Bootcamp Style Dog Training

[Kavik]

For boarding and training, if you decide they are right for you, I suggest research, research, research! My parents had a bad experience with one - they didn't ask for my recommendation of a place and went with a place I would have avoided. I went with them to pick up the dog and watched the demonstration of what they had taught the dog and besides the dog not doing what they had apparently taught it, it was obvious that they had used very physical methods on the dog, as the way the dog hit the deck when they raised their hand (apparently their down signal ) it was apparent they had hit him as well.

[megan_]

Just my opinion & my choice, but I can't see the point in handing over my dog to be trained sight-unseen. I want the training to include me with my dog. So I'd want to be staying, too.

My dogs have been trained by Erny while boarding, not because I didn't want to train them, but they were going to boarding anyway and I think a bit of training helps tire them out and keep them happy.

That said, we had trained in Erny's classes beforehand so I was comfortable leaving my dogs alone with her.

[raineth]

we (hubby and I) recently hosted our own boot camp

Members of his family are having trouble with their dog and so we had them all over for the weekend and taught them loose-lead walking and NILIF. its only a start but I was so excited to get a phone call a few days later talking about the dog's completely changed attitude

obviously the benefit in this case was for the humans and the dog to learn together

[mita]

Just my opinion & my choice, but I can't see the point in handing over my dog to be trained sight-unseen. I want the training to include me with my dog. So I'd want to be staying, too.

My dogs have been trained by Erny while boarding, not because I didn't want to train them, but they were going to boarding anyway and I think a bit of training helps tire them out and keep them happy.

That said, we had trained in Erny's classes beforehand so I was comfortable leaving my dogs alone with her.

That makes sense that your dog was going to be boarding anyway....so training was added. And you'd already trained with your dog in the trainer's classes.

All that doesn't rate as 'sight-unseen', IMO.

[Cosmolo]

Thats what most of our clients do too- boarding anyway, know us already and so add training into the mix.

Just to add another perspective- sometimes the people who choose board and train want magic fixes for issues. Its not uncommon for us to receive calls requesting B+T and when we say its not appropriate for the issue in question, they want recommendations for someone who will do it.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

Cosmolo and Erny

How do you generalise the training you do to the owner? My dog gets a bit of training from the boarding kennel staff where she stays when I'm on holidays, but it's mostly about being rewarded for being quiet and and the general kennel routine ie in the mornings we go here, and then there etc.

I imagine if you had a go at training recall for my dog, she'd be fine with you but still not come when my mum calls her.

[Erny]

Cosmolo and Erny

How do you generalise the training you do to the owner? My dog gets a bit of training from the boarding kennel staff where she stays when I'm on holidays, but it's mostly about being rewarded for being quiet and and the general kennel routine ie in the mornings we go here, and then there etc.

I imagine if you had a go at training recall for my dog, she'd be fine with you but still not come when my mum calls her.

I'm not certain how to respond with a black and white answer to that, Mrs RB. I demonstrate to owners what their dog can do then hand the dog over and tutor/coach them into being able to achieve the same. In the first lesson it is not that often that the dog will respond quite as accurately as with me, but that relates not only back to the difference between a trainer with experience compared with novice handlers who understandably haven't yet been able to develop the co-ordination, but also because no two people are alike (eg body language; facial expressions; voice tones; .... these are different from one to the other) and the dog might take an albeit short time to realise that the owners are requesting a command it has not long ago learnt.

(When I do a hand-over lesson with my B&T dogs, I also show owners what to do in the event their dog does not comply with what has now become a learnt command. Sometimes I would like for the dog to disobey so that I might demonstrate this, but more often that advantage does not become apparent at the time of the handover. As I've mentioned below, this is again another example of why a follow-up lesson or so is so valuable.)

But the dog does generally 'get it' and becomes tuned to the owners' perhaps slightly different handling methods. A bit more coaching when people come to lessons is a great help, as there's only so much learning can be done in one session.

In your situation, if you told me what you've already mentioned about you being able to train your dog to a good reliable recall but your dog won't pay that response to your Mum, I'd be likely to suggest that we look at your relationship with your dog by comparison to your Mum's; and what differences lay in the actual recall command from one to the other; what reinforcement schedule is delivered by your Mum compared with you; what your Mum's interactions are like with your dog (for one example only, your dog's training experiences with your Mum). My guess (and that's all it can be, sight unseen and all that) is that the problem lays with the relationship between your dog and your Mum and potentially the body language your Mum exhibits when giving the command to recall.

Edited September 21, 2011 by Erny

[Cosmolo]

It depends on the skill being taught. We provide notes and follow up and now, everyone who does it is already an existing client coming to training classes etc. We have stopped offering B+T to people who we do not know for a number of reasons.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

I guess it would help if I could convince my mum to go through the basics ie call dog when already coming and give a treat when it arrives and then gradually change that over to random and jackpot rewards for recall...

Mum thinks a certain TV hiss and yank dog trainer is the best. So I don't leave my dog alone with her. Mum used to have a dog that was extremely well trained by my dad and extremely willing to please ie very people focussed looking for the next command to be issued. My dog is much more of an independent thinker ie if I'm not exciting enough - she will entertain herself - which is what I originally wanted. I am finding the balance between getting my dog focussed on me for stuff like walking at the park or agility training, and having an off switch when I'm working in the office - not always easy. I guess my dog is going to ignore my family unless I can train them better too.

[Erny]

Cesar Milan is not a dog-trainer - he admits this freely himself. Let your Mum know this and explain that what she is watching is him dealing with problem behaviour, not training failure.

[jr_inoz]

I have tried it and it was amazing. Prior to that I had the behaviourist come to mine to teach us how to handle him (friend's dog) but we just couldn't control him and did not know what we were doing wrong. It got to the point where it wasn't pretty so we opted to send him to the boarding training program and he came back a completely changed dog.

jr_inoz, how would the training be for the humans if the humans aren't there to see the training of the dog? Sure there has to be a follow up session but the dog is the one being trained in this case...

Thought the OP meant a place where both owners and handlers went....

like the one mentioned here...

There was a review in Q'ld's Sunday Mail a couple of weeks back, about a holiday retreat where both dogs and owners can go stay for an assessment & training lessons. Called Riverview Retreat, it's at Burrum Heads, north of Hervey Bay.

The trainer is Chris de Alitiz & it says he follows the calm, assertive leadership techniques of Cesar Milan. Chris calls his training & rehabilitation service, Natural Balance. He also used to be a professional surfer & will teach your dogs to balance on a paddleboard on the river, if you like. (There's a great picture of the reviewers' 3 dogs happily being paddleboarded along the river's edge).

The review starts off (tongue in cheek ) :

'The misbehaviour had been going on too long. In the case of the two boys, almost since birth. The girl, adopted five years later, had picked up on the boys' worst traits -back-answering, a reluctance to bathe, general boisterousness - and, being the eldest of the siblings, was often the instigator of a group rebellion. Clearly, something had to be done. We'd heard about a reform school, one that combined supremely relaxing accommodation for alpha humans, with firm and effective discipline for their wayward offspring. ....we set out without a second thought.'

The reviewers say that even in the first day, they noticed improvement.

Over the course of a single day, we watched him turn our three troubemakers into models of doggy decorum.

Their overall Verdict on their stay:

Paradise found. Bring mutt (and mat)

(The mat is because follow operator, Claire Dixon, is a trained Hatha yoga teacher who leads Ayurvedic classes on site.)