Follow up from the SF SPCA

I wrote a letter today to the SF SPCA Dog Training Department, and just received a response. I'm actually okay with their response, and feel like I have voiced my frustration and concern. I think it was a fairly thoughtfully written email and that the right actions were made in response. I'll find another class for Wallace to take - they have a Freestyle Heelwork which looks like a lot of fun, and they instructor has actually met Wallace before (on one of our neighborhood walks) and he has asked us to join his class. The schedule of the class has not worked with my schedule yet, so we haven't been able to take it yet, but I'd like to. We also will probably do the Canine Good Citizen Prep Class which would probably be a good fit for us, too.

here's the email that I received:

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Hi Trina,

Thank you for your email, and I’m so sorry you had a negative experience at class on Tuesday. We have of course processed a full refund to your credit card for this class, and hope that you and Wallace will continue to join us for other classes at the SF SPCA in the future. It’s true that our wording on our website doesn’t specifically recommend against tripods joining class, and I will be remedying that today, because it is indeed a serious safety concern. Our instructors are contractors, and ultimately they have complete discretion over which dogs they allow to remain in class. If they feel like a dog’s well-being is at risk, they may ask a client and dog to withdraw, such as in this case, and we’ll provide a refund. Because this class involves so much balance, climbing, jumping, etc, and because MANY competitive agility dogs (with four legs) have suffered terrible injuries doing agility (including our own instructors dogs), it is actually considered a fairly high-risk class. I think Stacey was just wanting to make sure that there was not going to be any chance of Wallace injuring one of his other three legs. I’m really sorry if her delivery of this information was less than compassionate, I do apologize for that. You were not specifically targeted or discriminated against in any way, it was simply a safety concern, and would have happened to any other three-legged dog who showed up to class – amazingly, you’re the first one we’ve had in all the years I’ve been working here!
Again, we’ve refunded your money, and please let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you. Thank you for your support of the SF SPCA training program and SPCA in general, and I hope we will see you in some other classes again soon.

Ariel

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Also, they did update the description of the course on their website: