Dog Training Strategies For the Modern Client

In previous discussions, I emphasized the link between simplifying processes for clients and achieving financial success. The reason some owners may feel unsatisfied is not because the training doesn't work, but because the training is designed by a profession expecting professional results from the owner, rather than gearing it to what the average clients can do.

A crucial aspect of this involves adjusting your expectations. While we commonly discuss the importance of doing so for our four-legged companions, dog trainers often overlook the application of the same philosophy to their human clients.

Over the years, I've engaged in discussions with potential trainers. I take pride in highlighting our track record of success with dog owners and their pets. To clarify, our success is not measured by "fixing" every dog that comes our way. Rather, our focus is on enhancing the dog's behavior and providing the owner with the necessary knowledge to maintain this improvement at home. Our ultimate goal is to ensure both the dog and the owner are content, and we consider this a genuine success. I believe this resonates with the majority of individuals as well.

In order to reach a point where the dog is improved and the owner is educated and satisfied, it is important to understand the approach taken. Rather than pushing the dog to its maximum potential, we focus on helping the owner achieve the best they can.

To illustrate this, let's consider taking a Karate class. You wouldn't expect yourself to become as skilled as the instructor who has dedicated years to training and reached a high black belt rank. As someone who used to teach Karate I can tell you, the instructor doesn't expect that from you either. Their goal is to guide you towards reaching your own potential. If they tried to train you to match their level, it would lead to frustration or even injuries.

Dog trainers often expect dog owners to master complex techniques that have taken them years to learn and practice every day with various dogs. However, this approach can be overwhelming and may hinder your success.

At The Martial ARFS, we have created dog training programs that cater to the average owner, allowing for successful outcomes and happy dogs and owners. We understand that the average dog owner may never achieve the level of expertise a professional trainer can, so we don't set unrealistic expectations. Instead, our aim is to help each dog improve, not necessarily achieve and exact level of performance, which is an attainable goal for most owners.

Even a dog that improves by 60/70% is seen as 1000% better in the eyes of its owner. Imagine having a dog that never responds to you, ever, no matter how many times you call them. But now, they respond "MOST" of the time. This brings immense joy to the owner. Dogs that consistently ignore their owners exhibit "bad" behaviors all of the time, which can be incredibly frustrating. However, achieving good behaviors "most" of the time means that the constant bad behavior has been minimized and replaced with something positive.

Owners often use commands like no, stop, down, off, and express frustration, but they fail to teach their dog what they should be doing instead. By helping an owner, who has no experience as a professional dog trainer, to achieve good behavior60/70% of the time is an unequivocal win.

We aim to retain owners for the long term so that we can gradually improve their training skills and make them more effective in training their dogs. We take their challenging dogs and empower them to achieve a satisfactory level of training, which may be seen as exceptional by average owners. If we stop at this point, owners feel they have received satisfactory training, and that's what we all want.

However, if they continue with the training, we can teach them advanced techniques that would have been too difficult initially and would have caused frustration and disappointment.