05/17/2021
HOW NOT TO LOOK FOR A DOG TRAINER !!!!!
👉Looking for a "cheap" dog trainer:
A good trainer ain’t cheap and a cheap trainer.... well.... ya get what ya pay for. If your first question is "how much?" it's likely it's going to be more than you're interested in paying because you don't appreciate the value of our expertise. Every seasoned trainer of my experience has trained more than one dog for cheap, and we figured out pretty quick that folks never value our efforts on their behalf. We've learned to wait for someone who is willing to pay us well for getting snarled at, bitten, shat or urinated on, especially if your primary complaint is aggressive behavior. Why should we assume all the risk and not get paid for it?
👉I need an understanding trainer. Fluffy is sensitive and scared of men:
Your trainer's job isn’t to indulge your misguided fantasy, but to denude you of it. Your dog isn't 'afraid of men'. Your dog has been reinforced for as***le behavior. The last thing I have time for is to put up with your excuses. You hired me for my expertise, stop interfering with my work. Please do the work I suggest so your dog doesn't end up on the 10 Most Wanted List and you don't end up in court.
👉I need someone ASAP:
Sorry, a good trainer is booked weeks, if not months in advance. We don't sit and play with puppies all day waiting for the phone to ring. There is no such thing as a dog training emergency. Your dog has been acting like that for a while. You should have called sooner instead of waiting for a catastrophe before doing anything about it.
👉I need a "behaviorist":
My favorite. Nope. What you need is to supply your dog with expectations and boundaries. Ones that you can easily enforce and that your dog understands. I guarantee Caveman Trog was able to explain it without the use of psychotropic drugs or his favorite tool, the club. And yeah, why in the hell would you try to hire someone who has probably never even trained a dog to any reasonable level of performance? And I'm not talking about 'that show dog stuff', but... stuff like walking politely on a leash without being dependent on some stupid harness or a bag full of food? C'mon now! One of us is certainly old enough to remember when that BS wasn't necessary.
👉I *did* training. It didn't work:
A trainer is not a magician. Good trainers can make any dog better. What we can't do is make owners realize that they actually have to USE IT in order to MAINTAIN IT. A dog isn't going to assume new behaviors without consistent reinforcement. To assume otherwise is ludicrous. It's not possible to make your dog "perfect". Stop believing this muzzy headed notion that dogs can be fully trained in a few weeks. It takes months of persistent and planned practice. I can tell you what to do and how to do it, but I can't make you. Calling me months after we worked together when behavior is exponentially worse or you FINALLY catch a lawsuit is not acceptable. Maintain the damn training and stay in touch so things don't go bad. Keep my emails in your que and read them. Better yet print them. It is a permanent record of our correspondence and a fairly high chance that the information you seek can be found in the information I have already provided to you. The only dumb question is the one you didn't ask.
Here's a couple things to keep in mind when you are looking for any service provider, not just trainers.
👉I charge what I charge because I value my time, which is a non-renewable resource. I have honed my craft over decades and what you pay for is my years of paying my dues and learning my trade. If what I charge is not what you are willing to pay, you are free to find another provider. I am under absolutely no obligation to work with you, nor are you under any obligation to work with me.
👉Put your ego in check. I don't care how many dogs you have had in your life. I already have handled more than that this morning, and have at least 48,300 times, which is 365 days x 30 years x the MINIMUM number of dogs in my care on any given day. And that's only 30 of the last 48 years, so... ya feel me?
👉I don't need to go to your house to "see the behavior." I'll take you at your word. Training needs to happen. It's not where training happens that matters. It's *that* training happens, that matters.
👉This is a business and I run it as a business. My priority is supplying the best service I can to folks who seek it. We have a finite number of training spots open on specific days. I cannot manufacture time I do not have, on days that I am not available. When I suggest a time after asking you for your availability and you counter with something else, it tells me you are not listening. Either take the spot or not. There are several folks waiting to get past the gatekeeper for an opportunity to work with us. Feel free to pursue someone else when you accuse me of being unreasonable after I have explained 40 times that I am not free on XYZ day at ABC time. Also, if you call me 4 times in a row but don't leave a message, and then have the temerity to complain that I don't return phone calls, you have just disinclined me to ever make an attempt at contacting you. Same with email addresses that don't work anymore, or voice-mail systems not set up, or "full". I will try once.
👉If I give you specific instructions regarding equipment or handling, I do so in consideration of my safety, the safety of my colleagues and the safety of everyone nearby. If you think I'm overreacting when I thank you for coming and show you the door because you didn't think it was important, don't take it personally. Consider it fortunate that we both dodged the same bullet. Remember that rare and un-renewable resource I mentioned earlier? You saved me from wasting it. If you aren't willing to listen to my advice before we even meet, I'm pretty sure I don't want you as a client.
👉If you schedule an appointment and can't keep it, have the decency to give notice. Remember I set time aside for this appointment and you were raised better. You wouldn't dip out on any other professional without notice, what gives you the chutzpah to do it to me? If you schedule an appointment, endeavor to be on time. We aren't waiting for you. We have a schedule for a reason. You are not our only client. You have an appointment. Keep it or cancel it.
👉It’s OK to ask questions and have conversations about my training plan, but you’ve hired me because I am a professional and regarded as an "expert" within the trade. You wouldn’t tell your mechanic how to fix your car would you? Dentist? Surgeon? Lawyer? If you don’t trust my ability, don't try to bend/fold/mutilate me into something I will never be or do. Find someone else.
👉I am really not training your dog for *you*. I am training your dog for every human he may encounter throughout your lives together. I work hard to try and help you understand the importance of your role in your dogs behavior. Training doesn't stop because you are tired and had a bad day at work. Reinforcement is as much about what you don't do as much as what you actually do. I have said this many times, "I guarantee that what I do works. What I can't guarantee is what you do with the information."
👉Finally- I don't care what your brother's girlfriends' father's uncle's next door neighbor's mother-in-law who had a dog that looked like yours said about how to train it; or your previous trainer, your vet, that guy down the street, the internet or the book club said about your dog and your problem. You are in front of me now. You have paid for my time and have made time in your day to share it with me. Don't waste it. It may be that we aren't destined to work together. I'm ok with that.
Not every frog gets to be a prince.
