The One Question You Should Ask Before Hiring A Dog Trainer

I want to help you save a lot of money and headaches.

How can I do that? Chances are you are reading this because you have a dog.

And you want to do some training with your dog.

Here is how I can help you save a boatload of money and time.

When it comes to hiring a dog trainer in just about any state you’ll have many choices.

It can be difficult and you may not know who to choose. Kind of like finding good pizza when you move to a new town. You look on the internet or maybe you dust off a real live, old fashioned phone book and go to the pizza section.

You see ad after ad of pizza that is available. Which one do you choose?

It’s much easier when someone says: “Go with Hot N Crusty Pizza. You’ll be happy with them.”

Hot N Crusty it is.

So how do you find a good dog trainer? Well my canine loving friend you came to the right place because today I am going to share with the one question you need to ask.

But first….let me set up why this question will help you find the right dog trainer.

I’ve been at this a long time. A long, long time. Approaching 30 years which means I’ve seen and helped a lot of dogs.

I can spend 5 minutes with most dog owners and they think that I have been secretly spying on them because I know what most of their questions are before they ask.

And here is what I have learned after many years in this business.

I have learned that the overwhelming majority of dog owners hire me to STOP behaviors.

Sure everyone wants their dog to sit, come, stay and lay down on command. Those behaviors are nice. And you teach them by using positive reinforcement. You teach your dog how to do commands by reinforcing and rewarding the behaviors.

But remember….most people hire me for another reason. Even if they don’t know it at the time.

You see, I am hired to STOP behaviors. Most dog owners don’t complain that their dog won’t sit and stay. What they complain about is the dog stealing the roast off the kitchen counter.

They want their dog to STOP making the backyard look like a minefield. They want their dog to STOP barking every time a leaf blows by the front door. They want their dog to STOP destroying the sofa and coming home to an explosion of couch stuffing all over the house.

A few months back I sat down and talked with a dog owner. This is what she said: “If you can’t fix this jumping problem the dog has to go. My husband is on the drug coumadin which is a blood thinner and makes his skin is very fragile. The last time he jumped we had a very difficult time stopping the bleeding.”

My job was to come in and STOP the dog from jumping.

I don’t have time to mess around with counterconditioning, redirection, engage/disengage game, or my favorite….LIMA.

My job is to help the dog owner STOP the behavior which CAN’T be done using treats.

Think about how your dog behaves and the reason you are contacting a dog trainer. Are you experiencing behaviors that are making you crazy? Do every ask yourself: “I wish this dog would just stop _______.”

So the question you need to ask a potential dog trainer is:

How do you STOP a behavior?

If the trainer knows what he or she is doing they will answer with: “We pair the word NO with a negative consequence to stop the behavior.”

That one simple question could save you loads of time and money because you could end up with a trainer that will have you doing months and months of training with little or no results and in some cases make the behavior WORSE!

You can shun this advice if you’d like. You can disagree with me. You can go along with most of what you read and watch online. There are thousands and thousands of dog trainers that think they are helping because they only use “Positive reinforcement.”

But you’ll never stop jumping, stealing, barking, aggression or any other behavior problem with a cookie.

And I’m all for using treats to teach behaviors. But to stop them you have to use a negative consequence.

I know that this flies in the face of much of what you’ve read or heard. It is also an unpleasant discussion.

I get it.

But often when a behavior is not stopped the dog ends up paying. Sometimes the dog is re-homed and sometimes this is not the case.

Sometimes the dog makes a one way trip to the vet’s office and never walks out.

I would rather use a negative consequence and effectively STOP the behavior so the dog can continue living in his home.

The choice is yours and I hope this article helps you find a dog trainer that can help you with your dog.

Peace,

Eric