You may have an aggressive dog with separation anxiety that cries when you leave, a puppy that you want to educate, etc.
In any of these cases, you will be looking to choose the best dog trainer with whom you can work to solve current problems.
What are the qualities of the best dog trainers? Do you want to know how to choose a good canine educator? Then we encourage you to continue reading K9 training Houston.
There are trainers who flatly state that all the dogs they work with are perfect. Not only that, but they do it in just a few sessions.
There are even some who take the opportunity to compare themselves with other professionals who would take longer to achieve the same results. But that does not mean that they are the best dog trainers.
How to choose the best dog trainer?
A priori, these statements lead many people to hire that trainer thinking that it will completely solve the problem.
But the reality is usually that after a while it is discovered that the expectations were not real and the dog trainer has deceived us.
It is impossible to solve all behavioral problems for different reasons. Some of them are:
animals with very severe emotional problems (e.g. phobia of people or loud noises, abuse, etc.)
extremely difficult environments (e.g. treating an aggressive dog in areas where all dogs roam loose)
little involvement on the part of the client
dog genetics
etc
Therefore the conclusion is reached that it is impossible to have a 100% success rate . And even less so if the number of sessions is very small.
Any competent trainer plans a dog training job at home lasting several months. This will be periodically supervised by the professional.
When spectacular results are promised, it is usually because the behavior is inhibited without treating the underlying problem. This way it seems that the problem has been solved.
Although nothing could be further from the truth.
The dog simply does not display the problematic behavior. But in the eyes of the client the results are visible and in the short term, which is a great incentive for most people.
It is also important to emphasize that the client always wants the results to be immediate. He wants results now, but this is simply impossible to achieve.
If the client does not want to work in the long term due to time and chooses to look for other professionals who promise much faster results, they will probably fall into deception.
What is the best dog trainer?
With a little time you will discover that the promises were false, but the money spent and the time invested will be very real. It is then that she will regret having fallen for the deception.
In order to avoid this situation, we have decided to highlight some interesting points when looking for a good professional.
1.- Train the guides . They are the ones who are finally going to keep the dog. Therefore, they must have the necessary knowledge to know how to establish a healthy relationship with their pet.
Only in this way will coexistence be pleasant and satisfactory for both.
We consider working with a dog apart from the people who live with it a mistake. At the end of the day, it is very important that they are present in the sessions and learn what things to do and what to avoid.
The training and involvement of the guides in the process is fundamental .
Involvement is necessary to obtain satisfactory long-term results, regardless of whether it is training or behavioral change.
2.- Sessions at home . Most of the best dog trainers work in the animal’s environment. This involves doing the sessions at home or in the surrounding area and in the presence of the people who live with your canine companion.
There are also good professionals who do in-residence training . But that does not totally exclude working with the handlers or in the dog’s environment.
They carry out the sessions with the clients in their dog training center for several days, but later they extrapolate the work to the street.
This way of working is interesting.
What at Conecta Adiestramiento we do not consider acceptable is training with the dog exclusively in residence and without the presence of its handlers.
I want to train my dog. Which professional do I hire?
3.- Training and experience . There are many dog trainers who have not been trained in training courses.
They comment that it is not necessary since they have obtained all the knowledge by being in contact with puppies and adult dogs. This is dangerous.
By having lived with many dogs and seeing behavioral problems, you can learn and draw conclusions. But these do not have to be correct.
It is better to train in a course for trainers who teach an updated and quality syllabus.
Receiving good training is essential to be a great professional in canine education and training.
People who have greater knowledge have more resources than others when it comes to facing difficult cases. And these cases sooner or later come to be presented to the trainer.
For example, a breed that is difficult to train like a Nordic, dogs that have no motivation, fearful dogs that reject treats, etc.
Training is important, there is no doubt about that. Therefore, we recommend that the dog trainer you hire is trained.
But not only training is relevant, but also experience .
It is the union of the two things that makes a competent dog trainer. Find a training professional who has experience with your best friend’s behavior problem to get good results.
4.- Know how to transmit correctly . Technique is important and being trained and qualified is essential. But what the client is looking for are palpable results.
That is, you see improvement in your pet’s behavior.
Many times the most educated people are not the ones who best know how to transmit.
But trainers must make an effort to train in both fields and be good at speaking and interacting with people.
I am looking for a dog trainer at home with experience and good references
In addition, it must be borne in mind that customers do not understand technical language. Therefore it is not convenient to use it, you have to know how to transmit the concepts and way of working in a simple way.
Otherwise the picture is incomplete. You have to know how to communicate easily and simply the work to be done to obtain tangible results.
5.- Flexibility . Knowing how to adapt to the client is essential, as is finding the most convenient solution.
If a trainer is good technically and knows how to transmit but is not flexible, he will lose many points.
It is very important to assess the dog’s environment, know the situation of the people who live with it, their work schedules, etc. And from there choose a particular way to solve the problem.
You have to work with the person and their pet taking into account all these factors .
When a behavior modification is carried out, the resolution of the problem must be adapted to the personal situation of the owner or family.
6.- Humility . No one has the absolute and irrefutable truth, regardless of the topic being discussed. But this is even more true in the world of dog training, where you work with living beings.
Each one has its own individual characteristics. And he has also had unique experiences that can be totally different from those of any other dog.
Therefore, it does not make sense to make affirmations of the type ” it is that all dogs… ” or ” this can never happen “. There will always be a dog that is the exception to the rule.
Also, the world of dog training is constantly changing.
In recent years, cognitive and social abilities have been discovered in dogs that not long ago we flatly denied. Based on the knowledge of that time it did not make sense, but everything changes.
It is difficult to decide to hire a trainer
Therefore, stating things as if they were immutable truths is absurd. Doing this keeps us out of any possibility of staying up to date and debunking false myths .
The only thing that feeds is the attitude of ” I know everything, I do not need more training and all the rest of you are wrong “. Which is a deeply rooted thought in the minds of some dog trainers, where ego unfortunately reigns supreme.
The most competent professional dog trainers are usually cautious in their statements and always back them up. They are not based on ‘ because I said so ‘, but rather they explain in detail why based on their knowledge and extensive experience.
7.- Do not discredit the competition . It can happen that a person works with a trainer and when he does not obtain good results, he chooses to work with another.
It is very likely that you will tell the trainer you have recently contacted the name and manner of work of the previous one.
In this situation, there are two possibilities:
that the new professional limits himself to listening without intervening since he does not have a public opinion about other trainers.
Take the opportunity to speak badly about him, criticizing and questioning his way of working. In this way he places himself in a situation of superiority with respect to the other professional.
Based on his way of acting, we can assess whether or not he is an ethical trainer and respectful of the competition .
In our opinion, a good trainer is not only someone who has a lot of technical knowledge, but also someone who is ethical. Therefore, in your relationship with the client you should not criticize other trainers.
If you do not have a good opinion of them, it is better not to express yourself publicly.