A trainer usually comes to your home or you meet at a designated place to train. Some also have a dog school, which you can visit locally. The profession is a free trade, which brings various problems with itself, because everyone may call itself an animal trainer. It is therefore all the more important to find out exactly who you are entrusting your animal to. Because with aversive (violent) training methods not only the trust of your animal to you is destroyed, it also does not learn what and why it should show a behavior or not. It is simply unfair towards the animal and above all against the animal protection law, in other words illegally!
Do you also ask yourself the question what the goal of the training is? For example, is there a special problem, would you like to practice everyday situations, keep your animal busy, train tricks, learn social behaviour, advice, sport, etc.? A dog school is perfectto learn the basic things. If you have want special training you should contact a trainer.
A good dog trainer should:
- Have completed a recognised training course
- Regular training courses
- Animal welfare qualified and work with positive reinforcement (non-violent)
- does not use methods that lead to pain or anxiety
- Attention to words: dominance, alpha role, pack leader, leader, subdue, ranking, resocialize, correct, …
- Attention with methods: snout grip, neck shaking, alpha throw, linen back, spray bottles, jar cans, animal throwing, shouting at, pain stimuli, food or water withdrawal
- Be flexible (if you can’t get any further with one training method, you should choose another one)
- Adapt training plan individually to animal and person
- Dealing with the animal (There is not one method to teach every animal everything)
- Do not force anything (Even animals have worse days on which they can not concentrate well, care should be taken that the animal is still receptive)
- Mastering the body language and communication of the animal
- Being a good teacher (being able to teach you how and what to do in training)
- Have a good instinct for people and animals
- Being sensitive and patient
- know the race
- be able to assess the state of health of the animal
- Suit you and your animal (listen to your gut feeling, the chemistry between the trainer, your animal and you must be right)
- Take time for and answer your questions
- Always be able to explain what is being done and why.
- Know where his/her boundaries are and refer to colleagues
- Keeping the overview in every situation
A good dog school should:
- Meet the same criteria as animal trainers
- Make a trial appointment or a trial training or come and watch without a dog
- Exercise with harness
- Dealing with dog size (small and large breeds should not be mixed)
- Pay attention to the size of the group (not more than 5-6 animals per trainer).
- Allow controlled gaming (do not allow bullying)
- Do not lock animals in the break
- Offer individual and group tuition
- Teaching theory and practice
- Meeting individual needs
- Fun should be in the foreground with all seriousness
- Keep the environment safe and clean (fenced in areas, escape-proof, equipment serviced, …)
You should be aware of the fact that a trainer is not a magician and that you have to bring a lot of time and patience with you. He/she gives you tips and leads the training, but the responsibility remains with you. The progress of the training always depends on your animal, the trainer, yourself, but also on the environment and many other factors. It is always to be considered as a whole and nobody is to blame for a failure.
So there are some points to keep in mind that the training gives you and your animal pleasure and helps you on. Any form of violence is to be strictly rejected, unfortunately some trainers still work with such outdated methods. Listen to your gut feeling and do nothing you don’t want to do. TOBALIE wishes you and your darling a lot of fun and success with your training!
Please let us know, if you, via the Map, recommend a trainer who uses aversive training methods! Because for us, animal welfare qualified and non-violent animal training is our top priority.