ComplaintsforOlympia Kennels, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  05/31/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My husband and I were looking to get our youngest dog trained for basic obedience. When we first met with Mike on April 8, 2023 so he could meet our dog, we expressed our older dog is off leash trained and listens/performs various commands well and we would like him to be on the same level or close to it. Mike said two week board and train would be sufficient. We paid a deposit that day of $1095. We dropped our dog off April 22, 2023 and we provided food for the two weeks. Upon pick up we found our dog had been trained with a pinch collar which was not disclosed to use beforehand. We were okay with that once we saw no harm came to our dog from it. We paid the last half of the bill, another $1095 so totaling all training cost was $2,190. We were initially impressed by the training but once we were home, our dog was back to his typical behavior prior to training. I spoke with Mike the following business day May 8, 2023 about our displeasure and he assured me a couple follow up’s would do the trick. Now it’s nearly a month since we’ve had our dog back and still no results UNLESS he has a pinch collar on. We feel as though we expressed our end goal and were given false assurances that we’d reach our goal and did not. Now we’re out almost $2200 with nothing to show for it.

  Business response

  07/11/2023

  The client was replied to directly via email with the following response on June 1, 2023 at 1:55pm.

  On Jun 1, 2023, at 1:55 PM, Olympia Kennels <**********@msn.com> wrote:
  
  "****** *** ******,
  
  You called yesterday at 12:40, I sprained my knee and was trying to get a Dr appt. At 2pm or so you called the BBB and put in a complaint. After our last Saturday morning lesson you said you were feeling better about Hank's training, and I said please call if you need any additional help.....Since the day you picked Hank up you have had unrealistic expectations because your other dog had 5-6 weeks of training before you got him, which is what you told us, and that it is not possible for any dog to be fully trained in two weeks. I did not say two weeks would be sufficient for an off-leash dog, because that is not how training works. Two weeks builds solid foundation to practice off of until the dog is responding to voice commands without equipment. No dog, no breed, is reliable off leash after only two weeks. Oftentimes it takes several months, depending on the breed, age, genetic trainability. You have all the proper equipment, video instruction, and my offer to help you with additional lessons, no charge. 
  
  I feel I have done my best to help you reach your goals with Hank. You want a push button dog without putting the time in to get him there. A total off leash dog has had like I said, months of training. Our young adult trained German Shepherd Dogs, for example, start at $18,000.00. Fully off leash obedience and family protection trained dogs start at $25,000.00 and run up to $50,000.00, because they have received months of training. Hank had two weeks at $2190.00, and did well for the time he was here, which is shown on the videos. We are happy to have you send him here for another 3 or 4 weeks, and he will be that much better. But as you can see, no dog is off lead, long distance, heavy distraction trained in less than a few months time at least.
  
  There is no reason to have ill feelings, or thinking you did not get your money's worth, for a misunderstanding of what is required in time for a full off leash trained dog. It is impossible for any dog to learn off leash distance control in two weeks without any equipment on. With additional training, practice, patience, and understanding of the canine mind, Hank will be able to be off lead and controllable at a distance with voice commands. We are here to help you get what you want out of Hank. In almost 50 yrs of training dogs for clients, I have never had this happen, after doing follow up lessons with the owners to ensure they were handling the dog properly when practicing at home, and understood how dogs learn, just like people. It takes more than a couple weeks to be really good at anything in life.
  
   Respectfully,
   Mike P*******"

  Customer response

  07/20/2023

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I do not accept the business's response as a resolution to my complaint because: there doesn’t seem to be resolution. He’s claiming he told us how things would go beforehand which didn’t happen. We told him we wanted our dog to be listening to basic commands and off-leash or at least working up to being off-leash. Feels like he through out a bunch of numbers just to talk down to us. To be honest, feels like he doesn’t care and doesn’t want to offer a resolution beside us spending more money and at this point we don’t trust that. 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** ****

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