Dog Trainers usually get into the business of training dogs in order to help dogs and owners live healthier and happier lives together. I know that when I got into the business of training dogs 30 years ago I was very idealistic. My goal was to make every dog and owner relationship the best that it could be. Although this goal has not changed, it has become a lot more realistic over the years. Pet products

One thing I learned pretty early on is that I didn't have any control over the situations that were going to be presented to me. It was the owners that truly cared about their dogs and truly wanted to learn how to improve their relationships that kept me going. If it was not for these positive and motivated souls I probably would have given up early on. The rewards in the business of dog training has very little to do with money. Sure, everyone who runs a business wants to make money at it, but believe me, there are easier ways to make money. I currently work over 12 hour days because with a kennel on our property and a full time staff I wake up in the morning working and don't totally relax until the dogs are put away at night and the staff leaves at 9: 00 pm. This is 365 days per year because dogs need care constantly just like children.

When you can actually make a difference in the lives of people and dogs this is the greatest reward possible. Having people say things like "we love you guys" or "this is the best money we ever spent and it has made such a difference in our lives" is music to our ears. It is this kind of response to our services that keeps us going. Likewise, our staff of trainers have the same response to this type of praise. Since we are dealing with the public there are many times that frustrations arise. People can be rude, entitled, chronically late for appointments, demanding, and sometimes just downright unreasonable. Like most businesses we try to take this in stride as much as possible. Over the years however, we have learned that there is a line we have to draw in the sand at a certain point and say "this far and no further. "

At times it isn't really the dog or the owner that is the problem, it is simply the situation. A couple of situations we see on a fairly regular basis is a mismatch of dog and owner or a mismatch of dog to environment. In this case, training may help the overall situation but cannot totally rectify the problem. Take for instance a client who is in her 70's who is given a Malamute puppy. The woman weighs in at 100 pounds and has fragile bones. She lives alone without much help from the grandchildren that presented her with this puppy. Or the couple who decided to purchase an adult Great Dane and a Saint Bernard puppy even though they lived in a small apartment without a patio or balcony. Although a trainer can be of assistance in these situations, to some degree the situations themselves create the problem.

The focus of this article however, is not the typical difficulties that trainers encounter with the public and their dogs, but rather what I call the "red flag" clients and dogs. These are clients and/or dogs that can get a trainer into various kinds of trouble and conflict. This trouble could range from verbal arguments, to lawsuits, workers compensation cases due to injuries inflicted by the dog, or even in worst case scenarios physical violence towards the trainer because the client turns out to be unstable or even a convicted felon. All of these situations can and will happen to the trainer at some time in their career through absolutely no fault of their own. The last point should be understood, these things can happen to even the most experienced and the most diligent trainer with the best intentions in the world. Why? Because we have no control over who comes through our doors. The only thing we as trainers can do is to learn where to draw the line.

"Red Flag" clients or dogs usually fall into one of 3 categories:

1) Dangerous dog with well intentioned owner: This situation is the best of the three scenarios because you at least have a reasonable person to deal with. The typical situation we encounter here is that the dog is the potential threat to the staff. To a certain degree a dog who is dominant or fear aggressive may be worth the risk to rehabilitate because you have good and well intentioned owners in this case. There are however, the cases where the dog is dangerously aggressive and may have already had bites on record. You can predict that the dog will bite a staff member or trainer. This is a difficult decision but the experienced trainer knows where to draw the line at protecting the staff. Looking at the worst case scenario here, a badly bitten trainer could be out of commission for quite awhile. There is also the possibility of complications from a bite due to infection or severity of a wound that could put the trainer in to a state of permanent disability. This client is not difficult to turn down for training because they are reasonable enough to understand that you cannot put your staff at risk. They understand that it is the dog and not them personally that you must refuse. They will often be appreciative of your honesty and advice and return later with another dog.

2) Unreasonable owner with a difficult dog: The typical owner in this situation is one who is either in denial about their dog and/or expects you to magically change their dog into something that it is not and never will be. Take for instance the owner who brings in a dog that is genetically high strung. When a trainer explains that some of the things the client is complaining about are due to breed characteristics or perhaps just bad breeding, the client may disregard this information and insist that the training must solve this problem altogether. This client may demand guarantees on results and show little interest in being involved in the training themselves. The overwhelming feeling one gets with talking to an owner like this is that the impression they have of training is that if they pay enough they will get back the perfect dog with a remote control and they will not have to do anything themselves to help train the dog.