I have been trying to reach someone at Sam Ivy for more than one week. They do not respond to emails or voicemails.

My experience with Sam Ivy was the complete opposite of what I expected based on my daughter and son-in-law's experience. We had different trainers and apparently that made all the difference. My dogs are in a better place than they were when we started, but the overall experience was not what I expected or hoped for. Although they say it is outcome based not session based, that is not necessarily the case. It is also very disappointing that there is absolutely no follow-up from Sam Ivy after the fact. In my opinion not worth the cost.

I debated writing this review because I had a great trainer and this is more of a preference review than anything but if I had done more research I would have known. The type of training that is taught is very punishment and fear based training (with a prong collar and e-collar). This is not for the faint of heart, and dogs initially don't respond too well to it. However, it does work. It's just not the style of training that I would have preferred. When we first started with Sam Ivy the consultant explained to me that where people go wrong is that they treat their dog like a person and they're not and you have to establish boundaries and make sure you are "alpha" and explained the dominant features my dog exhibited. At the end of the day, I think of my dog as a member of my family and I understand that I do need to establish boundaries for my dog but I didn't feel that Sam Ivy empowered me to establish boundaries in way that my dog responded well to. I have since then moved on to other training that has worked A LOT better for me and my dog (again this is preference-based). It works a lot more with attention and praising and getting to the desires and need for my dog's personality versus what works with every dog (which is what I felt that Sam Ivy did more of). Additionally, I feel that it has really strengthened the relationship between me and my pup.

They rescheduled my consultation appointment 3 times . On the last time, they texted a day prior to verify the appointment . I left the business early to get to the appointment. Their trainer (which I don’t even know by his/hers name cause I have never got the chance to meet) never came. No show. No one called to say hes not coming, he just didn’t show. Up. As a business owner I respect my client’s time and experience above anything else . I expect fellow business owners to do the same . Perhaps they have great trainers , I can’t tell, what I can say is that their costumer service and respect to their client is zero. I won’t recommend them to anybody with self respect. This institution won’t treat you the way you expect to be treated . You should be embarrassed

Think twice about using this company! They have very poor customer service! I had a consolation with Brad today. I called a day before to confirm the time, he showed up an hour early extremely head strong and rude. He was very aggressive and not compassionate. After telling him I need help training my Service Dog for my disabilities he jumped on me questioning me and my research flat out telling me I was wrong. When I went to explain myself he said “I’m not going to argue with you Isabella” in my own home. Completely shutting me down I started crying, As previously mentioned I have several disabilities that effect my mental health and he was very un-caring of that fact and claimed his rude behavior as him being “real and straight-forward in his sales approach” Being in a sales back ground there’s a way to be honest without being a total jerk in someone else’s home. He discredited any research that I had put in for my dog and her extensive training. Very unfriendly, I’m extremely disappointed, would love to work with any other trainer and have another consolation where we can talk as equals about a good plan to get my pup on the right track for service work.

Second poor experience with this company. Contacted the owner after days of not hearing back about my review on Brad. Got ahold of him at 9 pm and he proceeded to complain about my negative review, instead of addressing my actual complaint. He got defensive about Brads actions, & questioned my research again. For example, I told him I had done my research and know i have my Prong color adjusted correctly for my dog (which brad had questioned and told me i was wrong from across the room) he told me theres a possibility i was still wrong then told me about the biggest problem they have with they're clients is that they have and i quote "know it alls", who think they know better than they do, essentially calling me a know it all and that i might not know what I'm talking about. I explained that i desired to sit with a PERSON one on one, as equals who want to make a good plan for my dog and not be talked down upon in my own home. I explained it was clear that this company was not a good fit for that. He was respectful and not rude throughout this interaction however very accusatory and cares about the company review more than he cared about fixing and addressing my negative experience.

The reason for this one star review is for a couple of reasons. My wife and I have owned dogs our entire lives. We decided to contact Sam Ivey due to my wife and I adopted a Great Dane and wanted some extra help with training our puppy. We have two other dogs in our house at the time also. After starting training with Ryann, we noticed our dogs started to fear us when we tried to correct them. When our puppy first started to learn spot training at the hands of Ryann, he tried to jump away from Ryann when she forced him into “down” position. Our puppy was trying to get away from Ryann so badly, on a pincher collar, I had to stop the training due to fear of my dog getting hurt. When I contacted the owner Sam himself, I was insulted and basically told that I overreacted due to severing in the military and going to Iraq. At that point, I stepped out and allowed my wife and children to continue without me. When we explained to Ryann that we did not want to use a E-Collar (shock collar), we wanted to explore other options, Ryann basically told us that there was nothing she could do. They are fear and punishment based training - HER WORDS. Ryann stated that she could already see the aggression in our dog and “it’s only going to get worse.” The only person our dog has growled at, is Ryann! When we asked why other trainers don’t use E-Collars, her answer “because they don’t know what they are doing”. We have taken our puppy to numerous stores and around a ton of people with no issues whatsoever. After holding our stance that we did not want to use the E-Collar, Ryann basically quit on us. When I tried to connect Sam over this, I felt that I was treated like our business and opinion didn’t matter. Just because we are not the type to use fear and pain to train our dogs, they are the professionals and their opinions and recommendations are the only ones that matter. It is their training and no other way. So, if you want your dog to obey you based on fear, then Sam Ivy is the company you want. I regret ever calling them and making that initial appointment. While our dogs have learned spot, leash controls and boundary, it’s going to take time to get them back towards their happy selves. After I left this review on Facebook, the owner of the company then decided to attack my wife and I like he has done with other customers that left a negative review of his company. Posted below are screen shots of him attacking us Social Media. If i could I would attach the video showing how his trainer mistreated our 6 month puppy (at the time).