Specialty Dog Training

They should tell you up front and clearly that they expect you to keep your dog on a leash, at your hip, and you to be fully focused on training your dog and doing nothing else FOR WEEKS after you get them back. Because nobody ever told me that, I don’t know who has time for that, and I consider it blatant false advertising. Literally, they stole 2500 dollars from us my dog is as awfully behaved as ever and their only solution is that I ignore my kids and anything else I need to do in life and attach my dog to my hip for at least a FEW WEEKS and, yeah, can’t say how much I hate this place.

There really aren’t enough words to express my gratitude towards Specialty Dog Training. For the past 6 years I have always known I had a “special” dog. She was very aggressive due to her fears of the world. I knew her as a lovable, sweet, cuddly girl. But to the rest of the world she was terrifying. My dog, Bear, is the perfect definition of a mutt. She’s an Akita, German Shep, Pitbull, chow chow mix. These breeds have always been known to be incredibly difficult to train and handle if not done properly. I had never owned a dog before, let alone knew about different breeds and their varying personalities. 2020 was an incredible breaking point for me, as it was for many people. My dog and my parents’ dog kept getting into aggressive dog fights. In total, my dog got into 5 major dog fights in the span of 6 months. I had hit my breaking point with her. I knew there was no way I’d be able to keep her if she continued down the path she was on. So, in a desperate attempt to find her help I went onto Yelp. I typically don’t like taking peoples comments at face value, but most of SDT’s comments were so positive. Unfortunately, none of the commenters mentioned anything about their dog being aggressive prior to being board and trained. So I took a chance and reached out. Graham, the owner of this amazing establishment, got back to me within 8 hours of me sending my message on Yelp and had me call into their offices. I spoke on the phone with Callie, who was the kindest woman. Completely understanding, compassionate, and really listened to my woes regarding my girl. The process went rather quickly after I spoke with Callie. Within a month and a half I was dropping off Bear knowing that this was it for her. If SDT couldn’t help, I didn’t know what I’d do. For the 8 weeks she was there, I had weekly updates (sometimes twice a week) on her progress and how she was doing overall being in a new environment. The videos I received were shocking. My scared, timid, aggressive dog was being walked by strangers. She was being walked near people, near dogs, near big items that would have typically terrified her. But she was smiling and seemed so relaxed. 2 months flew by, and by the time I got my dog back I was ready to start a new chapter with her. She, on the other hand, decided to try slipping back into old habits. When I went back to Graham with my concerns he immediately suggested bringing her back for a 2 week retraining session to teach her new hardware (hardware being her collar type). I couldn’t believe it. This company had done so much for me and my sweet girl already, but now they were willing to take her back for FREE to retrain her with different hardware. At the end of those 2 weeks, I was blown away. The sweet girl I know is the one everyone else gets to see now. This dog who was petrified of the world due to deep seeded trauma was now completely trusting of me that the world isn’t so terrifying. That’s not to say she’s perfect either. I went into this with zero expectation other than to help Bear out. She still has her moments, but they are just not comparable in any way. If you got to the bottom of this, and need to take away a single thing, let it be that you consider SDT with your pet. These trainers are angels helping people reconnect with their dogs, and at the end of the day, helping dogs to finally be able to live carefree and loved.