Orlando Dog Training Club

Democrats are not welcomed in this club! This club is run by rural republicans with values you can imagine. It seriously lacks diversity and professionalism. They run this club like it is 1950s. I've trained with many private trainers in the central Florida and I've have NEVER experienced this level of unprofessional behavior from the top down. I do want to mention that not everyone at this club is like this but the unpleasantries of the few in charge outweighs everything. They are condescending, dismissive, and does not have the best interest in training or bettering your dog. They practice hazing to a degree that would make country clubs and greek life look like child's play. I've trained at this club on and off for the past two and half years and I can tell you that this behavior is insidious. You might not notice it in the beginning until it hits you in the face. Do yourself a favor! Stay away from businesses with this kind of practice!

I had a really infuriating experience here with my wife and I would recommend that others avoid this club. We wanted to test and see how our dog responded to rally, so we brought him for a drop-in class. He was a little jittery because he was excited and we had to work a little on some of the more complicated moves, but all in all it went well and other people there seemed to be encouraging. So with all that in mind, I was completely blindsided by their nasty reaction on the second day we came. We showed up early to get some practice in and prep in the ring before class got started and while I was parking the car the instructor came up to my wife (gee, nice how he waited to get her alone) and basically said straight out that we weren't welcome there. According to him, our dog didn't respond to commands quickly enough and he didn't have time to "teach us the signs." His attitude was very condescending and overall it was an exasperating hot/cold switch that came out of left field because as far as I can tell all their supposed reasons are complete BS. This was super frustrating because a) that would have been useful to tell us last time before we drove across town in rush hour traffic again as a basic ****ing courtesy and b) it feels like they're just excuses to provide plausible deniability for whatever the real reason is. Other people in the class spoke to us after our first run last time and specifically mentioned that they were new when they started and had the same problems the first couple of times with their Golden. No one there seemed to take it all that seriously either. I feel like dog behavior doesn't make sense as a reason either. Some behavior I observed from other dogs there: -One dog snapped at my dog and tried to bite him when he walked by.. None of the instructors said a word about the physically aggressive dog who seemed to be a regular class member . -Other dogs that were crate-aggressive. -Dogs of regular class attendees who still made mistakes on the course I mean, my dog isn't perfect but he's better than most of these dogs. He's definitely not violently aggressive, which is totally okay there I guess. It just felt like a slap in the face to be told that we're the problem when I see dogs in the club that are flat-out mean. Again, someone tried to bite my dog! It seemed like a personal attack and that really hurt my wife's feelings. I feel like there's someone in the club that has it out for us. We took a class there before, which was right around the time of the 2016 election and where she was commiserating with one of the other classmates. Ever since then, when we tried to sign up for other classes we've always gotten the run around. This was the first time where we didn't have any problems. When we went to the first class we were still wearing the campaign t-shirt for my local congresswoman because we had just finished canvassing and went right over. Next class, we show up and they gave us the boot before class even starts. What kind of a class is it where you kick dogs out instead of helping to teach them to do it better? What the hell did I pay you for?? It feels like more than a coincidence at this point. We started asking around to some trainers we know after this happened and they're all telling me that these people have a reputation and have done it to other people they know. I just heard that they told one of my trainer's students that her dog was retarded. What is wrong with these people? Ultimately, when you're coming here you're paying for a service. Insulting customers/members/whatever you want to call them goes beyond bad business - it's just plain wrong. When a happy trip to class ends with my wife in tears, they should probably rethink their abominable customer relations. At the end of the day, for whatever reason, these folks seem to be an insular little clique that does not treat new faces kindly if they don't meet whatever invisible standard of approval they have. Stay away.