Dog Training review: Unprofessional 2

Dear Chris and Iain Gibson, Ancaster, ON

I am not sure which one of you wrote this, but I am writing this rebuttal to your unsubstantiated claim of my training methods and being unprofessional. I have spoken with a lawyer and your comments meet the criteria as being libel or defamatory. I have done due diligence to ensure that the law was on my side before proceeding to post this rebuttal.

You stated that your dog “has a FEAR problem, not aggression” implying that I am not familiar with different behaviours and reactions. Fear aggression according to the ASPCA website: “Fear aggression is characterized by rapid nips or bites because a fearful dog is motivated to bite and then run away. Sometimes the aggression doesn’t begin with clear threats. A fearful dog might not show her teeth or growl to warn the victim off. In this kind of situation, the only warning is the dog’s fearful posture and her attempts to retreat. Male and female dogs are equally prone to fear aggression, and this type of aggression is common in both puppies and adults.” (http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/dog-behavior/aggression-dogs)

This effectively describes your dog Shelby since the first thing she did was to try to bite me when I walked in the door, then run away. Fear aggression behaviour continued throughout the session and the last thing she did when I tried to leave was to repeat the behaviour by trying to bite me and then run away. If I had not advised you to have Shelby wear a muzzle I could have been what your refer to as “nipped” at the very least, twice in one session. You stated that your dog only nipped a friend’s hand, but you also described to me, during the consultation, that when walking on the rail trail Shelby turned and tried to bite a dog that was walking past you and Shelby. You also informed me that some of your friends would not come to your house anymore because of Shelby. You failed to mention this in your post but I believe this is relevant information. You might not want to admit this but Shelby has FEAR AGGRESSION as described by the ASPCA.

You say, “nip” and I say, bite. What is the difference between nipping and biting? Both actions are not acceptable behaviour in a dog as far as I’m concerned and both actions may result in injuring anyone on the receiving end of these actions. Your insistence that it’s just a nip and not a bite would, in all likelihood, not convince an animal control officer that your dog is not dangerous. If I stood still and let your dog nip me, and that did not back me off, the next escalation of behaviour for the dog would naturally be to bite the person that wasn’t convinced to back up after just a nip. This of course would reinforce the dog’s belief that using its teeth is the best defence. That is dog psychology 101.

Now lets look at how you claim I do my training, all you have to do is scroll up to see it “Jeff's idea of training was to have our dog muzzled and he would continue to feed her.” If that is all that you saw, then you must have not paid attention for 2 hours while the training and behaviour modification was going on. I don’t see how that is possible because I always ask the clients to do the training and behaviour modification after I have demonstrated how it’s done. That way I can make sure they understand, are using the right techniques and it works for them and this is what I did for you as well. I also follow a training program that is 4 pages long and I gave you 2 copies. It might have been 3 pages when I did your consultation and has expanded since because I keep refining and passing on my expertise to my clients.

I did tell you on the phone that when working with dogs with fear aggression that the muzzle can usually come off after about 15 to 20 minutes but Shelby still showed signs of aggression throughout both training sessions so Shelby didn’t fall into the “usually” category. You were in the room and witnessed this for yourself but now insist I should not have had the muzzle on Shelby but you didn’t say anything at that time.

I also informed you it would be a good idea to have the muzzle on Shelby when your friends did come back so that when she tried to nip them they would not have to fear getting nipped. This would break the cycle of Shelby seeing this as a way to make people fear her by using her teeth. This would help to condition her that this behaviour no longer worked (to make people fear her) and would slowly change her temperament. To my recollection, you both agreed that would be a good course of action at the time.

I will admit and I’m sorry that I referred to your dog as “him” but the name Shelby really is not one of specific gender.

As far as refunds go I explained to you that if you sign up with any dog training company for multiple lessons and then don’t use them you don’t get your money back, try phoning one of them and ask that question if you don’t believe me. This is McCanns refund policy: “If you are not happy for any reason, call us within 48 hours after the FIRST lesson of your program to obtain a full refund.” (http://www.mccanndogs.com/) Even if we take McCanns refund model as an industry guide we were way past 48 hours and way past the first lesson by weeks and not 2 days when you decided you wanted a refund on Feb 11, 2013.

I did not simply tell you “we should take Shelby out, MUZZLED, to help her with her fear”. I told you that if you were doing conditioning work with Shelby such as taking her to the driveway to help her with reacting when a car came by that she did not need to be muzzled. I told you that if you were doing the conditioning around people or dogs then a muzzle would be required so that there was no chance of anything happening that would make the general public have a problem with your dog and therefore restricting the speed of rehabilitation. You are taking part of the message and using it for your own agenda, which is usually called “out of context” information. That is usually a sign that the message is meant to manipulate the audience into agreeing with the message writer rather then seeing the whole picture and is also called a lie of omission.

If “At this lesson, he did not tell us anything new” why did you pay me for that session and for 2 more sessions if you got nothing out of it? And yes you paid me at the end of that session not at the beginning. It seems your claims and story is starting to unravel when I start scrutinizing your interpretation of events.

Let’s look at taking issue with you writing a cheque to me personally instead of my company name, I accept either my name or company name on a cheque so if you are claiming “faulty business practices” over this you are really taking issue with the Ontario government about their requirements for small business and it is an irrelevant complaint about myself and business. Also you never asked for a receipt and wonder why you did not get one, this is just misdirection you are using to try to support your claims and has no relevance again to “his faulty business practices”.

You say that there was no contract stating there would be no refunds but I will put it another way so you might understand. I never stated that there would be a refund should you decide to stop using my services to help your dog.

While I am responding to you I can also add that on Jan 11, 2013, I emailed you and wrote: “Are we still on for 1 pm on Saturday?” and your response was: “No, this week will not work for us. Can we schedule next Sat jan 19 at 1.pm? I have been meaning to email you all week. Sorry.”

I guess I should consider myself lucky I emailed the day before and I didn’t just show up at your house as scheduled as you wouldn’t have been available.

Our first session was on Dec 29th and our second session was on Jan 19th, three weeks later and when I asked you how often you did the conditioning work that was going to help your dog, you told me you did not do any of it. In your second email you wrote to me “We have tried many things and suggestions from two other trainers all to no avail!.” (It begs the question of why 3 trainers couldn’t help you with Shelby.)

My “experience or expertise” around dog training and behaviour modification; I went through a formal apprentice program at Dealing with Dogs in Oakville, I have attended numerous seminars and several that were specifically designed for dealing with aggressive dogs, bought and read books, invested hundreds of dollars and watched many hours of DVDs and I have hundreds of hours of training and behaviour modification under my belt with many dogs (including aggressive dogs) and operate a dog boarding business that gives me 24 hour access to many dogs so that I can see how training and behaviour modification work most effectively where most trainers see dogs an hour at a time then go home or you leave their place of business. I have even changed my training methods to accommodate clients that want their dog trained but don’t have the time, or forget to do the required work. I have created a system for 10-second training that almost anyone can do and my clients find it’s much simpler then spending 15 to 20 minutes several times a week for training that other trainers require to get your dog trained.

Out of the hundreds of hours of training I have done you are the only client that has complained about my work or asked for their money back. You are also the only client I have dealt with that claims, “There just is not enough experience or expertise there.” Your claim that I don’t have the “experience or expertise” is not based on any practical knowledge of dog training or how to change the behaviour of your dog. The training and behaviour modification that I do is not just stuff I made up, I have invested a good amount of time and money learning from and working with other knowledgeable dog trainers with tried and proven methods for not only training, but extensive knowledge of how to deal with behavioural issues in dogs.

Let’s look at your claim that I am unprofessional. I think I have just refuted all claims that you have made about me except for making the mistake of calling Shelby “him” at one consultation. Are you that unforgiving that one little mistake will have you on a tirade to try and destroy my name and company or is something else really going on here?

Let’s look at your professionalism:
1. You made defamatory claims of how I train
2. Cancelled an appointment on very short notice
3. Didn’t do any of the conditioning work that would have helped Shelby
4. Insisting that your dog is fearful and not aggressive because you say so
5. Dictating how my refund policy should work
6. Misleading the public about time between sessions

Now let’s look at your ethics:
1. Writing “His ethics and interest in dog training is questionable at best” without having done due diligence
2. Your claim of wanting to help Shelby but not doing the work
3. Using defamatory remarks to support your claims
4. Your attempt to ruin my name and business name
5. Using a public forum for defamatory remarks
6. Trying to hide your identity in your defamatory post on a public forum
7. Lying by omission

Now people can read your defamatory post on this site but at least they will have the opportunity to see my rebuttal. You tried to hide behind the anonymity of the internet to attack my name and company and bend the truth to support your false claims and that, Iain and Chris Gibson, in my opinion is not very ethical.

There are plenty of articles of how people use the internet to try and hide their identity to ruin a company for their perceived injustice against them and how it has become a huge problem. It was by reading these articles and the suggestion of outing the poster if they try to hide their identity that inspired me to respond to your post. Now your name is attached to a post with questions about ethics, professionalism and defamation. I can take it down, but because of the beauty of the internet, it means I can refute your claims with proof that you are just trying to manipulate the public for your own agenda.

Not only have you done a disservice to my company and myself, you have also done a disservice to people that have dogs that I could help that won’t consider using my service after reading your post. What kind of a dog lover is that?

I have physically and electronically saved your forum post and all emails between us as well as having a list of clients that can confirm my methods of training and behaviour modification if it comes to a court of law to settle this issue.

In my letter below the public will see that I still offered to work with you for the 2 sessions you paid for and because I did get into this business to help dogs, I will again extend my offer of an additional 2 sessions to help Shelby.

Jeff Anderson
Interactive Dog

Here is the unedited letter that you claim, “was the most unprofessional thing I have ever seen” and “The rant went on and on!”

--------------------------Unedited Letter to Chris Gibson-------------------------------

Hi Chris,
I am very surprised by your email. I'm not sure what "go in a different direction in regard to her training" means and it's vague. Yes, I did say that you should be able to take the muzzle off after 15 to 20 minutes but Shelby has one of the worst cases of fear aggression that I have ever dealt with. When your dog continued to try to bite me it would not have been a safe situation to take the muzzle off. If you expected me to be willing to get bitten just so we could take the muzzle off, well I just don't know how to take that. You did tell me that Shelby had bitten some of your friends and other dogs so we all knew what we working with.

When I came for the second session some time had passed but you indicated that you hadn't done the conditioning work that is vital to Shelby's rehabilitation. So again I wasn't willing to work with your dog without a muzzle on as it was still trying to bite me. You also didn't indicate at that time that it was a problem for you.

You seem to have some issue with Shelby wearing a muzzle when we know she has a history of biting people and other dogs so I don't understand what the problem is. If your dog goes in public and bites a person or other dog you could lose your dog because they might deem it a vicious animal and put it down and you could also be sued. It could get worse from there if they find out that she has a history of biting. If you are taking Shelby around other dogs and people I think you are taking the risk of losing your dog.

If you sign up for training lessons with any other dog training company you always have to pay for the entire set of classes before hand and if you decide not to continue there is no refund option and my company is the same so I'm sorry but I won't be sending you a cheque.

I am not afraid to work with Shelby and in my dog training world if the dog has a problem then we find what triggers the problem and work with that as a tool. Be it either with a person, dog or object. So because Shelby has a problem with me, it makes me the ideal trainer to work with her.

I would suggest you overcome your negative feelings of Shelby wearing a muzzle and lets get back to work so that we can get Shelby into a normal state of mind because the anxiety she is going through must be unbearable to her.

For our next session (if you want to continue) we should be in a public location where there will be other dogs or I can bring my dog Jake to your home. And yes, Shelby will have to wear the muzzle as I will not put another animal at risk.

Let me know how you would like to go forward.

Thanks,
Jeff

----------------------End of letter---------------------------

That is really sad :-( How is Shelby doing now? Did you end up trying another trainer? I'm just getting started in this industry and already I'm reading stories of people who have trusted their pets with trainers who appear to be in it just for the money. I myself do it from a place of passion. I believe all dogs have their own personalities regardless of breed. The challenges that people face, from what I have seen, are usually related to the response of the owners. This is where I come in. I am not 'certified' as a professional trainer but do believe I have a sense for behaviors and common sense for owners - and this is what drives me. Because I am just starting, I am looking to get experience anywhere I can. So I would offer my assistance with Shelby at no charge. Hopefully, you'll feel I have made a difference or as a minimum left you with enough information that you feel confident you can make changes yourself. I will tell you that I use only positive reinforcement techniques as I believe every dog should WANT to do what you need her to. Also, I have a particular soft spot for GSDs; a story I can share with you if you are interested in my help. If you're interested in my help please email me at sobriquetta2@gmail.com and cut'n'paste my comment in the body. Please include your name and I will respond so we can coordinate. Again, I am not charging for this. I would be happy just for the experience. thanks! Carlene