Well, I hate to disappoint you, but there are no quick fixes.
There are certainly quick ways to get what you want with your dog - if you know how to do them!
But the idea that you can hand off your dog to someone else to “fix” is pie in the sky.
Not only is it unrealistic, but it’s wrong too.
It takes two to tango
The thing is that you and your dog are an entity. You are a combined relationship. What you do affects her, and what she does affects you.
So trying to get someone else to solve your problems, without including this vital synthesis, is doomed to failure!
There are lots of ethical reasons why you don’t want to “send the dog away for training”. How will you know what’s going on?
This was evidenced by a recent correspondent who found out too late that the promised transformation was achieved by using nasty methods. What’s more, the transformation only worked when the people who originally tortured the dog were holding the lead. As soon as the kind and gentle owner had her dog back, the change evaporated. Why? The dog had been “taught” through fear, and was now no longer afraid!
After telling her “the problem was her, not the dog” the ‘trainers’ handed the damaged dog back. The owner felt guilty that it was all her fault, and the problem was still the same. Then she realised that aversive means must have been used, as her dog “did not want to return to the trainers on the second day and was difficult to get out of the car.” Fortunately she saw the light and said, “I’ve not been back since.”
She’ll be teaching her dog herself in future!
You’re a team!
Fact is, if you learn together, you can develop as you go on. If you understand the principles involved in getting your dog to do what you’d like, then you can teach anything!
There’s no magic wand.
There’s just understanding, love, and a desire to do the best for the animal in our care.
Here’s someone who’s just joined the Brilliant Family Dog Academy with her new puppy. She originally came to classes with me with her previous dog - 10 years ago - she knows this stuff works!
“Out of everything Teal learnt as a pup, it was what he learnt with you that stuck and really worked for him.” SS
And part of the reason it stuck (apart from the genius teaching, of course 😊) was that she and her puppy learned together. And having learnt from me, she was able to carry on reinforcing what she liked for ten happy years.
