What value does a dog trainer add?

3 things a good dog trainer can add to your relationship with your dog are:

1) Clarity.

There has never been a dog born understanding human language. Clarity of cue words, body language and knowing how to teach these things to a dog is essential to avoid the blurry mess that we as verbal creatures so easily fall into: "Sit, no, I said sit, what are you doing? Sit, sit, sit, ooh nearly!" Knowing how to communicate well with our dogs is not natural to us. A good trainer will know how to improve clarity and thus get better and quicker results with your dog.

2) Consistency.

It's easy to begin a training goal or desire a behavioural change in our dogs with energy and enthusiasm. But as we get busy, our motivation wanes and we sometimes stick to our goals and sometimes it's all just too hard or inconvenient. A good trainer will help keep you accountable to training goals and plans, while appreciating that it needs to be reasonable for you, given the time you have.

3) Kindness.

I use this term to describe a style of training that can see things from the dog's perspective. It's easy to rush to correct and suppress a behaviour that you don't like. But does your dog know what is being asked, and truly understand it? A good trainer will appreciate where the dog is in the learning process and not just assume that they're being "disobedient". Any corrections are thoughtful and considered, not knee-jerk reactions to feeling disrespected as the boss. A good trainer will have empathy for your dog.

Look for these 3 qualities in a trainer.