05 Říj Part 5 – Long term cooperation – Training

In the previous articles of this series, we have discussed how to find the right trainer for you and how to make sure they’re a good fit during your first session. 

These final two articles will be about the long term cooperation with a trainer and what it should look like, what benefits it should bring you and what to be wary of. 

Unfortunately, even a stellar first session isn’t a guarantee of a good trainer or that they will be the right fit for you and your dog in the long run. 

In this article, we will talk about how the training should progress in the long term, what to look out for and how to tell if it’s going in the right direction. The next article will cover everything else concerning the cooperation with a trainer, like your relationship, communication, and so on. 

I also recommend these final two articles for the more experienced handlers who have perhaps been working with a trainer for an extended period of time. It never hurts to make sure you are getting what you should from your trainer-handler relationship.

• Seeing progress. Let me start with this crucial point, which seems like a no-brainer and perhaps need not even be mentioned. But as I said in the previous installment of this series, sometimes I’m surprised by things I would have never thought possible.

When working long-term with a trainer, you should see progress. You and your dog should be getting better. Slowly, maybe, if you are a beginner or your dog has some issues. But there should definitely be progress. 

I have had clients come to me with 3+ years old dogs telling me how they spent tons of money and time with a trainer. I asked them to show me how they train, and what their dog can do. And then I had to very diplomatically and carefully inform them that their dog regrettably doesn’t even know what heeling is. I’ve had handlers cry after realizing I was right. All I could do was stand there, feel bad for them, and be angry with their previous trainer.

If this hadn’t happened multiple times, I wouldn’t believe it. Perhaps a charismatic trainer taking advantage of a beginner can somehow persuade them that it’s normal? I really don’t know. 

Please do check from time to time that you are learning something, that you are progressing. If you aren’t, ask your trainer why not. And he better have a good reason for that.

• Communicates in between sessions and is there for you. This is kind of a tricky one for trainers, and it takes some time to find the right balance. You shouldn’t feel like your trainer is there for you only when you are paying for his time at the training sessions. You will surely have questions that you will want to text him about. 

Now, here is the tricky part. Us trainers, we’ve got lives too. We need to unwind sometimes, and it’s of course impossible to be online for our clients 24/7. So you can’t really expect to always get an answer right away. But your trainer should communicate with you consistently. 

I have a simple rule: I answer any organizational questions as fast as I can (when does the training start, where is the training field, how much does it cost, etc.), but I try to make sure that my website is as clear as possible to minimize these kinds of questions. 

Questions about the training I answer when they are pretty simple and easily explainable with a few sentences. Like, “I didn’t really remember, should I reward while he is holding the down position or afterward?” That’s easily answered, no problem there.

Things like, “My dog is behaving weird while holding the dumbbell, what should I do?” would probably require intensive back and forth texting, and in that case I usually either recommend holding off on that particular exercise until the next session (if it’s within a few days) or I offer some online coaching option to solve this problem without guessing and potentially giving bad advice. 

Every trainer has to work this out for himself, but you should have the feeling he cares and tries to stay in touch with you.

• Encourages you to learn and educate yourself. This one is hard for our trainer ego, believe me. There are trainers who specifically prohibit their clients from training with someone else, attending seminars by someone else, and generally just want them to stick to their system and their sessions only. 

There is some value to this. It’s problematic when a client comes for a session once a few months and has attended multiple sessions with other trainers in the meantime and worked through several different methods. The result is usually more messy than it’s worth. 

But be wary if your trainer doesn’t want to allow you to look around for more information and educate yourself. He should be doing that himself, so why not let his clients do the same? A good trainer should teach you, make you think, and do his best to help you become the best handler you can. This might involve overcoming his ego from time to time and letting you learn from someone else. 

A trainer confident in his abilities knows you won’t stop training with him just because you attended a seminar by someone else. And if you do? Well, then the two of you probably weren’t such a good match after all, and it’s better for both of you to go your separate ways. No harm done.

• Is knowledgeable about trials and competitions and prepares you for them. The ultimate goal of dog sport obedience is to attend trails. Of course, we do it because we love it, because it strengthens the bond with our dogs, and because it’s just so much fun. 

But who doesn’t want a ribbon, a cup, a medal, a diploma to proudly show anyone who comes to visit( may he care or not) accompanied by the story about the trial down to the tiniest details? Trust me, non-dog people just love being told about how you breathed in at just the wrong moment and lost half a point on your right turn while heeling. Don’t deprive them of it. 

But I digress. It’s not enough for your trainer to show you how the exercises are done, how to train your dog and work with him. He has to be able to prepare you for the trails and competitions. It’s not enough to have a great heeling at the training. He has to make sure your dog shows the same level of energy and determination at the trial. 

He has to have experience and know the ins and outs to prepare you for what could potentially happen at the trial. When going to a trial, you shouldn’t be afraid of everything. You should be ready and trained for far worse than what actually happens. 

And please, when you get those 100 points and your new title and you put that photo of your dog and yourself with the cup/diploma/medal/ribbon on all the social media accounts you have, mention your trainer. Give him some credit. We do screenshot those. We do look at them when we are down. We do keep going because of moments like this. 

Thank you, from all of us.

• Isn’t hiding something from you. This one is a personal pet peeve of mine; it annoys me every time I come across it. There are regrettably trainers – and often very good trainers out there – who withhold information from their clients. 

What does that mean? Well, let’s first say what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean purposefully providing only those pieces of information the client needs at his stage of training to avoid overwhelming them with every minute detail when they still struggle with the basics. That’s fine, that’s just good training, and it is in the interest of the client.

What this does mean, however, is that some trainers purposefully do not share everything they know with their clients, almost like holding them back. It’s usually about the little things, you know: the insider tricks, the important details about competing, handling difficult situations at the trials, things about mindset that are difficult to explain so they just omit them to make their jobs easier. 

I don’t know why they do that. Maybe out of fear of their clients being better than them? Beating them at a competition? I am very much against this. It would actually be a dream come true if one of my clients would beat me at a competition. It would mean that all my hard work had paid off and I had managed to get them to a level surpassing mine. Please, any of you working with me, do your best, beat me, you will make me so proud! 

Be wary of trainers who don’t play straight with you, although it’s hard to find out, of course. But if there are certain questions your trainer doesn’t want to answer, certain topics he avoids, that could be an indication of this. 

Be mindful of these little details.

There you have it. I hope your training is going well and you don’t have any problems in the above-mentioned areas. If that’s so, you should be advancing and training effectively. But effectiveness isn’t everything, so next time we will cover those “little” things that make the training fun and enjoyable.