Do you pay dog trainers up front?

[listsandbudgets]

I am looking for a dog trainer.

I spoke to a lady yesterday on the phone who seemed quite understanding and has good reviews so far as I can see though they're on her website and facebook page so no way of knowing whether others have been deleted. She's the first one we've approached.

She charges £50 an hour which I suspect is average but the kicker is that she wants me to pay the full course of 8 sessions up front before she even does the first session. I've never even met her. £400 seems a lot to gamble on someone who may turn out to be wrong for us or prove unreliable or worse the dog decides she doesn't like her. It's very rare for the dog to take a dislike (maybe 2 people I can think of) but if she does she retreats barking under the table and refuses to come out which would make for a fun session!!

So just wondering if this is normal practise. I assumed I'd pay a session at a time. Financially I can do it either way but it feels a bit off.

We’ve used two different trainers. The first was an 8-week block of obedience and agility classes, which were paid for upfront. All fine because we were with DDog during the lessons and it covers them for no-shows.

We also sent him on a week-long residential behaviourist course to someone who had been recommended by people I know personally and who has outstanding reviews, but he didn’t take payment until after we had collected DDog, possibly to reassure us that we would actually get him back?!

Definitely shop around and read reviews carefully.

No, not in my experience - there's absolutely no way I'd be handing £400 over to someone who's never even met my dog before either.

What is standard is paying for the first session upfront, then the remainder of the block at the end of that session, if that makes sense. So you'd pay £50 now, and then if you were happy with the trainer, pay for the remaining sessions up front to secure your place.

Ours is £50 for a month (an hour a week) so that seems like a lot.

We paid for our puppy course upfront. The hall is booked for the duration so the trainer has to cover herself for those who sign up but don't turn up after the first couple of sessions.

These days dog training is expensive as it's people of working age doing it. 30+ years ago it was older people, semi-retired but properly qualified, doing it for no profit, so £10 per session was standard. Our current trainer is one of the top trainers in the country and I pay £30/hour, with one other dog sharing the session.

I've only ever known it to be that the first session is free or you can 'sit in' on a few session to see if the trainer & training suits you.

My current trainer (group based obedience & agility) has a lesson selling group, so if you can't make it you can sell the lesson on to someone else. However, I have to stress, we are all committed and in for the long run. Not sure if this would work for a 8 or 10 week course.

PS we pay £10.- hour in a group of 4... so £50 - seems ok albeit on the expensive side as you won't do full blown training for the whole hour.
Dogs do benefit from little breaks in between exercises...

I would guess that they dont need to worry about clients if they want full upfront payment.

Personally, i'd want recommendations from people i know and at least a thorough zoomchat with the trainer to understand their methods before i parted with that kind of cash

It was a while ago, but my trainer charged by the week. If you couldn’t go, you didn’t pay. She is very in demand and ran multiple classes in a week, so you could arrange class swops, and as they grew older, she encouraged that so they met new dogs and people.
£400 upfront is a lot. What if you hate her style? It happens.

I asked and she agreed to be paid by the session.

It will be worth every penny if we can stop the dog chasing cyclists and runners - I'm a nervous wreck every time I let her off at the moment. I thought I could stop her by myself and seemed to be having some success for a while but it's time to get help