Foxwood Training Services

This gal. Shirley, made a couple of commitments to take a horse on to train from us. Both times she had developed health problems and so we had to postpone the training. My wife was the one who made the arrangements by phone, so I only heard half of the conversation, but I got a good feel for how they went.
I listened to the conversation to the 2^nd commitment in particular. We had made arrangements to take the horse over to her (I bought a trailer). She and my better half discussed that the horse was a bit of a problem child, and the behavior that was going on. The horse was young.
But Ms. Johnson had health issues. And being married to a disabled veteran, who also has ongoing health problems, my wife was is very sympathetic to the issue.
But this went on for some time. I was hospitalized 3 times in the two years, yes, TWO YEARS that my wife wasted with this woman.
The last time my wife called her, she pushed Shirley about the broken commitments and if she didn’t want to do the training, just saying no would the polite thing to do.
Shirley made a comment that included: «I don’t know why you would want to keep a horse that behaved like that anyway…»
A few years ago I was at a UGA horse training seminar that spanned 6 or 8 weeks. I sat at the same table as Shirley. I introduced myself the first class, and she barely responded to me. She didn’t recognize my name from our previous interactions. She had a couple of sycophants with her, constantly praising her wisdom at her ongoing commentary during the class. I guess I should feel lucky… she didn’t speak to me, much less recognize my presence (I greeted her at the beginning of every class). a single time during those two months at UGA.
I’m sorry she has (some kind) of health issues)…she may have been an effective trainer at some point. But she thinks a lot of her self. And I know she can be nice when it suits her. But my experience with her was very poor. With my health problems, I sure could have used the help with that horse.

I would not recommend this dog trainer to my worst enemy. Shirley Ruth Johnson is a horse trainer that uses old school methodology and choke chains to train dogs. «If they resist, just drag ‘em along!» It was the worst experience I have ever had. Shirley hurt my dog the first class and got bitten by her, but then went on to tell me (when I apologized), that she gets bitten all the time. Huhhhh!!! What are you doing to the dogs? In the training classes, she mixed large breed dogs with my three month old puppy, who was scared to death by the adult Labs and German Shepherds. Let me preface this by saying she has never bitten anyone or ever been aggressive towards anyone except Shirley, the trainer, before or after these two classes. I ended up calling Shirley and telling her I was removing her from the rest of the classes and she tried to convince me to stay, but her communication skills and customer service skills are so bad, it was ridiculous. I had tried to talk to her after class one time and she walked away from me twice. Terrible trainer. She also refused to prorate a refund on my remaining classes, saying it «was not her policy to refund for classes». Probably because so many people realize how horrible she is as a dog trainer. I spoke with a couple of certified trainers in Gainesville and Athens and they guessed who I had this bad experience with on their first tries. Shirley has a reputation of pissing dog owners off. Do not use her under any circumstances. Sit Happens in Athens is far superior and you will definitely get results.