the Puppy Academy worked with my dog and me to make sure we were a success. Each one of the staff members are AMAZING, from administration to the trainers. They all care so much not only about your dog but the owner as well. You receive daily "report cards" on how your pup did during daily training and what homework to do to instill the training learned. A huge shout out to my dog's main trainers, Sparky and Josh who had patience with me even though I didn't follow through with all their professional advice, until the end that is. Each trainer and staff are so encouraging and loving. In addition to the weekly training sessions, you receive 4 one hour "Professional Trainer Sessions" (which I had with Sparky) throughout the program. I would recommend this program to anybody getting a new pup. It is worth every penny! I know I wouldn't have been able to keep my puppy if it weren't for them. Thank you so much Puppy Academy!!