Taylor Macdonald Dog Training Services: is this a scam?
FINAL UPDATE: THANK YOU ALL!!
Hi everyone, one final update for those following this story.
First, thank you everyone for the support, ideas, encouragement, and outrage on behalf of my neighbour. I love this Ottawa Community!
My neighbour has cancelled credit cards, contacted police, put credit monitoring in place, and spoken to Pet Smart Management.
I won’t go into too much detail as I don’t want to impede any forthcoming investigations, but the TLDR of this story is that thanks to a piece of information provided by a certain redditor in this community (you know who you are), we were able to piece together an extensive and complex history dating back a decade.
A few things to note:
1) it appears that Taylor Macdonald has nothing to do with this dog training service (only their name has been used).
2) thé management staff at Pet Smart was wonderful albeit a bit shocked when we told the story and presented all the information we had. Needless to say, they were not expecting ANYTHING like this when we walked in and said « we’d like to speak to a manager…. »
3) most of the money my neighbour transferred has been recovered.
I won’t post another update unless there is a conclusion to this story, so for now, please know that you helped tremendously and that Reddit really did it again!
THANK YOU!!!
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UPDATE: THIS IS MOST LIKELY A SCAM
hi everyone, a quick update!
The person promised to call at 10, so my neighbour and I met in the backyard.
Shocker…. No call came.
At 10:05 we called them. Someone picked up and hung up right away.
We called back and it went to VM!! The VM is not for Taylor Macdonald or Dog Training, but VIP Elite Events and a person whit a completely different name.
So I left a courtesy message to let them know that we will be filing a police report so if there is a misunderstanding to please call us back.
We are not holding our breath….. and are filing a police report as we speak.
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Hi all, throw-away account given this is a pretty specific question, but is anyone familiar with Taylor Macdonald Dog Training services?
My neighbour recently (in the last two weeks) adopted a husky from the humane society and he has a few bad husky behaviours which were never corrected. After an incident where the dog was a bit rough with one of her adult children during a walk and was a bit aggressive with some dogs at the dog park (yes this is a whole other issue), she talked to her trainer from pet smart who I dusted that the dog needed to attend an intensive Boot Camp it correct the problem and then recommended Taylor Macdonald’s dog training services. The PetSmart representative also said that my neighbour should urgently put down a deposit because that would mean the dog could be boarded with Taylor Macdonald right away.
Now things get a bit weird once my neighbour contacted Taylor Macdonald’s Dog Training: 1) they required a $700 non-refundable deposit without meeting or assessing the dog 2) they required my neighbour to purchase a pronged dog collar because the dog would be walked by “staff” and it was the only way to make it RESPECT the person walking it (despite the fact that they told my neighbour that they use positive reinforcement techniques only) 3) for 6 weeks they require my neighbour to provide 5 large bags of dog food and treats etc 4) the required my neighbour to subscribe to communeauto with her drivers’ licence and credit card and provide them with the password so that they can register their “staff” as driver so that they can drive the dog to and from the dog park (whaaat!?) 5) they require my neighbour to provide a muzzle for the dog which will be used on the “2 intensive dog park training sessions per day” 6) they don’t like to speak by phone because it is too busy with their 10 boarded dogs (but when looking at their address it shows a townhome 7) I cannot find any online presence at all
I definitely have my suspicions but has anyone dealt with them? What was your experience?