Ms Nicole Lancette will no longer be gracing us with her foul posts. That was her first and last post on the web board.

Ed

Dear Mr.Frawley and Fellow Board Members ,

This person hiding behind the name of "Nicole Lancette" is really a criminal known as Mr.GALE RAPONI, and I am sure Mr.Frawley and Mr.Will Rambeau knows who I am speaking of.
Fellow board members, if you remember last years seminar with Bernhard Flinks at K9Nation you might recall I had problems that involved this individual Mr.Raponi. Mr.Raponi tried to make believe, posting on his website the seminar with Bernhard Flinks ( without authorization )that he was affiliated with K9Nation. At that time I had to post several posts on this board(for those of you who have not read them and want to you can still find them on this board)to clarify that K9Nation had absolutly ZERO affiliation with Gale Raponi and his terrible reputation in the dog world.
When I moved to the town of Hannibal, his facility was a couple of miles from mine and at that time I did know him at all.
Later people tried to warn me about him but always I give the benefit of doubt to everybody and judge for myself, because there is always 2 sides to every story especially in the dog world.
He asked me to evaluate a couple of his dogs at his place and when I was over there he took several pictures of me telling me that these pictures were for his own personal portfolio. Later these pictures resurfaced on his website and labeled under these pics he stated that I was a world level Schutzhund trainer and I judged his dogs to be capable to do Schutzhund or protection. In the meantime I never gave one of his dogs any positive evaluations. He was posting on his website that I gave excellent evaluations to his dogs and puppies and selling these dogs for big money.
I received several angry phone calls from people that bought his dogs, with the notion that I gave these dogs high evaluation for Schutzhund or Protection. They told me that these dogs were scared of their own shadows, urinating if you tried to approach and pet them, with zero prey drive, zero fight drive and zero defense drive.
I felt sorry for these people that were misled by Mr.Raponi and I would have told them that I wouldn't want one of Mr.Raponi's dogs even if they were the only dogs left in this world.
After these events I completely closed the doors of any contact with Mr.Raponi and told him to stay away from me and my property and not to use my name,my image or my reputation as a professional dog trainer and breeder to try to sell his dogs that come from his experimental interbreeding.
It is a shame that people like him have any involvement in the dog world. They bring bad reputations to dogs (because his dogs will bite out of fear) and to the dog world, because Mr.Raponi for sure is not a dog trainer. He has no knowledge, no theory and no technique.
On June 27th,2007 again he used my image on the board of Donovan K9. This is the link for anyone interested to take a look :
http://B4.Boards2go.com/boards/board.
He was leading people to believe on the 27th of June I was at his place training, in the meantime I was at my new place with Bernhard Flinks training. Mr.Raponi is so dumb that the pictures that he posted you can see I am wearing boots covered with snow.
He posted with the title "Sunday training at Tuff Nuff Kennel".
At that point I had no choice but to post at the Donovan Board the truth about him and his dogs.
On the 29th of June the criminal Mr.Raponi called my home and left a message on my answering machine and threatened me and my family. Along with these threats he went on to say this:
"WATCH FOR THE NEW WEBSITE RAPONI VS.CAROTENUTO, HANG IN THERE BUDDY IT"S COMING!"
And this post fom "Nicole LAncette" aka Mr.Raponi is the result of his threat.
Like I said he is so dumb that he left his threat to be recorded by my answering machine(if anyone would like to hear this message they can call me I still have it saved)and I called the sheriff and they came to my house and recorded his phone number from my caller I.D. and listened to the threatening message.
About the allegation that I destroyed my house I can provide to anyone interested the telephone number of my landlord(ex-partner)and they can ask the condition of how I left the house.
At the same time I know this is Mr.Raponi's post because I NEVER had a client with a name Nicole Lancette so it is not possible for someone that does not exist to listen to my phonecalls, if you do any research no name exists by the name Nicole Lancette in the town of Hannibal. And strangely enough that this is "her" first post on this board following the clear threat from Mr.Raponi to discredit my reputation on the internet.
If anyone goes on the Donovan board and reads what is said about Mr.Raponi and reads his post it will be more than clear that this is him just by seeing the kind of language and the way he expresses himself on a regular basis.
I apologize to everyone on this board to have to read this nonsense but again Mr.Raponi has left me no choice.
My recommendation to everybody is to stay away from the criminal Mr.Raponi and his experimental interbreeding.

Sincerely,
Francesco Carotenuto
Director of Training at K9Nation
http://www.K9Nation1.com

Unfortunately Francesco we have more of Mr.Raponi in this country then Carotenuto.
People like Mr. Raponi are like the cockroaches we deal with here in Vegas on day to day basis.We just have to keep our doors and windows closed and never let 'em in....
Keep your head up ,don't let scums get you down..

To let everyone know, I had spoken with Ed behind the scenes about my observation that Francesco had begun to debunk Mr. Raponi's use of his name and those photos on other boards and that the post in question was likely done in retaliation by a supporter of Mr. Raponi.

In my discussion I had said:

" Yes, his puppy pens are horse stalls but they were clean and the pups were out all the time.
The pups were active and had good nerves, they damn sure weren't afraid to be on a leash."
I then included the post from the other forum and added:

"Francesco isn't "bashing him with lies", he's just trying to tell people that he has nothing to do with the guy.

If Francesco is being "sued" by people in Hannibal, ask her to prove it. I highly doubt that it's anything but BS.


I have recommended Francesco both on this forum and personally many times. I've had my own clients that I've sold PPD's go for further training to K9 Nation and been pleased with the results.
I would not hesitate for a second to attend a seminar done by them, and I'd gladly drive 1200 miles to get there - it'd be worth it.

That's my 2 cents worth.....

Dear Will,
Thank you for your reply. I do have to apologize with you for not listening to you a long time ago, and I am sure you know what I am talking about.
All of the good things that have been said about me, my training and my breeding program on this board have come from people who have been to my facility and were able to see and experience for themselves first hand.
I always have extended an invitation to anybody to come and meet me and my dogs so they can draw their own conclusion. And alot of people on this board can attest to what I say.
So again I extend this invitation to anyone interested so they can decide on their own.
Will, thank you again to not fall for the booby trap that was meant to put bad blood between us, but both you and I come from a military background so this enables us to see one coming and neutralize it.
Thank You to Fellow Members : Angelique, Sarah, Steve and Betty, for giving me the benefit of the doubt and showing your intelligence and realizing there are always 2 sides to a story.
And one final thing to you KEITH JENKINS, I think you can be real good buddies with Mr.Raponi and again you have proved your ignorance to me. My father always told me a gentleman is born with class, this is something you can not buy and definately you weren't born one.
And if you have something to say , be a man and just say it, don't just make stupidt insinuations.Another thing my father always said, if you have nothing good to say it's better not to say anything at all. We do not know each other personally, so if my name or if the name K9Nation is bothering you so much, you should simply not click on us and read about us.


Sincerely,
Francesco Carotenuto
Director of Training at K9Nation
http://www.K9Nation1.com

And like my grandfather always said "there are always two sides to every story". Sort of like the statements you made in regards to the Winkler/Flinks seminar. The only thing you were accurate in was the fact there were no gourmet meals available.

If some of the people on here want to place you on a pedestal that is their prerogative. I just don't happen to fall into that category. As for being buddies with this person, seems you were the only one on here that fell into that classifcation. I made a comment that perhaps this person maybe had more info that we on the board did and you come back two days later and want to post this drivel?

Tell you what how about you save it for the trial field, I'm sure one day we will have that chance. You do actually trial your dogs correct?

Keith I do not know or have ever talked to Francesco so I'm pretty sure he is not on a pedestal with me. I really didn't see any indication from any of the posts that anyone thought he was above reproach.

I have a problem with someone joining a board just to trash someone. That is always suspect in my book.

The entire post was questionable in my opinion, and I thought it was pretty obvious that the motivation was slander, not concern for dogs or for people doing business with him.

The internet is a double edged sword.

All the above is just my opinion of course.

Hello everyone,

I only discovered schutzhund 16 months ago, so I usually stay silent on the boards. However, I recently spent a lot of time with Francesco, so I feel obligated to speak up here. As you probably know, Francesco hosted a Bernhard Flinks seminar the last week of June. Beyond attending the seminar, I spent 10 days training with Francesco prior to the seminar and stuck around a couple of days after the seminar. During this time, Francesco and I trained from dawn to dusk. This gave me the opportunity to work my dog several times a day, along with his dogs.

Yes, some of his dogs live in horse stalls, but they each have their own stall. Well, except for the puppies, they all live together (obviously). And, yes, I’ve seen him clean the stalls! As for the dogs being fearful, that’s complete garbage. His dogs have nerves of steel and “super” drive. I would be proud to own any dog from Francesco’s breeding.

Bernhard Flinks spoke very highly of Francesco’s training abilities and was equally impressed by Francesco’s dogs.

One afternoon Flinks was watching Francesco doing protection work with my dog (Duke). Bernhard said, “that dog is the fastest learner I’ve ever seen.” Do I have a good dog? “Absolutely!” (is what Francesco would say) Nevertheless, in my opinion, Francesco’s solid training abilities fueled Duke’s quick learning. A really good dog coupled with a really good trainer is a site to behold.

All in all, Francesco took me and my dog to a whole new level. If it wasn’t for the 8 hour drive (I live in Michigan; Francesco lives in New York), I would be training with Francesco every day!

 Quote: Jerald Darow

Hello everyone,


One afternoon Flinks was watching Francesco doing protection work with my dog (Duke). Bernhard said, “that dog is the fastest learner I’ve ever seen.” Do I have a good dog? “Absolutely!” (is what Francesco would say) Nevertheless, in my opinion, Francesco’s solid training abilities fueled Duke’s quick learning. A really good dog coupled with a really good trainer is a site to behold.

All in all, Francesco took me and my dog to a whole new level. If it wasn’t for the 8 hour drive (I live in Michigan; Francesco lives in New York), I would be training with Francesco every day!

I know nothing about this whole thing, I just want to say CONGRATS to Jerald for his obvious dedication to making sure he trains himself as well as his dog.....that is an awesome story and you deserve a pat on the back for that.
It is always a great feeling when you have top trainers making positive comments on your dog and you. GREAT JOB!!!

As for the rest of the thread.....I have not a clue, all I can say is I WISH I had a trainer near me so that I could train my Mali ....she would be great with bite work, or so I am told, however, without an avenue, I am pretty much set with odor detection.

I couldn't resist putting in my 2 cents. I've been on this board for a little while and read quite a few posts. Some which were pretty good. This crap I just read though is nothing but a hit piece on Francesco so I want to say for the record:
My name is Michael Reese and I live in the Sacramento area. I purchased a puppy from Francesco. After talking with Francesco on the phone, it was readily apparent to me that he knew what he was talking about and could understand my exact needs for a real GSD. It has been a pleasure working with Francesco for many reasons. I have found him to be a man of his word and, in this world, ethics means a great deal to me. Francesco has been there for me every time I’ve called to ask a question and is truly concerned about the pups he breeds. I see this as a breath of fresh air in a world where people seem to be so monetarily focused and not concerned enough about their product.
I really can’t say enough about the quality of the puppy I have. At ten weeks, I could already see the drives necessary for being a police canine and or sport dog. Every day, I’m more impressed with my puppy as I watch and play with her. She seems to have an innate ability to understand what I want from her. The first time (15 weeks) I took her out to the scent pad, she had her nose to the ground and then found every piece of food on the pad. It was neat to see her stick her nose across the scent line and then immediately put it right back to continue searching.
One of the things I appreciate about her is she was potty trained to go on command by the third day (and I have the brown spots on the grass to prove it). This puppy is very easy to work with. It’s really sweet to see such a young pup with all the necessary ingredients in her and the abilities to be a real working dog. I can see her wanting to do a “bark and hold” already on my daughter’s boyfriend. There is no question in my mind about this dog’s ability to do protection work. It’s easy to see these drives come out of her in such a natural way. None of these drives have to be contrived in a dog like this. This is the result of great breeding, not training.
Would I recommend Francesco as a breeder? Heck, yes!!! I’ve never met another like him before, and I’ve trained with three people who have been to the world championships as competitors.


Michael Reese