FirstBarkWarning... Long Post Ahead. Honestly, I was considering not posting a review at all, but I thought about it for several days, and decided that if I can save someone else from this headache by hearing my story, I should. After doing quite a bit of research for my new puppy, I de…Read full reviewClose full review
Warning... Long Post Ahead. Honestly, I was considering not posting a review at all, but I thought about it for several days, and decided that if I can save someone else from this headache by hearing my story, I should. After doing quite a bit of research for my new puppy, I decided to go to Audrey of Sandy Paws, thinking she would be great based on reviews. At first she seemed lovely, but a few hours before I set out to meet her for the first training, she asked that we provide her training fee, $390, in cash. It felt sketchy, but she agreed to provide an invoice, so I let it go. It was difficult to find, but once I met her, I was excited to work with her. On our first meeting she told me that if I ever had ANY problems, to not hesitate to text her, or call her at any point, however much I needed since she was up late. A few days later, I found out my puppy had picked up a parasite, and with treatment and the test to clear him up, it would be another 3 weeks before we could see her again. I was a little frantic, as I needed help. But as she recommended, I texted her, asking questions and sending videos about the behavior... It took days for a response. And when I had a follow up question, she never responded back at all. I know I was sending a few messages, but if she didn't like the number of times I reached out, all she needed to do was say, "I understand your concerns, we will discuss them in our next training session." and I would have gotten the message. But not responding to me for 10 days was unprofessional, and frustrating. When he was cleared by his vet, I asked if we could bring him to the next puppy play group that she had, as he had all his vaccinations at that point. She had told me this was a small dog puppy play group. I was excited, and this was one of the reasons I decided to go to her. I rearranged my entire work schedule in order to make it there. When we showed up, I could see these were not small puppies. These were big dogs, that were fully grown, and running around like mad, and tearing into each other. My dog, at the time, weighed 11 pounds, and was petrified. She knew he was a small dog, and remember, she had seen him before, because she had worked with him before. She walked right up to me and said, "Yeah, I don't think this group is going to work for [your puppy]. He's too little for this group." I told her I rearranged my entire day for this, and asked if there were any small dogs that we could try this out with... and she said "I mean, you can try..." and returned to her previous conversation. I was livid. An apology goes a long way, but she never apologized for wasting my time. Instead she texted me that night saying, "I have a small dog I'm boarding now. You can bring him over tomorrow to play with." She knows I am located 30 minutes away. I politely said no, that we would just stick to the training from now on, and I would like to schedule the rest of the sessions. We scheduled them and she told me she put them in the planner. A little less than 2 hours later, she said she "forgot" she had a class on the 2nd day we had scheduled and she needed to reschedule. I told her 2 other options that would work for us, and I never heard back. I decided to wait until our next training session to make sure our calendars were aligned. We showed up 5 minutes early for our 5:30 appointment on Tuesday, February 23. I texted her letting her know we were there and ready to begin whenever she was ready... We waited around for 30 minutes. I texted and I called...she never responded. Beyond angry, I was getting my dog back in the car, ready to leave and I receive a text saying that she has a medical issue and will not be able to train for the time being. At this point, I told her I wanted and deserved a refund. She agreed, and we were refunded, thankfully, though to be completely honest, I didn't think she would. I was originally planning on giving her 2 stars because of the refund, but after writing down everything that went on, she deserves 1.