Britten D.
1/5
The purpose of this review is to inform the adoptive parent.
I fostered and adopted a beautiful dog from tlrd. A few mo in, I noticed resource guarding behaviors. She had already been in training for 2 mo. She was 6 months old at this point. Aggressiveness increased.
After 4 months of work on this behavior we contacted tlrd because we had to move from our condo. To live in an apartment temporarily would cause extreme risk to this dog biting others since there's so much activity in an apartment complex. As you know when a dog bites a person it's just as traumatic for the dog as it is for the person. The behavior worsened again. We informed tlrd that we would need to rehome this 14.5 mo old.
The communication turned to them accusing us of not training or supporting her needs. After their judgment, they offered to train her and have us hold on to her while they found a home. Then one month into it, Carlo of tlrd stopped replying. No phone calls, no emails from them.
Not long after, the vet informed us that she would require at least one surgery due to anatomical abnormalities. At this time, she was also given meds for anxiety. Several medications and doses and natural remedies were attempted over two years
We proceeded to surgery & we informed tlrd that we would keep her and continue the training and support. 3 months later she needed another surgery. It was an expense but we understood that's the commitment we made. We continued to socialize her at dog parks, day camps and with strangers.
Tlrd engaged an attorney so that they could take her back instead of explaining their rehoming steps. No one called or emailed until the attorney they hired. Bizarre. We were confused. We informed the attorney that we were proceeding with her care and that she was doing okay. One year later, we moved and gave her a big yard and continued her medical treatments - sometimes a few times a month.
After continued training and bites to strangers we informed tlrd in 2023 that we would in fact need to rehome her. We did everything we could to avoid this day coming. We initially hoped the medical interventions & dailytraining would be enough.
We hope the following information is helpful for the consumer:
The contract only has two reasons that they can engage an attorney and charge you for it. They throw blame & heroism around & attach fees that are dishonest. Their method demonstrates an amount of passion that is misplaced. Instead of honoring their end of the contract they over reach for reasons beyond good will to dogs and community. They claim that we were in breach of contract because we did not respond to their communication. To their discredit, our attorney has record and evidence of responding to every communication received by their attorney, owner steve, carlo. Pj stopped communicating and returned no calls. It took their attorney 11 mo to reply to an email.
Along the way owner steve says, "you've chosen to act like "victims." Which we can only imagine maybe he feels like one and projected that on us. Sad. Ineffective. Unprofessional.
PJ and Carlo explained that we did this to our dog.
When we added up the expenses, we had spent over $9,000 on the camps, vet care and training. And regardless of environment, human alpha role, regardless of medical care, wholesome nutrition, boundaries .... family & friends were harmed & we had to make a very very painful decision to rehome her through tlrd.
I have had seven dogs in my life and with every single one - similar breeds as this one - when we provided training, nutrition, medical care, routine, socialization, exercise & boundaries they thrived.
None of us are victims to our choices, whether an owner of tlrd or the adoptive parent. Tlrd uses bizarre tactics if you get to the unthinkable moment of needing to rehome. To date, we have been called all different names by this group, "fool," "drama queen," "stalking," "selfish," "arrogant," demanding."
Will share more on yelp. Hope it's helpful.
On March 11, 2024 the judge heard our small claims court matter. Tlrd did not show.
