Assertive K-9 Training

Four words. DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME. That are rude and have no clue what they are doing. All they care about is money, money, money.

PLEASE DO NOT WASTE YOUR HARD EARNED CASH OR TIME!!!
The training here sucks. Our German shepherd puppy was purchased from here and we opted to have him go through Assertive K9’s 4 week training. At 12 weeks we received him and the trainer Rob did not properly show us how to handle or which commands the dog knew (he didn’t acknowledge us at all, only the other gentleman there). They use hand signals because the puppies do not know what the word is for the command. The gentle leader is just an easy way out to get the dog to heel without teaching him to actually heel. This was a waste of a couple grand! The Saturday morning classes are useless and the trainers/​owners, Rob and Diane, have no clue. Compulsion is put on these puppies at such a young age and it doesn’t end up turning out good in the end.

A wonderful place run by people who have earned the right to be called expert trainers. We owned an import GSD which we purchased from Assertive K-​9 Training’s Thinshmidt Kennels over 11 years ago. They trained him (and us) prior to us bringing him home. We followed their well considered directions and enjoyed our relationship with a dog who was confident, friendly, well-​behaved and a pleasure to be with. Today, we returned with a rescue GSD and went through their assessment and in-​board training plan. We were completely impressed with their ability to masterfully manage and relax the dog after we took him from the rescue kennel and drove for over an hour to their site in a car he’d never been in, with people he doesn’t really know.
While I know there are many ways to train a dog, I can’t imagine trusting German Shepherds (or any dogs) to anyone but Diana and Robert at Assertive. What a gift. Totally recommendable.

I bought an imported puppy and paid for training. I picked up my trained puppy and brought her home. She seemed listless. She kept getting worse. I notice a long stream of snot dripping from her nose. I took her to the vet. The vet said she had kennel cough. So I called the office. Diana answered and I told her about. I made the two hour drive to take her back. I gave her the medicine. I figured after spending over $ 5,000 that I should have a healthy puppy. Diana grabbed the leash from me and had someone take her and told them to keep her separate because I took her to the vet. What the hell! After a month, Diana called me and told me that my puppy was well and if I wanted her. I said yes and drove the 2 hours to go pick her up. The next day, I put her on a down. My elderly mother walked past her. The puppy charged up from her down and bit my mom on the calf. I immediately called Diana and told her. I told her that I was taking her back. Michele did tell me that when I first picked up my puppy that they had an outbreak of kennel cough. I asked for my money refunded. They said that I would get a refund after she sold. Well it took 6 months to sell her. I only get $ 1,700 back. I reminded Diana that I wanted a calm dog. She said that I could not handle a german shepherd. I purchased a german shepherd puppy elsewhere and she is the perfect dog.
Please be careful if you buy a puppy or have training done there.

When our one year old Thinschmidt German Shepherd needed some training because she had started barking at other dogs, while at Assertive K-​9 Thinschmidt German Shepherds saturday morning group class. The Office Manager Michele and one of the Trainers suggested it was because she was too attached to me and advised she stay with them for a week.
Who wouldn’t think it safe to leave their young dog with the very breeders where she was born? So I agree.
Yet while at Assertive K-​9 Training/​dba Thinschmidt German Shepherds for boarding and training her eyelid was ripped and required surgery to repair. Michele called me saying one of the trainers noticed her injury that was a smallish cut under the left eye. They didn’t know how it happened. I requested they take her to their Vet right away to be sure the eye wasn’t injured. Michele took her to their Vet but the Vet did not notice that the lower eyelid was ripped in half. Assertive K-​9 said their Vet cleared her describing the injury as a small scrape/​cut. So I let her stay the couple days remaining. Yet when I got her home and looked carefully at her injury I could see the eyelid wasn’t right. I took her to VCA West LA Animal Hospital where they explained if it was left as it was healing the misaligned eyelid might cause irritation of the cornea and drying out of the eye and damage.
What a bad experience. How did my 1 year old german shepherd get that injury? Assertive K-​9 did comment that they put her in a run with a more aggressive male to show her she wasn’t the boss. Really that is not positive reinforcement. That has nothing to do with her being attached to me? Why would they do that? It is not the type of training she needed. She needed to be exposed to well adjusted friendly playful dogs who would reinforce a positive experience. Instead she was placed in with an aggressive male who reinforced the negative experience. Not something that anyone with the slightest experience in dog training would consider acceptable. But that is what they told me they did. When I picked her up they told me not to acknowledge her to ignore her on the drive home and just keep her crated to make her attentive to me. Only let her out to put her in an outside run, for several days. It is a good thing I discarded their suggestions, as not positive reinforcement of the type she needed. If I had listened I wouldn’t have seen how bad her eyelid was and it could have gotten worse.
FROM MY EXPERIENCE I RECOMMEND AGAINST TRAINING OR BOARDING WITH ASSERTIVE K-​9/​DBA THINSCHMIDT GERMAN SHEPHERDS

Michele
It’s interesting that you only included a single email from 2012 as your companies response to my complaint about your business practices and customer service. I did indeed send that email but from 2012 until 2015 I have tried via emails and phone calls to resolve this issue. Don’t be juvenile in trying to hide your companies obvious attempt to cheat yet another customer out of their monies. I have asked to use my deposit for training another puppy there to which michele eimer replied «no», I asked to sell the deposit to another person and was told that was not possible, but I was also told that I could transfer the use of deposit to a family member that’s laughable. It’s funny how it takes you guys weeks and months to respond to requests but days to bs around on Unilocal.
Seems it’s time to make my bbb complaint along with a complaint to the ripoff report and whatever other social media sites. As a security consultant I have access too many sites that use services such as yours, let’s see how my review our your business practices go over in these circles. And all this over a refund.
My Better Business Bureau report is linked here.

The following details out my personal consumer experiences with Assertive K-​9. Saturday morning group classes at Assertive K-​9 was something that we made a point to drive for an hour each way every Saturday to attend. Every time we would go it would seem that there was some sort of jab or comment being made about us, our actions, or our dog. It was very disappointing, and I could not figure out why this was happening to us.
I took our dog for boarding at Assertive K-​9 twice, the first time he had gotten Guardia and coccidia. We first treated it with liquid medicine but it was so strong we needed the medication in the pill form which is stronger. The second time our puppy had a kennel cough scare. Kennel cough is a serious matter and we confronted Michele about it. She had denied it and was very rude. My kids were holding puppies when this was said to her and she tore the puppies out of their hands even though their facility was housing the Kennel cough. It was later confirmed from another source that there was a kennel cough outbreak that same month.

Our dog recently completed the Board and Train program at Assertive K-​9 Training. He has been a fearful, anxious dog since we rescued him and he was becoming more aggressive. The Board and Train program did wonders for his confidence, and gave us tools to help manage his stress. Robert was fantastic, and has a natural talent for dog training. We look forward to continuing to work with Assertive K-​9 Training to further strengthen our relationship with our dog and help him become the best dog he can be!

Excellent training for my two puppies. It’s up to the owners to follow through with what they were trained to do. Robert and Michelle were a pleasure to deal with.

Robert is our «dog whisperer» for training our new lab pup. We were interested in having him train Lilly at our house (we got her at 12 wks, training with Robert started at wk13). He helped us expedite the potty training & issues we didn’t expect — our pup was afraid of stairs which made going into our backyard an issue. He facilitated a quick solution.
Robert gave us homework to reinforce the overall training but most importantly, weaned us of our own bad habits ~ we’ve had dogs for 20 yrs but never understood the alpha role we should’ve maintained for a more harmonious home.
A big recommend for Robert ~ very professional, knowledgeable and PATIENT with us & Lilly.

I took both of my dogs to be evaluated by their training staff. One had extreme anxiety & fears of new things/​people (Dog 1). The other dog was an older puppy I had adopted from a rescue group that had maybe some prior training (Dog 2). This is my experience:
Dog 1:
When my dog with anxiety/​fear issues was evaluated they recommended a 6+ week in-​board training program for him. The training estimate was at least $ 5,000 (more if they felt he needed more time). The area he was going to be placed in was an aggressive dog hold area. He barked at people but never charged and never had bitten anyone so I didn’t like that this was his ONLY option of places to stay. I knew boarding him around the aggressive dogs would just make him stress himself straight to the vet so I decided to get another opinion.
I visited a different facility (Crossroads Pet Resort in Stanton, CA) with a trainer (Dan Tambourine) that had a specialization in fears/​anxiety/​aggression in dogs. First thing Dan asked me to do was to get a specific blood panel test done to confirm there wasn’t a biological reason for my dog’s behavior. –This shocked me as there was absolutely NO mention of this when I was at Assertive K-​9; Assertive K-​9 did NOT ask if a prior blood test had been done or mention that his behavior could be caused by something BIOLOGICAL. — One week later after Dan’s requested blood panels came back, we had a diagnosis of a hypothyroidism. Within weeks of starting the medication my dog’s behavior started to get better. Four to five months later, my dog was back to his normal happy self with NO aggression or anxiety issues. That second opinion saved me $ 5,000+ in training costs that would have stressed out my dog and wouldn’t have worked because the issues were biological in nature. THANK GOD FOR THAT SECOND OPINION!!!
Dog 2:
They recommended a full 6 week board and train program. I did not have the money for the full program so we agreed on a shorter 3 week program. The three week program was still a bit out of my budget but the training I saw on the videos in their office made me think it would be a wise investment. Three weeks later she had an ok amount of training. The trainer that walked me through what she had learned was very thorough & obviously cared very much about the dogs he trained. She had sit, down, stay, come & walk-​on-​leash/​heal down ok but not great. One thing that bothered me was the owner Michele answered all my questions about her and her training with what she felt I wanted to hear and not the truth.
I have continued her training locally & found out she has been VERY easy to train. If I could do it over again, I wouldn’t have spent the $ 3,000 for the board and train program. Though I got a dog with some very basic ok training, the dog was stressed during boarding, she tested positive for GIARDIA immediately after pick up (I’m not the first person to have this happen according to other review sites) & I feel like it would have been much better for me to invest that money elsewhere… like in private training or a group classes locally, as I feel she would have gotten much more out of those. I really wish I had gotten a second opinion on her training.
Overall, I’m not certain I’d recommend them and I definitely will not be a return customer.

I have been taking both my dogs to their boarding for years now and wouldn’t even dream about any other place. They have been absolutely fantastic. They also trained my very unruly Standard Poodle and made a gentleman of him (with some small quirks) and are always there to help me when I have questions or concerns. I drive hours to get to their kennel but it is worth every minute of my time. I know my dogs are well taken care off and that gives me peace of mind. The people at Assertive K-​9 are absolutely delightful besides being very knowledgeable about their trade. I recommend them to anyone needing help with training or boarding or finding a wonderful German Shepherd.

Excellent in-​board training program. The trainers were very friendly, experts at their craft, helpful, but most of all, they really care for every dogs’ best interest and well being with good solid boundaries. They are very hands-on…they will teach you how to handle and train your dog too!

I LOVED them… they were informative, caring and always willing to answer any questions I had! Even if it’s late at night or during the day, I would text the trainer with questions, recommendations, etc. and he answered me right away. I don’t understand any of the bad reviews. I could not have asked for a better trainer… and I get 2 complimentary trainings to bring whomever I would like !!!
These guys know what they’re doing and I hope everyone comes here to get their puppy trained… I couldn’t have asked for anyone better. btw — I’m really picky and know when someone is good. well, they’re great. :)

We just completed the 6 week basic course with our Golden Newfie, Hawke. Our guy is a 100+ pound bundle of energy, but Robert did wonders. He is probably the best dog trainer around and transformed our buddy into a new dog. We are repeat customers and confidently recommend this training facility.

My wife and I have a 2 year old female Husky that has had fear based aggression towards other dogs since we can remember. She becomes really excited and anxious when another animal (cat, squirrel, etc.) is present and tended to lunge and was in «the zone.» I came across Assertive K9 Training through the internet and decided to give them a try. After meeting with Robert and Diane for the initial consultation, we wanted to leave our Husky, TinTin with them for five weeks. All the employees are professional and caring. Robert (the main trainer) catered to our needs. The entire staff is very knowledgeable and friendly. When it was time for us to pick up TinTin, the trainers showed us a little demonstration of the new her. She was able to walk face to face, lay down, come in close contact, with another dog all off leash! The training also comes with a year-​long pass to the group sessions which will definitely be beneficial to the owners because we need to know exactly how to act and what to say when confronted with another dog. If you’re expecting a new dog that will simply listen to you no questions asked, that will not happen. It takes time for your dog to adjust to the new rules and limitations. I think the owners need more training then the actual pet (hence the included group sessions). The price of the training was manageable, but the owner must pay for the boarding as well (which I found to be a bit excessive because it is based on five weeks). The total amount comes as a bit of a sticker shock, however, you and your dog will become much happier.

I have purchased 2 German Shepherds from this Breeder. I originally searched all over the California for the top Breeder. the dogs are so well trained at 13 weeks when you pick them up they should be in Guiness book of world records. The family and trainers are the nicest people you will ever meet. All the dogs are like there own children. Diane, Doug, Michelle, Robert and the other trainers have spoken to me several times after a year or two later with simple questions calling me back right away. There property is amazing so much room and there dogs that are studs and the females are more like there family pets. I also have boarded the dogs there and the training refresher course is the absolute best. Trust me your dog is like your child if you want the best looking and best trained dog in the country contact these guys. Want a refrence call me this is no line. I love these guys.
Gary Temel 714 580 2366 call me for a reference