Jul 10
19
I am not an advocate of sending your dog away for training. People who keep a customer’s dog for training are doing so for one reason; profit. Time is money to them, so they desire to achieve results as quickly as possible. It is easier and quicker to force a dog into submission through fear and intimidation than it is to lay a healthy relational foundation.
Many of these “trainers” are not certified, nor are they professional, through either of the two main professional organizations; IACP and APDT. If you are talking with someone who is not a recognized professional through either of these two organizations proceed with caution.
In my mind, I categorize trainers into three groups.
The first group use bribery to achieve a result through treats or toy rewards. In my opinion this is effective with a very small minority of dogs; ie the ones that have extremely submissive (or soft) temperaments.
The reason this approach is not effective is that the dog often chooses not to do what is being asked because the reward isn’t important enough.
The second group is what can be referred to as the “yank and crank” trainers. Most people that take dogs away from owners for training fall into this group. In a nutshell they believe that with enough force (usually shock collars) a dog can be trained to do almost anything fairly quickly.
The problem with this approach is that the dog is fearful of the handler. The dog will often appear frozen on the ground and look nervous because they simply do not know what else they can do without the wrath coming down on them.
Both of these approaches will result in inconsistent training. Consistency is only achieved through a good bond, built on mutual trust and respect, with your dog.
The last group is somewhere in the middle of the other two groups. They do not have one approach, but they are fluid to move through training depending on what is going on at any specific point in time. Please refer to my information on phase training for additional information.