Even after typing this all out I was wondering if I should even share it. But I think it’s important to put it out there for others to see. It’s a long one – no apologies though. Not everything can be in a sixty second reel or a few slides to swipe through before moving onto the next post you’ll probably forget about.
Based on the conversation during the inquiry call I predicted they were going to be a problem client. I should have listened to my gut and referred them to someone else.
From the start they were obsessed with being able to walk their dogs without pulling, without barking, and to be able to pay attention to the humans in the home. These are cases I’ve taken on before with great success when the human side understood what kind of changes they’d have to make and the work they needed to do.
During the initial consultation it was obvious these two dogs, I’ll call them Spot (male) and Sally (female), were very anxious and extremely under-stimulated. Spot had a bite incident a few years ago when someone entered the backyard.
They didn’t have any sort of training. Not well socialized to the world around them. They spent most of their time at home, either indoors or outside in their fenced in yard. They didn’t like people coming into the home and would bark at them.
When they did go for walks in the neighborhood or visited the local park they were, according to the humans, constantly pulling every which way, barking at other dogs and people, and not listening to them. Well, yeah. Literally no surprise to me and exactly what I expected. These dogs had no mental stimulation at home. The outside world must have been very exciting and over stimulating.
The humans were about to do some work on their yard which would result in the dogs losing access to it for about 6-8 weeks. So the humans were even more driven to get these dogs walking nicely and not make any sort of noise while doing it.
I put together a behavior & training plan that included more enrichment and activities for them and some foundation behaviors to help with their leash walking skills.
- Time in greenspaces vs walks in the neighborhood
- I provided recommendations for greenspace in their area where I knew they’d more than likely not run into any people or dogs. And if they did there would be plenty of space.
- Slow feeders, snuffle mats, and other puzzle toys for mental stimulation.
- Foundation behaviors
- Up/Down Game to help build engagement.
- Hand/Object Targeting because it was an easy skill to teach
- I picked two easy behaviors to start with because they had no training and I wanted everyone to be successful.
- Muzzle training
- Nosework
The first lesson was just with one half of the household. I sent over specific instructions for what items they needed to prepare and how to set up the home for when I arrived.
- Muzzles – Baskerville brand. I sent them the link to the company site and the sizing guide. I told them any questions about what they should buy and sizes to text/call me before purchasing. They bought those muzzles that hold the mouth shut from Amazon instead.
- A secure gate to keep us separated from each other until the dogs were more comfortable with me being in the home. When I arrived they had some flimsy metal thing that looked like an old tv tray that kept falling over and scaring the dogs. And when the gate fell they’d run into the room I was in then bark at me.
Aside from that I didn’t think the lesson was going horribly. We did some nosework games and worked on our foundation behaviors. Even though dogs weren’t totally comfortable with me, they did respond to clicks and treats and seemed to enjoy nosework.
We decided to finish up in the backyard playing with some toys. Spot had bit someone entering the yard a few years ago and they assured me he would be fine. When I entered the backyard he immediately charged and bit me. Totally my fault as I didn’t set up for success and have the Spot leashed and tied to something in the yard.
During our follow up coaching call I asked how things were going, did they practice anything, did they get new muzzles, have they been introducing more activities to meet the dogs needs, and they kept circling back to “Well, when we go for walks they still aren’t listening. Still pulling. Still barking”. Of course they are. We had only been at this for a week. I also said to myself “and it’s obvious you haven’t made any of the changes in the behavior plan”.
Just a side note: clients get a behavior plan with everything we are going to work on plus plenty of resources to go along with it.
Our next lesson was me and the other half of the household because allegedly they were totally different dogs with this person: confident and outgoing. Since they weren’t there for the first lesson it was basically lesson one with them. So the first thing I did was separate the dogs. Spot went out for a drive with one human. Sally stayed back with us. We tried to work on some nosework because she was obviously anxious but they were completely dismissive of everything I tried to explain to them. Instead they kept telling me how well these dogs listened to them. I got the feeling someone had been watching lots of the dog whisperer. So I decided we’d go out for a walk.
Before we left I loaded up our treat bags, swapped out their six foot leash for an eight foot leash, and explained that Sally will most likely not be responsive to any of our cues. Partially because I would be there but also because she is understimulated. I specifically asked that they just let her sniff and walk and for them to follow my instructions. So we headed out into the neighborhood and as I predicted they ignored everything I said and constantly tried to get her attention. Pulling on the leash to get her to stop pulling, saying her name over and over, etc.
I finally said that they weren’t going to understand the process or see progress if they ignored my directions, and until I said otherwise let Sally sniff, stop and sniff, pee on things, etc. But, I did say if she does look back I want you to offer her a treat by tossing it on the ground right by her feet. If she eats it, great! If she ignores it that is fine too. She only looked back a couple of times and ignored each of the treats offered. We kept walking.
After about 30 minutes Sally looked back up at the handler and excitedly ate the treat they tossed down to her. And then she looked back at them. “Toss another treat!” I said. She ate that. We continued walking. She continued checking in. We continued tossing treats. I said now offer that treat to her by reaching out your hand so she’ll take it. Which she happily did. She’d check in, get a treat, walk a bit, check in, get a treat. She wasn’t pulling as much and staying closer instead of being at the end of the leash.
You could also see the change in Sally’s body language and facial expressions. I gave the basic explanation that Sally needed time to take in the environment and this was completely normal.
They seemed impressed but I think they were holding back because I kind of proved Sally wasn’t the attentive and confident dog they tried to make her out to be. But I’ve also dealt with this before so it really didn’t bother me much.
When we got back home the other half was returning with Spot. I explained what happened and they seemed impressed. I even detected a bit of excitement in their response – there was hope for their dogs!
We finished the lesson discussing what they should be working on (which was all in their behavior plan). Building engagement was a must. The Up/Down game was an easy way to start building that foundation. The plan was to eventually move on to the Superbowls Game (from Control Unleashed) to help build on what they learned in the Up/Down game. I stressed how important it is to make sure these dogs are getting mental stimulation that doesn’t just involve walks (again, in the behavior plan). It felt like we were about to start making progress. I didn’t even care that they bought the wrong muzzles again (flimsy crap from Amazon that they would easily bite through) or that there was a note on the table when we went inside that said “do not talk about the prong collar”. I actually don’t think they were using one but I have a feeling one half of the family wanted to use one. Take a guess which half that was!
The next week we had our coaching call and I was looking forward to it. It basically went like this: have you worked on the up/down game – “no”. Have you done any nosework – “no”. Have you brought them to any of the places I suggested that would be mostly free of triggers and allow the dogs time to just be dogs – “no”. Have you given them things to chew or shred, opportunities to just sniff or dig or anything the dogs should be doing but haven’t because they are constantly indoors – “no”.
But what they did say was that the dogs were still pulling, barking, and ignoring them on walks. I was honest and told them that’s because they haven’t been following the behavior plan.
They promised they would make some more effort for our next lesson. I said I wanted to wait another week and have another virtual call before our next in-person meeting because I didn’t want to waste anybody’s time. A week later we had that call and it was basically the same conversation word for word. Again the focus was on all the things the dogs were doing that they didn’t want them to do and nothing about working on anything that would make even a tiny improvement in these dogs’ lives.
They were literally ignoring everything I went over during our in-depth behavior consultation. How their lack of any type of enrichment and mental stimulation was a large cause of their behavior struggles. They ignored everything in the detailed five page behavior plan I put together for them. No practicing foundation behaviors. How could the dogs even “ walk nicely” when you haven’t even started with the most basic steps?
No enrichment, no mental stimulation, no dog stuff. How can you expect the dogs to pay attention to you when the moment they walk out that front door they are immediately over-stimulated due to lack of any stimulation at all. They didn’t replace any toys as I suggested (they previously mentioned the dogs seemed bored of the current toys). No chews. Nothing to shred. No place to dig. They didn’t even get them a slow feeder or just a cardboard box with some shredded paper and kibble. Still feeding out of the boring bowl where they’d finish in about 2 minutes.
Still complaining that when they left the house they were pulling everywhere and barking at everything. Once again I explained how they can’t expect a change overnight especially when they haven’t been following any of the plans that they hired me for. I explained, calmly and nicely, I’ve had many many cases like these over the years and following the plan they would see results. I begrudgingly scheduled our next in-person session for a week later.
A few days after that call I received a text message that they were forfeiting the rest of their training sessions. “A friends son has been teaching and helping me walk my dogs. Introducing them and alleviating some of their/my fears” was the exact message.
I didn’t respond. I’ll be honest I was pissed. All that work just to have them literally not do anything we discussed. The only positive thing was I didn’t have to refund them anything because part of the agreement they signed states “no refunds”.
It’s vitally important to pay attention to what your trainer asks of you to do.
If you have questions or concerns about the plan or need something clarified SPEAK UP. Don’t just disappear or quit. It’s not going to help you or your dog. It also gives everything we do a bad name because these are the people that end up with balanced trainers saying “I tried that R+ stuff and it didn’t work” – when the truth almost always is: no, you didn’t try.
Or if you did, you gave up because you didn’t get the immediate results you wanted. Which is unrealistic.