Primal Canine

4 recommendations and reviews from 4 people

• WhoDoYou Review from December 15, 2015
  1 review

  Elijah R. wrote: My wife and I inquired about a Board & Train Plus Group/ Single sessions program for our 6 month old yellow lab pup Murphy. We had just found out that we were having a baby, so training Murphy was on a priority list. Murphy's an energetic little puppy that needed a lot of work and there was no way we'd feel comfortable her being around a new baby come June. She was none stop jumping on visitors when they came into our home; pulling extremely hard on her leash while on walks, barking in her crate while company was over, playing too rough with our older pitbull, getting into everything, wasn't listening at all., etc, you know the story. Those were our main concerns/ requirements when looking for a trainer; to try to help fix these issues. We had a previous trainer for my pitbull puppy (now 3 years old), and ended up having a great experience. That trainer doesn't live by us now so we decided to try Primal Canine. I was initially concerned because the protocol for them was to pay everything up front ($2500), and then see results afterwards. I bust my butt for the money I make, so it's hard for me to just fork over that kind of money without seeing results first. I was reassured multiple times that we would be satisfied and that we have nothing to worry about. As a compromise, Primal Canine agreed to accept just the Board & Train portion first (an upfront $1500), so at the end of that my wife and I could see some results before forking over yet another $1000 for the remaining program. Emphasis on seeing results before paying more money. So the next day we provided Murphy's crate, her food, her blanket, a toy, and shipped our lil pup off for 17 long days. A couple days into the training, and after asking how Murphy was doing, I received approx. 3 pictures and a video of just Murph playing with other dogs; playing that's it. The only actual "training" I got to see was a 10 second training video of her "leash training" in which she duplicated the same actions as if she was walking with me. Whatever, part of the process I guess huh? Although I did received a couple "she's smart," and "she's doing good" texts as well; a little pump up for old dad right. When the wife and I finally went to go pick Murphy up from her 17 day training period, we were expecting some "results," remember? Not 1 sit, or down, or stay, or any kind of commands were given to show us how she had progressed; matter of fact Murphy had jumped on the trainer at that moment and he didn't react at all. We were told, specifically, to "just bring her home and allow her to get acclimated and calmed down from being excited to being home again". Whatever, you don't tell McDonalds how to make a McMuffin do you, so fine, I'll still go with the process. Plus, their Yelp looked impeccable, so who am I to question their dog training method. The first day she came home, she had massive diarrhea. My wife and I had to wake up a minimum of 3 times a night/ early morning to let her out because the poor thing was so bad. I'm guessing they didn't give her her own food. Maybe you can't point fingers for something like that huh, can't really prove it anyways. Besides that first day.. We waited a couple hours, then a day, then 2 days, then 3, and 4, and never, I mean ever, NOT once was there any resemblance of training done to my dog. She was jumping on everyone non-stop still, still pulling on her leash, barking in her crate, playing too rough, didn't listen to any commands. But the most important part about this entire experience was not the lack of training; it was the sores we found on Murphy's front elbows. I was pissed, I was more than pissed, I was fuming. You want to take my money, jip me out of my hard earned money, whatever I've been a sucker before I'll deal with it; but Murphy was neglected enough to where she got sores. I couldn't believe it. Then the funniest thing happened, I received a text from the trainer that "trained" Murphy, asking when we wanted to start the single/ group classes, and when I declined and told him my issues, he then proceeded to tell me the remaining $1000 was not negotiable regardless if we do the single/ group classes or not. You can't make this stuff up. I almost lost it and came thru the phone line. Needless to say I didn't pay another dime. Oh I forgot to mention, they gave us back someone else's worn out crate as opposed to our new one we just bought. But at this point it doesn't really matter does it. But you know what's more frustrating than sending your new puppy off to boot camp for 17 days, paying $1500 upfront for training, receiving her back not trained, finding sores on her, dealing with newly formed diarrhea, not getting your own brand new crate back, and then having someone ask you for more money ? It was the response I received from the owner. It was like pointing a finger at us like we don't know what we're doing. This is verbatim; "the training doesn't work with you guys because your dog is too smart and it knows you don't know the correct training methods," and then went on to say, "you need to do the single/ group classes for the training to work," hahahahaha. It's comedy hour here folks. So why did I need to Board & Train if nothing actually progressed until after we go to the single/ group classes? I see these guys have perfect reviews and a lot of stars, but reviews and stars didn't train my dog. I'm actually dumbfounded how there isn't 1 other bad review on this company based on what I experienced. Maybe it's another one of those Yelp glitches that accidentally removes unwanted reviews? After all this I told the owner I wanted my money back obviously right ? He said he doesn't do refunds, but I can come to a class free of charge. If you can get any progress with having my dog for 17 days, there is no way in hell I'm going I'm going to waste my time on single/ group classes with you. Absolutely ridiculous. One of his "best trainers," his words not mine, took my dog for 17 days, brought her back with no results, diarrhea, sores, someone else's crate, and then wanted me to come back for more. To this day, the owner still has my money, my dog isn't trained, I still have someone else's crate, although the diarrhea and sores are almost gone, and there's still not 1 other bad review, or at the very least a not so great review on this company. Weird. Looking for another trainer to pay for (again) so our family can relax with a better trained dog

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• Referral from January 20, 2015
  

  Tiffany G. asked:

  Looking for an In-Home Dog Trainer local to WG to work with my family and 3 dogs. Figured I would start here. Help

  

  Cassandra B. replied:

  Primal Canine. What's great about them is that they charge per household and not per dog! They are highly skilled. Along with training dogs, they train you on how to be your dogs' trainer. They offer free evaluations. 408 915 6173

  

  Sherie B. replied:

  Contact Primal Canine. Great group of trainers. They are located in Willow Glen

  

  Jeanette G. replied:

  I agree with the ladies that have responded so far. Go with Primal Canine. They are helping me with my dog right now too.

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