Austin Canine Central

Austin Canine Central has been great for my pup and me. We have been attending the obedience classes with Julie and the conformation classes with Jo Lynne. Both of the instructors are amazing. They provide encouragement and feedback for areas to work on. I've emailed both of them (on different occasions) with concerns about how my dog was behaving. Both Julie and Jo Lynne responded quickly to my concerns and gave me insight on how to handle the situations. It does take work and practice outside of class, but the instructors at Canine Central are top-notch.

Today we just completed our Beyond Basics Class with Julie. My third class with her. We also tested and passed for our Canine Good Citizenship title. Yay! Julie had us more than prepared. It’s been a long time since I trained a dog (trained dogs 20 years ago in agility and obedience) and Julie has taught me so much. I’m so impressed with her current ways to teach basics like down and recall in ways we didn’t do in the past. It’s so positive and my dog is doing amazing and responding so well that I can’t wait for the next class. Rally here we come!

The trainer scares dogs until they pee here. I deeply regret signing up for obedience here. I wanted to train my dog to compete in rally and obedience and after a paid evaluation (where the trainer did not train but asked me to show us what we knew - in hindsight total waste of money) were told what level class to take. The first class was so stressful for me and my dog, and I wish I could say I quit after that. Everything was taught with a harsh collar pop. There was no teaching the dog, just an immediate jerk and then forcing the dog into the position the trainer wanted. I wish I had quit, but I came home with a very stressed out dog. I decided to try it one more week, and the trainer asked to handle my dog for a minute. She immediately started fighting him and hanging him, I told her to stop and against her protesting took him back. After this they refused to answer my emails or calls or offer any sort of refund. There was a rescue in the class that was peeing all over the floor anytime they would pop his collar he was so scared, and the trainer just kept insisting to his owner they needed to do it (this was how she taught a recall). My dog is incredibly eager to please and learns anything really fast (even tricks like blowing bubbles in water) and yet the trainer was so stuck in her harsh ways he learned nothing and hated her and I can’t stand that I didn’t pull him out 5 minutes into the first class. We found a different training where my boy is THRIVING. I’m not against balanced training, but I’m against being unable to teach a dog anything without starting by hurting them 💔😭 the homework she sent out required a MINIMUM of 60 collar pops a day, many more of the dog didn’t do it perfectly every time. I took a class in September Last year but was so stressed out about the awful experience I didn’t post this review until now.