DIGGITY DOGS BLACKLIST

I’m blacklisting Diggity Dogs Service Dogs located in Greenfield MA for a number of reasons. This post is VERY long but very much necessary.

The biggest issues are that they have placed reactive dogs and provide no support to the clients post placement. They gaslight clients into thinking it’s their fault and ghost them when they reach out for help. They also breed unethically. They are not ADI accredited. No one who works for the organization has any training certificates.

*Sarah is the owner/founder of Diggity Dogs.*

*Angelina is a current employee.*

*Washing means the dog is no longer a service dog in training and will now be a pet.*

GRADUATED DOGS:

•VINNY: Vinny was placed just a few months ago. While he is great at tasking, he should’ve either been an at home SD or washed altogether. He had SEVERE men reactivity where he’d pull so hard that he’d drag you if you didn’t have a good handle on him and bark. I added photos of wounds he left on a man. Additionally, Vinny was such a rough player/dog that he was not allowed to play with any other Diggity dogs because they were concerned he’d accidentally hurt one. He should’ve been washed after these bites. (Placed in March 2023).

XIAO BAO: Xiao was placed just a few months ago as well. She was the only one of her litter of 3 to graduate. Her siblings washed due to anxiety, though she struggled with it as well. She was not crate trained and had no recall yet was allowed off leash regularly. She still graduated despite not knowing her tasks or cues. She also has a heart murmur and when a foster knew, Sarah was pissed that they knew because it was meant to be hidden. (Placed in August 2023).

•SORELLE: Sorelle has severe dog reactivity (see screenshot of Instagram post discussing it). Prior to placement she was bred. The client wasn’t informed that she was bred, they found out through social media. Fosters have even stated that she had reactivity way before she was bred. She gave birth February 22, 2022 then was placed at the beginning of August 2022. (Placed in august 2022).

TOMMY: Tommy was placed in April 2022 & was born 12/6/2019. He & his brother Toby (who was washed as a puppy) had severe stomach issues & Tommy’s was the worst of the two. For MONTHS he threw up every morning & had loose stool. At 11 months old, he didn’t know his name, was still throwing up every morning, wasn’t crate trained, wasn’t potty trained, couldn’t heel and would choke himself out on the leash, and would chew through the leash. His foster had to run 5 miles every morning in order to get him to even function/get through the day. His foster had concerns of him graduating due to his HIGH energy and said he should be washed up until he graduated. He couldn’t eat anything other than his kibble and very very very few treats. The client worked in a vet clinic, so Tommy would be put in a crate or in a private room for several hours a day while attending work with the client. The foster had expressed their concerns with this as he struggled with settling and needed constant exercise in order to function. Sarah reassured the foster the client would be quitting before getting him & the foster found out weeks before graduation that the client did not quit and Tommy would indeed be attending work with the client, what the foster feared. Additionally, Sarah had planned on collecting from Tommy to breed him. Several people had to tell her that that would make zero sense and be unethical considering his ridiculously high energy and sensitive stomach issues. Sarah decided not to collect from him. (Placed in April 2022).

•SOLOMON: Solomon was placed as a service dog with a girl under 18. He seems to be doing well with the client. However, he has prey drive so badly that he’s not allowed to be off leash because he will 100% kill a small animal. He also almost killed a chinchilla (I believe or it might’ve been a hamster, but it was a small animal) of the client’s friend. He also was so bad with body handling that he had to be given medications to be able to get his nails trimmed. (Placed in August 2021).

NOLAN: Nolan was originally going to be placed in August 2020 – Opal’s client was actually supposed to get him. However, due to his dog reactivity, he continuously barked during the assessment and was losing his mind in the crate so Sarah decided DURING the intensive that Opal would be given to this client instead and Nolan would be put on a different client’s profile. These dogs spend MONTHS learning tasks to their specific client and Nolan was swapped out last minute. He was eventually placed with a client and the status of him is unclear though he struggled with severe reactivity throughout his entire time with Diggity. I’ve also included a photo of his head where he had a gash from barking and banging against the crate during the first intensive. The crate was also too small for him. The vet wasn’t even aware of the gash because Sarah was “taking care of it” and just kept stating it was a hot spot.

•NOVA: Nova is another dog that was placed that has people and dog reactivity. It’s become so bad that she can’t even work in public. People pay 20k for these dogs and this dog is unable to be a full service dog because she cannot work in public. Additionally, Nova has some health issues. In the service dog community it is known any dog with health issues should immediately be washed from service work because it is unethical to work an unhealthy dog. There’s also a comment on a separate diggity dog’s Instagram post where the client states Nova struggles with barking at people who get too close to her. (Screenshots below of her health issues & comments regarding reactivity) (Placed in August 2020).

•OPAL: Opal was placed during the summer of 2020 (see screenshot where it mentions a 1 year anniversary). In one of the screenshots from May 13, 2023 you can see that it is mentioned she has issues with people getting close to them and being overwhelmed and anxious. She also continuously kept breaking down. While breaking a down isn’t the end of the world, this along with the anxiety & some people reactivity just shows that this dog wasn’t set up for success by the organization. There’s also the Instagram post from June 30, 2023 where it touches on her being an anxious dog again. (Again no dog is perfect but they shouldn’t be having this much anxiety. Also coupled with the other dogs that have had similar issues, it shows that it’s an organizational issue). (Placed in August 2020).

•MONKEY: Monkey was placed twice and then was returned again due to no fault of her own (at least that’s what Sarah says). The first time she was placed was with a former foster. When she was placed, she had severe dog reactivity where she’d pull & lunge after any dog she’d see. Sarah did not provide this client with any support. After months of reaching out to Sarah & failing to get any support, Monkey was returned and placed again a few months later. Her reactivity supposedly disappeared in the few months she was placed back in the program. Which I doubt considering she was placed with it to begin with the first time. Eventually she was returned again & I 100% full heartedly believe she would’ve been placed a 3rd time if she wasn’t 4 at this point. (Placed in June 2019, then again in July 2020).

JAKE: Jake was placed in September of 2018. His client brought him to their vet a week after placement to get him established. The vet did a SNAP test which tests for Lyme disease. It’s recommended that if you suspect your dog has Lyme disease to test no earlier than 4 weeks. Well, Jake tested positive for Lyme disease. When the client brought this up with Sarah, she blamed the client and said that he got it with her, which obviously is incorrect based on the timeline. Additionally, Jake was placed with dog reactivity (see screenshot below).

BREEDING DOGS:

•ZELDA: Zelda is a puppy from Sorelle. She just had her first litter. She’s not even two yet. I’ve added photos from their Instagram where they introduce her on March 2, 2022. (I added a screenshot of another Instagram post where it shows her birthday is February 22, 2022. This means she was bred at ~20 months. This is a MAJOR red flag. They’re breeding her before she has clearance AND giving birth before she’s even two. They also bred a dog whose mother has severe reactivity. Irresponsible and reckless. (Born 2/22/22).

•ZIGGY: Ziggy is a male puppy from Sorelle (renamed Teddy). They decided at 9 months old that he’d be kept as a sire, which is whatever. The issue here is that this dog struggled with serious dog reactivity, prey drive & men reactivity. He also had some issues with his back legs for a bit. Sarah allowed Angelina to fly with Ziggy on 9/02/20222 (he was only 6 months and 1 week old). The DOT does not recognize service dogs in training therefore Ziggy should not have been able to fly. There is photographic proof in the photo section. (Born 2/22/22).

•PIPPA: Pippa is another breeding dog for Diggity. Pippa was going to wash from the program because her foster wasn’t equipped with the right tools to succeed. She fell behind in training & had severe prey drive. It was so bad that she killed baby bunnies in the foster's backyard. She ate a foster’s night stand. She has such severe car anxiety that you can’t drive 3 minutes without her vomiting in the car. When she had her first litter, Sarah used Sorelle to drive Pippa’s puppies around to introduce them to the car. Yet Diggity has bred her twice & plans to breed her again. They also bred her back to back and did not skip a heat cycle in between like most ethical breeders do. Pippa was chosen to be bred because otherwise she would’ve been washed. When dogs should be washed out, Sarah keeps them & breeds them because she counts the breeding dogs as “success” so her success rates can stay high. (Born 3/12/19).

VERITY AKA NALA: Nala (a separate Nala from the one mentioned below) is a part of the V litter. Her name was originally Verity but was changed to Nala when she went to her guardian home. She was adopted out at 8 weeks old to Sarah’s longtime friend with the intention of breeding her once old enough. Sarah decided she was going to breed her specifically because her coat was dark and Sarah liked the darker coat. Nala/Verity gave birth to her first litter on December 8, 2022 - the A litter. Nala/Verity was born on 12/09/2020. Showing that Nala/Verity was bred at ~21 months. Sarah once again is breeding dogs AND having them whelp before they’re even 2. Meaning Nala/Verity didn’t have health testing and clearances prior to being bred. (Born 12/09/2020).

•VIOLET: Violet is one of Verity’s sisters, so she was also born on 12/09/2020. She was bred at the same time as Verity but did not get pregnant in her first heat. She would’ve had puppies before 2, just like Nala/Verity, if she got pregnant. She was decided to be bred based on her dark coat color too. She also had severe stomach issues for the first few months—she was having constant diarrhea. Sarah refused to let the foster change her food. Eventually Sarah caved and let her. Violet’s stomach issues resolved. Then Sarah made the foster switch her to the old food again. Despite being crate and potty trained, she’d defecate in her crate because she couldn’t hold it. (Born 12/09/2020).

•SAWYER: Sawyer has been used to sire multiple of the Diggity litters. He is ill trained yet Sarah (the founder/owner) puts a vest on him when convenient for her. When he was 2 years old, he was taken along to a PA class at Home Depot & he defecated in the store. He also has no manners— he regularly humps people and jumps up on people. Additionally, Sarah shared on Facebook that he had gotten out & gone missing. She ended up finding out he got loose because there was a dog in heat across town. This is just irresponsible. (Born 8/09/19).

ADDIE: Adelaide aka Addie is a dog that Sarah got from a breeder in Florida with the intentions of breeding her. Addie lacks the drive to want to work. She refuses to eat and is extremely skinny/small for her age. She shouldn’t be bred — her pelvis is way too small to be able to safely birth puppies. I’ve included a photo of her at 4 months old where she’s unhealthily skinny and looks dead. (Born 12/21/2022).

AGNES: Agnes aka Aggie is also from an outside breeder. She has had dog excitement issues, isn’t crate trained and has SEVERE stomach issues. She was constantly having diarrhea and had multiple accidents in her crate despite being 1. When brought to Sarah’s attention, she brushed it off. She’s unhealthily skinny like Addie yet she was just placed in a guardian home to be bred. I’ve added a photo of how skinny she is but it’s a little hard to see as she’s a black dog. (Born 12/05/2022).

•CALI: Cali gave birth to 3 litters for Diggity. Each litter had dogs with serious issues yet they continued to breed her.

HER O LITTER: (born July 4, 2018)

Ollie - was placed but would randomly bark at people & was noise sensitive to things like people knocking at the door.
Oakley- had really bad anxiety & would not listen to anyone but her original foster. She wouldn’t even heel for anyone else. Not wash worthy but she was placed. I’ve also attached a video where Sarah was trying to work with her where she wanted nothing to do with Sarah but Sarah kept harassing her.
Otter - he was just psycho. He had reactivity to dogs, people & prey drive. He did wash thankfully.
Odin - eventually washed out. But was in the program for a while & had stomach issues. Was eating 6 cups a day yet couldn’t keep weight on & had loose stool constantly. The foster was paying $80/bag of food that he was going through rapidly. He eventually saw a “specialist” & found he just had a “fast metabolism”. (Not sure if I believe this all things considered).
Opal - previously mentioned above.
Orange - had severe dog reactivity & was in the program way longer than he ever should’ve been. He only washed because he ended up with a bite history.
Obi - Obi was placed with a client who had another dog previously (Monkey). This poor client got Obi who also had dog reactivity. Obi would pull and bark and lunge and yet he was still placed.

HER S LITTER: (born August 09, 2019)

Solomon - previously mentioned above.
Sorelle - previously mentioned above.
Seamus - mentioned below.
Serafina - washed early / didn’t have enough fosters.
Sawyer - previously mentioned above.
Sunny - Sunny had no training and couldn’t even heel. She was barking during PA a week before placement. Yet she was placed.
Scout - washed early / didn’t have enough fosters.
Sydney - washed after a few months. She was also psycho and didn’t listen. She also tried to attack a foster’s cat. She was placed as an ESA.

HER W LITTER: (born February 21, 2021)

Winnie - Winnie was placed as a SD. However, has dog reactivity & a severe fear of children. She had peed in the store a few weeks before graduating because a kid approached her from behind & pet her.
William - William graduated in the last month or so but he shouldn’t have. He was a dangerous dog while in the program. He had severe anxiety & would panic & pull you. One foster was pulled so hard they fell on ice multiple times. He also inappropriately marked. He was also having incontinence issues and medical treatment was never sought out.
Woods - mentioned below.
Westley - mentioned below.
Willow - Willow was given to Sarah’s friend as a puppy raiser/guardian home due to not having enough fosters. She was not really receiving any training. Sarah ended up letting her friends her guardian home because her friend was sad about having to give her back. Since she was given to her friend, Sarah decided at a young age she’d just eventually breed her.
Wilbur - Wilbur was placed & seems to be doing fine. Def the exception to the litter. (Mentioned below with anal gland expression issues).
Wonder - washed as a puppy / not enough fosters.
Wren - washed as a puppy / not enough fosters.

This just shows that Cali and her puppies had issues that show throughout her 3 different litters. She shouldn’t have been bred after the first litter (O litter) with the number of dogs that had reactivity issues. But of course she was. Then her child, Sorelle, who has SEVERE reactivity was bred & her puppies have issues too.

CURRENT DOGS:

•ARCHIE: Archie is a dog that’s still in the program. He has bitten multiple people. I’ve attached several photos of bites on multiple people. The founder ignores the trainers when they mention his aggression and pass him around the program to cover this up. They continue to let this dog in public. Sarah plans to breed him. Archie suffered from Giardia for months & was still working (greater detail mentioned in the vet care section). UPDATE 3/4/24: Archie was on the UMass campus and while attending class, tried to go after 2 different service dogs (non-Diggity dogs). He was kicked off the UMass campus and was moved to Mount Holyoke College instead of being pulled from PA and/or being washed.

•ALDEN: Alden’s currently still in training. He’s 13 months old. He can’t settle. He attention barks. He can’t heel. He’s gotten multiple fosters kicked out of public spaces due to barking. He also needs multiple off leash walks a week in order to function (this is typically fine. But Diggity always emphasizes to never physically exercise your dog a lot as they are going to disabled people who can’t be as active as them.). He’s also still mouthy & humps when overtired.

•ZARAH: On 10/03/2023 Zarah lunged at another dog (Ariel) at the training center in Greenfield, latching onto the dog’s tail and would not release. The dog, Ariel, was bleeding from puncture wounds on her tail. Ariel’s foster was never informed of the bite and Ariel has since developed dog reactivity. When the bite happened during class, the injury was ignored until the very end of class (class is 3 hours long) even when fosters urged medical attention when it first occurred. The next day, 10/04/23, Zarah entered a UMass PVTA bus with a foster. The foster did not see a chihuahua on the lap of another rider, and Zarah promptly barked, lunged and jumped on the woman trying to attack her dog. The woman made the foster call Sarah immediately and threatened to sue. Sarah apologized and said she would be removing Zarah from the program immediately, which she did not do

UPDATE 1/23/24: Zarah has since been washed from the program from this document being posted/shared.

•ZACK: Zack is graduating soon. He doesn’t seem to have any behavioral issues. However, he had serious health issues during the summer of 2023. He couldn’t walk for a few months during the summer & his foster had to carry him up and down the stairs. No health testing was done and he didn’t see a vet.

YORK: York is scheduled to graduate in March. He’s a decent dog except he has dog excitement issues and struggles to stay focused around other dogs. He also has severe prey drive to the point where he will pull you over to try and chase a squirrel or chipmunk. His mother is Pippa who has severe prey drive and has killed baby bunnies.

COBALT: Cobalt is a dog that was bit by another dog in the organization (Royal). This caused severe dog reactivity in him as he was super scared of dogs. He had to be kept away from other dogs for weeks due to the severity of the bite. He also suffers from stomach issues and would regularly shit in his crate. He was also on campus while he had Giardia. Cobalt also had incontinence issues for months as a puppy and this was not acknowledged/addressed.

SKY: Sky fractured his leg on an off leash walk. When consulted with Sarah, no veterinary action was taken. Sky was created for the majority of the following three days before medical action was supposedly taken. Following that, Admin requested a relief foster for him while he took a break from PA and healed.

•PUPPIES: I’ve added photos of them having puppies on campus and out in public before they’re even fully vaccinated. Puppies are separated from their mother around 5 weeks of age. The mother is sent back to her guardian home & the puppies are left alone in the whelping pen. Puppies go out to fosters between 7-8 weeks old.

WASHED DOGS:

•ROYAL: Royal is another dog that has severe reactivity. Royal bit another dog in the program (Cobalt) bad enough that he had puncture wounds, had to be kept away from other dogs & was crate rested for a bit. He was recently washed after biting ANOTHER diggity dog (Archie). (Washed in 2024).

•WOODS: Woods was eventually washed but should've been much sooner. For months he showed signs of extreme fear of children & had multiple incidents where we would snap and/or bark when a child got too close to him. When he returned to campus in late January 2023, he started to unpredictably lunge, growl, and bark at strangers in his foster’s dorm building. He even barked and lunged at one of his foster’s professors on the first day of class of the spring semester. This was expressed to Diggity and they told his foster to keep him in the crate for the meantime. In February 2023, he was taken to “boot camp” at Cold Spring Labradors to work on his reactivity, specifically with children and small animals. Upon his return it did not appear anything changed and it was clear he was not happy as a working dog, but was still brought out to do public access. On April 21st, 2023 Woods was on an off leash walk with two fosters and another Diggity dog, Zarah. Out of the blue he ran up to a stranger and started to bark and growl, eventually jumping up and biting her skirt. Woods remained in the program for another 3 months before being washed. During this time he was still being brought out into public regularly, despite his unpredictable reactivity. (Washed July 2023).

•WESTLEY: Westley was the same as Woods – severe child reactivity, snapped and barked at children and attended the “boot camp” as well. (There is also a testimony in the testimony section regarding his severe fear of children & Sarah pushing him over threshold & putting random children in danger). He would inappropriately mark. Additionally, Westley has severe men reactivity. He was given to a foster without disclosing his aggressive behavior towards men when the foster lived with two men. When Westley attempted to corner the foster’s father and attack him, the foster had to jump on Westley and physically restrain him to avoid their father being attacked. When the foster called Sarah to explain the situation, Sarah gaslit the foster and said Westley would never bite someone and he just has a scary bark, despite him lunging. Diggity wanted the foster to “work through it” because they were sure Westley could. Only after multiple attempts of Westley lunging at the foster’s dad did Diggity finally take Westley back. (Washed July 2023).

•VESPA: Vespa is a dog that eventually washed from the program as well. However, she was kept in it far longer than she should’ve been. She had resource guarding, which got so bad that she got into a fight with another diggity dog. The worker is untrained & not well versed in dogs because she exacerbated the issue by pulling the dogs apart incorrectly, causing the fight to be more serious than it would’ve been had it been broken up correctly. She developed reactivity to women and was kept in the program for another month despite reacting in public. (Washed in 2023).

•POPPY: Poppy is a dog that was in the program for almost 3 years. She was born in March 2019. During the winter of 2019 she started to show dog reactivity. The foster had asked Sarah for help multiple times and was ignored, so it just got worse. During the summer of 2020, she went to a finisher because they were planning to graduate her that summer. The finisher ended up finding out that she did not know any cues and had dog reactivity. Her graduation date was postponed. She stayed in the program for another 1.5 years where her dog reactivity was not worked on and only got worse. She couldn’t walk down the street without pulling, barking & lunging. She had bitten 3 dogs but was still kept in the program because none of these bites were reported/caused her to have a bite history. She also had crate reactivity. She also ate a sock and had to have surgery to have it removed. She was eventually washed. But again, yet another dog that shouldn’t have been in public with dog reactivity this severe AND with a bite history. (Washed in May 2021).

VERN: Vern was born in December of 2020. He was placed with a foster for a few months but then Sarah and the vet noticed that his eyes didn’t dilated properly and was concerned this was a serious health issue or would require some type of procedure done down the line. He was adopted out. The adopter wasn’t informed. (Washed in 2021).

•SEAMUS: Seamus is a dog that struggled with dog reactivity pretty much the entire time he was in training. When Sarah & a former employee was hosting a new foster orientation, a fight broke out between Seamus & another diggity dog which was a 12 week old puppy!!! The fight was so bad that the former employee was punching Seamus multiple times to get him to let go of the other dog’s ear. He caused puncture wounds in the dog’s ear. Current fosters at the time & employees said Sarah 100% would’ve kept Seamus in the program if new fosters weren’t there to witness it. Seamus was washed because there were too many witnesses. (Washed in 2020).

•NALA: Nala is a dog that was eventually washed. However, she was kept in the program for months even though she should’ve been washed sooner. She had a serious health issue as a puppy that Sarah continued to ignore. She wouldn’t eat, was constantly having diarrhea & wasn’t gaining weight like her siblings. After 3 months of this, the vet had finally taken a look at her because there were no other fosters that could take her so she was relieving her & she had to have surgery to correct something in her stomach. Because of this health issue, she fell behind in training & was a very untrained dog that shouldn’t have been allowed in public. When she attended a PA outing with the other dogs (part of the 3 hour weekly class that Sarah hosted), Sarah had dropped her leash and Nala took OFF in the mall. Several people had to chase after her because she had no recall & didn’t listen. She was at least 8 months old at this point. She had also bitten a foster’s family dog & when brought to Sarah's attention, Nala was given to another foster/handler. (Washed in 2019).

•DIVA AKA SUGAR: Sugar was placed back in 2017. She was placed with SEVERE reactivity. She barked at literally everything — people walking down the street, people knocking on the door, whenever the car wasn’t in motion, at stores. She also had dog reactivity — she’d pull & bark at any other dog she saw. The worst was her prey drive. She tried attacking the first client’s cat. She’d also drag you down the street whenever she saw small animals because she wanted to attack them. She was returned to the organization where she continued training for several months to try and be placed a second time. She eventually washed. (Washed in 2018).

TOOL USAGE:

They also use gentle leaders improperly. They’re not properly introduced to the dogs to desensitize them and create a positive experience so almost all the dogs repeatedly rub or paw at them to get them off. Sarah tells fosters to tighten them enough so the dogs can’t get them off. There’s always tension on them as most dogs can’t heel and pull on them. Several dogs have scars from improper usage and Sarah makes fosters continue to use them. Why use a tool if you’re not going to properly? It’s unsafe and bad for the dog. I also added a photo of a dog who had a cut from the gentle leader. Sarah told the foster to continue using it anyway.

VET CARE:

Ariel, a current dog in training, was put on medication without veterinary consent. The medication bottle was unlabeled, the medication was all different colors & sizes.

The medication cabinet at the center has various expired and unused medications that were originally prescribed for one but has been handed out and reused to different dogs.

Dogs with Giardia were sent to live on campus. Four fosters expressed concerns about handling dogs with Giardia and feeling uncomfortable/under equipped to handle a dog with this illness. One dog became so sick their gums turned pale and they would not eat, drink, or stand and had green snot leaking from its nose. Despite voicing concerns about the severity of this dog’s condition, the foster was advised to crate the dog and leave them alone. The foster had to repeatedly beg for Diggity to observe the dog. (Photos added below to show the snot & the pale gums). Two of the dogs that suffered from Giardia were Archie & Cobalt. Both dogs suffered from fatigue and diarrhea for months before fecal samples were sent out & diagnosed with Giardia. Before being diagnosed, they were both still attending classes and doing PA where they were endangering other dogs, teams, and the fosters (as Giardia can be transmitted to humans) as animal waste & surfaces transfer the illness. Additionally, when dogs were eventually being treated, fosters were given Fenbendazole to administer without being informed of the side effects (which include vomiting, diarrhea, and/or drooling). Fosters were forced to clean up piles of diarrhea in carpeted dorm rooms, with the risk of property damage fees from the university, and the risk associated with uncleaned fecal matter in the carpet. One foster was almost kicked out of their residence hall because their dog was barking so much during this treatment.

Wilbur, a now graduated dog, needed his anal glands expressed & the foster expressed this for months. The concern was ignored until he expressed his anal glands on the foster’s bed.

Ariel was spayed at 11 months old while actively in heat and bleeding.(Many resources explain this is dangerous because the risk of hemorrhage is increased tenfold due to decreased blood-clotting and increased blood flow to the reproductive organs.

Cobalt also had incontinence issues for months as a puppy and this was not acknowledged/addressed.

Westley (previously mentioned briefly) was continuously having crate and indoor accidents due to not being able to make it to the door in time. Veterinary care was not sought out, instead, he was placed on a bladder support supplement and was eventually washed.

Xena, now washed, soiled herself during greetings for the first 8 months of her training. Xena had continuous accidents in the dorm and the foster received minimal support from Diggity. The accidents were so frequent that Xena’s foster suffered a $2000.00 fine from UMass, which Diggity offered no relief for. Veterinary care was never sought out.

Eddie, part of their pride litter & born 11/03/22, woke up his foster every 20 minutes for multiple nights in a row having to urinate, regardless of water consumption before bed being watched. He would constantly urinate in hallways, in his crate, and even on his foster while being carried outside. Diggity offered no help and blamed the foster for not taking him out enough or soon enough and improperly holding him when carrying him outside.

CLIENTS TESTIMONIES:

•CLIENT 1’s TESTIMONY:

“Headline is, very soon after getting Rover (dog’s name replaced with Rover to keep anonymity as much as possible), he exhibited signs of reactivity. I didn't know at the time that was what it was called, I just saw him be totally fine and then without reason start barking at someone. At first I thought it might be bc he was tired (I had overworked him) or it was a personal space thing (maybe it was just when people tried to pet him). I told Sarah my concerns and went for additional training, but nothing helped. I told her I couldn't handle having a dog that barked, but for various reasons I did not ask for my money back or give the dog back to wait for another one.

I continued to work with Rover on his reactivity and was given the excuse that his behavior was messed up from the pandemic. Nobody told me that Rover had already been reactive pre-pandemic and there seems to be no amount of training I can do to train that out of him. I took him to therapy once, but after receiving very welcomed petting from my therapist, Rover just started barking at her. Rover's bark is deep and scary sounding. While I don't think Rover would ever hurt me, when he barks you get scared he's going to do something. I obviously cannot take him to therapy anymore, as the potential of him barking causes me severe anxiety. I also stopped trying to take him to public access, because I would be too anxious about him barking. The last thing I want is him barking at another service dog or him being badly behaved and us giving service dogs a bad name! Also part of why I have him is for anxiety, so the fact that he has actually become a huge source of anxiety is extremely frustrating.

Now, I love my dog and I just accepted that he couldn't do public access. But then I got really frustrated when he met my niece and barked right in the toddler's face. I put Rover in my room when my niece comes over because I am genuinely afraid the toddler (whose head is at the same height at Rover's head) will somehow provoke Rover (as it's so easy for a toddler to do) and Rover will bite him in the face.

I'm fortunate that Rover has other qualities that have made him an incredible best friend, but as much as I love him and would never give him back now, I feel I have been taken advantage of and cheated out of a real service dog. I will not be getting another dog in addition to Rover, so it will hopefully be many years before I no longer have a dog and can apply for a real service dog somewhere else. That's an awfully long time to wait for what I was supposed to already have.

I see other service dog and handler pairs and am saddened that I cannot use Rover to help me reduce my anxiety going out and in public. I'm frustrated that I can't even take him to therapy without being worried he'll bark. And I absolutely cannot risk having him and my niece together if I think they're going to get near each other. Service dogs cost tens of thousands of dollars and I paid that just so I could get a pet dog who can't work outside of the house.

Knowing that I am not the only one to have this experience on the one hand makes me feel less alone, but also makes me upset. Rover is not an outlier who was fit for duty until the day I got him. This was not an unforeseen problem. This dog should not have been considered a service dog in the first place.

I have to grapple with the dialectic of loving and being grateful for Rover AND being upset that I was taken advantage of and given a reactive pet dog. I hope by sharing my story other people can avoid this same fate and get a real service dog from a reputable service dog organization.” (End of this client’s story).

•CLIENT 2’s TESTIMONY:

“My experience with Diggity Dogs service dogs has not been good from their client side. The owner/founder clearly does not understand anxiety and PTSD at all. They claim to know the best ways to treat those through therapy which they tell their clients many times. Both me and my therapist have agreed many times, the advice they give would have put me back a lot of steps in the work we have done as a team. They appear to think PTSD can just be turned off and dealt with later. This is very harmful as one of the only psychiatric service dog organizations in the area. They also gaslight and manipulate their clients. Once called out for it they claim to want to fix their relationship with the client but put in no effort and make the same mistake within months. Showing no care or respect for their clients. From my treatment as a client I am surprised many clients live to see when they get placed and given their dog as my treatment was so severely negative I was worse off mentally then when I started my service dog journey.” (End of testimony.)

•FORMER CLIENT:

They had applied to get a dog through Diggity. They had paid for the dog in full. The client had informed them that their job position had changed. Sarah told the client that their job was no longer safe for a dog and she would no longer be placing a dog with them. They never got a refund. Sarah took THOUSANDS from this person. The funny thing is, this client was meant to get a dog that washed shortly before Sarah informed them they wouldn’t be given a dog. What a coincidence.

STORY FROM A SD HANDLER WHO ATTENDS UMASS WHERE DIGGITY DOGS ALSO ATTEND:

“As an animal science student (with a fully owner trained service dog) at UMass I have had personal experience with the program as I’ve had many friends within or currently within it. Because of this and with my own experience of fully training my medical alert service dog, I have many concerns and issues with this program.

As Diggity is affiliated with UMass as a service dog training class, I would have assumed that this program provided adequate information and training classes for these new handlers. To my surprise, I have had MANY of these current (and/or now former) students message me personally for training advice. Questions included: how to heel, how to train common tasks that these dogs needed as a service dog, a new method to train different commands as the method they were given was not working. I thankfully was able to give advice as I am very passionate about dog training and animals in general. I did find it quite odd that they were not learning basic training in their classes.

Diggity uses gentle leaders, which I think are a great tool to use IF the dog is completely desensitized and adjusted to it. I have seen that many of these handlers slap a gentle leader on these dogs and expect it to work magic. In one of my classes with a Diggity dog and handler, this dog was showing extreme stress signs. Their tail was tucked, completely unfocused and had no engagement. They continued to paw and try to get their gentle leader off, and for a while, the strap was over their eyes. This handler did not seem to care or fix the issue. This same dog barked and whined at me and my friend's service dogs almost the entire time during lecture, while ours were settled and sleeping. I saw the handler pet and treat this dog multiple times, unintentionally rewarding, I’m assuming trying to redirect and failing. This dog had absolutely no heel and was sniffing everything as they walked out.

A mutual friend in that program was working a dog that was so fearful of dogs, from a previous attack, that they continued to stare at my service dog in the dining hall (we weren’t next to each other) and bark when we were a little closer by. I had to leave my service dog at our table, in eye distance but settled and tucked away, to answer questions that they had about training their Diggity dog. I have seen many reactive Diggity dogs (in training and fully placed) who showed clear signs of either not being fit to work or not ready for public access at the time.

Diggity pays for absolutely nothing other than vet bills, and yet they still try to cut corners. I have talked to my professors about this, and being an ansci student (in the pre-vet track) they’ve offered suggestions to me such as having the vet tech students help so it wouldn’t be as costly for Diggity. I’m not sure if this will ever be talked about or implemented but I do think that it could be something Diggity can consider exploring. With a Diggity dog from a friend (I am going to attempt to be very anonymous with this), they were showing some heavy rashes near the genital area as well as stomach. As Diggity’s advice to clean it with antibacterial soap for a while was not working, I suggested that they use some over the counter, light and safe, treatment. I was told that if they did that, Diggity would either say “I told you so” when the antibacterial soap “worked” and would brush it aside or they would get in immense trouble if Diggity found out. One of another friend’s Diggity dog had GI issues for a week (very constant diarrhea). This dog ended up completely soiling the blanket in their crate one night and my friend could not throw it out because “Diggity wouldn’t give [them] another one”.

This 3-credit course per semester mainly is sought out because these young college students, most who have absolutely no training experience, want a puppy. They have to pay for EVERYTHING (other than vet bills as previously mentioned) — food, treats, toys, enrichment, etc. Diggity is not paying these students and selling the “fully trained” service dogs for a very high price (~22k).

While chatting with some students in the class during dinner, I was told that Diggity rotates the dogs between handlers every few weeks. In concept it does sound okay, more experience with others and different social interactions. The thing is, these service dogs in training need time to adjust to their new handler but by the time they’re adjusted, it’s time to rotate them once again.

I have many friends who have their owner trained service dogs on campus as well and all of us share the same belief of these Diggity dogs in training: stay far, far away. I have brought up this issue to many professors and they have all told me that I was not the first or even one of the first ones to talk about this with them.

I believe that service dog training programs definitely do need to exist, but Diggity should not be one of them.” (End of handler’s testimony).

FOSTER STORY/TESTIMONY:

•Foster 1:

“So Westley attended the summer event at Cindy’s this summer and Sarah was handling him for most of the event. There were tons of kids and most of the dogs were walking around and mingling fine with the kids but some of the dogs were clearly stressed and Sarah did not respect their stress by allowing them space and did not encourage handlers to give them space or to be patient. She brought Westley towards a group of children and was feeding him but he was taking food roughly and showing a lot of stress from what I remember. A child started to approach them and Westley lunged to the end of his leash and started barking and snapping. Sarah tried to calm him but he was super over threshold. Poor guy was freaked out the rest of the visit and Sarah ended up sitting on the ground massaging him to try to calm him down.” (End of story)

Foster 2:

“Sarah doesn’t care for the dogs, clients or fosters or their well-being. She takes advantage of the fact the fosters are college students. Fosters can spend anywhere between a few weeks to 2 years with a dog training them from start to finish. Fosters get invested emotionally, mentally, physically, financially and we get almost nothing in return. We have to pay for almost everything (they cover vet care, though dogs are often not seen and health issues aren’t taken seriously). The amount of times I was told to give my dog chicken & rice when they got sick. My dog had diarrhea for a week straight and I was just told to keep the bland diet and nothing else was done. I was so concerned about my dog being dehydrated, yet they didn’t care. My dog’s rabies vaccine had expired for over a month before given a new one. We also get little to no updates on our dogs' post placement. If I reach out and ask for an update because it’s the dog’s birthday, or anniversary of graduating or from when I met the dog, I often get left on read. My dog has been graduated for a few years now & I’ve gotten 5 updates in total. Most were just pictures and not an actual update on HOW the dog was doing and how they were acclimating to each other and if they’ve done anything fun. It sucks because we’re not allowed to talk to clients (which is understandable as some want to stay anonymous) and when starting out in the program, we’re told about dogs that have graduated and how they’re thriving and how we’ll get updates like that once our dogs graduate. But we don’t. It’s like pulling teeth trying to get any info about how the dog is doing post placement.

I also remember my dog having a whining issue that was driving me insane. Sarah tried to help but only exacerbated the issue. I never once heard my dog bark until Sarah had stepped in to try and “fix” the whining. From that moment I realized that she didn’t know as much about training as she likes to project.

I also remember expressing my & others frustration with feeling Sarah played favorites between fosters. Instead of asking how to fix it so fosters felt even, I was met with “well do you plan on continuing to foster because if not I have to find (dog) a new foster”. We give so much of ourselves to Sarah, the dog & organization & to not even feel like my feelings matter is frustrating. I didn’t quit because I was too attached to the dog at this point and wanted to see it through to graduation. But this is what Sarah does and all fosters know it yet we can’t stop. She knows we all get attached and invested in the dogs that we won’t leave because we care too much. She gaslights us, manipulates us, takes advantage of us & won't stop. Because she knows we’re too worried about the dog in front of us to step away. Then by the time our dogs graduate or wash out, it doesn’t matter if we quit the program because she’s found new victims to take advantage of.

Sarah also doesn’t care about the mental health of her fosters. I know several fosters who were far worse off after joining the organization because of her mental abuse AND having to give back a dog we invested so much in. When brought to her attention, she pretends to care yet her actions show she doesn’t. She doesn’t check in with fosters once they give their dogs back. She doesn’t try to send updates knowing we long for them.

Sarah is an awful human and shouldn’t be allowed to work with animals. She ignores rashes, dog bites, puncture wounds, lacks vaccinating dogs when due, puts other dogs and people (and kids!!!!) at risk. I could go on forever how awful Sarah and this organization is. But the main takeaway is that she's irresponsible and needs to be shut down.”

Foster 3:

“Sarah is so far removed from the program. She doesn’t know most of the dogs’ names or behavioral issues they have. When messaged, she often doesn’t even open the message or if she does, she doesn’t respond. She gaslights us into thinking we’re at fault for the dogs’ issues. She also pretends the issues aren’t as severe as they are.

She asks for feedback regularly. But when given feedback, she threatens legal action. Being asked to sign an NDA in order to be a part of the organization should’ve been my first red flag and ran far away.

Current fosters have compiled proof of issues with certain dogs and the organization. Instead of being concerned about these issues, she threatened legal action and kicked multiple people out of the program.

She doesn’t have anyone’s best interest at heart. She just cares about the money.”

ANGELINA:

Angelina currently works for Diggity full time. She’s “trained” Solomon, Winnie, Ziggy & Addie. Every dog she’s produced has had serious issues that warranted the dogs to be washed yet have been placed anyway. She’s super condescending to the fosters and has repeatedly told them if their dogs were to wash it’s their faults. She’s also unprofessional and has bad mouthed Sarah in front of multiple fosters making them uncomfortable. She has no training certificate.