Learning new things with Fig, especially in the sport world, has reminded me how difficult training can be to start. It’s hard to know what the right service is - online training, group sessions, in person privates - or what goals are reasonable to set. And the trouble is, those decisions are in the hands of the handler who is the one with all the questions and none of the answers. Only I know what training will help me learn alongside Fig, keep me working hard, give me feedback at the intervals I need it, and offer sustainable support and progress towards goals that only I can define.
As a trainer, I know there isn’t an easy solution when a client is asking what service is right for them. There are so many different approaches to services out there, and so many trainers who will tell you one type of service doesn’t work or another type is the best possible option. And even within a service, the structure of the service typically is adjusted to meet that trainer’s strengths, their training niche, and their communication and teaching style. That’s not a bad thing - that’s a wonderful thing! But options, especially as you’re just starting out, can be intimidating.
When you’re choosing a service, consider:
What is your budget and is there flexibility in your budget? As much as I wish this was always a non-issue, this is probably the first question I would encourage anyone seeking services to be aware of going into their decision. Every individual has different financial circumstances, as well as willingness to invest in training for the behavior problem they are seeking out. That is not a moral measure, or a commentary on the care someone has for their dog at all. For some clients, Fig’s habit of springing on new people (Tigger-like) would be a number one priority, cost is no issue, to adjust. For me, it’s a minor annoyance that I spend occasional time training for. Your dog’s training priorities can only be defined by your lifestyle needs (see this post for more on that!).
Having an idea of what you’d like to spend and the ceiling to which you’re willing to spend will define what services you seek out, as well adjust the range of expectations for your answers to some of the questions below. Budget will impact how hands-on training can be, and likely how many sessions/touchpoints with your instructor you can have. Less direct contact doesn’t need to make training any less impactful, but it does mean that you want to go in carefully selecting the service that will bring the most value to you, and set you up best for transitioning training into your own hands as efficiently as possible.
I won’t go too much more into budget in terms of choosing a service - look over trainers’ pricing first to determine which of their services meet your budget needs and use the remainder of the questions to direct you to the best service for you! Keep in mind for all services, that the cost of the service takes into account more than just their time working with your dog, but their education, their knowledge, the resources they are able to provide. While many trainers work hard to account for lower budget options and solutions for financial constraints, keep in mind too that often cost is commensurate with experience!
How overwhelmed are you by the challenges that are causing you to seek out training? As much as I hate the idea out there that “your dog is feeding off your emotions” (because how many people just stopped being so anxious when they were told it was making their dog anxious?), you absolutely can create a negative feedback loop with your dog walking into training feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, or pessimistic. Behavior modification in particular, but also puppies and adolescent training, can all be incredibly overwhelming, and as the saying goes, you can’t pour from an empty cup. Especially for people who have a lot of other responsibilities on their plates, or folks who have had a recent bad experience (with reactivity, a dog attack, etc) with training, being more hands-off at the start of a training experience can help everyone recover. Are you mentally and emotionally in a place where you can set yourself up for success working with your dog, or would it be helpful for someone to step in and help your dog learn some skills while you get a chance to catch your breath and reset? The more stress the behavior challenges are causing the human, the more I’m inclined to suggest training solutions that prioritize training with the dog first, and a lot of support for the human client when handing off.
How specific are your challenges to your dog/your lifestyle? How complex are your goals? Do you have typical puppy problems and want to work on sit/down/come? Or are you working through a complex inter-dog household situation on how to integrate two big personalities into a new home? The more specific your goals are, the less likely group training is going to be a good solution, and the more direct support I’m likely to recommend.
Take reactivity for example. If your goal is to have your dog-reactive pup who barks and lunges but easily reconnects with you be able to walk down a street with a hot dog at their nose, providing skills and maybe a little troubleshooting will hopefully get that within your reach. If, however, you want that same dog to be able to come with you everywhere, travel in hotels, hang out at the brewery, and eventually integrate a younger dog into your household, you are likely looking at more ongoing support or more tailored coaching!
How much time can you put in to maintenance of your goals? If the answer is “not much” you may want a service that includes some touchpoints with you, but is more ongoing with the intended maintenance of behaviors with trainer support and the ability to chat with them about touch-ups when you need it.
How do you learn best? How important is it for you to understand the process of learning behaviors? This is a big one, and more often than not differs between trainers as well as between services. I personally put a lot in writing - usually with videos to help out - whether that’s in my self-led material or in ongoing programs like Day School. However, if you know yourself to be the kind of person who has a lot of clarifying questions in the moment, group classes may not give you the flexibility you need to answer those questions. On the flip side, if you like the chance to get information and revisit and digest it before following up with troubleshooting, those self-led courses might be ideal for you!
For some folks, especially if they have a wide array of training goals, they want to understand why the behavior they are learning works well and how they might adapt it to several situations. For others, it’s a matter of needing to know what to ask for and when in order to elicit the behavior they want to see from their pup. You don’t need to become a dog trainer in order to have a good relationship with your dog - if knowing how and what to ask for is what is important to you, you might be a great candidate for some of the more hands-off training options folks offer!
I see a lot of discouraging posts surrounding training services and approaches that don’t immediately involve the owner. The concern with services like day training (which I’ve provided in some way or another since 2019) or board and train is that the behaviors don’t translate to the home, and don’t benefit the handler because the dog and handler team do not learn them together. Don’t get me wrong - I love when I can work with dogs and their humans and see their relationship and communication snap into place during a private session or a group class. It’s beautiful to watch that connection develop over time spent working on learning behaviors together. But that is a reality that isn’t always feasible for every family, or for every dog.
In some cases, particularly reactivity and behavior challenges, clients are incredibly overwhelmed by their dog’s needs. By the time they seek out a trainer, the emotional toll of living with this complicated dog has made training a painful and stressful experience. Neither the dog nor their person enjoy working together in that way, and confidence in improvement has taken a huge hit. In that moment, it’s not always helpful to ask the owner to put in all of this groundwork that they are going to dread or feel defeated by. That cooperation you want to see as a trainer between dog and handler isn’t going to slot into place where they are right now. This is where day training programs, or board and train can do immeasurable good. Both services allow the dog and their person to take a break from trying to tackle this problem together, and the dog has an opportunity to learn from someone prepared for those challenges. They can learn the skills they need at their pace, while they can just focus on enjoying life and being together with their owner.
In addition, especially in long form services like day school, the dog gets to practice those behaviors and other, more lighthearted ones, with the focus being on continually meeting the dogs social and mental needs. This provides them with immediate troubleshooting, adjustments to new challenges, as well as decompression and enrichment that make their day to day relationships set up better for success.
Now, a key piece of this is that at some point, the owner should also be brought in. Whether through follow up private sessions, group classes, or written or recorded online resources (or probably a combination of all of the above), the goal should always be to make those skills work for the owner. But when the owner is brought in, they can be confident that their dog can achieve those goals (because they’ve seen it recorded with the trainer), they will have had the chance to recover emotionally themselves (because they had time to do so), and they aren’t stumbling through with a dog just as confused as they are (because the dog has baseline skills they can lean on).
This should be true for big and little things. In my Day School Heroes’ Guild we work on continual progression of the dog’s skills in a variety of environments, as well as providing enrichment and fun challenges for them to keep working their brain in different ways. Their owners receive daily updates with videos of what they worked on, and occasionally resources if we introduce a new concept so they can follow along as much as need be at home. I’m available to owners in our community Facebook page and through Zoom sessions or drop in group classes. They have immediate training support as soon as their next session for any behavior challenges that crop up. Most recently, a client shared that they’d fallen behind on watching the videos, but their dog was still offering behaviors they’d been learning in school - without any input whatsoever on the owner’s part!
In a board and train service, the transition should be the same. No dog is going to leave any board and train program the “perfect dog ad infinitum”. But what they do have is a lot of practice and a lot of skills that can be handed off to the owner through private sessions. This is a big piece of why I provide customized videos, instruction and webpages for my board and train clients - so they have a reference that is personalized to them at the end of the stay. I also offer a virtual “hand off” session to go over the details of that website, and at least one in person follow up so they can practice the skills with coaching. The other option I include in my board and train services is a relevant online course that clients can revisit for more instruction on growing behaviors, and even next steps. But online courses are a whole other thing…
I also see a lot of hesitance about training solutions that are self-led, or online. This is a service that a lot of trainers are excited about, but typically I see concern from pet owners about how helpful it can be. The best advantage of these courses to me is their immediate availability. There’s no other training solution that gives you resources the moment you confirm the service the way online classes are able to. While they may not be my first choice for the overwhelmed client, I do find they can be an ideal standalone service for clients who have inconsistent time available to train, but really want to work through the process of learning with their dog. In addition, it can be an amazing tool as a supplement for clients who are looking for more information up front and lots of behaviors, but have limited time to commit to structured private training - the self-led class can introduce behaviors, and then touchpoints with a trainer (in private sessions, virtual Q&As, or group classes) can be dedicated to tweaking, troubleshooting, and coaching through utilizing those skills. Online classes are a great way to jump start learning and get the most value out of fewer direct touchpoints with your trainer.
This is what my online offerings are structured to provide. The online class includes lifetime access that you can jump into the second you sign up - and within the class you are invited to share videos directly with me for feedback, but also attend complementary Q&As over Zoom on a monthly basis. With those resources, the class can standalone as a reactivity resource without ever scheduling an additional service. Drama Class especially is also intended as a supplement to in person reactivity classes that focus solely on implementing and coaching those behaviors, or as a reference resource so private sessions can be all about making those behaviors work for you, your family, and your environmental needs. Drama Class was the first of my online self-led classes because I find it reactivity concerns to be consistently be my most urgent and complex training requests - having a recommendation to help clients as soon as they reach out (rather than waiting for my next availability) was important to me as a pet owner who lives with reactivity myself.
Most initial client inquiries equate training with the traditional group class or private training session. With general manners training, and early puppy work, group classes can be the perfect place to start! They are typically a lower price investment, and allows your dog to work in distracting but controlled environments as they learn new skills and the value of focusing on you through those distractions. Especially for puppies, having the opportunity to get practice in without the whole focus of the class being on them (like it often is with private sessions) can give dogs just enough down time and breaks that they actually learn much better in a cooperative group environment. Group classes become tough when the dog is unable to focus through those distractions or their training goals are too situationally specific or complex to be reasonably addressed in a group environment. This is where private sessions can come in - I love doing private sessions virtually, starting out with a really focused conversation with owners when they don’t have to also worry about managing their dog around a new person, and introducing some easy relationship-building behaviors to the dog in a distraction-free comfortable home environment. The ability to help and observe without being physically there (and, by my very presence, changing the environment) is invaluable as an introductory session.
For some trainers and training situations, it’s helpful to then move to in-home sessions. This isn’t my default, primarily because I find home environments are often more emotionally charged and have more history with the undesirable behaviors than a neutral location like a park. Introducing behaviors in private sessions means we can adapt and adjust the plan to meet that individual dog’s needs, and work at a pace and level of distraction where they are able to focus throughout the lesson. The goal I have as a trainer is to be able to move at the dog’s pace and provide coaching and troubleshooting tailored to the individual through the session, but also to provide resources (like my personalized webpages, or some of those supplemental day training or online classes) that the client can reference later to carry over into their regular routines.
The key across the board, I think, is support. My favorite service is usually a package that combines a few of these services because each of them can help in different ways and meet different needs of the client and their pet. When you are looking for the right fit for your pet, you’ll see a lot of advice on finding a training philosophy and methodology that matches your own. While that is important (and you can learn more about my methodology here), I think equally important for finding the right fit is identifying the service that best addresses the needs expressed by these questions above, finding a trainer that offers support in the way you learn best, and securing support that offers sustainable solutions for your lifestyle.
