Dog training is an unregulated industry. That means anyone can put out a flier or website and call herself a dog trainer. So when you’re trying to find the best dog trainer for your pup, how do you choose?
Check out Credentials
Look for a trainer who has some formal education in learning and animal behavior. Few colleges offer related courses beyond introductory psychology, but the trainer should have participated in workshops, conferences, seminars and academies. Watch out for the trainer who attended one academy and whose only “certification” is from the same institution. There is no regulation to ensure that the academy is a quality one.
Ask About Experience
Your dog trainer should also be experienced with training lots of dogs: her own, her clients’ dogs, the canines awaiting adoption at a shelter. All dogs are different, and training only a small number -- even to a high degree of reliability or competition level -- is not enough. If the trainer is teaching a group class or private lessons, he or she should also be proficient at teaching training. That is, working with humans as well.
Observe a Class
I recommend that prospective clients and students observe a trainer’s class, not only to judge the methods used, but also to check out the trainer’s personality. Maybe she has a high, squeaky voice with the dogs that you can’t stand, or he speaks so softly you can hardly hear him. It’s important that you also enjoy working with this person.
Avoid Promises of Secret or New Methods
Watch out for trainers who badmouth formal education in favor of new, self-developed methods. You wouldn’t want to send your child to a teacher whose only qualification was that she’s “lived with and loved kids all her life.” Likewise, you would avoid a yoga instructor who has developed a revolutionary new theory of how to stretch based on her observations of her own children and hairdressing clients. And you probably wouldn’t even consider a car mechanic who had not bothered to learn about engines, but did repairs based on his feelings of how cars “should” work.
You might really enjoy working with these people if they were charismatic enough. And you might even get the results you want. But you’d be putting your child, body or car at risk of failure -- or worse.
These crazy examples are similar to how a lot of dog trainers market themselves. They can sometimes seem very attractive on a gut level. After all, you want someone who loves dogs and knows what living with them is like. You want someone who doesn’t just have theoretical knowledge. Maybe there are some secrets or revolutionary new methods you’d like to get in on. However, descriptions like these might be covers for having limited experience or education.
In the end, find a trainer with whom you’d like to work and who has the qualifications your dog deserves.
Photo: @iStockphoto.com/Lios
