My personal experience with Camp Mutt was extremely unsatisfactory because of lack of the results of training and the communication. I sent my 2-year-old high-energy rescue dog, Rocky, for a three-week board and train because he struggled with fear and anxiety in public and could not walk well on a leash due to dog reactivity.
The day prior to my pickup date for Rocky, I was contacted by Camp Mutt to extend the pickup date due to scheduling issues. Then, the day before the new pickup date Camp Mutt contacted me again to extend the board and train by another week resulting in four weeks of training. In a later conversation with one of the trainers, I was told that Rocky had regressed in training and the extra week was to return him to their standard training level.
When I arrived at Camp Mutt to pick up Rocky, I was told we would do basic commands in the training facility then have the graduation and trade-off session at Lowe's. At the training facility Rocky struggled with following the commands but Camp Mutt assured me that he would get better with time. As we walked around Lowe's for his graduation there were no dogs to indicate Rocky had excelled in his leash reactivity training, but he was able to somewhat 'heel' with me.
Upon return home, Rocky was more leash reactive than before, so I emailed Camp Mutt twice regarding scheduling a follow up session. I did not receive a response, so I called them and the next training session they had available was 11 days later. During this time, I struggled taking my dog outside to potty simply because the moment we exited my house he would start whining and pulling. Regardless, I continued training him in a variety of places (my neighborhood, busy parking lots, PetSmart, Ross, Lowe's, and local parks) daily. In the follow up training sessions with Camp Mutt, the trainers came out to my apartment complex and were unable to keep Rocky from reacting to dogs without many corrections and distance. I was told that Rocky was not getting enough exercise and would benefit from more.
To help burn out some of his energy, I would take Rocky to my apartment's dog park. This was one of Rocky's favorite places because he met and played with a lot of dogs there. The last time we went to the apartment dog park, Rocky attacked a puppy for no real reason. Prior to training, Rocky did not struggle with dog aggression at all and had even attended doggie daycare with playtimes with other dogs.
After two months of having Rocky and typing many emails and making plenty of calls and visits to Camp Mutt without any progress in Rocky's reactivity and leash manners and now the newfound aggression, I was at my wit's end. I ended up rehoming Rocky. Three days later, Rocky's new owners returned him to me because he was too anxious and leash reactive. Not knowing what else to do, I took Rocky to a shelter in hopes that someone would adopt him and be able to give him a better life outside of an apartment since he was not thriving in mine. A little over two weeks later I received a call that no one was interested in Rocky and that he started growling at the shelter staff and cage fighting so he would need to be euthanized within the next two days.
Because of my negative experience, I filed a lawsuit against Camp Mutt for not training Rocky to the level they stated he would be trained to and to receive the $3,500 that I spent on the training back since they immediately denied my request for a refund. In their defense at court, they pushed the blame completely on me stating that I did not follow their directions or do the "homework" they assigned although I had video proof of me training Rocky in a variety of places on different days. In addition, Camp Mutt stated that they would have gladly taken Rocky in and gotten him adopted, however, when I mentioned I was considering rehoming Rocky this was not an option that was brought to my attention.
I am disappointed in the way that this entire situation was handled by Camp Mutt, and I share this story in hopes that someone else with a reactive dog does not experience this heartbreaking event. I am not sure what happened to my sweet dog between when he was sent to training to when I picked him up, but he was completely different in all the wrong ways.