Acoma Training Center

Very disappointed in Acoma Training Center. The training is done with fear and intimidation. I attended three classes where I saw Trish, the instructor, yank and pull on dogs to the point that they cried out. Even if the dog was not actually hurt, they were certainly afraid. Not what I want for my dogs. This is an extremely outdated method of training. I never returned after the third class.
Additionally, their classes are extremely large −25−30 people. Acoma is not a training center I would ever recommend.

The owner Trish, comes from a family of dog trainers, having inherited the business from her parents. The have an indoor training space for obedience and conformation and a large outside space for agility. Not being in agility I don’t know about that part of their business.
I went there because Trish has been affiliated in the past with our German Shepherd Dog Club and it is the «go to» place for our club members needed conformation training. Since I have a 9 month puppy who is destined for the show ring I have chosen to use the center although it is on the opposite side of the world from where I live in RR.
The negative comments posted here are obviously from people who are there for obedience and not having been there for obedience, I can’t say if they are on the mark or not. I have attended a lot of obedience classes in the past with other dogs in another state but have no way of knowing if these people are rookies and are not familiar with normal obedience training techniques or if they are knowledgeable and there poor ratings can be strongly considered.
Many people who get into obedience freak out when their little darling gets spoken to with a loud, correcting voice or are given some stern corrections. There are instances when one stern correction is better than repetitive small, meaningless and ignored corrections.
The one reviewer mentioned there dog was aggressive. From my experience they are already dealing with a too little, too late scenario and so more drastic measures would be needed. I suspect their dog wasn’t properly socialized and corrected properly when it had exhibited poor doggy manners.

It has been a couple of years since I took my dog through the training here, but after someone recently recommended this place to another person I had to see what their reviews were. I’m disappointed there aren’t more, I know quite a few people who agree, DON’T take your dogs here.
My dog did great when it came to certain things, she can sit and stay like a pro. But in all honesty those weren’t things she didn’t already know when we started the class. As the other reviewer mentions, they use pain to correct bad behavior which apparently can lead to worse behavior in the future. I wish I would have know this before throwing away $ 150+. My dog was never aggressive prior to her training at Acoma, since her training at Acoma I can’t even have her around new dogs. We will now be paying hundreds of dollars to a personal trainer in hopes of correcting this behavior.
Not only do they make you use a prong collar, they make you buy it all right there the first day. Tack that on to the class fee and that’s where you’ve now spent more than $ 150. I no longer use any of the stuff I bought from there.
The last thing I did not care for, their class sizes are huge. There were at least 20 dogs, talk about chaos.
We recently adopted a 2^nd dog and took them both back to Animal Humane for their training. Much better experience, only 5 dogs per class, and they are 100% against punishment as a training method. Positive reinforcement is what to look for if you’re looking to take your dogs to obedience school.

Outdated, punishment-​based methods. My dog didn’t learn much here and came away more aggressive than when we started. I’d avoid, and seek out trainers who practice positive reinforcement (and not physically forceful) techniques instead.