What would you do?

[AUSTIN]

This is a word of warning. To anyone who wants to get their dog trained.

We have just spent a lot of money having two of our pc's trained by a very reputable training camp in UK. They have been away 5 weeks.

They are over two hundred miles away, so they have not been around the corner, for us to check on them. There have been plenty of reports on progress and we were told all was ok.

We went yesterday to collect them, their training is ok, but we had to leave probably as quickly as we arrived as my husband :toomad:, well "life" springs to mind, wanted to do some very, not so nice things to the people there.

Here is our problem - Our dog went in weighing 45 kgs and after being rushed to our vets last night, came back weighing 36 kgs. I have cried all night, I feel so guilty, he looks like he has been starved the whole 5 weeks. My husband is so mad that he cannot talk to anyone. This animal was so proud, and now he cannot even be bothered to get up and greet us, his throat is so swollen from barking and stress, that he has lost his voice. We are heart broken.

I suppose the moral to this story is be careful who you allow to have your dogs and make sure they are around the corner, so that you can visit them.

I must have been such a mug, my dogs will never leave my side again :cry:

My question to you: Is what would you do?

A broken hearted mum,
Jane

[slamm]

I would think that you have some good "before" pictures taken when your dog/s were in good shape and you have reciepts of from the trainer which may or may not show the dates that your dogs were in his care. Take these pictures (before and after), reciepts and some witnesses and go to court try to get money and criminal charges. Also, let everyone, you know and come in contact with, know about this idiot. It is one thing to not be happy with the quality of training or lack there of, but it is entirely another thing for the "trainer" to simply not feed the dog/s. 20lbs or 9 kilos in 5 weeks is not an insignificant amount of weight. If the dog was sick you should have been notified, otherwise they simply were not doing their job. It's not that hard to feed a dog.

Sam

PS> Notify Dan or Dave UK on Bandog Banter and Donovan's board about this. They are popular people in the dog world and maybe they can help spread the word.

[josebrwn]

This is such a sad story! Dave, maybe you could move this to Butch's training forum? I'd asked a question about this before. The folks at Leerburg recommend extreme caution when sending a dog away to training camp. The people at those places make money by moving dogs through the program, and motivational training takes three times as long as complusion training.

I cannot believe what these people did to your dog. I would focus first on rebuilding his esteem with very positive training and giving him a sense of security and confidence. Get the weight back on him, lots of love, and help him regain his dignity with a lot of positive experiences. Maybe there are good clubs / activities nearby you can get involved in? After that, focus on letting the public know what creeps these people are.

Good luck. give him a hug for me.....

[Paolo Consolandi]

It's a very bad story, Jane, I can feel your pain. :(
The important thing is that now your dogs are ok, even if I can understand that they'll somehow suffer this experience.
This :toomad: really deserves something...a legal action or something like that, and a lot of bad advertising so that other people may not have the same bad experience.

sorry again

[AUSTIN]

I would like to thank you all for your replies to this posting. I was feeling very upset and guilty by what had happened to my dogs.

Your words, whether of comment, knowledge or comfort have really helped, although every time I look at our lad I could cry. I have learnt a very valuable lesson, although I feel at my dogs expense. It made me realise just how much they do mean to me and how much they are family members.

Thank you for your kind words of comfort, they are very much appreciated.

Jane

[Virtues]

Sorry I'm behind in my posts, been busy of late, but I was so saddened to hear about what happened. I do hope that your male comes around. I've worked as an animal control officer and vet tech and through that I've come to hear and witness horrible stories. You can't blame yourself. Please post what happened and any pictures or documentation anywhere you can...including the name of the 'trainer'. Thank you for letting everyone know what to be cautious of. I'm so sorry to hear of what you're going through. Keep us posted on his progress.

[bostonsmom]

It's always frustrating when our "guys" aren't doing well. I just wanted to add though that sometimes kennel weight loss isn't the fault of the kennel, or it's staff. My pitbull will not eat in a kennel environment. It matters not if I am gone a day or 2 weeks. He will drink some water, and the kennel staff are instructed to free feed him just like at home, but he will not eat. When I lived far from home and flew home for Christmas, I always knew I would be returning to a bag of bones. Once I returned, he began eating again, and put the weight right back on. I don't want to say that the kennel definitly wasn't at fault, but just keep in mind that it's not uncommon for dogs to go off food during times of stress etc.....
Good luck getting the weight back on them. I am sure they are happy to be home again with the people that love em!!

[bostonsmom]

It's always frustrating when our "guys" aren't doing well. I just wanted to add though that sometimes kennel weight loss isn't the fault of the kennel, or it's staff. My pitbull will not eat in a kennel environment. It matters not if I am gone a day or 2 weeks. He will drink some water, and the kennel staff are instructed to free feed him just like at home, but he will not eat. When I lived far from home and flew home for Christmas, I always knew I would be returning to a bag of bones. Once I returned, he began eating again, and put the weight right back on. I don't want to say that the kennel definitly wasn't at fault, but just keep in mind that it's not uncommon for dogs to go off food during times of stress etc.....
Good luck getting the weight back on them. I am sure they are happy to be home again with the people that love em!!

[AUSTIN]

Hi

Thank you for your reply.

My arguement is that both dogs had a period to settle in and they passed this.

I do understand kennel stress, but if they found that this dog was so stressed that he lost his voice through barking so much, his throat was so inflammed that our vet had to put him on anti inflamatry tablets, this would not have helped him to want to eat.

If within the three week period he was that ill and refusing food. Then they should have informed us that there was a problem and we could have made the decision for him to come home or stay.

They should not have kept this dog another two weeks and allowed him to deteriorate so much.

It is a week on, yes the weight is going back on slowly, but he still has no voice and very little get up and go. The blood tests have come back and there is no illness.

It is your choice to kennel your dog and face the fact that he will lose weight, but ours was not boarding kennels it was a training camp and this dog has still not been trained.

I still feel that if they had a problem, they should have told us the truth, not keep on insisting that he was doing well.

Any way from the reply of the training camp owner, it looks like heads will roll.

Thank you very much for your post, we are all really glad that they are back home, even if he is still a very rude yob, love him.