Friendly K9 Dog Training Academy.

This is going to be a long review, so bare with me. My intent with this review, is to try and inform the public of what they should be looking for, if they want to hire dog trainers etc. This is my personal experience with this company and with anything, you should always do your due diligence as a customer. The reason I am giving friendlyk9 2 stars is as follows. 1 star for getting back to me promptly. Mind you, they didn't really answer my questions but they were prompt with their responses. 1 star for refunding our deposit within 24 hrs of voicing my questions/concerns, without even asking them to. The reason why my partner and I reached out to this company is because our dog has severe anxiety. She has been diagnosed with a Panic Disorder by a licensed Veterinarian Behaviouralist. We currently are following a behavioural program and she is on prescribed medications. She is only 2 years old (by end of sept) and it has been a long healing journey for her. We have never had a dog with severe anxiety before, and are used to well-rounded mentally healthy dogs. My partner and I have been devastated that she is not the happy go lucky dog our previous dogs have been, and we want her to have the best life. My partner came across this company on insta, and was enamored with their alleged "success stories", especially with their Anxiety/aggression board and train programs. So, he reached out and they called us within 24 hrs. This is where it gets concerning. I had not seen their insta prior to the phone call, so it's on me for not doing my research prior to this phone call. We spoke with one of the owners, Richard. He was very nice but was quite aggressive with his sales approach. He kept insisting that we had to pay a deposit in order to secure a spot for the anxiety board and train program. He kept repeating that we should trust them because of their instagram and all of their 5 star reviews on Google. He offered us a $500 discount because we rescued our dog. He did mention that they allegedly don't use shock, prong, ecollar, or choke collars. But failed to mention HOW they train the dogs, and why the dogs are so "successful" once leaving the board and train program. Obviously it's on the owners to follow with the training regimen once the dog leaves their care but he failed to mention how exactly they magically get these dogs "better" in such a short timeframe. The one he wanted us to enroll in would be 2 1/2 weeks. He insisted that we would be able to receive frequent notifications/videos on how our pup would be doing, during the program. But according to lots of their reviews, you only receive updates once or twice a week. He informed us that one of their philosophies is to not have the dogs be on any anti-anxiety medication etc while in the program. Our dog is currently on anti-anxiety medication but she is NOT sedated. Her quality of life has improved since being on meds and she can actually sleep throughout the night. Dogs need at least 15-16hrs of sleep per day. Pre-meds, she was maybe getting 6-8hrs of sleep because of her hypervigilance. Now she can actually rest during the day for a 1-2 hr nap and sleep 9hrs overnight. However, according to this company, they don't believe in anti-anxiety medications for dogs and thinks they "mask the anxiety" and claim this is backed by literature. This is absolutely not the case and any licensed dog trainer/behaviouralist would encourage medication, when appropriate. My partner was desperate to find this magic solution and gave them the deposit right after that phone call. But my gut was telling me something was off. I looked online and looked up board and train programs. Unfortunately, the dog training industry etc is UNREGULATED. What that means is that there's no "standard" in which people have to abide. Literally anyone can claim to be an animal behaviouralist or dog trainer. You don't have to have any formal training, education, or certifications. So what can you do? Ask the business/company what their actual qualifications are, and not just what their reviews are. Actual professional licensed dog trainers/behaviouralists need certifications and continuing education, to back their claims. I asked Richard in an email what their education, certifications etc are, and he did not tell me. Nowhere on their website, YouTube, or Instagram does it say that they have the actual behaviouralist certifications. They are part of the Eastern States working dog association and that's it. That is not an association that provides dog behavioural training. Any dog trainer or behaviouralist that works with anxious/aggressive dogs needs those certifications to provide best practice care. In my email I also requested to have a tour of the facility and over-see one of their training sessions in person. We have never met these people or seen their facility. You would never send your kid to a daycare without meeting the staff or send your kid somewhere, without seeing where your kid will spend their time. This should be the same for your dogs. In the phone call, they did not offer to have a tour or meet with us prior to the programming. They did not respond to my request to see the facility or see an in person session. Seeing an in person session is important, because you want to see how they treat the dogs. Anyone can say they don't mistreat the dogs but behind closed doors could be a different story. We wanted to make sure they don't use aversive techniques to teach obedience or treat anxiety/aggression. My request was met with silence. And lastly, I insisted that our dog remain on her medication during the programming because her quality of life has improved. You would never have humans stop their psychiatric medications when engaged in therapy/exposure therapy etc. When used appropriately, medications are a great tool in congruence with therapy. The same applies to animals. They do not believe in medications and wanted her off of them if enrolled. Within 30 mins of sending my email requesting what their licensed qualifications/certifications/education of their trainers were, if we could tour the facility and see an in person training session, and requesting our dog remain on her medications Richard sent an email back. He thanked me for my questions, said he appreciated my due diligence and proceeded to not answer any of my questions except saying that our dog would not be a good fit and they don't believe in medications. He refunded our deposit promptly. He did not offer to call us for further explanation and after saying I was disappointed in the lack of answers to my questions, he proceeded to still not answer our questions but stated they were open to answering questions??? Make it make sense. I cannot with good conscience recommend this company if you have an anxious/aggressive dog. Maybe their puppy program is good, who knows. But do your research! Any reputable trainer will be more than happy to answer the questions I had, they were not unreasonable. Very basic questions. Again dog training and board and train programs are UNREGULATED. Many are using aversive/abusive techniques to make your dog obedient. Positive reinforcement is best practice. I'm glad I trusted my intuition. I'm hoping this review will not get deleted and maybe this will encourage dog owners to research these programs before enrolling their dogs.