4 Paws Training Center

i took my dog here for their Beginner class. class was 6p-​730p & it was convenient for my work schedule & close to home. my dog is a rescue that i’d had for just over a year at this point & i realize i’m still getting to know his/​her queues & behaviors. i’d informed the instructor of this when signing up for the class. i’d also informed the instructor that my dog was not treat motivated at all. she told me not to worry that she could get him/​her to take treats. i was willing to see what she could do differently. i let her know that i’d been through obedience classes before at another local facility with my other dog — she did not have positive things to say about that place, which i found unprofessional, but blew off as a passing comment when signing up.
the first night, the instructor talked so long that by 7:10p we had not done any training & were still talking about her training philosophy & her pets. she spent some of that time comparing her training philosophy & techniques to one of the other local facilities (the one i’d gone to years before) & constantly criticizing. worse, she would look to me when she’d do that & a couple of times asking me to chime in or agree — Very Unprofessional. we ended up staying until almost 8p so that we could get some training in. she did assure us that subsequent classes would start on time but we’d probably always go about 15 minutes over — that kind of defeated the purpose of fitting into my schedule.
she brought her own dogs to class to serve as examples, which i would totally expect. however, as nice as her dogs were, they didn’t really behave all that well. multiple times the first night, she’d put her dog on a sit/​stay & within a minute or two, the dog would walk off. she would ask the dog to come & it didn’t. her response? «Really? Are you kidding me?» she told us to get used to that phrase because we’d be using it a lot. at the same time, she told us not to repeat commands, only say them once. but we were not to continually correct our dog, only say the command once. i’ve been through obedience classes so this is not an unheard of concept. however, our «correction» was the Really/​Are You Kidding Me response. i was floored that this was a technique. i held on thinking it will get better, this is just 1^st night settling in.
at the 2^nd class things still did not start on time & it seemed very disorganized. there were no Assistants so that made things a bit disorganized. i was determined to see this through — it was only 5 weeks. she had a different dog for her examples, but this dog was not obedient either. i had to remind myself that when describing her philosophy, she said she didn’t believe in Obedience, she believed in a Relationship with your dog. that’s all well and fine, but her relationship with her dog (s) seemed to be they could do what they wanted & listen to her when they felt like it. my dog is too high strung for that to be an effective practice for us — i want my dog to «obey» for his own safety, not so i feel empowered. this was not going well.
the final straw came at the end of that 2^nd night. we were training our dogs on the Focus/​Look At Me skill. my dog was doing pretty good. the instructor came over to see for herself & tried to give him/​her treats but my dog wouldn’t take them, as i’d informed her at sign-​up. the instructor said «well, i can’t get him/​her to take a treat, see if you can.» Really/​Are You Kidding Me? my mistake, i thought that is what you do! at the end of the class we had one more skill to demonstrate (i don’t recall what it was). she walked over to check my dog and he/​she performed it fairly well. the instructor then said, i kid you not, «wow that’s really good for a InsertBreedHere! and i don’t even like InsertBreedHere!». luckily that was the end of class & we left, deciding not to return & just lose our money.