Every now and then I get a minute to look around the web at web sites for dog trainers. I pick a city and see who is out there and what they have to say. You never know when you might find something to help you improve.
Today looking a city in the Midwest, I came across a website. On every page the trainer emphasized and re-emphasized their years of training. And yet they did not seem to have stayed anywhere very long.
Then I remembered something a great trainer told me once.
This person was not a dog trainer. He was my field training officer when I joined the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office in 1984. And he was a great trainer.
This was old school police training. Back then you did not go to a six month academy and then 14 weeks of Field Training. They swore in and took you to the range where they taught you to shoot, in an afternoon. You then spent a week working in each section of the office. That was followed by just five weeks of field training and you were out on your own. If you survived, and did not get the sued, then you went to the academy before the end of the first year.
When I showed up that night for my first shift most of the deputies introduced themselves. One made a great show of telling me, in front of everyone, that he was a ten year veteran.
Later that night Skeeter brought up that conversation. Then he told me:
“Look there are two kinds of ten year veterans. One kind has one year of experience ten times. The other has ten years of experience.”
This is why I highly recommend you meet with any dog trainer before you decide who is going to train your dog. You want a trainer who grows and improves with every dog, not someone who does the same thing over and over again.
Doug
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