Bothell dog training school comes under fire for violent video

Warning — some viewers may find the above video disturbing. 

A dog training school in Bothell finds itself in hot water after a video surfaced on Facebook showing a trainer beating a dog with a plastic baseball bat.

In the video, a trainer aggressively hits a dog with the bat while reprimanding it, causing the animal to seemingly cower in fear behind a chair. The video was recently released online and has since gone viral. It led to an investigation of the dog school in June.

In a press release on Tuesday, the dog training academy stated that it does not stand behind the behavior in the video, but did point out that the video was two years old and had been posted by a former employee.

“The Academy of Canine Behavior’s owners do not condone the treatment of animals in our care as shown in a two-year old video recently released by a disgruntled former employee,” it stated. “The employees shown and heard in this video are no longer in our employ or have been reassigned.”

Speaking to KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson, Academy of Canine Behavior co-owner Colleen McDaniel said that the “disgruntled” ex-employee is the person who took the video and who can be heard laughing in the background.

“She had the video, she knew she had the video, and she tried [through] various legal recourses to come after us,” McDaniel said. “When all those failed, this is her final recourse.”

McDaniel said that the academy does not condone the technique shown with the plastic bat and would never promote this behavior. Not only is it cruel, she said, but it also doesn’t work. McDaniel explained that the dog in the video had serious aggression issues, and an aggressive dog will only become more violent if attacked.

“If you actually hurt them, you’re validating their aggression … the dog had learned to use ‘fight,’ it learned that if it bit at things, it could get its way.”

The only ways to deal with a dog that is this aggressive are to euthanize, manage, or educate — and McDaniel said the dog training school strives to educate in order to save canine lives.

“We deal with the worst of the worst, and that’s what people don’t realize,” she said. “We deal with the dogs who, literally, their lives are on the line. And every one of us here cares so much, we don’t want dogs to die.”

After receiving a tip-off from an anonymous source that included both the video and a photo of feces in dog kennels, Snohomish County Animal Services conducted an inspection of the dog training school on June 27.

“The investigation concluded the behavior of the trainer towards the dog did not rise to the level of cruelty to animals as defined by statute,” the Snohomish County Auditor’s Office stated in a press release on Tuesday. “There were no business violations noted during the inspection.”

The county’s press release further reported that “none of the animals appeared to be in distress or injured” at the facility and that the trainer shown hitting the animal in the video had been interviewed. According to information that the animal services officer received from the academy, the dog in question had “exhibited strong signs of aggression.”

This story will be updated as more information becomes available. 

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