I hear it all the time.
“I need to take my dog to training, he’s so bad”
Wrong.
100% WRONG
POSSIBLE ALLERGENS: TRUTH
It has never been my style to tell people what they want to hear.
Telling people things they want to hear as opposed to what they need to hear is an unsavory display of either weakness, or worse, an ulterior motive. However, people struggle most with hearing the truth. This is painfully ironic because they will go on and on about honesty and responsibility until you hit them with actual truth.
WHAM!
So the situation then becomes one where to make it so they don’t hit the ground when they fall. I can’t sugarcoat some things, so I have to get good at catching folks on the way down.
If you have a dog who you spend time with daily, train with daily, work with daily, and the dog isn’t getting it, then its not the dog who needs professional help!
YOU DO.
OK, NOW I’LL CATCH YOU
Relax.
It’s going to be OK.
Im 100% not judging you.
Really, Im not, because you are failing for the simple fact nobody taught you how to do it the right way to begin with. Dog’s dont come with instruction books which is why I threw together one. It’s short and sweet, no fluff, and its not even a training manual. ( you can get it for free by clicking HERE if you don’t already have a copy). Like I said though, thats just on fundamentals, not even getting into training!
The point is, nobody has ever REALLY shown you what to do or how to do it. To make matters worse, when you go and try and find information on your own, you get nothing but conflicting information that makes it even more confusing! How on earth are you supposed to be expected to be successful in such a situation?!
It’s really a situation where you could even claim you were set up to fail! See, now you REALLY can feel good knowing that I’m making excuses for you!
Ok, now time to snap out of it and get into action.
Find a training program that teaches YOU how to teach your dog
GET EDUCATED
Getting educated does sound easier than it really is however. The internet is full of experts, I should know, I’m one of those jerks who is going to tell you what to do and how to do it!
Find somebody who is willing to address and deal with the reality that it is YOU who is in need of assistance, not your dog. This is something that i discovered years ago in my own time spent as a “dog trainer”.
I hardly ever trained any dogs!
A big part of my own business was the time spent working with people, and instructing and coaching dog owners on how to train their own dogs. Having had many 9-5 careers that all involved teaching, including being a state certified public school teacher with over 10 years in the classroom, my clients experienced much higher levels of success when i worked with them, not their dogs.
I stopped taking in-kennel contracts.
Ok, on RARE occasion I take in ONE dog at a time for intensive training where I am in fact, training the dog. This hardly happens, and when it does it’s for very specific reasons, and it’s not cheap. Instead of training the dog, success comes from a thoughtful, well planned, educational and coaching program designed to teach the dog owner everything they need to know to be the best owner possible. That also includes being a dog trainer for their own dog.
Education for the human is essential in ultimately training any dog they are responsible for.
Find a trainer that openly discusses the education they plan to give YOU. Feel free to ask them what their feelings on “in-kennel” training vs private lessons. Probe them and engage in conversations where it will be easy to see if they even possess the skills and talent of communication, let alone the willingness to design a program that has YOU at the center.
YOUR DOG NEEDS YOU
Everything always comes back to the dog and what’s best for them. This is a perfect example of what you hear me saying often which is that you must “drop your ego before you pick up that leash”. It can be a pill to swallow sometimes coming to terms with the reality you don’t have a clue what you’re doing.
Loving your dog isn’t about giving them the belly rubs that you already want to give freely. It is about being honest with yourself and your abilities, and then doing the right thing that set you up for success in making your dog well behaved, balanced, and even happier than you can imagine.
If you think you can handle my honesty, I do have virtual coaching packages available where YOU are the focus and your success and education are at center stage. Click HERE for more information. Until then, the rest of this blog has TONS of FREE information to get you started.
