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Three week professional dog training courses: Good or bad

There are supposedly three basic categories for ways of training dogs. Do it yourself, training classes to learn how to train your own dog or to send your dog away for a period for training.

For the last category I received, a request would I give a dog a three-week training course in obedience and socialisation. This is something I do not normally like to do but aware of the owner's time restrictions I at least considered this possibility.

Here in Spain and trying to set up a profitable business, proprietors need to work long hours but they also wanted a dog as a company in their shop during the day and in their home for the rest of the time. They had purchased a young puppy and like many others it has now had developed a few problems. Because of the limitations on their free time, they were considering a professional training course.

When comparing the needed for time training and the cost of a course this does sound like an excellent method. All you do is just send your dog away and what you get back is a well trained dog without all the hassle of having to train it yourself. If only it were as easy as that.

My mother chose this method for our cocker spaniel over forty years ago. When he came back, he was brilliant. Mum had gone to the training centre for a day and learned all the commands and what Quiver could do but within three weeks he was just as bad as he was before he went away.

For all the improvements and knowledge that we now have regarding how to train dogs nothing has really changed about professionally trained dogs. This is because this is a problem of the owners not of the dogs.

Police dogs or drug dogs and even dogs for the blind must train with their handlers. It is possible to install the rudiments of very simple obedience cleanliness and the basic required skills but we cannot train a dog then simply hand it over fully trained unless the handler has the necessary handling skills. It is possible to train dogs for multi handler use like Winston and Rocky but it still needs the other handlers to know how to work the dog.

In my days of competing in working trials, my then wife Anne would take my dog to a competition along with hers to try to obtain the necessary qualifications. In this way, we did not need to use up all our holidays. John Rogerson's wife works his dogs when he is away and similarly he works hers. Other people do the same but what is the same is that the handlers are all experienced. My wife could obtain better sendaways with Lumpy than I could but she could not get the best from him in the search squares.

Most Trainers taking regular training classes will tell you they are teaching you to train your dog not to train your dog for you. If owners had the knowledge of how to train their dogs, they would not need a personal trainer. If they do not, have these skills on their dogs return even though they know the commands together with some knowledge of the methods used to teach the dog, without the actual experience, the dog simply reverts to as it was before. Little by little your dog will pull that little more, sniff that little longer, wait longer on the recalls and so on until you are back where you started.

Do not believe any instructor who says they can do this because it relies so much on the owner as to how quickly they could pick up the necessary handling skills and how subservient your dog is. Usually most dog's submission to humans is normal and this is why most people can train their own dogs relatively easily without ever having to go to training classes.

Many owners are also loath to having to sign up for long periods of training which here seems to range from a simple eight week course to annual subscriptions. Why would anyone who only has a poor heelwork problem need to train for over a year at classes? One handler training session should be all that an owner needs.

I can understand some owners who wish to take up training for fun and are interested in pushing their dog to the limit with the possible of competing against other people but that is not what most people are looking for.

What dog owners really need is a correct diagnosis of the dogs and handlers problems. What they then need is the appropriate method of training that will correct them. They then only need a regular check to see that they are improving satisfactorily.

It is also important to know when it is best time to train your dog so that they will learn the most in the shortest possible period. Classes that have fixed times that suit the instructor do not always coincide with the best time for training your dog.

Taking your dog when it is ready and fit to play is the worst time to try to train your dog. It is unfortunate that many owners only ever train their dogs at these classes. Classes are to teach the required handling skills. It is not to actually train the dog. When the class is over it is for handlers to go away and train their dog during the week. The following week's class is where the handler will simply learn a little more. The problem is that no one teaches you how and when to recognise or how to prepare your dog ready for training. Not knowing these optimum times actually make matters worse for you and your dog.

Take heelwork as a prime example. It is much better to translate this requirement to your dog for it to walk by your side when it is tired, bored and in an environment that is psychologically destabilising for your dog.

How many people teach dogs the difference between the time for freedom and the time for heelwork. When Winston is walking in certain places and off the lead, he is free to move around me but to stay with me within a certain distance or he will loose sight of me. The other time is when I need him to walk to heel either on or off the lead. By training, Winston knows there are two different times and two different ways of walking with me.

Unless your dog knows these two differing times, it does not know where one boundary starts and the other finishes. If your dog walks ahead of you off the lead along the beach or in the country, would this not account for why it tries to do the same when on the lead? Winston will go to meet a dog in the hope it will play off the lead but on the lead, he knows he must stay by my side without pulling.

The major problem is that dog training never stops. I will always have to maintenance train Winston through out his life. It is a bit like the children's game of rolling a wheel with a stick. You need a big push at the start but after that, you only just need gentle pressure to retain the momentum.

I do appreciate that owners knowing that they need to learn all these skills to keep their dog well behaved this type of training must sound very tempting to just be able to send your dog away. If owners had these skills, they would not need a professional trainer. Without them, their training can be a waste of time.

Never the less there are those professional instructors who do this sort of training and in the United Kingdom they currently charge £300 to £400 for a three week course with some training for the owners at the end of the course. I personally would advise anyone against this method, as it is more fun training your own dog.

I telephoned John (Rogerson) for his opinion as he use to do this sort of training years ago but not anymore. The reason he says is the owner is not learning how to actually train the dog so on its return the dog will soon return to its old ways. He agrees in teaching the dog to become use to multi-handlers similar to Winston and Rocky may help but the problem still remains the lack of the owners skill. This is why neither of us likes this type of training and we suggest you do not waste your money.

Instead, I visited the owners and met their puppy. It had a tendency to chew up the boxes of goods for resale and like all puppies, it has a tendency to urinate and occasionally defecate in the shop. It also was not supposed to have a recall but it did have an enthusiastic interest in biting people's ankles and feet.

I suggested hot chilli sauce in one of the stock boxes might persuade the dog to leave them alone but the owners moved the stock to a different position and this seems to have cured this problem. Compressed air would stop the ankle and feet nibbling but for the urinating and providing it did not have a bladder infection, they must remain observant and vigilant. Any sign of the puppy wishing to go to the toilet they should get it outside as fast as possible to areas it has used before. When it does complete what ever it has to the owners must then give it lots of praise.

For dogs fouling inside a house, you must use a proper dog cleaner obtainable from your vet. The normal household cleaners do not kill the smell for the dog so they will go to the same place again. You may not be able to smell it but your dog can

For the recall, it was perfect providing you got down on your knees and really showed that you wanted it to come and it bounded over. Owners must forget people may think you look foolish in the first period of training in showing so much over the top happiness at your dog. What other people think of your praising method is unimportant but that is exactly what your dogs initially needs.

We then took the dog to the Arenal for some heelwork training in order to reduce the pulling problem. The way to do this is simply by walking to nowhere up and down the Arenal, as it is a destabilising environment for the dog. It is new, strange, with so many varying distractions that create fears for the dog. This make the dog feel more comfortable being next to the owner than trying to wander off. In such an environment, the dog learns to remain close to the owner for its protection and not the other way round.

After this, it was then time to go to the bar for a drink. The owners did not believe they could do this. With their workload, they rarely found the time to go out for a drink especially to take their puppy with them but he was fine. Now if they keep training this way the dog's heelwork will improve very quickly.

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