This review is very overdue. I thought hard about leaving this review, but I really feel I must have to, even after all the time that had passed.
I sent my dog to Performance K9 training for a board and train in October of 2020. My dog, Ace, a Belgian Malinois, was about 5/6 months old at the time. My husband and I went to three private training assessments with David before the boarding. Everything went well, and he was particularly happy that my mal was so “confident”. We went through with the board and train, and I believe we dropped him off October 17th. We were told during the consult that we would be receiving plenty of videos/photos, however if I recall correctly we just got maybe one or two pictures and only one video. Not a big deal, but a little disheartening as I was very sad to be apart from our pup. All seemed to be well. Then, the day before his graduation, we received a call that he had not eaten that day or the night before and that we needed to take him to our vet. Of course I became hysterical. I called my vet, and interestingly they had already known which training facility he was at even though I had not told them. I was extremely emotionally distraught, so I did not ask at the time. I drove over to get Ace, and he was extremely thin and looked very ill. He did not give me the excited greeting I had been looking forward to. He was very calm and just got into my car. While driving to my vet, he was coughing in the backseat. So I knew it was kennel cough. This is not surprising and is a risk you take when doing boarding. My vet rushes him in and gets him on fluids and does x-rays. The x-rays discovered that he had pneumonia. He had to be given oxygen the rest of the day. My vet is not an emergency vet, so he was sent home at the very end of the day with antibiotics. After 2 days, he did not show improvement. I rushed him back to our vet, where they placed him back on oxygen. A few hours later, they called that he needs to be moved to an emergency facility. We rush him to CVS animal hospital in Carlsbad, where they treated him and kept him overnight for two days. Thankfully, he became well enough to come home and made a full recovery. I have never been so distressed and heartbroken in my very short time on earth (I was 20 when this happened). However, the facility’s handling of this situation is absolutely unacceptable. David, the trainer, continuously referred to what my dog had as a “little cold”, even after making them aware that it was a severe case of pneumonia. We returned weeks later for our in person session, despite being extremely skeptical. David used the e-collar at such a high power that my dog was violently shaking. After that, never went back again and never heard from them again. I have been told by another trainer that he is known to have a “heavy hand” with the e-collar, which is unfortunate and will lead to further stigmatize the training TOOL. We are currently moving, and I found the contract in my saved documents. It states that the trainer will make the owner aware of any signs of illness IMMEDIATELY upon noticing. Kennel cough does not progress into pneumonia immediately. I am writing this almost two years later because I was just told by one of the workers at the vet office that they truly believed that my dog was going to die. This brought the pain of the situation back to me, although it is always part of me. I believe this situation has caused my dog severe anxiety. I urge everyone to please go elsewhere. Please do not make the same mistake I did. Now I work around animals, and I am extremely grateful I can use word-of-mouth to stray everyone from going to this facility.
