Taking you through my experience, the first trainer we spoke to advertised on his site that he worked closely with guide dogs, which obviously meant he worked with a lot of retriever type breeds the same as Cooper. As lock down was on we had to have the session by phone, which obviously was not the most ideal situation. As this was the first trainer we spoke to, some of his advice did help A LOT, but there were some things that he said that didn’t sit quite right with us… ‘You must NEVER say no to a puppy’ was a key one. He said that dog’s didn’t understand the word and it was too negative for them. Cooper definitely understood the word ‘no’, sometimes he chooses to ignore it, but he knows what it is! Then there was the thing about follow up help, after the session you got access to his youtube videos, but he wouldn’t answer any questions after your session was done, he’d just encourage you to sign up to more of his stuff. It all started to seem like more of a money grabber.

 

The next trainers we met were the ones who worked at the dog training school. So many people had recommended this place to us and they had been voted the UK’s best dog training facility so we figured we couldn’t go too far wrong! We were warned though… they don’t mince their words and they are very strict with you. Our neighbour told us she ended up crying in her car after one session!Anyway, thankfully so far there have been no tears, although there was some terse words exchanged between my mum and one of the instructors. For those who don’t know the background, my Mum spends a lot of time with Cooper, but having been bitten by a dog as a child, she is very nervous around them. To try and help with this, she did a class with Cooper once a week at the training centre and I did the rest. She, however, had a different instructor to the one’s that I had.A few weeks in, the instructor got another instructor to come and tell my Mum that they would be doing some recall work, but she wasn’t happy to let Cooper join in because she didn’t think he was ‘safe.’ The instructor who was essentially the messenger was bright red in saying it and obviously wasn’t too happy that she was the one having to tell us.Cooper, admittedly, can be a little bugger at training, he wants nothing more than tummy tickles, to eat the grass and to play with the other pups- none of which is on the curriculum. On the other hand though, his recall is EXCELLENT and the trainers often used him to meet the more nervous puppies as they were confident that he was going to interact nicely with them. Based on that, to put it frankly, being told that he wasn’t ‘safe’ got my goat a bit!

 

As I was there with my Mum, I mentioned how Cooper had done off lead recall there several times before with me and we’d never had an issue (he’d actually got a rare complement from the head trainer for being so good at it!) As soon as I said it, the ‘messenger’ instructor, who is actually now my normal instructor, perked up a bit and said ‘oh of course I’ll let *said other instructor* know.’ He was allowed to do the recall in the end, and out of the 5 dogs, he was the only one who didn’t run off and went straight to my Mum when called!We stopped going to the class run by that lady after that. It turned out that she was a newly qualified instructor, and as such, she had no experience of recognising and dealing with nervous owners. Instead of asking why my Mum was nervous around Cooper, (she was bitten by a German Shepherd as a child), she assumed that her nerves were because Cooper was a ‘dangerous’ dog.The other instructors at the centre though have all been great. When Cooper is playing up, the trainers explain how to deal with it, and if you’re dealing with it wrong, they’ll call you out on it. I’m a fan of tough love, I don’t mind it at all. They also take a more direct and strict approach, you CAN say no to your dog, and they do understand. As much as they use positive reinforcement, they stress that you do need to be firm with your dog and saying no to them sometimes is part of that. They are very old school and are ideal if you want a highly trained working or show dog. If you want casual training and aren’t too fussed about having a super obedient dog, then you might find their training methods too harsh (on you that is…not on the dog!)

 

That leads to private trainer number 2. The training centre mostly deals with the generic dog training skills, i.e. heel work, sit, stay, watch and recall. Cooper is often around my 88 year old Grandad and was jumping up at him a lot, we wanted to talk to a trainer at home so they could give us some advice on how to deal with it. This trainer was from a different company and was highly recommended on Facebook. This lady was the complete opposite of the ‘old school’ from the training centre, however it seemed like her idea of a good end result was that your dog ‘wasn’t naughty’ instead of the end result been that your dog is exceptionally good. However, unlike the first private trainer we had, she was more than happy to discuss any other problems over the phone and wasn’t trying to get us to pay extra constantly. I would say she would be ideal for the average family pet- which I know Cooper is, but with my Grandad, I really need him to be that little bit extra!Finally, private trainer number 3, he is actually the senior instructor at the training centre. He’d never taught Cooper before in a class environment so he was seeing Cooper for the first time at home. Unlike some of the other trainers, he had years of experience behind him and also deals with dangerous, aggressive dogs on a daily basis, so Cooper for him was like a pussy cat. It took all of 5 minutes for him to establish and assure us that Cooper is just a typical puppy and not ‘unsafe’ at all. But he has helped us SO much. Been a behaviourist as well as a trainer, he always explains the psychology behind the training, so if we come across a different problem, we can try and work out what to do instead of being reliant on trainers for every question. He has also been a god send for my Mum in helping her improve her confidence. For us he’s been the perfect fit and the improvement in Cooper, even in the first week, using his methods has been pretty remarkable!

 

This article isn’t designed to have been derogatory to any of the trainers, because I think they all had their own individual positives and they all have great reviews so they obviously work for some people. I guess the moral of the story is don’t be down heartened if you don’t gel with a trainer, not all trainers are the same, if one doesn’t work, try someone else! Also look into what the trainers are used to working with, if you want your dog just to be ‘okay’ and ‘mildly mannered’ around the house, going to a trainer who trains police dogs or show dogs probably isn’t going to be the best fit, in the same way that if you have a working dog that you want to win with in agility at Crufts, seeing a trainer that deals with mostly household dogs isn’t going to help you!