Canine Solutions Training Services

I was on the fence about writing, but now that I have been to another trainer that actually fixed the problem –I think its best to share my experience. I want to start by saying that I liked Chris’ personality for the most part. Yes he is insulting but also injects his own humor and charm into his belittling rants of dog owners. which I think stems from his past experience doing stand up. Deep down he is a nice guy, but I think his niche talent is manipulating dog owners– at that he is truly an expert. I have a little dog and he was always acting aggressive towards other dogs and barked incessantly. We took him to Chris because we couldn’t enjoy walks with him, or even have visitors without constant frustration. Chris insulted me and my dog upon the initial evaluation and immediately used the reverse psychology trick of telling me I wasn’t going to want to do what needed to be done for my dog– which was doggy boot camp. Of course I wanted my dog to be a happier, obedient dog so I immediately paid the 2500 and left him there that day for weeks. His training consists of crating, scruffing, and leashing the dog. When we brought him home he was more submissive but he still acted out. We did what we were told to do and that was crate him, take him out to train for a little bit, crate him, pee poop time, crate him, and at all times he is to remain on the leash– when he is not on the leash he is in the crate. This is not the life a dog should live– or the owners for that matter. When we went to his training sessions he would pass my dog around in a circle by the scruff of the neck, his kids also worked the facility and his young son nearly dropped my dog. It wasn’t until my brother came over and told me about how his dogs trachea was broken because the previous owners scruffed him that I decided I needed to take my dog to the vet to make sure he was ok. When I went to the vet I saw one of the girls that had worked at Canine Solutions and had left. She no longer worked for Chris and she and I talked for quite a while. It was after that visit that I decided I would never go back. Luckily my dog was fine, but all the training and expensive boot camp did not stop the bad behavior we had gone to Chris for. We moved since then and we found another trainer who has helped my dog so very much. I don’t agree with the way Chris «trains» /​treats dogs and their owners. Although I’m sure his techniques have helped other dogs/​owners, had I read a review of an experience like mine– I could have prevented putting my dog (and us) through that.

Canine Solutions and Chris have been a savior for us and our dog. We’d been down the road of puppy classes and behaviorists over the first year but our final recommendation was to euthanize or give to a no-​kill shelter. We were seriously considering it. In a last ditch effort we brought him to Chris. he offered us a way to save our pup. He laid out exactly what was going on and how to fix it. He didn’t sugarcoat it. The main problem was with us. Guess what?! He was right. Its a long process to retrain a human but we’re glad to say its paying off.
As some other reviews have mentioned, Chis isn’t for everyone but he’s honest, knowledgeable, and often very funny. If you have thin skin or are looking for a magic pill then go somewhere else. If you really want to understand your dog and you as a handler then GO SEE CHRIS!

After reading the rebuttals of my review, I have to say that my point was strongly made about Chris’s methods. Yes, I know there are a lot of trainers out there. I have met and been around them. I am sure he has had some success with certain dogs, otherwise he would have been out of business by now. But I have also heard since my review that he has had a number of unsuccessful customers. You can argue that he is tough etc., but there is in no way any excuse for fearful training/​tricks, intimidation, and his scare tactics. There are other ways to deal with problem dogs. My dog, by the way, is a reactive dog, not aggressive. My main problem is with distractions. It’ like my dog has ADHD. Squirrel! So, Chris just went into this, your dog doesn’t listen to you, doesn’t respect you and is dangerous thing. I agreed with some of it and said, well, that’s what I am here to learn. But then he went into a tirade on me and wanted me to leave her with him for 2 weeks for $ 2500. None of you mentioned how much he charged you for his services. I would be interested to know.

Update 1÷26÷2015: I notice that two five star reviews have been added since I posted this review. If these reviews are legitimate and Chris F truly helped you and your dog I am very happy it worked out. I have no personal vendetta against anyone, and only want to see dogs with «issues» and their owners find a solution that works for them.
The reason I really wanted to post a review is to let people know how Chris operates, and give them the strength, if they do go in for an evaluation, to simply take their dog and leave if Chris is teasing and provoking the dog in a way that makes them uncomfortable and has no benefit for the dog.
One of the things that really bothered me was that Chris detailed all the injuries he’s gotten from clients dogs– a broken arm, lots of punctures, etc. I have a trainer friend (outside New England) who works with serious aggression cases. He says there is no reason for a trainer to be bitten if he knows what he is doing. It may seem macho, but it simply proves Chris hasn’t a clue when it comes to actual aggressive dogs (not just fear-​aggression or brats).
Those interested in an evaluation should go in with their eyes wide open, that is all.
Original Review:
I agree with Kathy V’s review.
Beware. Do your research before going to Chris Fraize. What I didn’t know ahead of time hurt me. Be aware that a good trainer will tell you it takes two to three days to truly «evaluate» a dog. But Fraize will «evaluate» a dog in a few minutes, and based on this «evaluation» tell you one of three things– or possibly all three if you have more than one dog.
a) This dog is clearly too much for you, he needs to come to me for a $ 2,500 (plus) board and train for 3– 5 weeks.
b) this dog is too much for you, hand him over (for free) and I’ll rehome him for you.
c) this dog is too much for you (and also too much for me — Chris) euthanize him.
If you do decide to go in for an evaluation be prepared to walk out. I wish I had. I wish I had walked out before my stressed out dog blew his anal glands and totally freaked out.
What really bothers me is that Chris is playing and profiting off uninformed dog owner’s fears. Personally, I believe that is unethical. It is also mean-​spirited to mock someone because their dog won’t sit in the evaluation room after or during extreme teasing and provocation by Chris. Seriously– unless you’ve worked on «sit» extensively the «picture» the dog is used to (in my case I am never sitting when I give commands, I can work on this but I haven’t) is me standing, and never with a «decoy» within a few feet actively approaching on the dog. I realize «sit» should happen anywhere, but I haven’t titled my dog yet, I just got back into obedience training. I told Chris I knew my dog was NOT going to sit at that time. He still wanted me to say «sit» (why I complied a psychologist would have to tell me) and of course then mocked me when the dog refused.
But the dog’s level of obedience really shouldn’t play into an evaluation. A trainer should be evaluating the DOG not the human.
I also strongly disagree with what I heard and understood of Fraize’s basic philosophy when it comes to dog training. Granted, this is just what I gleaned from talking with his assistant and from the evaluation itself, if you wanted details you’d have to ask Fraize.
From what I heard and saw, Chris believes that so-​called «nothing in life is free» carries over into, say, dog-​dog aggression or dog-​human aggression. This means, basically, you don’t give the dog affection unless he’s done something for you, you don’t allow dog on the bed or furniture, you don’t allow dog out the door first, you don’t give the dog anything unless he does something for you first.
This approach breaks down as pretty meaningless to the dog. eg. dog-​dog aggression needs to be addressed and corrected when it is happening. Simply not allowing the dog on the bed will not translate to the dog ceasing dog-​dog aggression. Now, I don’t know why Fraize advocates for this stuff, I’m really not interested. Perhaps his reasons are actually based in operant and classic conditioning– the base of dog training– but I think it is probably based more in his silverback-​gorilla image of being alpha male.
Why I didn’t walk out after about two minutes, is beyond me, but I guess hindsight is 20 – 20. Find another trainer unless you want to pursue options a through c above.

Chris and April Fraize are just straight up scam artists which is probably why they moved their shop from Maine to NH
Here’s how they scammed my fiancé and I to which we fell for hook link and sinker. We have a troubled pitbull adoption that we wanted to get on the straight and narrow. I had heard Chris do an interview on the Morning Buzz so I decided to give him a shot. We were stressed and worried, we did not want our dog to bite anyone, we did not want the legal ramifications and we did not want to see her get put down so we were in a desperate place. Apparently Chris could smell it on us. Here’s how the scam works.
–Chris would ask us a question, i.e. How old is the dog now? we answered 3, Chris then responded ‘Oooo 3, yeah that’s when a switch flips in their brain and something changes. The intake continued like this, he’d ask the question then gave us the answer that was the worse case for anything we responded to like our dog was in the worse place possible. If you go there, your dog will be to no matter what the scenario.
–Next Chris then told us we were lucky a new class was starting soon but he would really need to take our dog into custody for 2 weeks for intense training for the low cost of $ 1200. When we flinched at the price he laid it on thick. The class only had a spot or two left, if we didn’t lock it in and pay now we could be left out of luck for 8 weeks, this is a matter of life and death for our dog and so on. We love our dog so naturally we took the bait
–Chris then arraigned for us to drop our dog off the next day with the promise that our dog would be living at his house to be trained intensely to prepare for the classes to come. he would also teach our dog to run on a treadmill and start working her out to release energy. None of this happened. Our dog was kept in a crate at the shop the entire time, at first we thought she was just being dropped off on class nights so we can work with her but then staff mentioned they had to cover her crate in the day because she was getting too worked up when the cleaning ladies were there. We inquired what the intense training was as our dog still did not know how to sit on command and showed no signs of anything else changing but we never got a straight answer. We also supplied a brand new $ 60 40# bag of dog food for the two weeks as well as a leash and collar, all of which we never got bak even after asking for it a dozen or so times.
–When we first signed up for classes Chris gave the impression we would train with him in classes. In a six month time we NEVER had Chris as a trainer. It was always a student of Chris’ who was a nice kid but had no structure to any class and couldn’t remember what he assigned us to do with our dogs from week to week. He’s test our dog on verbal commands he never asked us to teach the dog.
–April was a joke as well. April is the one who we kept asking for the food collar and leash back from, in theory there should have been at least 20# of food to return. After a few months They changed class structure to all private lessons instead of groups and you had to book with April. On more than one occasion we booked, drove an hour from Salem MA to Rye NH and no one would be there. April would just respond to an email saying they forgot and offer nothing to make it up to us.
These people are Scam artists looking to leverage your dog against you to get as much money as possible out of you. Stay far far away from them if you value your dog and your money.