Auburn Leach K9 Academy

Write a Review540-448-6788

CLOSED NOW - Opens at 7:00am

We wholeheartedly recommend Auburn Leach as a dog trainer. He has done a great job working with my dog Leo, who has significant aggression issues. As first time dog owners, my girlfriend and I were not prepared to properly handle our dog, an adopted middle-aged chow-shepard mix from the local animal shelter. With Auburn’s guidance, we have made a lot of progress in a short period of time. After taking Leo for a two week resident boot camp, Auburn continues to visit our house weekly to work with myself, my girlfriend and our dog. We are very satisfied with Auburn’s care and commitment for our situation and his continued efforts to help us train Leo.

I am completely disappointed and distraught. I adopted Lucy from the shelter 7wks ago had separation anxiety, I found out after she broke out of her crate within 2min of me leaving to test out how she'd do by herself. I've had 4 dogs in my life, and I didn't even know separation anxiety existed. It's worse than you can imagine. I emailed a few board and train places in distress (when really, I should have called the Humane Society where I adopted her from and talked to one of their behaviorist), and then Nancy from K9 called me right after another stressful moment. She said that Auburn would turn this shelter dog into a confident dog and that confidence would break her from her separation anxiety. I verbalized that my fear was that this transition would make things worse for the poor shelter dog, and that after a couple of weeks, I would get back a really well trained dog that still had separation anxiety when I left. Auburn said his 20 years of training would fix her right up. I was wishful thinking.



He doesn't answer his phone and his voicemail box is full every time you call. He called me back, though, so I just got used to that. After 2 weeks, he decided to keep her for another week because she was a tough case and her abuse was worse than he had thought. Then she would be dropped off the following week. But I never got a phone call that week. And then the week later, I called and Nancy said the following week. In total, I got her back 5 weeks later. She was almost as skinny as she was when I got her from the shelter. She no longer sat on command. She didn't "down" when he told her too. She was skittish and nervous and didn't enter the kennel when he told her to. It was obvious he loved her, though. He is a dog lover...but certainly not a trainer. The lack of ethics in taking a dog that is so fearful of never being fed again and being abandoned, and using force to try to get past separation anxiety is simply beyond my comprehension. My fear was that I would get back a really well trained dog that still had separation anxiety didn't come true...she wasn't even well trained. She was housetrained, which I am thankful to him for. She still counter surfed, she didnt come when called (I'm not sure she even knew the name I gave her when I adopted her, which he would have used for the 5 weeks), she didn't go down when I told her, she tugged like crazy on her lease (the harness I used on her after I took off her choke collar he used on her worked so much better), and worst of all...she still suffered from separation anxiety. Because it's nothing you can train out of a dog. And he should know that. I have since learned that the only way to cure a dog of separation anxiety is months of desensitization and counter conditioning. 1 minute at a time.



I paid $1450 to get back a dog that was housetrained. She didn't even whine when he left... And really, I'm not upset that he couldn't fix her. She wasn't fixable without months of counter conditioning. I'm upset that he took $1450 from me, and I didn't even get a dog that was well trained. She was leash aggressive and even growled at a toddler.



5 days after she came home, I called him upset that she was still in panic mode re: me leaving. Spinning in circles, trying to get out my front door, panting, ears back, barking, howling. PANIC. I wasn't able to leave her. He said, don't take her back to the shelter, I'll call you back tonight. He never called me. He still hasn't. Nancy won't return my calls. And of course, I don't have a copy of my contract. They kept my only signed copy.



This not a reputable company. It is not his company's fault that Lucy will have to go back to the Humane Society where she will be euthanized bc she is not adoptable and they dont have any behavior fosters that can dedicate 24/7 with her. It is not. But is it this company's fault that I am $1450 in the hole and literally will have nothing to show for it.

I read the other bad reviews against this training company, and still decided to send our dog to auburn leach. He seemed like a nice guy when he came to meet us. But I do have problems with how my dog came back to me. I thought she would be gone for about two weeks, they ended up keeping her for three. They gave us a set time that she would be back, then the MORNING OF they called and said it would be a week later. I understand extenuating circumstances, but I find it highly unprofessional that they can't stick with what they told us.

They ended up returning her the day later, and I was very upset to find that she was covered in cuts along her legs, neck, and face. Apparently she pooped in the cage she was kept in and tried to break out of it.

She is a big, strong dog so I'm not sure why he kept her in a plastic cage to begin with. And she has NEVER ONCE pooped inside the house, or in her cage that we keep her in. So my guess is she was kept in there for entirely too long so she had no choice but to eliminate in her cage, then tried to escape to get away from it.

Along with cuts and communication problems, it's obvious that they were feeding my dog entirely too much. We were working on getting a little more meat on her bones but after three weeks of overfeeding, she is now overweight and doesn't look healthy anymore.

Now to the part we sent her there for in the first place, training:

She has only been back for a day but for the cost of the training ($1300), I haven't seen improvement. I had a pretty well behaved dog in the first place, the only help she needed was with focus and listening a bit more. This was not taught to her. Auburn taught her a different method to walking on the lease, and that is it. So now I have a dog with cuts everywhere that need medical attention and that needs to be put on a diet.

He did offer to reimburse us for the vet bill, which I appreciate.



But if I'm entrusting you with my dog, you should treat her like your child. I would really like to see the conditions these dogs are being kept in and wish I had seen them before letting my dog go there.

Overall I would say that this is a very unprofessional organization Auburn is running and would not recommend.

Family member used alk9 for their puppy.. pup was suposed to attend camp for 10 to 20 days..the 20 days was up and puppy suppose to graduate almost a month ago... continous calling to find out how puppy is ,when she would be returned home and why the drastic delay of 3+weeks was met with either no return calls or crappy exuses.... they were finaly told puppy would be home on monday 7/8/2013 ( 3+weeks past original 20 day time line) this day came no puppy... calls to facility all day every 15 to 30 min resulted in no return phone call until almost 7 pm when owner finaly called back with yet another excuse on why puppy still is not home and that puppy would not he home until thursday 7/11.. and still no answer is to why puppy was kept for almost a month longer than should have been.. and nothing on how the puppy is doing

At first I wasn't sure if his training was working - but in the end I now have the dog I want . Thank you so much , Leach ! I will bring all my dogs to you . :-)

Auburn Leach did wonders with my parents' female German Shepherd mix. She was hyper and didn't obey anything, ran off and wouldn't come when called. After 3 weeks of boot camp, she was a changed dog. We really appreciate what the K9 Academy did for our family.