5 Things Dog Trainers Do That Drive Me Crazy, Part 2 of 2

Number one, promising that everything can be fixed in a board and train program.

So let's talk about what a board and train program is.

Board and train program is just shorthand for any type school situation where you drop your dog off for two, three, four weeks and come and pick them up at the end of that period and the dog is what you want it to be.

They've trained it in your absence.

But let me start by making an important distinction about board and train programs.

I am not against board and train programs.

There are excellent board and training programs run by very capable trainers.

I know many of them.

For certain training goals, intensive daily work with a professional can be extremely helpful.

What bothers me, though, is the idea that virtually any behavior problem can be sent away and fixed in a predetermined amount of time.

Give me your dog for two weeks.

Give me your dog for four weeks, they say.

When he comes back to you, he'll be all fixed.

But dog behavior doesn't work that way at all.

Suppose you send your dog away because he goes crazy when somebody comes to your front door.

It's a common problem with dogs.

At the board and train facility, there is no front door to your house.

The dog is not in its territory, which is very important when treating this kind of aggression.

And perhaps most importantly, you aren't there.

Dogs learn in context.

They're not in their house.

Skills have to generalize from one person, place, and situation to another.

And there's an even larger issue when we're dealing with things like fear, anxiety, resource guarding, or aggression.

Those are not simply obedience deficits.

If a dog is aggressive towards strangers because he's frightened of unfamiliar people, teaching him to sit, heal, and stay may make him appear to be more controllable.