Lost Creek Training Academy & Boarding School

I've taken my dogs to Lost Creek for boarding multiple times over the years. They've also received training from Austin and then Austin spends whatever time necessary showing me what he's taught my girls. I always feel comfortable leaving my girls here and my girls seem happy to stay. They always seem well cared for and staff are great about following their mildly complicated diet. Staff is great about answering my calls if I feel the need to check in. The facility is climate controlled for all seasons and dogs have easy access outside/inside, as well as space to play outside. I love that the facility is outside city limits and away from most loud noises, such as fireworks. Highly recommend.

I didn't know much about the background of a 3 year old dog I was given. I soon found out he would be overly protective of me. He would get aggressive if I were holding him and a member of the family or friends, who were visiting, came over to me. Fierce growling and barking would occur. I was also afraid to go in my back yard. He'd be so excited he would growl, jump, and nip at me. I found Lost Creek Training online. I was very grateful there was someone who could help. I thought the boarding and training option looked good, but found I missed my dog too much. Thankfully Austin allowed me to switch to in-home training. He was very flexible and always communicated when he would be there. He would explain what he was going to do and why. I also learned how to read the signals my dog will give so I can prevent events before they happen. My dog thought his visits were play time. He didn't realize he was learning how to be a better dog. Even though our formal training is done, Austin offered to always be there if problems arise or if I need to board my dog Mac.

Took our money and said we would get a trained service dog, vest, and dog up to date on vaccines. When we received the dog he had not been properly socialized and was in no way ready to be a service dog. Trainer took him back on a friday to evaluate, and said we would get an update that Monday. Now it's close to 2 weeks later and we still don't have an update. We have attempted to contact him multiple times. Also we didnt recieve a vest. Austin is refusing to give money back. Dogs name there is JD. Don't let him scam you like he did us. Edit to add: Austin had this dog since he was 8 weeks old. He was 1 and 1/2 when we got him. He is scared of literally everything. He was kept in a kennel his entire life until us. Not properly socialized. He was 41 lbs when we recieved him and were told he was recovering from a stomach bug. A full grown dog should not be 40lbs under weight from an illness. Now that we have had him for 6ish months he weighs 80lbs and looks healthy. Austin and his staff do not feed the animals in their care properly. We basically rescued this dog. Also, when we finally got him back from Austin he stunk so bad of feces. His paws were caked in poop. They were sensitive to the touch when we cleaned him up. Clearly he wasnt let out to potty and poop everyday. He was forced to poop in his kennel and then stand in it. Austin is just looking for money. Doesn't care about the client or the dog. We were told that he came from a healthy bloodline too. And have had nothing but vet bill after vet bill to get him healthy. Austin is a thief and a liar. Find a trainer who treats their animals better.

BEWARE!!! I dont often write reviews but this place deserves my time and energy, so that other people dont make the same mistake we did. I would like to shadow the review from below and say that we also paid a tremendous amount of money and got back a puppy who was UNTRAINED. The day we were scheduled to pick our puppy up after the month long board/train program Austin didnt answer and no one was working at the kennel. my husband waited for an hour and no one showed up. this was on a monday at 9am. later that morning someone called saying they would get us our puppy. upon arrival they told us that Austin had no access to a phone or email to cancel on us that day.... come to find out that is because Austin had been arrested over the weekend and was in jail. Once we were finally able to get ahold of him we asked to have her training records to know what she had learned and we were sent a corrupt file that would not open. we asked him to send it again and stopped getting any responses from him at that point. we have asked for our money back and explained how unhappy we are. The only thing our puppy learned while in his care was how to pee/poop on concrete.... that was something she never did before that we had to work very hard at to get her to stop, once she got home. Immediately we felt we had been 'had' when our $4000 'trained' puppy didn't know how to sit, shake or lay down. She immediately started to chase our kittens (which is something he was to work on). She jumped on us and our kids and the countertops constantly. Zora is an Irish wolfhound puppy and is going to be a ginormous dog which Is why we invested close to $4000 to have her trained, only to get back the exact same puppy we sent 4 weeks earlier. While in Austins care, our very large and rapidly growing puppy only gained 3lbs. (we can assure you this is accurate becuase she went to the vet just days before going to his training and we took her straight to the vet upon pick up, so we know for a fact she only gained 3 pounds). You could feel all over her bones and she just felt like a sack of skin and bones. She also had a terrible ear infection and had been shaking her head constantly from the time of picking her up which the vet had to treat. To put this lack of weight gain into perspective for you... In the first month that we had her home after lost creek, she gained over 20lbs!!! (this was also verified/documented with our groomer and our vet). We not only lost out on valuable bonding time with our puppy over that month but also valuable time that she could have been learning new things. We are disgusted that we lost so much money without any communication or apology from Austin or him trying to make anything right for our terrible experience. We are also heartbroken at the thought of the lack of care that our puppy seemed to receive while in the care of Lost creek kennels. I would NEVER recommend this "training facility" to anyone, nor would I board my animals here.