Gladio K9

My wife and I have discussed getting a Belgian Malinois puppy continuously over the past 4 years. My wife has dreamed of owning this dog for over a decade now. After countless hours of research, videos, and advice from other owners, we fully understand the time, money, patience, and commitment that this breed demands. We have been in agreement for years that this is not a challenge that we will undertake until the time is right. After meticulous consideration and planning, my wife and I determined that we are in a position to finally make our dream a reality. My wife is a personal friend of a Malinois breeder whose husband is a K-9 handler in their local police department. We reached out earlier this year and luckily, she was planning on a potential litter being born in August, just before I would be returning home from my latest military deployment. I returned home in early September and we have already been by the breeder’s home multiple times to bond with our puppy even though she will not be ready to come home with us until the end of September. Being responsible owners, we have already been on a search for the right trainer for us and our puppy. My wife came across Gladio K9 online and was so excited because of the wonderful reviews this company seems to have online. Unfortunately, our experience was anything but wonderful. She reached out via email and a phone call was set up to discuss training. My wife called Jay on speaker phone so we could both listen in on the conversation. He starts out by saying “Let me be blunt… why”? I immediately knew which direction this conversation was heading. My wife briefly explained our situation, as I did earlier in this review. Jay proceeded to speak down to us in such a condescending and quite frankly, arrogant tone. He spoke of two Belgian’s that he was currently attempting to train, apparently unsuccessfully, as they are not listening to commands. I understand this can be a possibility with a dog of this caliber, especially if the owners waited too long to begin training. However, we reached out to inquire about training weeks before we are even bringing our puppy home specifically to avoid a scenario like this. He then continued to tell us that we are practically wasting our money on this dog and that we should contact our breeder to cancel everything. We could not believe how he was speaking to us. Jay doesn’t know either of us from a hole in the wall and knows nothing about my personal background including my 14 year Military career or my wife’s background in which she works with dog owners of every breed imaginable. We were excited to speak to him about training and instead we were subject to unsolicited “advice” and lecturing that I would more accurately describe as “belittling” in which he told us we would undoubtedly be failures as Malinois owners. Not only did he make horrible and insulting assumptions about us, but he doesn’t seem particularly confident in his ability to train an 8 week old puppy. I would never recommend this man or his company to anyone.

I honestly can’t say enough good things about Jay. He is super down to earth and very personable. He is so great with our GSD, Bentley. I am 100 percent certain Bentley looks at this as play/learning time with Jay and comes out knowing like one or two new tricks each week that we continue to work on with him (I’m not sure who has more fun, Jay or Bentley?). Bentley had general GSD behavioral issues but Jay pretty much whipped him into shape from week one and he has steadily improved throughout. We can now say one word commands and Bentley is way more attentive to what we’re saying and listens almost immediately. Jay is also lower in price than other trainers in RI and he works with your dog and your dog alone so they get focus. Basically, sign up if you can ASAP. He has a full schedule for a very good reason and I’m not sure we’re willing to give our spot up any time soon!

Jay was awesome with my 8 year old Australian Shepherd mix named Scooby. Scooby is an older dog that i was scared to bring out to walks and to play at the park with because he was aggressive. Jay made me understand that at his age Scooby didn’t have a guarantee to change his ways, but after a full session with Jay at Gladio K9 he was able to understand and give Scooby the confidence to be happy again and for me to walk him out with more confidence. If you’re looking for a transparent trainer that will give you the right advice about your dog, Jay is the right guy. I’m very satisfied with his work. Didn’t think i would be able to help my dog with his aggression, but now i am able to show him a better life.