Integrity K9 Academy — Local services in San Ramon

I can’t say enough good things about Billy and his phenomenal team of dog lovers at Integrity. It’s because of their expertise, communication, and tireless dedication to the wellbeing of the pets in their care that I am able to keep my dog.

I adopted my dog Cassie, a Belgian Malinois/Boxer mix, from a rural county shelter when she was 5 months old. The employees at the shelter had told me she was socialized and would be happy to play with my family’s dogs. I quickly realized this was not the case, and that Cassie had never been socialized with other dogs. She displayed reactive behavior with all other dogs in my neighborhood., raising her hackles, lunging, and baring her teeth if she even saw another dog, no matter the distance away. She was also overly excited with people, jumping, scratching, and even biting inappropriately. I knew that if Cassie was going to be safe in proximity to other dogs, play at the beach, and be successfully trained, she first needed professional intervention.

A week later, I brought Cassie to Integrity unsure if she was dog-aggressive, leash reactive, barrier reactive, or simply unsocialized. The first day I met Billy and the team to inquire about a board and train, he radiated calm, warm expertise. After assessing her, he assured me she was not aggressive or even leash reactive, and to prove it, walked her up to a staff’s well behaved bully breed. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Billy explained the entire training process to me, what Cassie would be learning, and reassured me I would receive weekly updates about her progress.

Fast forward through the month, and I am sure I was one of the most worried, overly communicative clients Integrity had. Owners of a rescue dog always wonder what their dog’s background is and what they’re getting into, and with Cassie’s strength and drive, it was vital she knew how to behave. But Billy and the team kept me filled in every step of the way, and I was delighted to learn that Cassie was a quick learner, eager to please, and showed a lot of potential for various canine sports. I cannot overstate how supportive the staff was, and I even got photos from the employees via text showing me how much fun Cassie was having.

When I picked her up, a couple of family dogs in tow to see if the proof was in the pudding, I was blown away. Cassie was not only calm and obedient, but she sat completely at ease while other dogs, including an energetic German Shepherd, a frenetic French bulldog, and two Miniature Pinschers, barked and tried to sniff her. She played happily with my family’s dogs, respectfully allowed them to touch noses with her, and was entirely unbothered by their uncertain barks at her.

In the days following, Cassie has been effortlessly relaxed on walks in the neighborhood, ignoring other dogs, even when they bark. A month ago, before Integrity, I couldn’t have even safely gotten her down my block. She happily walks side by side with my family members’ dogs, keeps a perfect heel, is crate trained, sits calmly for her food, and is reinforcing her obedience every day. I cannot overstate what a fan I am of Integrity, of their training tactics, and the meticulous care and love they have for the animals in their care. I am 100% sure I will continue to utilize Integrity’s services as Cassie and I...

This review is for their “socialization” training only.

Our golden retriever needs some help with socialization because we want him to be able to play better with other dogs. Integrity K9 markets a “socialization training” program on their website. I inquired and they set me up with a phone call.. first strike .. they miss the phone call appointment. I have to email them to ask if they were still planning on calling us. During the phone call, we went over our dogs previous training/obedience. He has good basic obedience so we said we wanted to focus on socialization which the trainer said would be no problem. She went over what the socialization would entail- being around other dogs at the facility as well as her own dog. We said we would do one day school training to try it out.

Day of training, we drop Kobe off- definitely an awkward atmosphere. Felt like we were the ones that had to make conversation with the workers but I won’t judge them on that. We drop Kobe off at 11 and pick him up at 5:30 pm. When we arrive, we see Kobe through the front window getting “trained”. When we enter, they are working on basic obedience (which Kobe already has). And mind you, his basic obedience with the trainer at Integrity K9 is not as good as his basic obedience with us. They say that he was not distracted by other dogs walking by him during his training … so is that what we paid $200 for? For him to be taught what he already knows with dogs walking in and out the door? When we train him, even for 30 mins, he is mentally exhausted. He was there for 6 ish hours and he came home so hyper. Makes me think he was in his kennel the whole day and they brought him out to “train” him at the very end of the day when we would be walking by the window to see him.

Seems like a good place to bring your dog if they need day camp or boarding but I would not bring my dog or future dog here...

Summary - if you want some cheap exercise for your dog, 5/5. If you want dog training or agility, 1/5.

Brought my pup in for a “march madness” agility session special that was advertised online. 2 stars is because my dog seemed to have a good time and gained some confidence on the agility obstacles.

Upon bringing her in, I was surprised to learn that this session was for the dog only and I would just come back at the end. Maybe this was my mistake, but I had expected more of an agility lesson for both of us - in all my other training experiences, I’ve learned it’s not very useful to teach the dog unless the owner knows how to interact correctly with them.

In addition, I was told that the separation was so the dogs in training wouldn’t be distracted by a bunch of people. In the end, my dog was the only dog in the session, so this clearly was not true.

I returned after my pup’s session as instructed and the staff were confused as to why I was there and took several minutes to locate the dog and trainer. The I was shown around the course with her. She definitely enjoyed the agility course, but aside from being willing to climb the obstacles (something we have done tried before) didn’t seem to have learned anything (no new cues or other behaviors were introduced) and the trainer had no feedback on handling as we went through the course repeatedly. I’m actually interesting in trying competitive agility so was really hoping for more information. I suppose you can’t expect much for $25, but this training was billed as regularly $100 - for that price I would have expected a lot more.

Also - this training center sells (and presumably uses) aversive tools including E collars and prong collars. I also cannot find any training certifications for any of the staff here. Personally my strong preference would be for a positive reinforcement and...