Most people think they need to send their dog off to a board and train to achieve a true reset. While board and trains can work they usually don’t. This is because most dogs are never taken off facility grounds and only learn within that context how to act. They are taught to behave in the facility and learn to follow the trainers direction. That is why most board and train facilities offer lifetime followups, but only at their facility. The dog was worked with but will only respond within that context.
The reason my board and trains worked for 15+ years was because of the transferring back to the owners. Yes I trained the dogs but my program of re-introduction is the reason why all those testimonials were written. Its all fine and dandy if your dog responds to me but you are paying for your dog to respond to you.
If you think of a board and train like sending your child off to weight-loss camp then it all starts to make sense. Yes your child will return looking better but if you as the parent haven’t learned how to reinforce and maintain what has been achieved then its for nothing. If your child still has the same perception of they don’t need to listen to you then the weight will come back on super quick.
This is the same with dogs. Not only do you have to learn how to communicate with them what is and isn’t appropriate but you need to learn how to reintroduce yourself to your dog so they perceive you in a different way. Our behavior is directly dependent upon our perception of who is in charge. Think about that. You knew exactly which teachers you were able to be a little late for and nothing happened and those other teachers you had to be right on time for otherwise you would get a detention.
So we could go to the worlds best parenting class and learn how to say “NO” to our child, but when we return and try it out for the first time most parents wouldn’t be surprised the child gave them the middle finger and ran off still. Remember.. we went to that parenting class for a reason. Our child doesn’t listen! The child has a perception of the parent as a pushover or one that doesn’t follow through so regardless of learning how to say “NO” properly, because of the perception they still won’t listen.
Not only will your dogs perception change but yours should as well (hopefully). If we continue to think of our dog as “Mans Best Friend” then we will be setting ourselves up for failure. You can’t control your best friend or keep your best friend hostage.. yet that’s what we do with our dogs (and yes, children too). So we should start to look at our dogs as our four legged children not our best friend. When you start to look at your dog as more of your child, the discipline portion of the program all starts to make sense. Its when we see them as our best friends that none of this feels right. And if that’s what you want.. a best friend; then you need to open your front door and see if your dogs sticks around because that type of relationship is come and go without any control. But we are allowed to keep our children hostage and have rules for them. We are actually required to do so with the truancy laws on the books. Do I love my best friend; sure.. But do I love my children more; that’s not even a question.
This program works because it addresses all of these issues. You learn how to correct correctly and the difference between correction and redirection. You will learn how to reintroduce yourself (in the environment they are misbehaving) to your dog so they now perceive you in a different way, and when they perceive you in a different way that’s when their behavior starts to change.