Milo's Success Story!

Milo came to us after having aggression issues with people.  A few weeks in to a 9-5 Monday to Friday program Milo was doing great with us; he was learning quickly and we were all amazed by his progress in both his obedience training and his overall demeanor.  His mother, however, always seemed to be on edge when she came to pick him up or drop him off.   She also reported that he was still behaving in a dangerous manner around them; especially in their home.  We asked her a series of questions in a curious tone and found out that she wasn’t really doing the homework we assigned.  We asked more questions and found out that she really was not comfortable using the prong collar; even with the high amount of food rewards and play we had used alongside it.  We decided not to use the prong collar and just used the slip lead.  His parents did a lot of work with structured play and the remote collar and found a ton of value in that.  After a 3rd week we decided to switch to him just coming a few days a week for training so that they had time to catch up to him as he learned very quickly.  We also did sessions in their usual environment where they were seeing him still persist in the problem behaviors.  In the end, they achieved a high level of success with Milo, as he is no longer aggressive towards people at all.   They have since been able to enjoy a normal life with him that every dog owner deserves.  As much as I was grateful to have taught Milo and his parents the truth is they taught me a valuable lesson.  As a dog trainer it’s important that we learn to listen to the dog and teach them well. The reality is it’s more important that we learn how to listen to the client so that we can teach them well.  I remember years ago I heard Chad Mackin talk about alternatives to traditional boarding and training programs and I kind of scoffed at the idea.  How would it be possible to train the dogs and the owners and still make a living if I couldn’t do everything the same with every dog and every client?   How would I be able to train other trainers to work underneath me if we did things differently and at  different paces in different cases?  Overtime I found a way.  The truth is, of course it is a trade-off; running a different program or a custom program for different clients has its ups and downs.   One of the ups is that Milo and more importantly his family came out successfully after working with me; another is that I can look back at that almost identical dog that came to me 3 years ago, and know I did it right this time.   Back then I didn’t give myself permission to change my program and slow it down for the client to catch up.  More importantly, though back, then I would never have even really understood that it was simply just an issue of a certain training tool and if I simply understood that, everything would actually be just fine.  In that moment of listening to her and understanding her m, not only was I using the tool she was comfortable with, but I was showing her that she could really trust me to understand her needs.  Because of the trust, I do feel that she was able to follow my lead better as her trainer and do the homework with enthusiasm.   She went from perhaps feeling that the “homework” we suggested was a chore to being so proud of herself and her abilities with her dog.   Milo is now living happily ever after with his family and friends :)

I just had to put the story out here because I see so many stories and comments on these forums that seem to be blaming the owners for the failure of the dogs during or after training.   I would like to put this story out there for any of the younger trainers out there to let them know, there is a different way…..with the dogs…..as well as the people.