The Dog Training 'Con' of low Expectations

My Partner made a comment last night which held a lot of significance.

“You know James, watching the way your business works from the sidelines, I can see why so many people end up getting conned by other Dog Trainers”.

Of course I had to ask what she meant, not least because it was a very direct statement which seemed to have come from nowhere.

“Well, a lot of people you talk to on the phone have been through several trainers and they all do several sessions. If you wanted to be a dog trainer just to make money, tell people that their issues are really complicated, and will take a long time to fix, and then work with them for 5,6,7,8 sessions and make very little progress, but just enough to make people feel like they’re moving forward. I’ve watched you work, and most things don’t take that long. It’s the owners who need to learn, the dogs just ‘get it’. So if a trainer is making people do that many sessions and not resolving the issues, they must be doing it for the money”.

What Frances saw, is a symptom of a wider issue that is rampant in the world of dog behaviour and training; a trend that only seems to be growing. It is increasingly common that trainers work on a basis of techniques which feel like they’re the right thing to do, but have little to no beneficial impact on your dogs behaviour. But because they set incredibly low expectations of how quickly a dog can learn or change, people fall into the trap of spending vast amounts of time and money on an ineffective process and ideology, waiting for the moment that never arrives. In many cases, the dog ends up getting worse, only for the trainer to say that either the dog clearly has a genetic issue, or that the owner needs to spend even more money repeating the same mistakes. Its like the fallacy of fat - free yoghurt that’s so full of sugar, its less healthy than the original.

Its like the fallacy of fat - free yoghurt that’s so full of sugar, its less healthy than the original.

One of the most simple things you can teach an owner is how to walk their dog calmly on the leash. Any competent dog trainer or behaviourist should be able to do this with you in a single session - It’s a skill that’s fundamental to owning a dog and also makes a significant difference to reactivity and aggression too. And yet, so many people are told that it’s a skill which takes lots of time, practice, treats and repetition. There are youtube personalities with millions of subscribers who promote this idea for their own gain- that its normal for a professional in the industry to have been working with their own dog for over a year and still not be able to keep their dog calm beside them. They sell the idea of failure as a standard, that only more of the same will fix. The expectation on the dog is so incredibly low, when in reality, it is the process and ideology that is responsible.

This last weekend, I was visiting the Yorkshire Dales to work with a dog aggressive Romanian rescue call Alin - and the owner made the same comment. A comment I’ve heard so often before. They’d already been visited by three previous trainers, and still not made any progress. In that afternoon session, we walked past dog after dog after dog. And whilst Alin wasn’t perfect with every dog, the difference in his behaviour was night and day compared to what his owners were used to, with some very simple changes. We adjusted his lead positioning, made properly timed corrections, and used a technique called ‘pass by’ to move Alin onto the opposite side of us to the dog, remind him that we didn’t need him to react to the other dogs.

The expectation on the dog is so low, that the dog is expected to fail. When in reality, it is the process and ideology that is responsible.

When Alin did react to a pair of spaniels that he has build up a negative history with, it was swiftly addressed - and he walked past the same two spaniels twice more without a noise. We had him walking past confident males, excited puppies, nervous barking dogs, as many different scenarios as we could find - to identify that Alin’s primary issue is over assertive dogs that are presenting a confrontational body language.

He proved that he was absolutely capable. He exceed everyone’s expectations.

Let me be clear, Alin’s family still have a lot of work to do. He can be very reactive, if he feels his handler is nervous or is not taking control of the situation. He can bite, and he can be a danger. Thats one of the realities of working with dogs - they aren’t toys or babies or computers. They know how we feel, and they respond accordingly. His owners are fantastic, and very honest about their own need to build up confidence and learn those skills. But Alin did what I needed him to do that day - he proved that he was absolutely capable. He exceed everyone’s expectations.

Are you there so that you can learn the skills you need to be a better handler and owner? Or are you there because you think your dog is the one that still needs to learn those skills?

Alin isn’t a one off, he isn’t special, and neither am I. I work off the same foundations as dog behaviourists and trainers that have been working with dogs for decades. Alin did what all dogs do when they are given the right direction by trainers who understand dogs - he committed 100% to the changes and showed his owners just how calm and relaxed he could be. In 9 out of 10 cases, the dog isn’t the one that needs weeks and weeks of training before they show you a change. It’s the handlers who need to build confidence, practice and repeat the new skills, and challenge themselves in new environments and scenarios. A dog will commit themselves to the process on Day 1. And a good trainer should be able to demonstrate what your dog is capable of on Day 1.

So how do you know if the time you are investing is worth it? The answer is simple - can your trainer demonstrate to you the changes you are aiming for? Can they demonstrate what your dog is capable of? Or to put it another way - are you there so that you can learn the skills you need to be a better handler and owner? Or are you there because you think your dog is the one that still needs to learn those skills? If you fall into the latter category - its time to reconsider your process - and your trainer.