What to Expect in Your Trainer









Your instructor will be a professional dog trainer. Although we teach dog obedience, it is our philosophy that merely teaching obedience training is generally a futile endeavor unless you are taught the basics of canine behavior and how to integrate these principles into your daily interactions with your pet. If you've ever watched the television program "Dog Whisperer", this is what a professional dog trainer does. This is what we do at Perfect Manners Dog Training.

The professional dog trainer, alone of all of the dog professionals, has spent every minute, of every day, for decades investing his mind, heart, dollars and soul in learning as much as possible about just one animal: your dog.

Professional Dog Trainers are divided into two specialties; Dog Trainers and Obedience Instructors. In reality, the line that separates the two types of qualified dog training professionals is very indistinct, but I will attempt to define the difference.

Professional Dog Trainers/Dog Whisperers :

Dog Trainers tend to work with individuals and their dogs. Dog Trainers teach obedience, solve canine problems, and rehabilitate dogs with inappropriate temperament. They are trained to get to the root of the problem, not just to fix symptoms. Most consumers are offered a choice between individual lessons at a center, individual lessons in the home or doggie boot camps. At Perfect Manners, we rely completely on individual, in-home lessons. It is our feeling that your pet should be trained to function with perfect manners in your environment.

Professional Dog Trainers/Dog Whisperers help recondition and retrain appropriate behavior for both the dog and the owner. Professional dog trainers are extremely qualified to correct behavior problems such as chewing, digging, barking, aggression, house training problems and separation anxiety. The belief of the Professional Dog Trainer is that a quick, cosmetic, "fix" is a waste of time and money.

Obedience Instructors:

tend to teach group classes that are focused either on puppy training, pet obedience training or competitive dog sport training such as competitive obedience, protection, tracking, herding, agility, Rally Obedience, FreeStyle or Canine Dancing, Flyball or Frisbee. Of course, there are many individuals that excel at both specialties.

Professional Dog Trainers have trained dogs:

• to guard the home
• to go to war
• to lead the blind
• to be hands for those who have none
• to be ears for those who can't hear
• to gather the sheep from the field
• to bring the cows in to be milked
• to find bombs
• to retrieve fallen birds
• to track wounded game
• to rescue wounded comrades
• to detect cancer in humans
• to rescue drowning people
• to pull sleds
• and to help in almost any other chore that man and nature could devise.

THE EDUCATION OF THE PROFESSIONAL DOG TRAINER

Professional Dog Trainers tend to follow one of three routes for mastering their profession. Many trainers started out by learning their craft at their father's knee; dog training may have been the family business or the family's profit producing hobby. Others have apprenticed and learned training techniques from another trainer though hands on experience and coaching.

Regardless of how a professional dog trainer started out, the sign of a great professional dog trainer is on going continuing education either by attending seminars, reading books or going to school.

Most professional dog trainers join organizations that offer continuing education opportunities, some dog trainers go to a university and add to their knowledge base with advanced animal behavior classes, while others go to professional seminars and conferences to keep abreast of changes and improvements in the dog training profession.



PROFESSIONAL DOG TRAINERS COMPARED TO
THE OTHER DOG EXPERTS

Many times, dog trainers develop a close business relationship with several vets, and will often work in concert to develop an appropriate treatment plan for behavior problems that have a medical origin.

Many Applied Animal Behaviorists and Veterinarian Behaviorist will also develop a close relationship with a Professional Dog Trainer, so that the deficits these two specialists have in the area of practical application of learning theory can be effectively addressed.

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

• Vets and vet behaviorists, are medical experts for many, many species,

• Applied animal behaviorists, are theoretical experts for many, many species; or in the case of human psychologist, experts in human mental illnesses (but not canine),

• Professional dog trainers are the experts in practical application for one species, the domestic dog.

IMPORTANT POINTS

THE PROFESSIONAL DOG TRAINER: IMPORTANT POINTS

The most important point to remember is that a professional dog trainer, knows what to do when the clicker, the cookies and the head halters won't work. If you, like most of my clients has read a dog training book and attempted to apply the principles, without success, you probably realize that dogs like people are individuals.

• A professional dog trainer knows what to do if the choke chains, the prongs and the collar corrections don't work.

• A professional dog trainer is not wedded to one training methodology, he has a well stocked tool box of scientifically based training techniques that will work on all dogs all of the time.

• Any trainer who rigidly and dogmatically adheres to one specific method of training should be considered inflexible, and perhaps even limited in training skill. There are numerous ways to train animals, so as his/her skills and understanding of canine behavior and learning theory evolve, these ways should, no must change.

• A Professional Dog Trainer is the only trained canine professional that can willingly offer to show the client, the "THE GOLD STANDARD." The ultimate test of any professionals' ability to change, manage and manipulate behavior. The Professional Dog Trainer can talk the talk, and walk, the walk!

• The Professional Dog Trainer is the only one of the canine behavior professionals who will get a dog and right in front of your eyes, make it better, sometimes in a matter of minutes. No drugs, no gimmicks, no bribery. It's like magic!

MORE IMPORTANT POINTS

To find a good professional dog trainer takes both hard work and common sense. Please don't rely on your mother, your friends, your co-workers or your medical doctor for advice on behavior problems, especially aggression. They will usually mislead you without meaning to do so.

Ask the right source for the right information: a professional dog trainer, and save yourself time, money, and heartache.

Remember not to ever take veterinary medical advice from someone who is not qualified in that field. A professional dog trainer is familiar with, and will always consider veterinary medical problems as a probable cause for behavioral problems, but he will not diagnose medical conditions or dispense medical advice, as it is both illegal and unethical.

Find a professional dog trainer who will teach you, the client, how to be successful. It takes a very short time to change canine behavior, in comparison, it takes much longer to change human behavior patterns, generally, between thirty and ninety days.

Remember unless the trainer can teach you, the client, how to master the new management and training techniques, both the dog and you may eventually revert back to old habits.

The relationship a client has with his/her professional dog trainer is a both a very intimate personal relationship, and a long-term business interaction that can continue for an extended period of time, so shop around for a trainer that fits both you and your dog's personality.

Finally, rely on your instincts to select the correct trainer for you and your pet. How does your pet react when he/she meets the trainer? Is the trainer a likeable person that you can envision having a pleasant working relationship with? Does the trainer seem more like a salesperson that is trying to pressure you into signing long-term contracts then a person with a genuine affection for dogs? Does the trainer have a solid track record that can be confirmed by references from satisfied clients?

At Perfect Manners Dog Training we can help.



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