Residential training?

[Redyoyo]

Has anyone used a residential trainer for their dog? Was it worth it?
We have a 6 month old springer and he has hit his teens early and decided he can't be bothered with all the training we have put in with him and now just wants to chase the birds.
We have spoken to a breeder/trainer who will take him for a few weeks and spend a few hours a day with him, at the moment I just can't spend that time training him with home schooling and work.

There’s a BRILLIANT advice group on FB. Dog training advice and support. Worth a look. And a longline would ensure that you could get him back if recall is an issue. (Or hire a safe space for an hour?)

@Delatron

Yes but with the guide dogs the new owners haven’t been trained or done the training with the dog.

I guess if he is less dog reactive when he comes back then I’ll be less stressed and on high alert.

I don’t know what the answer is but I’m not sure I’m the best person to work with him on dog fear issues. We are working with a behaviourist. So more ££!

No, but being trained in a home environment for eighteen months solid is very different to getting a week or two of training in a kennel, then being sent back home again.

I actually think these residential training centres are generally very irresponsible - they advertise quick fix training and most issues are a) down to the owners or b) not something that can be resolved in two weeks.

I also think programmes like Dogs Behaving Badly (that like to advertise lots of quick-fix solutions to dog aggression) don't help either. Most training techniques take weeks and months of daily repetition to get solved.

I appreciate that sounds negative but a lot of training requires dogs and owners to work together and for owners to learn how to react in certain situations. That can't happen if they're not there.

I also wonder about people who take in failed guide dogs. Does all that training go out of the window just because they are with a new family? Not from what I’ve seen.

Training needs continual reinforcement to stay around, for the most part. The extent to which this happens will vary massively, according to the strength of the lesson to start with, the individual dog, the environment s/he then lives in and what counter reinforcement is happening (accidentally or otherwise).

But yes, if you take a dog and teach it to bring you a sock (e.g only) then send it to a house where sock bringing is no longer practiced or reinforced then the sock bringing will eventually be forgotten.

If that dog gets the sock training for a day, it is most likely going to forget it quickly.

If that dog spends 5 years being trained to bring a sock, then it is likely to take years to forget it.

If that dog is trained to bring a sock but in his new home, he is punished (even accidentally) for bringing that sock, he is likely to learn not to bring socks.

Apply that to recall:

• in a new environment with a new trainer the dog learns that coming when called is rewarded.
• he goes home and the owners use the same command but never reward it; the learning is forgotten
• he goes home and the owners remember to reward for the first few weeks but then stop; it takes a bit longer but the learning is forgotten
• he goes home and recall is only ever used to signal the end of a walk (e.g. accidental punishment); the dog learns not to recall

There will be exceptions to that but the fundamental principles of learning mean they are the most likely options.

Training is different to personality shaping. A dog brought up to be settled and steady is likely to keep that personality. Especially if they have also been selectively bred to have those traits - as guide dogs are.

Oh, and guide dogs that are successful go to owners that are taught all this - and that commit to doing the maintenance required to keep training fresh in the dog's mind. Otherwise, even the successful dogs' training is lost eventually.

Yes but with the guide dogs the new owners haven’t been trained or done the training with the dog.

The owners of the succesful ones absolutely are trained and do a lot of work to:

a) help the dog make the shift to apply learning when with their new owners and in their new environments
b) understand how they then have the reinforce that training for the rest of the dog's life, otherwise it weakens/gets forgotten

@ThunderboltKid

Yes, I have. We had a anxious dog-aggressive springer. It’s all a much longer story, but she went to a trainer for a 4-week residential placement. We had an hour or two handover at the end. It was amazing and a life changing experience for all of us. She has learnt to ignore other dogs and is a well trained working springer these days. It’s was ridiculous expensive, but we had tried everything else first.

listen to those that have experience. There are some weird views on this thread

Really glad it worked out for you Thunderboltkid.

For a specific problem, I think it can work well but In your circumstance I don’t think I would, as your main problem is your pup becoming a tricky age where they push the boundaries, have limited self control and general act like idiots for a while and it all goes out of the window

Even the most brilliant of trainers can’t magic the pup into an older, more sensible dog. It’s not necessarily that your dog needs ‘training’ per say, it’s more that he needs the mental capacity of a more adult dog to remember that training under distraction.

@ThunderboltKid that sounds amazing. Exactly what we need.

I appreciate all the other training (which I’ve done) such as recall, manners, etc needs to be done at home with me.

But I can’t teach him not to be scared of other dogs as I don’t have the facilities and spare dogs to do it! I guess fear reactivity isn’t actually a training issue.

Sorry to derail this thread!

I also agree that age is a factor. Training goes out of the window when they are a teenager.

Mine is better now he is two in so many areas. Just he was attacked quite a few times when younger so has these fear issues.