Dog Training, Frequently Asked Questions

Meet Winston, the Answer Dog

Winston has boundless energy, not to mention attitude. We’ve hired him to answer your questions because frankly, when he doesn’t have a job to do, he’s unbearable! Thanks in advance for helping us keep him employed.

Q. My dog already had obedience training, what else does he need?

A. Obedience training conditions your dog for future learning. Additional training targets specific, behavioral problems. When you’re walking your dog, is he walking beside you or is he walking you? Does he attack the vacuum? Chase the cat? Harass the kids? Run through open doors every chance he gets? Does he maul visitors when they enter your home? Completely ignore your calls to come? Perhaps you’d like to take him to a café or other public place but his behavior is too embarrassing to deal with. Training can address all of these issues and much more. The goal for all training is to improve the behavior of the dogs and strengthen the relationship between them and their people. Let’s face it, owners of a well-behaved dog spend more quality time with them and isn’t that why you got a dog in the first place?

Q. What’s involved in the training process and what are my responsibilities as the dog owner?

A. Your dog trainer will teach your dog specific behaviors and ensure that they know how to implement them. Then they teach your dog a new, associative word in the foreign language you humans call English.

Next, your dog trainer will train you to communicate with your dog, so that you too can request and receive the desired behavior.

You probably finished school many years ago but this will probably still be familiar… expect homework! Dog owners are expected to practice what they’ve learned with their dogs every day. There should be multiple, short sessions, consisting of five to ten minutes each. During the learning process, new behaviors need to be reinforced. Remember how you learned your ABC’s? Repetition, repetition, repetition!

Q. Is dog training worth my time and effort?

A. When it comes to dog behavior, owners have two choices: 1.) Work very hard for a short period of time or 2.) Live with the problem behaviors for the rest of your life. When you consider it from this perspective, making the time to train doesn’t sound that ruff does it? If you have more desire than time, take advantage of the Bow-WOW residency program where our trainers do all of the work for you.

Q. How much does it cost?

A. Dog training is similar to an annuity…it’s one of the only investments that guarantees a payback for the rest of your life. Each program has a different fee, due to the number of visits required to complete it. Individual sessions to target specific, problem behaviors typically cost one hundred milkbones each…in U.S. currency. When you call for pricing, be sure to ask for me because unlike Duke, the admirable Bush’s Beans dog, I can be bribed.

Q. How long do I need to train and how long do the sessions last?

A. The length of time required to train is dependent on the program you are in, how frequently you practice with your dog and how consistent you are in implementing the new rules and behaviors. If you’ve done your homework as requested, you will see improvement within 3 days, a marked difference within 7 days and a whole new dog within 15 days. Most people are amazed at the speed of results and accuse us of switching their dog for another. Really, we don’t do that!

The initial consultation is a two-hour appointment. Typically, the humans gather around a table and talk for a long time and then a behavioral assessment is performed on your pet. This is important because often, owners misdiagnose a problem behavior or its root cause. This is normal as most dog owners aren’t dog behavioralists! The truth about a problem can always be found in a dog’s behavior and your dog trainer knows exactly what to look for.

For single-dog households, the training sessions last one-hour. Two pets require an additional one-half hour. To ensure that each dog gets the attention they deserve, we work with a maximum of two pets per session. If you have three or more dogs, they can be rotated or scheduled for a separate session.