I thought this was interesting and good info for anyone who is getting training. It concerns the legality of a business offering you a refund only if you agree to not post any negative reviews. http://www.academyfordogtrainers.com/uncategorized/buyer-beware-and-hush/
I imagine any contract that involved not posting negative reviews would be a major turn off for potential clients - to me it would appear that the trainer was expecting negative reviews and trying to hide them so I would run a mile
Apparently with these, you only get the contract IF you are disappointed in the service and request a refund. So for example, you enroll in a 6 week training class and after the first session you are unhappy with the class. You decide to not continue with the class and ask for a refund and THEN you are given this contract and are told they will only refund your money if you sign it. When you initially sign up for the class, you are unaware of this "refund policy" so can't make an informed decision.
Most likely because you didn't use cruel and aversive methods that created problems. I suspect this is done mostly by "balanced" trainers whose methods can seriously damage a dog.
Not about dog training but I have recently been advised not to trust positive online reviews as people may be receiving inducements to provide them. I don't see how the company in the article could possibly enforce a $5000 fine for negative, but truthful, comments on social media. The threat might be enough to scare people away from doing it though.
What amazes me is that the example, based on an actual complaint for a trail horse company, actually tries to take away your right to report them to the authorities for animal abuse, as well as scare them away from posting negative reviews. That's why I thought it important to start this thread.
I am actually participating in Amazon's Vine program. I am given products at no cost (I do have to pay income tax on the item value) in exchange for giving reviews. On my reviews, I always include the following: This is a Vine Program review. While Vine Program items are received at no cost, I choose the actual items to receive and review. As such, I am only going to receive and review items that I have an interest in owning AND that I think are of decent quality/value. This means that my Vine Program reviews will tend to be positive - because I have no interest in receiving items that are obviously garbage or hold no interest for me. I have given negative reviews for a few items I received and they were published as written, so I have faith that Amazon is not blocking negative reviews. And so far none of the sellers have asked me to remove my negative review When I do read reviews, I usually look at the 2-4 star reviews. I look for common negatives in those reviews. I have noticed that with dog training reviews on yelp, there are very few negatives for trainers and never any discussion of actual training methods. To me that is a huge red flag. If the methods are not mentioned, either in reviews or in the company's description, that signals to me that they use aversive methods. And I have found that trainers who use aversive methods tend to be very very self righteous and do not take criticism politely. They tend to bully unhappy customers. And I suspect that is why this article was written. Because aversive trainers do use these bully tactics to shut down complaints.
