A family recently reached out to me with very important questions they needed answered. As soon as I hit the "send" button on their reply email, I realized others might have the same questions. So I wanted to share this with you. If you have questions or comments, please leave them in the comment section below.
Here are some answers to your questions....
I assume we need to give her a day or 2 to acclimate before bringing in a trainer but please correct me if I'm wrong. You want to start right away. Training isn't just teaching commands, but more importantly establishing boundaries, house hold rules with the kids and setting expectations. Most unwanted behaviors are created by the owners in the first 3-6 months of age when they don't establish rules, boundaries and limitations. Many things can be implemented in the beginning to prevent those bad or unwanted behaviors. Most of our clients come from pet owners that waited too long to call us or hired a less experienced dog training company. They end up spending twice as much money as they would have if they had started right away. With that said, some families like to do this on their own. It can be a fun journey if navigating things like this on your own fits your lifestyle.
Few questions and then we can make some decisions how to move forward:
- What is the ideal time to bring in a trainer? Before you have problems, not after. Think of it like a tutor, life coach or a personal trainer for the dog owner(s).
- Should we do it right away or can we wait? My advice is right away. If you decide to wait, that's your call. Just know it's harder the longer you wait.
- How much time with a trainer do we need initially? A few hours? Our session are 1 hour and typically we recommend one session per week for the first three weeks. It's a case by case basis after that. Some families like having the accountability and other families are happy navigating it on their own as long as they can. It's all about giving you the tools to succeed. The dogs are the easy part :)