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Is a Board and Train Worth it?

The appeal of a Board & Train program is obvious!  You send your doggie off to camp from anywhere to 1-4 or more weeks and get back a well-trained dog.  Seems too good to be true?  Maybe it is… It goes without saying that someone who trains dogs professionally has the ability to resolve behavior … The post Is a Board and Train Worth it? appeared first on Canine Solutions.
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Why Choose A Board & Train

The appeal of a Board & Train program is obvious!  You send your doggie off to camp from anywhere to 1-4 or more weeks and get back a well-trained dog.  Seems too good to be true?  Maybe it is…

It goes without saying that someone who trains dogs professionally has the ability to resolve behavior and training issues faster than a non-expert.  Pet guardians have plenty on their plates managing the needs of the household.  Finding time to train the dog, especially one with special needs, is a challenge!  Inefficiencies in management, lack of handling skills, and guilt derail even the best of effort and intention.

Professional Dog Trainers are More Efficient

A good dog trainer meets the dog where they are at and recognize potential issues that make training challenging.  Owners want immediate results and get bogged down by the volume of repetition needed to form good habits.  Asking too much at one time creates frustration on both the part of the dog and the guardian.  This, inevitably, leads to roadblocks in building trust.  Slow and steady will truly get you to the goal faster.  If doing the work on your own is wearing on you, working with a professional can salvage your relationship with your dog.

Differences in Board and Train Methodologies

Incompatible training methodologies and philosophies cause misaligned expectations.  A less experienced trainer may work for basic obedience.  Complicated issues involving fear, anxiety, or hyperarousal, however, require a highly experienced and patient trainers.

The Failures of Punishment and Force

Utilizing punishment (the application of aversive stimuli in order to reduce the frequency of an undesirable behavior) requires impeccable timing.  Inaccuracy in timing or excessive use of force will worsen behavior over time.  Misattributing your dog’s personality as ‘Dominant’ or “Alpha’ means a failure to recognize that these problems result purely from poor management, or fear, anxiety, and stress.  Overwhelming a dog with exposure to stressful triggers causes them to shut down from learned helplessness but doesn’t ultimately resolve the root issue.  Over time your dog becomes MORE sensitive to the trigger and a greater risk to those around them.  Reliance on punishment-based tools by an inexperienced handler will exacerbate problem behavior over time.

Treating the Root Causes versus the Symptoms

Jumping up, barking, lunging, growling are often expressions of fear or frustration.  Punishing these symptoms using prong, choke, or electric collars reduces the warning signs your dog uses to express growing anxiety.  Eliminating your dog’s ability resolve or avoid conflict makes them a liability.  Maintenance and respect of these warning signs is vital.  A skilled trainer seeks to improve a dog’s ability to handle environmental triggers through desensitization and counter conditioning.  The American Veterinary Society for Animal Behavior (AVSAB) ‘recommends that only reward-based training methods are used for all dog training, including the treatment of behavior problems.’  Choose a board and train program that resolves the root of the conflict versus simply treating the symptoms.

Dog training is an unregulated industry.

Every day new trainers begin advertising their services and the onus is on the buyer to choose a skilled professional.  Trainers may voluntarily obtain credentialing by meeting a certifying organization’s qualifications.  The Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers, for example, requires 300 hours of experience and veterinary references to sit for the CPDT-KA exam.  Continuing education requirements ensure that the trainer continues to expand their knowledge base.  Different organizations promote different handling practices so do your research!  Either way, someone who willingly maintains certification is more invested in their role and education as a trainer.

You get what you pay for

When you consider the expense of a board and train, much of what you are paying for is the care and maintenance of the animal.  This includes socialization and exercise outside of the training sessions.  Cleaning kennels, laundry, and feeding all take time and/or staffing to complete.  Boarding is a change in routine and stressed animals require additional care due to vocalization, destructiveness, or inappropriate elimination.  This consideration, coupled with the expense of certification and continuing education means a higher cost of service.  A trainer that charges less than the industry standard likely supplements their income with other jobs.  This means that the trainer spends more time off site away from your dog.

Quality Versus Quantity

Consider where your dog will stay during their board and train program.  Dogs housed in a large commercial facility have to share attendant supervision with many other dogs.  While this drives down the price of general care, the trainer will have less interaction with your dog.  Less experienced attendants may also reinforce inappropriate behavior inadvertently.  The fewer dogs housed on site, the more you are pay, but the more individual attention your dog receives. 

A trainer that works out of their home will replicate an environment already familiar to your dog.  Homes are less noisy and generally calmer than commercial boarding.  The trade off is that fewer attendants are on hand to oversee or resolve potential issues.  It also has the benefit of more consistent opportunities to practice desired behavior for the home environment.  If your dog is housed in a home ask to see where the dog is housed.  We also suggest breaking up the board and train into multiple shorter stays and taking your dog home over the weekend, if possible.  This allows you to incorporate new skills into your routine and make course corrections without risking much loss of progress. 

Reasonable Expectations

Creating good habits takes time!  A new habit generally takes 30 days to teach and 60-90 days to habituate.  It can take 6 months to a year to reach fluency where the preferred response becomes the default behavior.  Then periodic maintenance of the behavior ensures that it lasts a lifetime.  Failure to maintain newly formed habits will quickly result in a return to old behavior patterns.  Much like a drug addict relapses in times of stress or when revisiting old stomping grounds, old behaviors resume when complacency makes room.

There are no Guarantees

Your dog is likely to spend less than a fraction of the time necessary to create permanent behavior change.  So think of a board and train as a power up.  It’s not supposed to bring about a permanent change and a good trainer will stress this point before taking your money.  If you pay for a board and train and immediately return the dog to the same habits after you have just wasted your money.  This is why guarantees are false advertising.  The trainer can’t control your choices once the dog in home the dog’s permanent environment or the habits of the owner.  On going training once the dog is home so that you maintain the behaviors your dog just learned is vital.

Conclusion

In buyer beware industry it’s important to do your research!  Not all trainers are equal and not all methodologies align with your goals or needs of the dog.  Before you shell out your hard earned cash expecting a quick fix make sure you know what you’re getting out of the bargain.

At Canine Solutions our trainers are Fear Free Certified and credentialed through the Certification Council for Pet Dog Trainers.  In Home and board and train services are available in Leawood, Overland Park, Lenexa, Olathe, and Stilwell, KS as well as Kansas City, MO.

https://olatheksdogtraining.com/is-a-board-and-train-worth-it/

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