Dog Training, money back guarantee

A few nights ago I had to stop for a couple of cans of dog food. I feed a good kibble but always add a small amount of canned dog food as kibble does not have enough fat for a dog’s diet.

Usually I buy my supplies from an independent (non chain) pet store here in Colorado Springs. This guy is awesome, knowing how to match dogs to food by breed. The best food for one breed may not be the best for another, and this guy is a pro. I send all my clients to him and have had a lot of problems cleared up just by getting a dog on the right food.

But he is all the way across town and was closed by the time I finished here in the center. There is one of the large pet supply chains that is not too far out of my way so I go there when I have to.

I don’t like going there. That is because of one of their “trainers” knows me on sight. This person was at a dog show I had a booth at a couple of years ago. Although this person did not talk to me they did stand there while I explained Manners in Minutes to someone else. I remembered this person because I have a great memory for faces, a survival skill left over from my police days.

Whenever I go into this store this trainer makes a point of running me down to let me know how great the store’s training method and trainers are. I am not that impressed. First it is hard to be in awe of someone who has “trainer” on their smock but every time I see one of them they are either stocking shelves or running a cash register. Secondly my office is bigger that their training area. And third their method is food based training which I have explained my views on elsewhere on this blog.

I did not see this trainer (I also still have my surveillance skills) so I went in. As I walked in I glanced at their board for training. I saw, handwritten, “guaranteed money back dog training.”

My first reaction was “Huh.” Why would they do that? How can you guarantee training? Either you can train a dog or you can’t. If you can’t then you should not take the dog and its owner as a client.

You aren’t selling a washing machine. If you sell someone an appliance and you give them their money back you get the appliance back. But if you sell someone a skill, you can’t take that back.

Then I thought is their training so poor that they need to refund money to keep people from being angry at them? And then I knew the answer, it is marketing.

Dog training is approached differently if training is not your main product. If I owned a chain of stores that sold a variety of products then I would know that training is not going to make or break my business. Due to the high cost of prime retail space, every square foot has to produce income. Since training will never produce the income per square foot the sales of supplies, toys, equipment, and all the other things I sell I can’t afford to use a lot of space. And too keep the price of training down I am not going to pay my trainers a lot.

So since training is not going to be a large source of profit, why bother? And the answer is the marketing plan behind chain store training. The reason is repeat business.

Over a lifetime you are going to spend a lot of money on food, treats and toys. You are also going to need an occasional replacement for a bed, or collar, or line, or something else. By getting you to train in the chain store, they build a relationship and you get in the habit of coming regularly to my store. Then they make their profit from those sales, not training.

So does this affect the quality of the training? I think so.

First since I want to get you to come into my store as often as possible, and I have to keep my costs down, I have to do group training.

Group training has both advantages and disadvantages. For someone training with a dog for the first time I think the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. In any group there is one dog that needs more work than any other dog. That dog will take up a disproportionate amount of the hour session. Also there is usually one human who also takes (often demands) more time than anyone else. And usually they are together. So if you are one of six people with a dog, odds are you won’t get an even share of the instructor’s time and effort.

Due to the cost of space, training spaces in these classes tend to be small. Not every dog is going to get along with every other dog, at least at the beginning. The smaller the training area, the greater the danger that someone can get bit. So you keep your dog on a short tight line. A short tight line tells the dog you are worried. The dog figures that if you are worried, it should be worried too. So you and the dog spend too much time worrying and not enough training. Also small training areas limit the amount of movement you can do with the dog and increases the danger when you are concentrating on the command that another dog will successfully go after your dog or you.

I always wonder about the quality of the trainers. This is not a hard business to get into. Many people with good training skills start by having group sessions at the park. There are a number of issues with this choice, but I think it is better than working in too small a space. If you can’t afford to open a training center, which are usually located where rents are lower, you can start there and then move up. But either way you are going to do better financially than working in the chains.

So who is left in the labor pool since each store has a trainer? Often it is someone who doesn’t mind stocking shelves and running a cash register in order to train. Or is it someone who doesn’t mind training in order to have a job or to make a little more than someone who is just a clerk? While I do not doubt there are some very good trainers in a few of these stores, I do doubt that all of them are equally good.

As for the training itself, the training method must not offend anyone in any way. So this training has to be food motivation. I stay away from food training for one simple reason, it is hard for someone training a dog for the first time to tell the difference between motivation and bribery. Most clients err on the side of over using food. And they end up with a fat dog that won’t do anything if you don’t have a cookie in your hand.

And what could happen if I go to one of these places, have the training not work, get my money back, and go somewhere else? It could be nothing bad, or it could make things worse.

To me there are two possible outcomes. If you have an easy dog, one that has not developed strong habits and/or major alpha drive, then this may be all the training you need. An easy dog does not need that strong a trainer, provided you are working the dog on your own.

If the training works then well, most of them teach several different classes so you can continue on to get to whatever level you need. This often leads you to spend a lot more, and you are going to go to more than one six to eight week course. So you may spend 18 weeks or more to train the dog. And if you miss a class, then your dog does not learn everything or is automatically behind.

If you have a dog that already has the more serious problems this kind of training does not work well for you, then even if you get your money back, you have spent your time for little or no results. However you have also convinced the dog that it does not have to respond to training making your task all the more difficult if you go to someone else. You can get your money back, but not your time, and you may now have an even more difficult dog.

My advice, don’t automatically discount this training. But just like any other trainer, before you sign up, go watch that trainer train. That way you are making an informed decision.

Does Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes have a money back guarantee? No. First of all you are not going to start training here until you have come in for a free consultation. And I strongly discourage from signing up until you have had some time to think things over. If you don’t understand what I do and how I do it, or if you are not comfortable with me or the system, this is not going to work well. On the other hand if it is for you, then success is just a matter of us both doing our part.

The other week I had someone come in for an evaluation. At the end she asked if I had a money back guarantee. I told her no. She asked why. I told her I never had a dog fail in here, but I had had people fail.

She never called back. Sadly I don’t think chain store training will work with her dog. It had too many problems. But at least she could get her money back.

Doug