OVER 40 years experience with German Shepherds I was told, booked my 3 GSD's in for the 3 week training program mainly for the pup to learn some manners when out on the lead with her mum and dad. My boy had to come home as he was ill and had lost over 2 kg's of weight before they told us. Another of my dogs escaped her kennel and the compound and spent the day running around Scilly Isles Esher in and out of the traffic. Can't say that any training was given to any of them.

We went away for just over two weeks. Our dog had a couple of problems one which was with other dogs. So we thought logically about where to put our dog whilst we were away and we thought a behaviour medication programme would be good, he will get training and be able to interact with other dogs for the duration. Well, we regret it deeply. The walking methods royvon use were with slip collar which seriously hurt our dogs throat and he had no voice, he couldn’t bank for weeks after getting back home. Although when we were away we saw our dog playing with other dogs, which was a relief at the time as we thought he didn’t like them, he’s now petrified of people, strangers. We noticed this within a week or so of getting back when he tried to bite a family member who came round to visit us. WE thought maybe a one off until it happened again to one of our friends. The fear and anxiety was so upsetting to see. We then contacted a trainer and we were on a 6 week course which didn’t really help too much and he recommended seeing a behaviourist, so our next point of call was a behaviourist, she did a full history on our dog and we told her everything on the first consultation. We had videos of our dog before the behaviour modification programme at Royvon and after and she was shocked and felt very sorry for our dog as she can see his stress levels were through the roof. So the past few months we have changed our dogs diet, had to give him supplements to try and reduce his stress levels. For the past few months the behaviourist has been at the end of each email / call and has attended 5-6 times to do follow ups and she feels we can continue with her (which is pretty pricey) but the progress is going to be very slow as we cant even get past basics to begin the real training. So here we are, we’ve been referred again to a ‘Vet behaviourist’ as she is a vet as well, she’ll be able to give medication / assistance to help our dog get some of his life back. This is not going to be a quick fix, it’s been a year of training and money spent on professionals. It’s been a stressful year for us and our pet, financially crippling with £1500 spent on Royvons behaviour modification programme’ over £400 on the behaviourist and another £500 + on the vet behaviourist, we didn’t think he’s need so much help otherwise we’d of claimed on his insurance some time ago. We’re now going through his insurance with the vet behaviourist which is a relief and we hope she is the right person for the job. It’s not been easy, we have had to change our lives a lot, we are now expecting our first child in a couple of months and we pray we don’t have to do the unthinkable. DON’T put your dog on this programme, I believe you’ll regret it. The programme did nothing and is a waste of money, all it did for us was create aggression. We think if we had put him in kennels it would have been £10-15 per day and he’d of still got to play with the dogs etc. I don’t think positive reinforcement was used as we have had 3 professional tell us that it’s rare dogs actually go to jump up and bite someone unless provoked in such manor which shouldn’t of happened.

AVOID AVOID AVOID  My dog spent over two months with them and came back just as bad as he was when he went in. A visit to a third party, reputable dog trainer, confirmed that he was not trained at all. So for £3,000, all Royvon did with my dog is board him with the other dogs and take pictures of him. Oh, I nearly foget to mention; my dog was attacked by the manager's Husky and I didn't even get a hint of an apology!!! Waste of money!

I booked my dog in with the understanding that the package came with 2 day post training session. Whilst I appreciate that I was given 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon on the day I collected Daisy, the first part of the session was just myself and the trainer talking me through techniques and the afternoon was spent with me walking Daisy on the lead and doing the 'sit' exercise control and then 5 minutes where Daisy was passed to 2 'known' members of staff and then tried with a 3rd who was not confident and therefore trainer did not push the task, so I was not really shown how to manage her aggression towards strangers. there was no instruction regarding how to manage her with other dogs, another reason I had highlighted when booking her in. Trtainer told me he had to be with her when all the dogs were out together as she was a 'bully' and if he was not there she was exercised with only 1 or 2 other dogs - not really showing or teaching me how to manage the situation, other than to suggest using a bottle filled with sand/ pebbles to throw near her if she became 'dominant'. The website states that owners will get 1.Welcome text 2.Assessment call 3.Access to dedicated trainer's Facebook page 4.Photos added to Facebook twice weekly 5.Notes added each week to Facebook 6.Weekly telephone call 7.Final week video I appreciate that staff are there to work with the dogs and not spend days at the pc sending updates, but the only time I actually got responses about her wellbeing were when I sent 'prompter' emails, so I had 2 brief emails over the 3 week period. I did not get a welcome text, or assessment call and didn't get details of the dedicated page until late on in week 2 and then there were only 2 posts for daisy, neither of which had any notes to refer to. I received no calls at all during the 3 week stay. I felt that this area of customer service was seriously lacking against the statement of the website. I was very perturbed when the trainer said that Daisy had not been fed on some days while she was in boarding, stating that if she was not good she did not get fed - this did not reflect the website statement that ' Training includes positive reinforcement and is all reward based'. On getting her home and weighing her she had lost just under 1.5kg in weight. I was very disappointed with the service for the price I paid and whilst I received an email of concern that my feedback was poor I heard nothing back to my email which gave the reasons above.

I sent my puppy Reggie (8 months old) to Royvon in oct 2014 for a three week stay and training. I saw lots of pictures of him on facebook but they did not stay in touch with me. I was told that they would let me know regularly how he was doing but they only responded when I contacted them. I went to pick Reggie up and attend the 2hour training. Reggie was very subdued but I thought it was because he had got used to the place and liked being with the other dogs. He looked very thin(he was lean when he went in but nothing like what he came out) We went through the training and Reggie seemed to respond to the trainer. They used a choke collar on him. I particularly asked that he needed to stop jumping up at people, stop chasing leaves and walk to heel. Reggie did not seem to want to respond to me when I got him home and did not get out of his bed. He was choking, had severe diarrhoea and was being sick a lot. It was clear that he had lost a lot of weight during his stay. Everyone who saw him remarked that he had been starved and asked what I had done to him. I took him to the vet. She was shocked and said it is the worse case of malnutrition that she had ever seen. She said he was very very ill and said if it had been a couple of days later I might have lost him. He lost nearly 3kg in weight over the 3 weeks. She ordered tests and prescribed various medicines. He choked every time his lead went tight. He was diagnosed with giardia - a parasite mainly found and contracted in kennels and choking due to the lead being pulled too tight. I voiced my concerns with the man I dealt with who suggested before it was diagnosed as giardia that reggie might have eaten an acorn - which are poisonase to dogs. They have them all around the exercise and training area. The man I dealt with was supposed to contact my vet to discuss matters. He tried once! she has tried several times to call him back but he does not respond. It has taken me three months to get my dog well again and cost me nearly £500 in vet fees!! None of the training has worked. Royvon say you can take your dog back for further training but under the circumstances I cannot do that. So, your company nearly killed my dog. Its cost me £500 in vets fees and over £1000 to board/train him and your training didnt work!!! What are you going to do to compensate me : PAY MY VET FEES AND MAYBE GIVE ME BACK MY MONEY. You have not contacted me to let me know what you intend to do to put things right! Perhaps you will on here!!! Royvon did not even notice that my dog was very ill. They thought he was losing weight so they just fed him more and asked me to buy more food. Surely you knew he had severe diarrhoea!!! Why did you not call a vet or better still MY VET whose number you asked for before he went to Royvon!

Royvon surrey is good for boarding your dog if you are going on holiday, but their training is of poor quality and not as advertised. We let Daisy, our King Charles Spaniel, stay at Royvon for 3 weeks in November/December. We picked Royvon as we had special requirements for our dog. My mother suffers from a severe spinal cord injury, which had made training difficult. We were assured that they could accommodate this and adapt the training to make it suitable for my mother. A key promise was that they would train Daisy using a special walking belt that my mother needs to use. Royvon advertise extensive pre-preperation and a chat with your trainer on the day of arrival. Although we supplied detailed information of our needs and requirements, we did not get this. In fact, when we arrived we were told that no trainers were available to discuss our needs. When we insisted, instead we were given a different trainer to talk to. We asked that Daisy be trained to walk on the right hand side. The first sign of problems to come, was when we spotted pictures of Daisy being trained to walk on the left hand side. We were surprised to find that this instruction had been ignored or not communicated. When we picked up Daisy, we were unimpressed by the handover procedure- Daisy broke away from the trainer during the show and would not return to her for a good while. Fundamentally, Royvon did not train Daisy with the walking belt as they promised us. Also, during handover our trainer betrayed her ignorance of my mother's disability by telling my her to bend over and push Daisy down if she did not sit on command. We feel cheated that we were promised our needs could be handled in relation to my mother's disability. When we brought Daisy back, her recall was non-existent. She would not walk loose lead, and she was terrified off the choke lead that Royvon had been using on her. Either Royvon did not train Daisy to walk thoroughly or they did a very bad job. Do not take your dog to Royvon for training. They might be able to train basic commands such as sit and down, but if you require anything more than this, do not bother. We also did not receive a three week homecare plan as promised on their website. Do not believe their promises. After complaining, we were told that we would need to come back for aftercare sessions. I can understand this if there were a few small issues to sort out. But I do not see why we have to come to aftercare sessions to do the training from scratch, that we paid a significant amount of money to sort out. We want a refund and we will be taking this up with trading standards. We were contacted on the 17th December, after our request for refund, saying we would be contacted within 10 days. That has not happened.

We dropped our dog off on 1/9/14 and watched the daily photos on the web page. Day one ,about 12 photos of our happy scottie, each day fewer photos appeared until the 6th then only 4 could be found each one ears down sat by the exit gate. The trainer also posted photos they looked as if she was being wrestled! We decided to collect her. Just as well she was wet through, had an eye infection and has a cold so its of to the vets for us.Her bed and toys had obviously not been used either. Dont expect any thing from Royvon, the small print says they are not responcible. The idea was to get or dog better behaved. After 6 days she is broken. Lucky we collected her early and didnt wait the full 3 weeks. Watch the bill also we were charged an extra day plus other odd amounts. DO NOT USE THIS PLACE IF YOU WANT YOUR DOG BACK IN ONE PIECE. 1 star is to high

I am prompted to write about my own experience 3 years ago. We left our 12 month old GSD for 3 weeks of training while we were on holiday. Our main aim was to have him stop pulling on his lead. We tried everything; choke collars, spiked collars etc. and even followed Cesar Melan's system of preventing pulling. He wasn't interested in rewards for good behavior such as treats, toys or praise. In fact, his only joy in life was deer chasing. When he spied a deer he became totally deaf and sometimes nearly pulled me over in trying to break free. Anyway, we were assured that he could be trained and went happily on holiday. We were in communication by email with the trainer who assured us that he was eating well and appeared to have settled down well. We were curious as to why he was now eating well as he showed no interest in food at home. When we went to pick him up 3 weeks later the trainer was keen to show us how well he now behaved on the lead and in fact, we were quite impressed. However, he seemed to be very subdued; not the lively dog we had left there. Then we weighed him. He had lost 10% of his body weight. For 3 days he gobbled up his food and even wanted seconds. Having been assured that he had settled in and was eating well, but now had lost 4 kgs suddenly we think we realised what had happened (although we had no proof). Because he was unresponsive to all treats etc., they must have with-held food from him to make him so hungry that he would do anything. Why else would he have lost so much weight? We were so pleased to get him back and vowed never to subject any future dog that we had to such treatment. If we had been able to substantiate any of our suspicions, we would have reported them for cruelty, but unfortunately dogs can't talk. But fortunately they do quickly forget and in no time at all, he was back to his own self, pulling on the lead etc. But we didn't care. We were just so pleased that we hadn't booked him in for a longer time.

We sent our GSD to learn things that we found just too difficult to teach. When we picked him up 3 weeks latter we found that his spirit had been broken and he had lost 3 kgs in weight. We think, but we have no way of knowing, that starvation was the only way they could train him as he is not interested in toys, praise or food (unless he is very hungry). Possibly they starved him so that he would respond to treats. We would never try and train our dog in this manner, even though to a certain degree it was successful. Never again!

I sent my dog for the 3 week residential training and was very disappointed with the admin side, as they did not follow any instructions apart from giving my dog his medication. His own blankets was never used, his dental sticks were returned x2 sent 3 packets, he was not given any. His medication and collar was mislaid.The trainer was very good.We were not shown inside the kennels were the dogs slept.Advertising was not as accurate as what was actually delivered. Admin staff need more training.The pictures do not give a true reflection of the actual kennels.I found the kennels looking very depressing.

Very poorly managed. Not a happy place for dogs despite the facade. Too many unsatisfied customers have passed through these doors to count. What a shame.