Performance Dogs Manassas, Virginia

If you think that this man only scams customers, you are sorely mistaken. He pays his employees under the table, so when you quit, he can withhold your money without a paper trail. He still owes me $500 for my last paycheck 2 years ago. I …

WE SUED PERFORMANCE DOGS AND WON. The owner, Stephen Mace, lied to my husband and I about losing our dog who was …

I've been waiting a long time to write a review of this business. The owners whose dog was lost are my friends. You won't find more honest, caring people than them. My position on this whole fiasco is this: everyone makes mistakes. How you respond to that mistake is key. The owner of this company basically failed on every count. He repeatedly lied about what happened to the Nichols' Great Dane Minnie (including that little whitewash below, where he essentially- in a lie, no less, belied by his OWN STAFF-blamed the owners). That's correct. His company LOST a client's dog, he lied, and then blamed the owners. If that isn't gall, I don't know what is. But it's also foolish, because what this genius fails to understand is that good reviews of a business pale in number to bad word of mouth if a company screws up as badly as this one did. What Cait's review fails to mention is that she and her husband canvassed and searched for HOURS in the heat (the next day, obviously, since they weren't informed the first day in a timely way), while Cait was hugely pregnant with a potentially dangerous second pregnancy. They had to pay for childcare for their other child at home, and her husband had to lose valuable time at work. Originally, they only wanted their money back for the training (which, fair- since, let me repeat this again- the company LOST their DOG) and compensation for vet bills- Cait was also too nice in her review to mention that the skin on Minnie's paw pads was basically completely ripped off, and that she could barely walk and was in tremendous pain. The owner stopped responding to their requests (after agreeing), preferring to dodge their requests. This went on for quite a while, and then because apparently this owner can't do math, he had to pay substantially more in the end, because he LOST THE LAWSUIT. So in a nutshell. I wouldn't give this lying, arrogant, unaccountable conman a houseplant to train, much less a beloved family member (which Minnie is- she has happily fully recovered). I guess if you want someone who is dishonest, throws his own staff under the bus, is incompetent and shady, then this is the business for you. Enjoy.

**SCAM ALERT** PLEASE READ BEFORE USING THIS COMPANY!!! DO NOT USE HIM AND PLEASE CHECK BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU THERE ARE SEVERAL OTHERS THAT HAVE HAD THIS HAPPEN TO THEM!!! Stephen Mace of Performance Dogs completely scammed us out of the money we paid for his training. He does not have this training warehouse with a pool, agility course, place for boarding, and fenced in area for training like he tells you. He works out of his home and uses his garage for boarding which does not have central air! Our dog was boarded for a vacation we had and when we picked her up she had clearly lost weight, she stunk really bad, and was really hyper. He gave us no feedback on how she had been or if she had even eaten the food we provided him. She tends to go days without eating when in a new place so this was very important to us! Her food bag was empty and her treats were gone and I asked him how she did with food he said he would give us a report and never did. For all we know she was sitting in the crate in the heat for 7 days with no food, exercise or water! We also asked her training went and he said he had videos to send and never did send them even after multiple texts asking for videos. Moving on… he will pick up your dog one or two times in and put your dog in a crate in the back of his lifted pick up truck, not in this van he tells you he has. He will not tell you that he did not pick up your dog and when you question him he says he will look into it and provides you with a reason as to why your dog was never picked up. Our dog was picked up twice and was never picked up after that, it clearly states in the contract that we signed a MINIMUM of 15 pick up and drop off sessions which will take place Tuesdays and Thursdays. How do I know my dog was never picked up after the first two? I’m off on Tuesdays and Thursdays so Stephen couldn’t even lie and say that he did because I was home! After he stopped picking up our dog he went MIA for multiple weeks, he wouldn’t answer phone calls or emails. Then randomly he says he is going to start doing group training sessions and acts like he wasn’t MIA for the past month, this is not in the contract we signed! He said he felt really bad for not being able to continue the training for our dog and he would give us half our money back and two free nights of boarding. WE NEVER GOT THIS PROMISED REFUND!!! Also we would never board our dog with him again because he had no air flow in the garage of his home. He used box fans to blow air and had a hose that was running water down the driveway but the dogs were in crates so they couldn’t get to the water anyways. To hold these group sessions he uses his neighborhoods play area. You do not get one on one training for your dog, instead you hear a two hour pitch on his background and such… which he says every week! After that you will go on a pack walk and if your dog acts out it’s up to you to fix it. He even had the audacity to tell us that we weren’t sticking to the training because our dog was acting out. I’m sorry? We couldn’t continue to learn how to train our dog because he went missing for a month with no excuse! Training like this needs consistency and Stephen Mace did not provide this! He gave us a collar and told us to turn our dogs butt towards whatever she is reacting to and nothing more! Now he has randomly stopped these group sessions and deleted his profile on the Meet Up app with no explanation! We have not had any contact with Stephen Mace since November, we have filed a Better Business Bureau claim and are looking to move forward in other ways. Stephen Mace you are a scammer and know how to take advantage of people! He targets people who are desperate to have a well behaved dog! Shame on him and karma will catch up with you! DO NOT USE HIM AND PLEASE CHECK BETTER BUSINESS BAURUE THERE ARE SEVERAL OTHERS THAT HAVE HAD THIS HAPPEN TO THEM!!!

Horrible! He did not follow through with the initial 15 days pick up and drop off contract. He only sent his team to pick up my dogs twice. I have family members at home, and cameras to monitor pick up and drop off. I have to personally …

Did not follow through. Did not return calls to set up times and though said would come to me I always had to go to him and only because there were group events. When I tried to get my money back he refused to answer calls and texts. Should have listened to the other reviews since I put in a lot of money to get my dog trained and got very little in returns. Please be very weary and don’t ignore these negative reviews

I was a client a little over a year ago and decided after seeing these recent reviews to say something...the reviews that he lies and is a scam artist is completely true...I signed up for one of 15 session packages and after months of training the progress my dog made was very small, the only reason i continued to drop my dog off there was bc i saw it as daycare and there was one staff member there i liked and could see was giving my dog attention...Steve promised weekend group sessions that he would routinely not show up to without notifying anyone and I was given the same promises as everyone else that there would be a pool and full agility course, oh and the home visits that were suppose to happen were a nightmare to schedule and we never got the second one...Steve talks about his apparent book constantly and as a new dog owner I was naive and fell for his pitch....Do not take your dog here...I just one day stopped dropping my dog off and Steve either didnt notice my dog was no longer there or didnt care to bother and ask why I was no longer dropping my dog off...the only time I would really see Steve at the facility was when someone was there to get a tour and hear his sales pitch

I had 3 dogs there for 2 years. It's been almost 2 years since I left. I had paid early and when I left because I had changed work locations, I was due a refund for 3 months. It took multiple calls, the intervention of Visa, and tolerating a bevy of excuses I believe were untrue (multiple family members in the hospital; a new one every week that I called asking for my money), but I got my money back. Unfortunately for others, after reading these reviews, they were not as fortunate. I would show up at various times during the day, and 99% of the time, all three of my dogs were in a car carrier (the same carrier). I think that is where they spent most of the 8 hours (5 days a week). That's not what I pay daycare for; if I hadn't changed work locations I was going to pull them out anyway. All the descriptions of the owner reflect my experience, too. I should have seen through it all more quickly than I did, but I so wanted my dogs to be in daycare only a mile from my work and getting socialization (which I doubt was occurring in the end).It sounds like they are no longer at the Piper Lane location.

Do not board your dogs here or have them trained here. The owner basically just talks about himself the entire time and does not actually answer any questions you may have. Waste of your time.

Awesome an patient trainers who helped get the foundation of handle our dogs set, not only with me but also with my 12 an 13 year old kids. For the type of breed we adopted, understanding how everyone's INCLUDING our new K9 family members. For a fact, each of us, including BONE & BLONDIE have very unique personality traites that MUST be tended to. Truly LOVE an am thankful to have brought BONE & BLONDIE into OUR FAMILY????. Learning curves an accidental happen but these guys are OUR FAMILY. Sorry Stephen we broke some rules (yup, they sleep with my son and daughter)????????????????????

Currently assisting in a search for a dog the facility lost. Yet I see no post from them requesting citizen help in locating. Dog was found and recovered by the owner, injured and fearful.

So many problems with this company. They are disorganized: They promised pick-up and drop-off at certain time …

I adopted a dog from the pound last September while living in another state. I had been struggling with aggression toward random dogs while on our walks and with strangers at home. My dog is a sweet, goofy and lovable dog with me, but not …

Nice facility and some cool staff however, cons outweigh pros.. Most important is that I paid $1800 there and in 4 months, they could't do what another trainer did in 1 week. How is that possible? Some dogs need something different, and my …