For decades, dog training was synonymous with group classes. You couldn’t visit a retail pet store, either big box or independent, without seeing advertisements for its puppy classes or observing a dog training class while browsing the aisles for toys and other essential goods. I noticed that the dog training offered in these retail establishments took place in a small training area, and since training was done during store hours, there were too many distractions for learning, both human and canine, to occur. As a dog trainer, I knew that dogs learn best in a location with few distractions, especially during their initial learning phase. I also knew that dogs need a larger training space, where they can have enough distance between themselves and other dogs and owners in the class. Proper spacing is required for everyone’s safety in case one dog doesn’t get along with a classmate. After all, dog fights have been known to happen in dog training classes.

I noted that not only these stores but also dog training businesses employed several dog trainers, which can make qualifications, experience, philosophies, and methods inconsistent from trainer to trainer. Inconsistencies mean a confused dog, often a confused owner, and a slower learning rate since the dogs are adjusting constantly to differences from week to week or class to class. Imagine being one of those dogs. One week, the dog trainer has the owners lure the dogs into a down position using a treat. The next week, a different dog trainer substitutes for that class and has the owners pull down forcibly on the dogs’ collars to get them to submit into a down position.

It was important to me to eliminate the possibility of those inconsistencies, so I decided to be the sole trainer in my dog training business, then and always. When I started my business, I rented a multi-use space and taught dog training classes, too, but I offered a much larger space (a whole 1500 square feet!) dedicated to dog training and didn’t have the distractions inherent in a pet store. Dog training classes in my training facility presented their own problems, however.

The story continues in Dog Training Classes Part II…