Committed Canine - Brownstown, Illinois

Grunsted F.

We got a service dog for our son from Tammy and Robert a few years ago. The service dog was paid for through Make A Wish - we had no part in selecting Committed Canine as our dog's trainer.

Our dog was poorly trained. Eighteen months in, he bit another child on the face (thankfully the child completely recovered). The child wasn't even interacting with the dog at the time. He just suddenly lunged at her.

We talked to a behavioral vet, our own vet, and several dog trainers, all of whom agreed the dog should be removed from service duty forever and be placed in a home with no children. However our contract with Make A Wish stated that we must return the service dog to Committed Canine and Robert told us he would give the dog refresher training and resell him as a service dog.

Tammy and Robert blamed us for the dog's problems. However their program is not designed to train owners appropriately to begin with. If you search other service dog providers their training encompasses weeks or months. Ours was 2.5 days. Most of the hands on training time was spent with Tammy and Robert yelling at me because I wasn't violent enough in how I corrected the dog with his prong collar.

At one point the dog refused to jump on a bench and Tammy corrected him so violently he was screaming in pain. All of this in front of my son.

Moreover, they lie about the dogs they select for training. Our dog had a patch of gray hair that Tammy told me was a birthmark. My vet said it was covering scar tissue. I have no idea where that dog had lived before we adopted him at 13 months.

Finally, they don't even do the training they are paid for. While our dog had obedience training, he did not know any of the special service dog duties that were promised. Tammy said that was something we had to teach him ourselves but if you check with any other service dog trainer you will find out that isn't so.

Ours is just one experience but what should have been an amazing experience for my son turned into a grief ridden separation. My son still tears up about losing his dog. I know of at least one other family that had a similarly negative experience.

Before you agree to work with Committed Canine compare their practices with several other service dog providers. Don't allow Tammy and Robert to convince you that their method is better than the common practices used by most other service dog providers. Do not trust them to select a dog for you.

Make A Wish is a great organization but we are disappointed that they took no action on our experience. At the very least, a service dog should NEVER bite.

Update to review, posted after owner's response: the owners of Committed Canine try to dispute my story below. Rather than get caught up in point by point analysis, I recommend you just take the time to interview multiple trainers about the level of training they provide. Some good questions:

1. What skills will my dog go home knowing how to do?
2. What training methodology do you use?
3. How much time will you spend training the owner?
4. What support can I expect once I leave?

Judith M.

Because of COVID, Committed Canine had my dog for five months. During that time and prior we had many conversations and emails exchanged so that I could make it clear the tasks I needed the dog to do. Tammie Rogers, one of the owners, had directed me to the breeder then picked the lab up for me. I paid their expenses. When Robert brought Bentley to me a month ago I believed he was trained to be the service dog I had paid them $10,000 to be. Over the last month I have learned that not only does he not have basic obedience skills but I can’t trust him to stand and brace. He is easily distracted. He won’t fetch. Fetch was a task my previous SD performed to pick up things I dropped. He is not house trained. He has torn up pillows when I am in the bathroom. I am a 72 year old wheelchair bound woman. I have let the Rogers know of these problems. They blame me. I don’t know what they did for five months but they cheated me of funds I need to live on. I wish I had seen this site months ago.

Mary F.

We had purchased our dog to be my service dog. After 1 year of obedience training and advanced obedience training, we headed to Committed Canines for his service training.

From the start they seemed to simply dislike us and the dog. Instead of using an encouraging and positive approach, they were critical and very negative. There also was another dog and owner in the same program at the same time and hours were wasted teaching the other couple basic obedience.

In the end our dog learned very little there and we ended up working with a local trainer. It was overall a waste of several thousand dollars.

Kelly S. P.

Tammie and Robert are wonderful to work with. I have had several success with them. I would recommend them to anyone. I have Great Danes as Service Dogs and they have always done a great job.
They work with you one on one and show you techniques to use. Their program called TEACH is great.

Jacklyn K.

They trained my service dog and did WONDERS. Learned a whole lot and learned all of the different training methods including a corrective collar.

rr R.

Did fanstastic job of educating me and my dog on how to partner together and accomplish my needs