Family dog training - Multiple people teaching
Family dog training can be challenging at times, and has its own set of guidelines and best practices when it comes to having success. There are some tips and tricks to getting things running smoothly, and turning what can be a chaotic and problematic situation into something much more manageable.
There is no reason that your whole family can’t be a part of training your dog, and in fact training produces the best results if everyone in the household (who is able) is following the correct training principles. Faster and more lasting results are what you can expect with consistency in the household.
The fact is that training won’t work when there isn’t consistency in the home. When different members of the family have different methods or ideas, there is an opportunity for conflict to enter the equation. Not only that, different training methods can have different goals as well and can often undermine progress that’s being made. This is one of the reasons why reaching a plateau in your training and seeing things grind to a halt can occur. Frustrating on multiple levels isn’t it?
Making your dog confused
A lot of owners who come to me have a basic problem of having a dog who is confused. They don’t know to follow commands, they don’t know what’s important in their lives or where they fit in the household. They don’t know there are boundaries and most of all they have no idea that what your wants can also be their wants AND get them what they want! There isn’t a partnership, and the relationship between your dog and the rest of the family may feel like a very on again off again type of situation.
Too many cooks will spoil the broth!
All of us have heard this at one point or another, and understand the general gist. Too many differing ideas, too many conflicting techniques, and no one ends up where they want to be. This applies to dog training and it is a hurdle that doesn’t have to be there.
If everyone is doing something differently, or has different takes on how training should be done, or simply isn’t following good practices, your dog will be very confused. They won’t know who to listen to, or even what to listen to, or we might see just a complete disregard for listening at all!
Training in these situations looks very lackluster at best. It could have plateaued, it might be going backwards, and it’s almost guaranteed to be frustrating. Your goals aren’t being met, and training issues commonly drag on for months and months, if not YEARS. Not to mention there might even be a blame game going on, which I think we can all agree is just not fun at all.
Dog training for your family is really family training. It can be just as powerful at developing better bonds between family members as between everyone and the dog. Working with a trainer also ensures that everyone is learning the best techniques and being helped simultaneously, so there are no conflicting methods, no friction between family members, and best of all, no confused dog! Family dog training is the way to do it and removes a lot of stress off of everyone. No more guesswork or disagreements, the training is laid out for everyone and all of the family members can be on the same page. The topic of training doesn’t have to be a sore subject!
The fact is that there really shouldn’t be conflict and negativity surrounding getting help with training for your dog. The family dog is a light and joy in everyone’s hearts, and most of the time the whole family has the same goals in mind. With guidance from a trainer it is much easier to not only get on the same page, but completely avoid the whole mess of conflict that more often than not comes with trying to find your way alone.
