Trouwe Hond K-9

Dave is the best trainer out there. He’s been training my rottweiler since he was 11 months (he’s two now), both in obedience and protection, and there’s no one else I trust for it. He’s a great trainer and gets results. He gives updates almost every day, including photos and pictures. Most importantly, my dog loves him and seems to have a great time with the training.
Whatever kind of dog that you have, and whether you’re doing just obedience or mixing protection work in as well, you should talk to Dave.

Beware if you are going to train your dog with Dave. He is an old-​fashioned trainer, so he uses a lot of corrections (including choke chain collar corrections, space claiming or «shying» and probably others). Also, because, as he claims he does not like to work with «green owners», he really only does board and train and they are not cheap: $ 1500 or so for 2 weeks. He will do an eval for $ 60 and then refund you for that if you do a board. He also charged me for OVERTIME even after a B&T: $ 125. More on that later. I have done a lot of training on my own and worked with numerous trainers over the past thirteen years, in which time I’ve had 3 dogs.
Now I was hitting a brick wall with a bolting issue on my medium rescue dog.
After searching for a long time for a good mixed trainer (positive and negative), because R+ training alone was not working with him, a colleague put me on to Dave and I called four other refs who he gave me and they all raved about Dave. I scheduled an eval, at which I told Dave that my rescue spaniel/​retriever x was not remotely aggressive; but was poor on leash with other dogs (a major issue in the city) and bolting (another major issues in the city). The facility was clean and after talking with Dave and reading his literature over, I decided to go ahead and take the plunge and spend half my savings on a board and train, even though I prefer to work with my dog personally.
IT was four days before I heard from Dave saying my dog was doing OK. I showed up for my first training session and the experience was so jolting I’ve not forgotten it. Dave told me my dog’s attempt to greet me was evidence of his dominance and then proceeded to offer a LOT OF SEVERE corrections for this. It was awful. Amongst these were kicking Henry hard in the chest and LIFTING HIM OFF THE GROUND ON A CHOKE CHAIN. HE ALSO INSTRUCTED ME TO ALPHA ROLL HIM. AS MOST OF YOU KNOW, THIS METHOD OF SITTING ON TOP OF YOUR DOG AND GRABBING HIS NECK IS AN OLD SCHOOL CORRECTION WHICH EVEN THE MONKS OF NEW SKETE HAVE GIVEN UP ON. IT IS PERVERSE.
DAVE ALSO TOLD ME I OF COURSE COULD NOT DO THESE «CORRECTIONS» IN PUBLIC.
After this, I wrote to David to tell him I was unhappy, and not comfortable with his methods. I said I would pick Henry up and not ask for a refund, or we could find a way of working together, because I told him many times I WOULD NEVER do these corrections on my dog.
I was the more disturbed because David had described a technique to me which I know is called helicoptering, and which involves nearly hanging a dog to death on a chain and then reviving him with water. David said he thinks you’ve saved him from death. He did not show much horror in discussing this «method».
Dave kept telling me over and over again how my dog «ran dominant». How he had tried to bite him, even. Let me say that 30 lb Henry has never, not once in two years, even threatened any such thing. I was flabbergasted. Dave told me I owed it to my dog to keep him in training. After discussing it with others, I decided to leave him. I had already paid $ 1500 and although he seemed unkeen, he did not seem afraid of David.
Much to my surprise, before I collected him the following week, David told me he had to charge me for «extra time», though he did not time-​limit his owner training sessions which are INCLUDED in the B&T. The charge was $ 125. I did not want to quibble because I just wanted Henry back. He later confessed he charged me for «aggro» and «arguing with him».
He _​was_​more respectful and less harsh during training session #2−3. However, I do not like working with a dog when it involves all these corrections. Granted, I was told that if I could do it with «sufficient force», I’d not have to use them all the time. But I guess «sufficient force» is not in my nature. David repeatedly put me down during the whole training process, even telling me that in «99% of his cases there is no one who rebels or fails» like me (I guess here I am the 1% !).
Although I had paid him for helping me use an ecollar to stop Henry bolting, he would not instruct me in this tool, because of my «lack of competence». He told me he knew there’d be many emails and that Henry would try to «score off me». As it happened, during training session #3 when I asked David to bring out another dog (I was not, according to him, «ready» for dog park real-​world training). David worked this guy on an ecollar so I could see how it is done. I’ve seen dogs happier and more keen being worked on ecollars; this dog seemed miserable. Then again, when I looked at Dave’s controller, it read «52»! That’s on a Dogtra, and is damn high.
In short, use caution with this trainer. He knows his business, but he believes strongly in dominance, he’s not a good communicator, and if you are not ready to HANG YOUR DOG, KICK YOUR DOG, ALPHA ROLL, ETC, YOU’LL FAIL LIKE ME AND MAKE IT 2%, except missing 50% of your savings!

My husband and I bought a dog days after we got married. We had always intended on finding a trainer, but doing research on dog training can produce such a headache! There are so many different types of methods and I feel very lucky to have found Trouwe Hond K-​9!
Dave is great with dogs! He knows what he is talking about and is passionate about what he does. He keeps nothing from his clients about how he believes dogs should be trained.
Beware! Do not expect to drop your dog off and then pick it back up a few weeks later and it will be a complete perfect robot dog! It is a dog for crying out loud! You, as a dog owner will go through training too and it is not easy!
I find myself to be immensely passionate about animals and the thought of them being put through anything other than fluffy clouds and rainbows tears at my heart strings, but Dave shows you that what he does is in no way harmful to the dog. He is simply correcting the dog in the ways that dogs know best.
I highly recommend Trouwe Hond K-​9 to anyone who has a dog. It is well worth it and my husband and I are too excited to show our dog off to all our friends and family!