The Whole Picture

I often shudder when I see trainers offering to "Board and Train". This means you give up your dog to someone who then "trains" the dog and returns it to the client. Normally this is offered by trainers who use punishment methods and would prefer a client not see them punishing or hurting the dog, for fear the client would object and then take their business elsewhere. Punishment trainers want you to see the finished product, and never the process at which this is arrived.

As I've said in other posts, you can train with punishment, but its no fun for the dog, and it comes with a large number of risks. Why use this method when we have a perfectly good alternative that provides no risk and equal results? Positive reinforcement is the best way to train. (and my dog agrees!)

The biggest issue however is training is a very subjective word. Most Pet owners want a dog that "behaves" - meaning they can walk nice on leash, not aggressive with other dogs or people, and has no anxiety that would lead to them destroying the house when left alone. While a board and train might teach your dog 'commands' like stay, come, sit, down, etc - its very unlikely the above mentioned issues would be corrected.

Complex behavior like aggression and anxiety cannot simply be fixed by a training session. The whole life of the animal must be looked at, this isn't something you can 'board and train' away. Whenever I do a consultation I ask a large number of questions usually along the lines of:

1) What does your dog eat (food is very important for both overall health but low nutritional intake can actually promote aggression and low-tolerance thresholds)

2) Where does your dog sleep and spend most of this time (social exclusion and boredom can drive stress and promote aggression or anxiety)

3) How do you treat your dogs issues now? What methods have you tried in the past (More often than not owners can do a lot of damage or make situations worse, snatching items away for example can lead to guarding aggression)

These are just some examples of the questions that are important to me on a consultation. I generally have 2 goals for a dogs life to promote a healthy mental state:

Goal 1: dogs energy level is met with an acceptable amount of physical OR mental exercise for that dog.

Goal 2: Dogs social time (and freedom) with both family and other dogs / people is increased as much as possible.

Trainers who do not look at the whole picture of a dog do a large dis-service to not only the dog but to the clients. Learning fancy commands is nothing if your dog is living a miserable life and will display other very unwanted behaviors.

Dogs are very much like humans in that our quality of life effects our overall mood - we need to look at the whole picture of a dogs well being if we truly hope to help them live in our world.