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How to get Your Money's Worth out of Professional Training (Page 4)
In addition to all of the factors which affect your dog's success, consideration of the trainer's time and privacy will be appreciated. When you visit with your prospective trainer for the first time, make an appointment. Don't drop in out of the blue on Sunday afternoon! Ask if it's O.K. to bring your puppy and show him what it can do. If the trainer agrees to this, and gives you an appointment, be punctual. A trainer's time is valuable, his help's time is expensive, and he doesn't have time to wait around for late comers and no shows. Then get out your puppy and show the trainer what it knows. Don't bother bragging on the puppy as it will quickly become evident what the puppy knows. Does it know its name? Does it come when called, will it heel and sit on command? Can you get it to retrieve a dummy or bird to hand? If so, good. If not, more work for the pro to do on things you could have taken care of at home. Try not to fall back on excuses like "Oh! he never does that at home," or "he always comes when I call him in the back yard" (feed dish in hand) they never impress the trainer. Pull no punches, describe your pup honestly and don't make excuses for slips. The trainer will respect you and your dog for it.
Although you may be eager for news of your dog, try to get by without constant updates. Most trainers will give you a monthly written report on your retriever's progress, and perhaps one phone call a month is permissable. It is probably a bad idea to call your trainer more frequently as a dog's progress is generally gradual, and too much telephone time with your pro may constitute an intrusion on his privacy. He is already giving you two daily training sessions, feed, and care for your monthly fee, so it may be unwise to push it with excessive phone calls, unless you have a friendly relationship that permits extra conversations.
When we review the dogs we've trained in recent years that we consider successes, in that they met or exceeded their owners' expectations, or failures which were not able to function as basic gun dogs, the difference in almost every case was in the owners' adherence to the guidelines laid out in this article. If you have decided to commit the money necessary to train a dog, protect your investment by starting with a dog worth training, choosing a trainer you can trust, following instructions and learning as much from the trainer as possible, and refraining from insisting on training shortcuts.
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