ther trainer and how all their problems were fixed in two weeks from this "amazing" board and train, boot camp or whatever people want to call sending their dog off to a trainer. I also hear of an even bigger amount of people talk about how their problems weren't fixed. I am not opposed to trainers that offer them and do them correctly by giving the owner rules to follow at home, but I am getting frustrated with the message that most people are receiving from the idea of a board and train.
Most people think the board and train is the equivalent to having a magic wand. " I just give my dog to a trainer and they come back perfect." This honestly feels like a lazy cop out to me. Some trainer out there doesn't do some unknown secret trick that miraculously transforms your dog. It is simply behavior science, reinforcement, punishment and classical conditioning. There is nothing new or unknown out there, different spins on known things for sure, but the concepts are all already out there.
I understand that people have busy lives and don't always have time to train their dogs from the ground up and that a board and train can be a great answer for that. There is definitely a place for that, but understand that you have to go home and be able to replicate what that trainer did in order for the training to stick around. If you go home and do nothing, the training that your dog received will deteriorate for a few reasons.
Dogs are not computers that get sent away to be programmed, they are intelligent social beings that develop relationships. They need a reason to want to work with you, there has to be some value. Building trust, report, dialogue, having structure, boundaries and being a strong leader are just a few things. Dogs and people are both mammals so I am going to make a comparison.
Children generally listen to people they know and respect, for example the first few days with a new babysitter are usually challenging to some degree as all parties try to figure out this new relationship. The child may test the new babysitter to see what they can and cannot get away with, where as with a parent a child will know what they can get away with. The same way a human relationship doesn't just transfer from person to person, neither does the relationship between dog and human.
The phases of learning are; the acquisition/learning phase, the fluency phase, the generalization phase and finally the maintenance phase. Just like a car that needs maintenance so does behavior, behavior needs some type of variable reinforcement in order to continue. Think of it like this, if the slots in Vegas never paid you, would you still travel to Vegas to play them? If your job decided not to pay you anymore, are you still working everyday?
When people get dogs back from a board and train and do not continue to reinforce good behavior or punish bad behavior the behaviors that you don't like will resurface. It is a known fact that our dogs natural instincts are always working against things that we've taught them. If your dog is naturally wild and hyper and you stop training them, they go back to what is natural... being wild and hyper. Think of it like this, if you like to over eat and are a sedentary type of person you will gain weight.
Now let's say you decide to start dieting and working out as your New Years resolution. If you eat healthy and exercise the weight will come off, but let's say you've had a long week and skip going to the gym and over the next month you completely stop going and go back to your previous lifestyle. The weight will come back on, you will lose any progress you've made and you also just provided a perfect example of instinctual drift.
You naturally want to be lazy and working out and dieting were difficult for you so over time you drifted back to your natural state... on the couch with Doritos lol. The next thing to factor in here is the effect practice has on any behavior or skill. If a trainer trains your dog and then hands it off to you after a few weeks and you do nothing with the dog except try to control it in high stakes situations this is a recipe for disaster.
Think of it like this, Michael Jordan wasn't just magically ready to hit clutch shots... that took hrs of dedication and practice to be able to do that. Same goes for your dog, impulse control has to be practiced in order for the dog to be good under heavy distractions. No magic spell can achieve this, just practice.
When Michael Jordan left to play baseball for a year and a half and then returned halfway through the 94-95 season he wasn't nearly as good as he was before he left... because he was rusty because he didn't practice. If even the greatest of all time Michael Jordan needs practice to remain good, why in the hell do we as the general public think our dogs do not apply to the same set of rules? Are they better at behaving than MJ was at basketball?
Another gripe I have about how people think of a board and train and really training in general is that they play the blame game. People in general never look in the mirror and think the problem has anything to do with them, instead they pass the blame off to a trainer, the dog, the breeder etc. The concept of the board and train further influences this incorrect and unfair stigma.
For example, I have had countless people over the years purchase puppies and call me with an absolute laundry list of complaints... he barks, he jumps, he pees in the house, he poops in the house, he chews my kids toys, he bites, he pulls... guess what folks that's what they do... did you think you were purchasing a stuffed animal that you just sit around and cuddle?
You have to get their energy out( that means get off the dorito couch and exercise, you signed up to provide for them, hold up your end of the bargain), you have to teach them behaviors you want( hire a good balanced trainer), you have to manage them until they have developed the skill to be trusted in your house, you have to be prepared to reward what you like and correct what you don't.... you!
If you can't handle that then maybe you should have researched having a puppy more than you did, maybe you shouldn't have got the puppy in the first place if you only have the energy and patience to care for a pet rock... sad but true Far too often board and train trainers have to live up to their ego or their shotty marketing scheme that "guarantees" results... you cannot guarantee behavior of anything, you can only provide support as long as the owners are following your advice.
Not every dog can be fixed and that's ok, that's life. Not every car that has been in an accident can be fixed, doesn't mean you have a bad mechanic it means your car was pretty messed up. Another issue I have with the board and train programs is that you the owner have no idea what is actually going on with your dog... I have seen several trainers working dogs in a way I know the dogs owners would not approve of.
