Alpha Dog Training

I was very disappointed. I gave him a call and told him I would like to use his service. On the phone I told him my main concerns on what I would like my dog trained with. He comes and trains on the premisis which is awesome! When he got to the house my dog did not warm up to him for at least 10-15 minutes and my dog is so friendly so it kinda startled me. I understand backing up from a dog when they're being protective and they're barking at you. But they're not not responding to you because they think you're a alpha. I also went to calm my dog down to show him he was our friend but the trainer told me to not talk to my dog. Once we finally got in to the house my dog was still a little protective so he told us to put the shock collar on him and he shocked my dog right away and that's what scared my dog to calm down. Like on a previous review, he uses shock collars and choke collars, which is each to their own. The trainer also talks to you, the owner, like you're the dog. He commands you to take notes. You should suggest them to take notes not command. He basically repeated himself 20 times. I don't know if I looked confused or sounded confused but I understood the first time. He kept saying training is common sense. That being said he told me everything I already knew and have been trying with my dog. He did ask how I trained my dog and I told him but he did not either understand me/hear me( I do have a quite voice). I would ask questions because he kept on contradicting himself. When not to use my dogs name and then he would use it when he just said not to use it. Or he would use different motions for the same command so I would try to clarify why he would do that for the same command. When we actually started to train my pup he goes, oh your dog does that. And that was the one thing I specifically told him I needed him trained on. He was only with my dog and I for two hours. He told me on the phone he would have my dog trained in 3-4 hours in one session. Like his response to some reviews he does say you can call him anytime after the first session and the service is free. Then he will keep helping you train your dog. That being said if our first experience wasn't good, why would we call you back to keep helping us. Each to their own. Every experience is different depending on the day so maybe it was an off day for the trainer and I was the one person who had a bad experience but I will not recommend Alpha dog training.

We have a three-year-old male husky that had severe separation anxiety. He was knocking down our big plastic fence and getting his paws caught and was injuring himself badly. We did everything we could and knew how to do to try to fix his anxiety. We got a hold of alpha dog training and they came out and worked with us for a couple of sessions and actually cured the separation anxiety by teaching us what to do and what not to do when we leave our house. Marshall showed us what to do and what not to do when leaving the house. He taught us how to keep Sampson calm when we leave. He showed us desensitization exercises to do with Sampson before we left the house. It took about two weeks and Sampson was actually cured from any separation anxiety. It was really a miracle! Thanks to alpha dog training, highly recommend!

Quick rundown of what to expect. The Alpha Dog trainer will show up to your house, sit down and ask you to take notes. He will go through his opinion of your dog and how to fix your dogs issues. He will give homework, practice a few techniques, ask for money and leave. He will not follow up after that. Whole thing takes about 3 hours. Since working with this Alpha Dog trainer, we have gotten second and third opinions from our vet and another trainer because while our dog improved somewhat after following our notes for several months, our dog still had issues. Our other trainer provided notes rather than asking us to take notes which was nice. Our vet and trainer are of the opinion that Alpha Dog's training method may have exacerbated our dog's issues rather than helped them. Was somewhat helpful. Methods have not proven effective long term. Would not recommend. Also, some people have an aversion to choke chains and shock collars and Alpha Dog uses/recommends them.