If you follow any kind of dog stuff on social media, you’ve seen it- dog trainers telling you how to train your dog without having met you.
So you tried it.
That one guy told you to teach your dog a “place” and have them do it for an hour a day. But he didn’t actually tell you how to teach it or get the duration that long so you gave up.
A lady said to use more cookies when your dog is fearful. But your dog doesn’t seem to want them and actually seems to be getting more fearful so you gave up.
One guy said not to use cookies at all, your dog should work to please you. One guy said to get an e-collar. One person said e-collars were evil and your dog will never trust you again.
You tried some things, some of them seemed to do ok and others seemed to make the problems worse.
This is where I generally get called.
The thing I hear the most is that people tried something and either it didn’t work right away like the tiny person on the screen promised, or it worked a little and they had no idea how to keep going.
That specific technique may be the completely wrong choice for you or your dog. Not all dogs respond the same way to things and breed, temperament, and your ability as a handler all need to be considered when doing training.
You can’t ask questions to a tiny person on a screen whose giving you free information and they can’t see you or your dog to give you feedback.
The best training in my opinion is face to face. I do offer online lessons for people who can’t find anyone in their area, because even some help is better than a random internet video.
Most of these trainers also offer something, a course, online lessons, etc. and some of them are brilliant. I’ve taken my fair share of courses from other trainers as continued education.
But here’s my problem with them:
With the exception of a couple courses I’ve taken, they were all very pretty PowerPoint presentations with someone talking in the background.
Unfortunately for my neurodivergent brain, this means I’m only getting a fraction of the information. My mind starts to wander, I want to jump ahead, or I just want to actually do the thing before they’ve explained the whole thing. I’ve never finished one of these courses without doing one of the aforementioned things.
I have taken a couple courses where they have weekly video calls where people have to submit their work and can ask questions and these work much better for me.
There are incredible dog trainers online. If you’re going to use one, do your research.
“Does or has this person actually trained with clients?” “How long ago was that?”
There are a lot of big name ‘trainers’ who never actually worked with people one on one. I won’t get into who they are but you can often tell because their answer to most issues is to just, “try harder”.
“What does their comment section say?”
Obviously, take this with a grain of salt, but you can learn a lot about someone based on their comment section.
“Are they actually teaching what you’re looking for?”
Trainers who train high level obedience with their Malinois in every video may not be the right choice if you’re looking to just have a more relaxing walk with your slightly reactive dog. Honestly, any trainer who uses mostly obedience to solve problems is setting you up for a life of being a Drill Sargent.
“Do they seem to love drama?”
This is a big one for me, personally. I unfollow trainers who love indulging in drama, no matter how good they are. The dog training profession is about supporting dog owners, not tearing each other apart and getting views.
Still need help? Or want me to tell you my thoughts on whatever Online Guru you’ve chosen?