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Get Your Money's Worth from Your Trainer
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Thinking of hiring a trainer? Then be prepared to work to get your money's worth. If you work hard you could get more than you paid for. If you expect the trainer to do all the work you could you be throwing money away.
Training Choices
You may choose to send your dog away to a trainer for a few weeks and gets a well-trained dog back. These trainers spend hours every day enforcing good behavior and teaching obedience. Often they require the dog owners to come spend a few hours or even days on site so they can learn how to continue enforcing good behavior for a lifetime. Without this, the behavior is likely to deteriorate over the years as the dog grows, experiments and is exposed to different situations without the solid foundation of a firm but fair and knowledgeable owner. If you do choose to send your dog to a trainer, choose one that insists that you also attend training sessions with him. Otherwise, you could be wasting your money.
Chances are, you can't afford to send your pet away to be trained. That's why most people either attend training classes or hire a trainer to come to their home. Choosing one of these options has great advantages to sending your pet away. You get to observe every step of the training process and ask your trainer questions about why things are done a certain way and how things work. You can object to training practices that make you uncomfortable and explore alternatives with your trainer. Most importantly, while your dog is learning, you are also learning.
Whether you choose to have a trainer come to your home or go to training classes depends on several factors. It is usually more expensive to have a trainer come to the home than to bring your dog to a group class. Group classes also have the advantage of exposing young dogs to other pets and people which is a very important part of their development. However, if your dog already afraid of people or other pets or shows any sign of aggression or has behavior issues that mainly occur inside the home, it's better to hire a trainer to come to the house. Also, if you have many pets that need training, you may find it more efficient to have a trainer come to the house than to try to deal with multiple pets in a single class or to take them to separate classes.
I am of the opinion that both in-home and group training are of value and that one should not exclude the other. A young puppy owner will benefit from a few visits from an in-home trainer to help with housebreaking and minor behavior issues and to get started with basic obedience. This should be followed up with group training to aid in socialization and to add distractions to cement the idea that commands must still be obeyed, even when there are all sorts of other interesting things going on.
For in home dog training visit Dog Training in Your Home or Michigan Dog Trainer
Classes are offered at the Sportsmen's Dog Training Club of Detroit
Let the Trainer Train You
Many people expect the trainer to come in, work his magic and leave. Television shows that illustrate the almost miraculous effect a good trainer can have on dog behavior often omit the very important owner element. If the owner isn't trained, the dog isn't going to stay trained.
Your trainer will instruct you on the proper way to interact with your dog, demonstrate the proper techniques for training behaviors and enforcing and rewarding behavior. You should practice these techniques several times with your trainer present and ask your trainer for feedback on your technique. If you aren't sure about anything at all, ask questions about it until you are sure and don't be afraid to whip out a notebook and take notes or bring along a tape recorder to record the session and listen to it again later.
Your trainer will also probably provide handouts covering various topics related to your training. Read these carefully, make note of any questions and ask your trainer about them. While you're training, you may wish to do some supplemental reading or study. By all means check out the library, look up subjects on the internet and browse through the book section at the pet store. You'll find that different writers have different techniques and opinions on the subject of dog training and behavior. Do read these, make notes and ask your trainer about anything that strikes you. If you discover a new training method that your trainer isn't using, ask her about it.
Follow the Trainer's Instructions
You hired your trainer and gave her your hard-earned money to help you solve problems with your dog. You did it because the things you tried didn't work, or because you didn't know how to begin or felt you needed a little extra help. So let her do her job. If your trainer suggests something you think is silly, give it a try anyway. If it's worked for her before, it will probably work again.
We trainers can tell when you didn't follow our instructions. When I say "Keep your dog on the leash at all times" and my clients report "My dog bit me when I grabbed his collar" or I say, "Put her in her crate when you can't watch her" and my client tells me a week later "I found poop on the floor when I came home from work today" what can I say? I told you so? We can't help you if you won't let us.
Communicate
If you are really uncomfortable doing what your trainer suggests or you know there's no way you're doing that, let him know. He may have an alternative for you. Likewise, if your trainer is spending time teaching you and your dog something that you're sure you have no use for, tell your trainer you'd rather learn something else. You're paying us, don't let us waste your money or our time working on something you don't care about.
Practice, Practice, Practice
When we train dogs, or any pet, our goal is not to increase his cognitive knowledge but to create a habit. When I say "sit" your butt goes down, no thinking, no pondering, no deep philosophy. We want it to become so ingrained, such a habit, that it is an automatic reaction almost beyond the dog's control. We want that butt to go down no matter what the dog is thinking about or doing at the time.
Accomplishing this means endless repetition and that means daily practice. If you are practicing Don't jump on people when they come in the house but sit politely instead then that means that every day someone must come to the house every day for your dog to practice on for a few days. That means you're going to have to call in a few favors. What are friends for?
If you have trouble finding time every day to set aside for practice, don't. Training should be integrated with other activities. Practice at feeding time, making your dog earn one kibble at a time. Practice while out on your walk, making your dog earn the privilege of sniffing the neighbors' garbage. Practice at playtime, make your dog earn every toss of the ball. Add practice to your every day and you'll develop the habit, and your dog will keep sharp, for life.
Quality is as important as quantity in practice. Your trainer will teach you specific techniques and you should practice them while he watches to ensure you've got it right. As you learn new tricks, add them to your practice and integrate them with tricks your pet can already do well. Practice sit, stay and come all at once for example, having your dog sit and stay while you walk away and then call him to come later. Pull out old tricks once in awhile to keep them fresh. If your pet is having trouble with one thing, practice something easier instead and come back to the trouble spot later. Always end your practice on a positive note with something you know your pet can do.
Fly to the Top of the Class
Let's say you don't practice, you didn't pay close attention or take notes and you're not really following your trainer's instructions. A week goes by and you see your trainer again and your dog has made little to no progress. The next lesson will be spent reviewing what you learned the week before and practicing training technique instead of moving on to more interesting things. If another week goes by in the same vein, you could spend the entire duration of your training relearning what you've already learned. If you're in a group situation, your trainer will have to move on in order not to hold up the rest of the class. In this case you and your pet are not going to learn everything the trainer has for you.
On the other hand if you have practiced, when you see your trainer again you can show off what you've learned. She can move on to the next step with confidence that you and your pet are ready for it. She will also start honing your pet's technique paying attention to posture and form to make his sits, downs and heels not just functional but positively impressive. Keep performing this way and you may have some extra time at the end of your designated training period to learn a few bonus tricks. All because you practiced.
