Dog residential training. Would you?

[NameChange245]

My doggy is wonderful, but quite hard to train. We also don't have a huge amount of time to take him for daily classes, and weekly classes don't seem to help much! We've tried v v hard with training him ourselves, but he's still rubbish with recall, and never listens to a word I say (nor do my children!!! So he fits right in with the family! But also, i know it's a me problem!!). I've seen advertised a residential, 4 week training programme. It gets great reviews with owners saying stuff like 'dog had the best time', 'dog loved it there', 'dog came home completely transformed', 'dog now well behaved'... you get the picture.

They also spend time with the owner at the end of the course, showing you how to keep up the good work so the great training doesn't get undone!

It's so tempting, but ....

I love my doggy soooo much! I'll miss him alot, and also, will he know we are coming back for him???

Would you send your doggy on a 4 week residential training programme? Or is this mean? Has anyone done it? Any regrets? Do you think dog was happy?

(My pup is currently 10 months. Would you wait til he's been neutered or do it before?)

I would not consider it for one second.

You have no idea what training methods they use

I wouldn’t do it.
it will be a huge shock, a big change in environment, likely to be stressful and different people training him doesn’t mean he will do it for you when he gets home.
in my experience ( fostered , home checked, worked with rescue dogs for 20 years) it’s rarely the dogs, and usually the people / situation that’s the problem.
sorry, it’s not what you want to hear, but I think you need to make time to train together.

someone I know did it , great reviews etc, and the dog has been an absolute mess ever since.

No point, you both have to be trained together. I’m still going to classes with my 15 month old to keep me accountable.

Thanks! Yes, maybe this was a mad idea!! And a bit lazy on my part - something quite appealing about sending doggy away and him returning transformed!! (I guess it's similar to why parents send kids to boarding school! I'd never do that so maybe I shouldn't be considering this for my doggy either!!)

I wouldn't because it just means the dog will behave for the trainer and not you.

You need patience and consistency for dog training and most importantly you need a bond with your dog.

Thanks all for the wake up!! I think I'm tired, and just saw this and thought it might be the easy way out! (Secretly had hoped everyone would say 'oh yes, great idea, we did this and it's the best thing we ever did!!!' but that's not happened!)

Nope , it’s not just the dog that needs training the family does too .

if you don’t have time to train you haven’t got time for a dog

Bit harsh! But point taken :)

They also spend time with the owner at the end of the course, showing you how to keep up the good work so the great training doesn't get undone!

You may as well learn how to do it yourself. There is no magic difference between initial training and keeping up the training - they are the same thing. The same actions. The same principles.

omg absolutely not!

from what I have heard they are barbaric!

Really? 😢😢😢😢

Nope

Not a chance. Either they use techniques you can access yourself via a good trainer or aversives like wire slip leads. Usually the latter, for quick results, so you pick your dog up, they show you how to do the hard jerk on the neck and yes, voila! your dog heels beautifully. Of course it does, it’s been traumatised away from you and so it’s going to behave.

Ok thanks all. That's helped my decision, and we will just keep persevering with the training ourselves :) The easy way is always tempting, but I guess the hard path is usually always the one to take!

😢😢😢this is making me feel really sad.

Anyone know if there are ethical and kind residential trainers out there? (Don't worry, I've decided against it based on this thread. It's just that now I'm feeling sad for the other dogs and hoping not all residential training facilities use mean methods).

No - in my experience 80% of dog training is actually training the owner. I expect after a few weeks at home you'd be back to square one.

He’s still so young, I’m sure he’ll get it if you keep up the training. Recall starts in the house. Make it the best decision for him to come to you, you have to be the most exciting thing, which is a big ask for a 10 month old dog!
Total Recall by Pippa Mattinson is an excellent book.
Good luck, I’m sure you’ll get there!

Thanks :)

Anyone know if there are ethical and kind residential trainers out there

A couple of breed specific rescues I support use behaviourists in conjunction with foster owners (and occasionally dogs spend time with the behaviourist in their premises), so residential training like that does exist. It doesn’t guarantee results in a 4 week period and the support continues when the dog is rehomed.

Please don't do it.
The best way to train a dog is little and often.

Plus creating training opportunities.

Just an example for recall: With an adolescent dog like yours, I'd start with when I know the dog is most likely to come. First in the house, maybe when ready to get the lead: doggy come & treat then say let's go walkies. Then put your shoes & coat on plus lead.
(You can also practice walking to heel when you walk from your kitchen/ living room to get shoes/ lead. Down stay when you put shoes on and a sit for collar - you get the idea!

When he's out in the garden and ready to come in... doggy come! & treat.

Just call him randomly while you waTVh TV. Have treats ready, then teach a few tricks like give paw, down, roll over ect.

Most dogs will eventually learn, for some commands it's days and others it's months! So be patient, reward the second your dog does something right and ignore the rest.

Thanks!

how often do you practice what you have learned?

Some friends of mine did this, with a lovely trainer, they got to drop by and see the dog and had a lot of testimonials from happy owners and it was very successful. Their dog came home happy and much easier to walk. I am working on training my younger dog at the moment, and if I had less time, or a difficult dog, I would totally consider it. Animals are very adaptable - your dog will be fine, and as long as you have some intensive help too, there is no reason not to do this.

Thanks! Good to hear a more positive story

Name changed as I used to work at a residential boarding. Apologies for the ramble

I would not send my dog there now. It was run by nice enough people with no abuse or any thing but it just wasn't effective for a few reasons.

There is obviously always a risk that it's abusive and doing methods they wouldn't do in front of owners. A former manager of some of the royvons ( a big name is residential training) for example has been banned from dogs due to animal cruelty of their own dogs for example.

It's so important that you have a trusting relationship with your trainer and that they use methods you believe in and feel able to continue yourself.

1. How much training was done vs what was promised. We would often spend really small amounts of times with the dogs. Owners would be promised large amounts of personal training with a training but often it was fairly small amounts (about 15 min a day) usually with people like myself who was simply a kennel hand. I didn't have any specific training, or accreditation etc Some dogs only met the qualified trainer for the handovers and initial meet and greet to talk about the plan. I now train using imdt techniques but certainly cringe on how we were handling people's dogs then.

2. it's a false environment. Lots of dogs problems behaviours exist when they are in specific environments. Often we don't train the same dog you do. Lots of residentials aren't in home environments so home based issues are unlikely to be resolved eg boisterousnes with visitors.

3. it's such a short burst. It's the owner that needs to do 90% of the training. Lots of modern dog trainers never even hold a dogs lead but teach the owner instead. For example it's no good be doing say 10 cracking on lead walks, if after that the owner does 2 walks a day for a few months. Dogs need constant reinforcement and every chance they get to reherse an opportunity like pulling reinforces the behaviour. We saw lots of dogs come back reptivelty for top up training because they'd left the training and gone back to the same environment they left.

There are times when it can be really beneficial to do training in a totally different environments take forexample a dog with reactivity.
Working in a residential training may mean they have access to dogs that you don't have, they may be able to take the dog out of the environment eg a new walk may be a fresh environment to practice in. Sometimes an owner might be incredibly nervous and that might be reinforcing dog anxiety. However the aim should always be to get the dog back working with the owner ASAP.

For the money it costs I would pay for 1:1 training at home where you are an active partner