Positive Review

Filed by Susan Iworsley Feb 26, 2021

It doesn’t matter if you are in desperate need of professional dog training or would just like your K9 companion to be the most well adjusted, well behaved dog on the block - there’s no need to look anywhere but Empire State K-9!We have 2 children with special needs and have worked with several highly skilled and experienced trainers with our first service dog. After that dog retired we knew we would need another service dog and brought Samson into our family to be raised with the kids and get used to their unique behaviors and needs. This is what we did with our first dog and we were hopeful that Samson would follow suit.. WRONG!Samson’s personality is much different than our other service dog. Then Covid hit which strictly limited our ability to socialize Samson and expose this dog to public access. One of the trainers we had worked with originally moved out of state and the one that was still here did 5 weeks of on-site (their facility) boot camp for basic obedience. We ended up with a dog that knew all of his commands but wouldn’t obey a single one. The trainer said that Samson was iffy as a pet let alone trying to use him for service work. We were devastated - and nearly broke.At 1 year old Samson was so unpredictable just going for a walk in the neighborhood was risky - this dog barked and lunged at other dogs, he was hesitant when he saw a stranger and he occasionally growled at them but at least he was on a leash. In the house he was even more out of control. Samson was still soiling in his crate and lifting his leg in the house. Fighting with our other dogs, he was food aggressive, chewed everything within reach.. the list of negative behaviors didn’t seem to end. Our veterinarian was very concerned and encouraged us to work with a behaviorist.After a lot of searching and discouraging phone calls we found Empire State K-9 and spoke with Rick Sanders. He assured us that Samson’s situation was not hopeless and made an appointment to meet with us. He took Samson into his facility and after 1 week the transformation was incredible. All of the problems we thought were insurmountable are under control and Rick didn’t abandon us after Samson left his facility, he stayed in touch with phone calls and text messages to help us shape the behaviors that still needed tweaking.Now, not only do we have an obedient well behaved dog but Samson has qualified as the service dog we NEED him to be. We would never have reached this goal without Rick Sanders and Empire State K-9.Please, learn from our experience - don’t waste your money searching for the right trainer. Get the best from the start and you won’t have any regrets. Rick doesn’t just train your dog, take your money and send you on your way. He actually cares about the people and dogs he works with and will be there for both of you when the session ends.