Schilling's Northwest Lawdog

Training I wish every dog owner had to take Ken’s course (or similar as that would keep Ken pretty busy 😁). It has been several years since I attended one of Ken’s classes but I have nothing but praise for his training process. You truly know you have a well trained dog when your dog follows your commands despite all the distractions Ken provides (horses, goats, peacocks, etc.). I have been in many dog classes over the years and Ken’s is a standout. If you expect coddling, go to a Petsmart class. If you want a true professional with decades of experience whom not only trains your dog but also trains you, you found him; you will be thrilled with the results. I continue to get complements as to how well trained my DDR German Shepherd is.

As far as being responsive they are great, I was not expecting a call back due to my previous experience with another dog training company. The phone call I received today started off well but was not a conversation that I did not expect to feel overwhelmed and felt like I could not get much out of the conversation that lasted 1 hour and 45 mins. I felt as if I was being TOLD I was a horrible human to my dog , and that my methods should be changed to fit the way their program is set up. Which a few of their methods are against my beliefs and I felt as if my voice, my story was literally disregarded, whenever I tried to speak. During the call, there was a lot of pauses and a lot statements of discouragement about if my dog would be a suitable candidate to become a service dog. When clearly she has never met him, nor really heard my dog's history of how he came to me or anything at all. (She even couldn’t say my name after I’ve pronounced it several times, and she said “ I’m sorry, I didn’t know how to pronounce that.” Nor did she acknowledge my dog’s name, he was “the dog”.) Most of this was about her and the hyping up of how wonderful her husband was at his career. Don't get me wrong, I am one who loves to give credit when it's due. But this was overkill. As I continued this conversation, I felt like my questions weren't fully answered without the negative backlash on how I should handle/train my dog. I felt micromanaged on what to say and this is not what you should do with potential clients. Before the end of the call, I was in tears because of the things I was hearing and I didn't know how to cope at the time (it still triggers me) so I down played it off. This behavior is not a healthy, nor positive way to conduct business or clients. If this was a normal conversation that was not solely for the purpose of seeking a dog trainer, I would have been okay with the overly causal withdrawn conservation but this was not the way to do it. I hope that in the future, the questions are answered, and more back history is listened to despite having a "prior" glimpse of what the potential client has emailed/messaged. It is always good to refer back to what was asked and see if you could help or not, then try to help them with some resources, if that is possible.