One of the questions I ask new students is what they want out of the training. Since each dog and owner are unique, the amount of effort required to get to those goals varies considerably. Let’s consider an example: the Pointer mix I’ve been working with over the last month or so. He’s a super nice dog, but has several insecurities. We have completed two lessons and are scheduled for a third.
This rescued male dog is about 2 years old and his main issues upon adoption were 1.) He was afraid of having anyone put on a leash or collar; 2.) Insecure with strangers coming into the home; 3.) Fearful of going into the backyard; 4.) Potty accidents in the home; 5.) Afraid of going out or in the doggie door; and 6.) Inability to go for a walk on leash, and 7.) Somewhat possessive of fetch toys. Regarding the owner, 1.) she is a calm senior citizen; 2.) lives a quiet life; doesn’t have big aspirations regarding what she plans on doing with her dog other than being a home companion; 3.) she has a small group of guests come over and visit once per week; and 4.) Needs to be able to take the dog to the veterinarian as normally required of all dogs.
On the first lesson, there was no way we were going to be able to solve all her dog’s issues that afternoon. That was just not possible. The rescue organization had a volunteer who was unsuccessful in getting this dog to accept a collar or leash, so they had to carry this big dog to put him into the car. After a full evaluation, I set out some reasonable immediate goals. I felt the three most important goals would be to get her dog to 1.) Go outside and potty through the back door; and 2.) Accept a collar and leash; and 3.) Accept her weekly guests. We went over the homework. The things I assign are typically exercises and methods that most people are unfamiliar with. So, it takes some demonstrations and explanations for them to be understood. First lesson over, then I left for my next student.
Two weeks later, I saw her and the dog again. She had made great progress. She could put a leash and collar on him. He accepted her guests and that went well. He would go into the back yard and potty. He had gone back and forth through the doggie door a few times on his own, but that was still a work in progress. No more potty accidents in the home. Thus, she had done the homework correctly and we were ready for the next set of exercises. This time, we focused more on leash walking and the beginnings of basic commands. It’s now been 2 more weeks, and we are scheduled for a third lesson.
How much training was necessary? Well, certainly more than one lesson. But the dog had already had numerous, unsuccessful, lessons with the rescue trying to get him to accept a collar and leash. So, the number of lessons more depends upon the quality of the training, the issues involved, the proper sequencing of steps, and the personality and needs of the owner. These things can’t just be predicted like reading a cookbook and saying that any dog can be made perfect in one week or 5 lessons. It just doesn’t work that way.
I didn’t know how many lessons this dog would take when I received the referral from the rescue. I still don’t know how many lessons we need to satisfactorily meet the owner’s needs. Instead, we are going to work with this dog, step by step, towards what she wants. We are also going to consider how the dog feels about all of this, and not push him in such a way that makes things worse. My training is always open ended. I don’t offer dog training packages, such as a stated dollar amount for a set number of days to accomplish a set of goals. Instead, I make the training fit the dog and the owner, and then we do the right things along the way to get there as efficiently as possible. There is also a point where we have done enough training, and we reach a point of diminishing returns. Sometimes you have taken a dog as far as that dog can be taken, and the lessons completed are sufficient. Either way, that is how much dog training is necessary.