Wolfgang Expert Dog Training — Local services in West Rancho Dominguez

If you love your dog, please avoid this place at all costs. We had a healthy one-year old German Malinois. After reading all of the great reviews and meeting with Wolfgang personally, my son-in-law took our precious Simba to Wolfgang Expert Dog Training for the four week program on June 8, 2020. He returned home three weeks later in an urn.

On June 23, 2020, Letty, the owner’s wife called my son-in-law around 8:00 a.m. to say that the trainer was taking Simba to the vet because he did not want to play with the other dogs and was not responding to the trainer. We thought he was going to our vet who is nearby, but we found out after several hours that he did not. About 9:00 a.m., Wolfgang’s receptionist contacted my son-in-law to tell him to go make the final $1500 payment, which he had been told would be due at the conclusion of the training. He did not go. Shortly after, Letty called again and said that Simba was fine. He was just missing his humans. She also said he needed an antibiotic but was not specific about why. My son-in-law had already been to Wolfgang’s to try to find out where Simba was and what was happening. He told Letty we would go back to see him. She said that she was going to the vet to pick him up and would let him know if he could go back to see him. An hour later, Wolfgang called and coldly told my son-in-law to put Simba down, and he would give him another dog from his facility. We were in complete shock given the previous reports we had received from his wife. It was at this point that we were given the name, address, and phone number of the vet who was treating Simba. My son-in-law spoke to the vet as we raced over there. Apparently, Letty or Wolfgang tried to give the okay to put Simba down without letting us know, but the vet insisted on speaking to his owner first. When we arrived, we were aghast by what we saw.

Our beloved Simba was almost unconscious, attached to oxygen, tubes, and IVs. He was surrounded by the vet and several techs, all frantically doing everything they could to find out what was wrong with him and trying to keep him comfortable. He was very skinny. He had lost seven pounds in two weeks. He had a large abrasion on the right side of his muzzle and a smaller one on the left side. He was bleeding significantly from his nose. The initial diagnosis was bilateral bronchopneumonia with a secondary but undetermined issue. In spite of all of this, he struggled to get up and tried to nuzzle with us and leave with us when we had to go outside to allow the vet to work. Sadly, Simba went into cardiac arrest and could not be revived. He died that evening.

As we waited to say our final goodbyes, the vet and tech told us that Simba arrived at the hospital near death in a kennel filled with vomit. The trainer who took him there was not able to give the vet any details about Simba’s condition or what might have happened to him (even though Wolfgang had told us that they have regular night kennel checks), and he left right away. However, given the gravity of his condition, the vet said that this was not something that came about overnight as Wolfgang and Letty tried to make us believe. It had been building for three to five days, and Simba definitely would have shown symptoms during that time. Had the trainers paid attention and taken Simba to the vet earlier, he could have been fine.

To this day NO ONE from Wolfgang Rader Dog Trainers has contacted my son-in-law or anyone in the family to offer condolences and/or an explanation. Our attempts to reach Wolfgang have been ignored. We wish someone had warned us before and hope that this makes anyone considering the program think twice and go elsewhere where you can be an active part of your...

There aren't many things I care enough about to leave a review about (my first review) but my dog is definitely one of them. I brought my extremely stubborn 1 year old Bullmastiff to Wolfgang and can honestly say that it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. My Bullmastiff (Ajax) went there with some basic training but no where near the level that a dog his size and strength needed. I had spent the previous year fighting my dog for control on every walk.

I left Ajax with Wolfgang for the 5 week in-kennel training and when 5 weeks was up, my dog was still not ready. Wolfgang didn't just give me back my dog or say I need more money to get him to where he needs to be, instead Wolfgang simply asked for 2 more weeks with my dog. He didn't ask for more money, or anything like that. Wolfgang's only motivation is to train your dog to his absolute potential. Very rarely do you find someone in this world where they truly do what they do for the love of it. I truly believe that this is who Wolfgang is and I am so appreciative for having been referred to Wolfgang.

After I got Ajax back, I couldn't believe the difference. It is such a pleasure to go anywhere and do anything with him now as I truly do have absolute control of my dog. He walks so close to me now looking for direction that it is actually taking me a bit to get use to it. The difference from before Wolfgang to now is almost hard to believe. My dogs spirit and personality are just as incredible as they were before but the control is now there. Now we are a team and not a person and a dog struggling for dominance. I plan on training Ajax with Wolfgang for the rest of his life and I can't wait to see where we go from here.

Wolfgang,

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for giving me the relationship with my dog that I've always wanted. Thank you for the great care you and all your staff showed in not only training my dog but taking care of him for 7 weeks. Thank you for being such a good and caring person and thank you for entering my life and Ajax's life. I will forever feel genuine appreciation and admiration for you and everyone that works with you. I truly count you as a friend. My Cane Corso puppy will be going to "uncle Wolfgang" when she is old enough and every other dog I ever have will be there as well. You guys...

I have 2 German Shepherds that I trained with Wolfgang since puppies. There is no better trainer of working line German Shepherds than Wolfgang. He has a tremendous amount of experience in dog training and breeding. I have owned GSD for 20 years and have never seen another trainer develop working drive in a dog like Wolfgang. He knows how to balance prey and defense drive in a dog. If you have a working line dog and want to bring out your dog's full potential, this is the place to come. I saw that another person wrote a review about the use of E-collar in a negative connotation. The reason that they have never scene others use E-collars is because most trainers do not know how to properly use them in training. They are an essential tool in training dogs off leash for various exercises.

I do have to warn you, this is not Petco training. Many of the dogs that train here learn personal protection and that requires a different level of commitment, attention and interactions. Due to the nature of the protection training, the pressure to both handler and trainer, may on very seldom occasion cause tempers to get a bit heated. You should not take a critic or stern direction personally. This is part of the deal. Teaching dogs how to bite is a serious deal and you have to be able to follow direction and learn how to read what your dog is thinking based on their body language. It is something that takes time but adds to the bonding between dog and owner. Training at Wolfgang's is tremendously fun for both dog and owner. It is a beautiful thing to see a dog run on the this field in search for the decoy. They dogs have a blast and owner get a first hand lesson from a Master Dog Trainer,...