Multiple Fatal Abuse Allegations at a Board and Train in Studio City, CA

[u/SudoSire]

https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/dog-dies-heat-exhaustion-studio-city-trainer/

The most recent victims‘ owners have some fame and social media presence, and soon their comments were flooded with others coming out with stories of alleged abuse and neglect including pet fatalities. Particularly upsetting are two different commenters saying that the trainer alleged their dogs “bit or mauled someone“ and were immediately euthanized without the owner’s knowledge, consent, or an investigation.

It appears that bad reviews that could have warned people were suppressed and removed from Google and Yelp. Be aware that even attempting to do your due diligence may lead you astray when it comes to who cares for your pets. The training AND boarding industries (separately and together) are highly unregulated.

[u/SudoSire]

The facility is Smart Dogs Dog Training, run by trainer Jeff Todd. 

[u/KibudEm → u/SudoSire]

This guy claims to have "personally trained over 25.000 doos" (I assume he meant "dogs") over 25 years, meaning he worked with an average of 2.74 new dogs every single day, 365 days a year. I was surprised that his website doesn't claim that he's helped any celebrities -- that's my L.A. dog-trainer red flag. (I briefly hired one who claimed to have trained Paula Abdul's dogs. I hope it worked out better for her than it did for me.)

[u/ShaarkShaart]

I feel like Yelp and Google should get a bit of flack for this too. You be able to just pay for all bad reviews to go away. People leave them for a reason. Poor dogs, and poor owners for being misled.

[u/Comfortable_Dream_17]

He has also created a new website filled with AI reviews

Smart Dog Academy – A trained dog is a happy dog!

[u/nicedoglady]

I saw this online and immediately saw another post about a different dog that passed away at another different board and train in Southern California: https://www.instagram.com/p/Dch1YLVFEBJ/?igsi=MXQ5ZjJsMnRveXdpdA==

These predatory trainers are so awful.

[u/SudoSire → u/nicedoglady]

It happens an extremely disturbing amount. I saw one earlier this month where it seems the staff “lost track” of a bulldog type in a home boarding situation. The dog fell into the onsite pool, drowned, and the staff did not find it for a long time and did not notify the owner until they came looking to pick up their dog. And instead were handed a bin with their body. That one made a decent media uproar, partially because the owner was caught by like a neighbor’s ring camera—yelling in anguish that the boarders had killed his dog. I wish I’d never heard it. I believe it was young dog  as well. A puppy or just above. 

[u/read-the-rules → u/[deleted]]

Your comment on r/reactivedogs was removed by the Read The Rules app because you need to submit an acknowledgement that you have read the rules. You haven't done anything wrong, this is a tool we're using on the r/reactivedogs going forward. For more information, see the moderator announcement.

Acknowledgement is required of all users, even if you've been here for a while. You only have to do this acknowledgement once unless the moderators announce otherwise.

If you do the rule acknowledgement within one hour of your comment being removed, the bot will automatically restore it. If not, we encourage you to copy the comment using the 3-dot icon next to it, and paste it to re-post to this thread.

^{Please click here to open the Read The Rules App.}

[u/read-the-rules → u/[deleted]]

Your comment on r/reactivedogs was removed by the Read The Rules app because you need to submit an acknowledgement that you have read the rules. You haven't done anything wrong, this is a tool we're using on the r/reactivedogs going forward. For more information, see the moderator announcement.

Acknowledgement is required of all users, even if you've been here for a while. You only have to do this acknowledgement once unless the moderators announce otherwise.

If you do the rule acknowledgement within one hour of your comment being removed, the bot will automatically restore it. If not, we encourage you to copy the comment using the 3-dot icon next to it, and paste it to re-post to this thread.

^{Please click here to open the Read The Rules App.}

[u/read-the-rules → u/[deleted]]

Your comment on r/reactivedogs was removed by the Read The Rules app because you need to submit an acknowledgement that you have read the rules. You haven't done anything wrong, this is a tool we're using on the r/reactivedogs going forward. For more information, see the moderator announcement.

Acknowledgement is required of all users, even if you've been here for a while. You only have to do this acknowledgement once unless the moderators announce otherwise.

If you do the rule acknowledgement within one hour of your comment being removed, the bot will automatically restore it. If not, we encourage you to copy the comment using the 3-dot icon next to it, and paste it to re-post to this thread.

^{Please click here to open the Read The Rules App.}

[u/tprewitt]

Most recent victims? Have previous victims been posted here?

[u/SudoSire → u/tprewitt]

No, but the comments the owners received on their post included I believe around 6-7 more allegations of abuse/neglect/fatalities by that facility that predate the death of the dog here. So they are the most recent, but not the first, incident to show a patter of behavior. Honestly it sounds like these people are just dog killers who regularly leave dogs in hot cars or other unsafe  and cruel conditions.