Tell Me Thursday

1. How do you search for and then choose a trainer?
Word of mouth is the big one. People who know my dogs have recommended certain people (or not recommended, in some cases!), or if someone I know with a similar training standpoint to me says they liked working with a certain trainer, I’d try them. I would ideally like to watch a trainer do their stuff on a training day or session before I took my own dogs to them, but it’s not always possible (audit slots don’t really come up).

Having said that, I can usually watch a potential trainer compete with their dogs. That can tell me a lot about a person; how they handle, and particularly how they treat their dogs before/during/after the run (or, even better, how they treat their students). On a slightly related note, I’m not concerned about a trainer being a World Champ handler. I prefer to look for consistency; one Ag.Ch and seven G3 dogs suggests someone got lucky and can’t reapply the training to different dogs. Someone who has four dogs spread over G5-7 is more appealing, it says to me that they are consistent but adaptable to the different individual dogs. Having worked with different breeds and heights is also a plus.

I prefer trainers who explain why. I find it difficult to change the way I’m doing something or to apply a new technique if the trainer can’t justify why I should. Having me change something because that is how the trainer handles their dog isn’t good enough, I need to know why it will work for me and my dog.

Finally, if I feel intimidated or uncomfortable, I won’t go back to that trainer. I have a low threshold for being shouted at. If I’m on a training day or private lesson and I’m made to feel me or my dog isn’t good enough, that’s not on. It seems like such a simple thing to say but I have actually been on training days where that has happened.

Having read all that I’m obviously a bit picky and probably a horribly awkward student!

2. The dog world is small and… uh… talkative. After choosing a trainer how do you handle those people in your life who don’t believe in that trainer/trainers methods and criticize them to you?
Nod and ignore. If it’s a close friend then I’d probably ask why they don’t like that trainer/training methods, in case they know something I don’t.

3. Do you believe that a person’s personal life should influence your choice of a trainer? (i.e do you believe a person’s choice to be a party animal outside of work would affect your choice?)
As long as their personal life isn’t negatively influencing their training methods and teaching ability, I can’t see it being a problem. I wouldn’t choose to train with someone who had stressed or unhappy dogs as a result of their lifestyle, so assuming that they meet all my criteria for a good trainer, I don’t really care.

4. When you have a break through moment with your dog, do you feel that moment makes your connection stronger with that dog and makes the next step in training easier?
Heh, yes and no. I love the lightbulb moment and we celebrate as a team, but it doesn’t always make the next step easier!

5. Do you stick with just one trainer, or do you go to multiple sources for help?
Multiple. I like having different inputs, different ways of seeing things, but only because I feel confident enough in my own training that I can discard what I don’t like and to apply new things to what we already have.