I believe what sets me apart from the rest of the country’s professional dog trainers is not only my skill in training dogs but an even greater skill, that of training the dog’s owner.
You see, dogs are very simplistic in mannerisms and behaviors concerning their way of life. Dog’s also have the ability to adapt easily to changes in their lives. We humans on the other hand, have an inherent desire to make thing as complex as possible and on top of that, we do not adapt easily to change. It certainly is not easy to teach simplicity to one that desires such complexity in their life. This combination of one simplistic individual and one complex individual is not conducive to a productive working team.
It takes a much greater degree of skill to teach an owner than to teach the dog because each requires a different approach to learning. My strength in training handlers is every bit as important as training the dog. There are many that can train a dog but considerably fewer that can train the dog and the owner.
My greatest reward as a professional dog trainer comes each time I watch a dog and his owner put all their hard work together and form the beginnings of a true partnership, a man and his dog that operate as a team, each working with and for the other.
I’ve walked to the line of many, many events and with lots of different breeds of dogs over the past thirty five years as a professional retriever trainer, and I’ve had the great fortune of accomplishing wonderful things with those dogs, but my greatest reward comes from watching my clients and their dog, having been coached as a team, performing as a team and qualifying as a team, and receive ribbons and titles for all their hard work.
Dogs and people have many similarities but as with all life, both are only as good as the education they receive. If you want the human or the dog to be better at their job, you must add to their education.