Integrity K9 Academy

Summary - if you want some cheap exercise for your dog, 5/5. If you want dog training or agility, 1/5. Brought my pup in for a “march madness” agility session special that was advertised online. 2 stars is because my dog seemed to have a good time and gained some confidence on the agility obstacles. Upon bringing her in, I was surprised to learn that this session was for the dog only and I would just come back at the end. Maybe this was my mistake, but I had expected more of an agility lesson for both of us - in all my other training experiences, I’ve learned it’s not very useful to teach the dog unless the owner knows how to interact correctly with them. In addition, I was told that the separation was so the dogs in training wouldn’t be distracted by a bunch of people. In the end, my dog was the only dog in the session, so this clearly was not true. I returned after my pup’s session as instructed and the staff were confused as to why I was there and took several minutes to locate the dog and trainer. The I was shown around the course with her. She definitely enjoyed the agility course, but aside from being willing to climb the obstacles (something we have done tried before) didn’t seem to have learned anything (no new cues or other behaviors were introduced) and the trainer had no feedback on handling as we went through the course repeatedly. I’m actually interesting in trying competitive agility so was really hoping for more information. I suppose you can’t expect much for $25, but this training was billed as regularly $100 - for that price I would have expected a lot more. Also - this training center sells (and presumably uses) aversive tools including E collars and prong collars. I also cannot find any training certifications for any of the staff here. Personally my strong preference would be for a positive reinforcement and certified trainer.