Adventure Canine Training

I recommend Adventure Canine Training no doubt! I’ve met a lot of dog trainers in the area and have toured a lot of facilites across the states going to different dog sport competitions & seminars. ACT is the ONLY dog training facility in middle TN that I would let my dogs stay at. In fact Brooke is watching my girls in December! My two shepherds have their own needs that she is great with. My older one has arthritis so needs extra attention with stretches & needs a bigger crate/kennel to sleep in so she doesn’t cramp up. While my younger one is picky with other dogs but loves a few so Brooke really took the time to see who my fluffy girl can match up with for play times. My drive time to Brooke is 1 hour & 28 minutes. I have boarding facilites within 30 minutes of me, but she is worth that longer drive (she also will send picture/video updates!) Brooke is helping me with teaching my younger dog appropriate play manners / socializing with other dogs as well.

It’s been almost 2 years since we sent both of our dogs here. We had one dog with crazy separation anxiety (covid dog 100%) and another that was just a crazy Aussie who could not walk on a leash if her life depended on it. It’s an understatement to say that ACT greatly improved our quality of life with our pups. Have we had some new problems pop up? Of course! Like kids, dogs go through phases of life. They change as they get older and it’s an ongoing process to keep them trained. We had an issue with leash walking a couple months ago. I texted Brooke and she showed up the NEXT DAY to help us. We still send our dogs there for boarding and trust that they are getting the care and enrichment they need. I would highly recommended ACT if you are looking for help!

It's been 6 months since my pups board and train with Adventure Canine. I spent a lot of money, $3.5k to send him here and if I am being honest my dog came back with more issues than positive changes. Don't get me wrong, he is a little more obedient, and I've kept up with everything. Thing is, he didn't really learn to be a good behaved obedient dog, he learned through an e-collar how to sit or stay for a short amount of time really. Maybe he was too young to go at 8 months, and if that's the case they should have been upfront about that. What really concerns me is that they told me his e-collar working level was 40ish....and I trusted them. His working level is 7. Wow. My pup has separation anxiety and before he went here it took him 10min to settle down in his crate. I was hoping to work my way up to leaving him alone for a full work day....oh boy nope. He came back with even more severe separation anxiety and a fear of the crate. I gave him time to adapt back to home and it wasn't a temporary set back. I understand not all dogs have separation anxiety, but mine does and it was my biggest point when discussing with them on boarding him. I think, emphasis on think, they have a big room with a bunch of crates that the dogs are left in, and I think they are left in there for really long amounts of time. Maybe that is fine for a normal dog, but not one with separation anxiety. Going from my progress at up to 2 hours alone to whatever they did has caused me so many problems. I can't leave him alone for even 5 minutes anymore. He loved his crate before, and as soon as he got back he was afraid of it. He is a high energy dog, ill say that (golden puppy energy), and the training didnt teach him to act at say a 50 instead of a 100...it just "forced" him to sit while at 100....so as soon as he is out of that command he would just go buck wild. So for a dog like him he needs to be brought down from 100 to a calm level and then trained in that mindset. That did not happen. Again, maybe shock collar obedient training only is enough for some dogs, but it wasn't for mine. Having a dog who can sit while I back away slowly does me nothing if when he is released he is still in demon mode. They should have realized this as professional trainers and trained him in a way to create a more obedient, secure, and trusting mindset or then told me that his issues dont work well with their system. I'm left with being out $$ that i sacrificed A LOT to pay for and a dog who every time he sees the e-collar remote he gets scared or has to go into his crate. I would have been better off spending more time finding a trainer who understood the nuances of him or just continuing what I was doing instead of bringing him here. It seems others have had really good experiences though. Just be careful if your pup sounds like mine. Very nice people though, even with all the complications we had during my training and pick up. Maybe I just got the short straw, am the outlier.