Most dog owners will benefit greatly by using a professional dog trainer. However, you should be aware of exactly what a good dog trainer will do.
The concept of dog trainers being able to train behaviors out of a dog, and then return the dog to a home environment that doesn’t maintain the same standards and the dog magically remains “good” is a myth. A good dog trainer will spend more time and effort in training the owner(s) then the dog.
It’s best to think of training, whether board and train or individual sessions, as a beginning point. The real goal is to get your dog listening, relaxed, focused, and trained. Once that’s achieved, it’s out of the trainer’s hands. (Of course, support and guidance should always be available.)
So many folks get caught up in the mistaken idea that more training, or a different trainer or training style, will fix the problem. What these owners miss, is that the dog is well mannered with the trainer and the trainer’s environment. At this point, it’s the owner and their environment that needs to change.
No matter how much training a dog receives, he or she will eventually revert and respond to whatever the environment allows and encourages. In other words, the most common mistake that dog owners make is to concentrate their attention on the wrong end of the leash. A dog will do what we tell him to do. If your dog is misbehaving, then it may be because you don’t realize what exactly you are communicating. A good dog trainer is a translator and can teach you to communicate in a language that your dog will understand.
What we do at Perfect Manners is to train your dog but mostly YOU. If you’re willing to listen and follow our guidance for relating correctly to your dog, then you will have a well adjusted, trained dog.
Leadership, structure, rules, and accountability aren’t transferable. Dogs are too smart for that.
Dogs change when their environment changes.