Winstead Dogs-Training & Boarding

Ken was so knowledgeable and informative!! I walked away from my one on one class thrilled to go home and start properly training my pup. It was a lot of information and when I called the next day, Ken took the time to explain everything again so I had the chance to right it down. He answered all my questions, took the time to listen to my problems and teach me a way to correct them. Janice his wife even spent a lengthy amount of time with me on the phone prior to the training just listening to the issues I was having and explained everything! Highly recommend Ken and Winstead Dogs, he has such a special way with them! Thank you both!!

Great place to take your dogs. Benson and Panda were well looked after, and the staff was great to work with. They even fit us in in with very short notice.

Leave your ego at the door and you will learn an untold amount about your dog and how to get them to behave appropriately. Ken has a very assertive style that may rub some people the wrong way, but I found his approach direct, reinforcing in the moment, and memorable. 10/10, 5 stars, two happy well behaved pups.

I've waited quite a while to write this review because we live in a small community and we don't want to unjustly hurt anyone's business.  But the reviews that currently exist for Winstead were so far from our experience, that we feel obligated to let others know what they might be in for if they attend Winstead for help with dog training. First, the good.  Ken obviously has an incredible amount of experience with dogs, especially problem dogs, which is very apparent in his approach.  He is very passionate about what he does and spent more than the hour with us that we paid for (about $140). Unfortunately, we found the time we spent at Winstead to be both unpleasant and unproductive.  Within minutes of arriving with our puppy I was berated as a "collector and gatherer" because I took up some slack in her leash when she sat nicely beside me.  Then we were made to feel ignorant because we didn't know the answer to the following question: What is the first thing you need to know before you go out of your house with your dog?  The answer? - which way the wind is blowing (??).  Over and over again we were belittled for things like not knowing answers to obscure questions or looking in the wrong direction or shifting our weight the "wrong way".  Militant and authoritarian training might work well for dogs, but it's not effective for humans. Be aware that Ken has extreme and inflexible views that are totally out of step with other authorities on dog training.  It's not, "There are other approaches, but this is how I do it because .. ."  It's, "Everyone else is wrong.  They're idiots.  My way is the only way."  A small sample of his opinions:  No one on YouTube knows what they're doing; All dogs are killers; Using food to aid in training is NEVER warranted; Never let your dog interact with other dogs; Never let your dog interact with other people on walks;  in fact, you shouldn't walk your dog or take them to dog parks at all.  It is pointless to train dogs under six months old because they just have to be re-trained after puberty. Perhaps the most disappointing part for us is that we arrived with a few specific questions for Ken about issues we were having.  Even though he knew we had these questions, he never made time for them.  He spent about half our time telling stories about his personal accomplishments and killer dogs that he had tamed, but never once asked us if we had questions.  We had paid good money to be there, so we sat through one disjointed monologue after another, trying to piece together some information that would be relevant and useful for our situation. In the end, we knew a lot about what Ken could do with out of control vicious canines, but were more confused than ever about what we should be doing with respect to training our new family pet. The last thing we want is to take away from what Winstead CAN do for some people: So, if you have an adult dog with major aggression issues, I'm sure Ken can help you.  But if you have a family pet and want to know how to optimize your training for day to day life, we would suggest looking elsewhere.  We hope this review helps people make a good choice.

Very pleased