Tricky dog trainer situation; WWYD? (Long!)

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I moved to a new town last week.

I have a 15-year old largely deaf dog, who is an absolute dreamboat in every way except for separation anxiety.

Since we've just landed in a new place, I thought I'd 'tie' some separation anxiety training into the change of location, so I booked in a local trainer that a few people recommended.

The short version is he was very sweet, but completely useless.

He seems to have a basic programme that he applies to everyone, no matter what the dog or presenting issue is. We spent our 2 hour initial consultation:

• Asking me questions that I'd already answered at length in the intake form (which he hadn't read)
• Playing treat games to teach him to pay attention to me (he's locked on me all the time anyway)
• Taking him for a walk, where I was told he wasn't allowed to smell anything for more than 5 seconds, otherwise he wouldn't respect me, and if you pull a dog away from 'meeting' another dog after 4 seconds then they'll never, ever fight (no idea what that was about)
• Having a disagreement over whether I was going to swap my leash and harness for a slip lead. He said it's vital for my dog to feel secure and happy – I said absolutely not, thank you (my dog has no need for it whatsoever and I'm not going to risk tracheal damage when our current setup works great)

10 minutes before the end of the session, when it was clear he wasn't going to mention the separation anxiety, I said to him "So the issue I wanted help with was his separation anxiety" and he told me to put a scarf on him when I went out that smelled like me.

When I explained to him that my whole house and everything in it smells like me, and I was going to need some guidance on desensitisation, how long to leave him for, how to build up without flooding, how to keep an eye on him when I was outside the front door so I knew when to return... he just kept coming back to the scarf:

"I've never had it not work with a dog. Just go out and do whatever you need to do and he'll be fine."

When I asked what to do if it didn't work, he told me that my dog would pick up on my worry that it wasn't going to work and that would be what caused it not to work.

He says he's going to send me an email with his programme in a report tomorrow, and it's £150 for his consultation and the programme. Then £200 for follow up sessions.

There's no way I'm going to work with this guy further, and I'm pretty annoyed with what happened.

HOWEVER. This is a small town where everyone knows everyone, and I'm new here. Inevitably I'm going to see him around a lot, and he does big group walks with other dog owners who seem to think he's great.

I don't want there to be bad feeling or awkwardness between us, but I'm also not thrilled about paying £150 for something totally useless to me.

Do I just suck it up, pay him, and call it an expensive mistake?

Or do I thank him, tell him not to send me the programme as I won't be using it, and say I'll pay him for his time on the consultation only?

How would you deal with this?

SA is extremely specialised so if you do want to shell out money then you need to go to a trainer who specifically deals with it. That said at his age it’s going to be highly unlikely it will be fixable. I’d just roll with it. He’s got a year or two left at best. Enjoy each other and prevent it in any future dogs.

As an aside, my dog used to be fine being left, but became much more anxious when she became deaf. It’s really tricky to deal with.

Your verbal agreement with him was 150 for initial consultation, report and programme. Don’t pay anything until he has fulfilled his side of the contract, but then yes, you do have to pay, because that is what you agreed to. However, you don’t need to give your reasons for not continuing with his obviously useless programme.
The standard advice for SA is minute increments over time (get ready to go out, but then go back to what you were doing previously, until your dog is no longer triggered by signs you are going out; get ready to go out, leave the house and come straight back in, until your dog is no longer triggered; stay outside for longer periods, etc., etc.). It is extremely time-consuming and tedious, but eventually works. However, given the age of your dog, I would just go with not leaving him alone or leaving him with a sitter.

Dog trainers are the biggest con. They're so greedy

Eh ours has been worth their weight in gold despite having some pretty basic advice

We are pretty clued up but sometimes you need someone external to reinforce what you already know. She's been able to point out some bad habits we've picked up and given us reassurance to pick an approach and stay with it. When we were trying to fix a certain problem, we kept trying all sorts of different things but she made it much clearer and was able to highlight progress when we felt like we were wading through mud

We've also had some bigger problems where she's really come into her own, but the simple stuff was also worth her fee

The reality is a lot of people do need basic advice.

I work in a health care role where sometimes I give people really basic advice and I feel like a complete fraud, however it really does help. Some people obviously need more specific help, but there is also a huge chunk that can be completely transformed by being given "try a kong, try walking your dog more, have a crate, or stop doing the thing that provokes it, type advice.

There's a huge portion of people that don't Google problems, that need encouragement to stick to basic habits and need face to face support

I think I’d pay, put it down to experience and fine someone else.
You want someone who is qualified, not someone who is stuck with the old ‘pack mentality’ era. The scarf around the neck is bonkers and as for letting his dog approach yours, I think that tells you all you need to know!
What you want to look for is a positive reinforcement trainer, some even do remote classes.

The only advice I was given when mine were pups was to get a high value long lasting treat, such as a pigs ear, buffalo horn etc, put something in/on it (which as dog friendly peanut butter or pate). Tie it to a table leg so the dog can’t bring it into another room.
you then go and sit in a separate room, the dog follows but obviously the treat is stuck in the kitchen. Allow the dog to freely go between you and the treat. He will keep checking you’re there, but over time he will become secure enough to realise it’s ok to be in a different room as good stuff happens in there - even when you’re not in there too.
Might be worth a try.
Separation anxiety takes time and patience but can be helped. Hope you manage to find someone to help.

Only the ones who aren’t properly qualified, have little knowledge and they think know everything, they’re definitely a con and greedy. Way too many on Tik Tok who spout an absolute crap, they are definitely a con.

The ones who have studied dog behaviour, have learned how to overcome issues and help dogs, absolutely not. Like any profession, there are good and bad, but not sure it’s fair to lump them all together.

Oh goodness….i had this. Recommended an IMDT behaviourist to look at resource guarding in a 9 month pup. All she did was talk to me for 1.5hrs without my dog, then go into the garden and try to train him with tiny pieces of liver to not jump……£100. Useless but I paid it … I’m a wuss.

i then went online and followed guides, put in lots of training - consistent and slow - were now good

Yes, a good friend of mine had one of these situations too – a trainer who said she specialised in both bodywork and behaviour – for her dog whose reactivity was clearly connected to some physical pain (she'd done a lot of investigative work before the trainer to make sure she set them up for success).

The trainer's guidance was to put pieces of ham down on the ground really slowly, over and over again...

We now refer to anything that's way off-piste and ineffective as 'slow ham' 😂

Dog training advice and support on Facebook has guidance on separation anxiety and also advice on finding/choosing trainers. I think they also have a separate support group for separation anxiety which you pay a fee for (nothing like the price you've been quoted!)

I am a dog trainer and increasingly coming to the conclusion that the standard of dog training is declining rapidly.

I think a good tell is a) whether the trainer can show themselves working with their own dog, doing all the stuff that you want your dog to be able to do and b) do they have a good amount of genuine client reviews and evidence of them successfully working with dogs. There are a couple of trainers/behaviourists in my area who charge a small fortune and through the grapevine (i.e. dissatisfied clients coming to us) they don't tend to get great results. One also has a dog that on more than one occasion has been out of control and run up to/attacked other dogs. They both have a massive social media presence/following, are extremely vocal about only following certain training methods, extremely vocal about the fact that they are fully qualified/registered, and regularly use their social media platform to criticise other trainers. When you look at their content, at least 80% of it is them either talking to camera, sharing memes/infographics, sharing other trainers video content, working with dogs in the blandest/least distracting of environments, or encouraging people to sign up to paid courses to learn how to be a dog trainer themselves. Distinct lack of demonstrating any ability to actually work with dogs or adapt their methods to what is needed for that dog/owner/set up. I wouldn't hesitate to complain, small village or not - these people need to be called out, otherwise these low standards will increasingly become the norm. There, i'll get off my soap box now

The way I see it is there are only a few decent dog trainers about, and the chances of one them happening to be running a practice in my local country park are slim.

I wasn't wrong - I went to one who was recommended and I stopped going when the six week puppy course was finished. Declined any further courses.

Every lesson was the same - give the dog a treat.

Every question or scenario I asked for help with the answer was the same - give the dog treats.

There are great trainers, and a lot of people who think they're great. but few and far between are actually good and local. I get my advice online, from trainers who actually share real training content from realistic environments and don't really on simply distracting the dog with food.