Parable of the Dog Kicker
So I recently purchased a puppy. Everyone else had one and I figured it was time for me to join the rest of the world. They really are endless hours of entertainment and can even sometimes be trained to do useful things like protect the house and get the paper. So of course I did all kinds of reading on types of dogs and dog care and dog grooming and truly absorbed all the information I could because well, that's what you do for a big purchase like this. So armed with all my new doggy info I went and bought a beautiful Siberian Husky and named him Poseidon, Sid for short.
Now I knew that I am not really fully qualified to train said puppy so I figured well let me get some help. I had heard there was a small place near me that was great. But it wasn't easy to find and I was too lazy to put in the work. So I went to the big place with the large lights and the full parking lot. If the parking lot is full it must be good right? Signing up was easy too. I handed them my credit card and they pulled up everything ever about me and signed me right up, promising of course to keep my info protected. Again, so many people here they must do a good job.
So it was the first lesson and everything seemed great. They were so great with all the dogs and managed to get all the dogs to behave together so simply it seemed magic. But after several lessons and my being so happy I spent the extra money things started getting odd.
I had been reading up on training so I could be an active participant in the training of my puppy. I used a technique I had read in a book to get my puppy to sit and the instructor got very angry with me and kicked my puppy. He yelled something incoherent at me and stormed off. A fellow owner explained to me that the instructor was upset because I used a method that wasn't part of their proven methodology. I was confused how he managed to glean that meaning from the incoherent ramble but once he explained it to me it kind of made sense.
A week later another odd thing happened. A rash of fleas broke out in the class. Seems one of the brushes they use on the puppies got infested with them and then spread to all the other dogs. I asked them to replace the brush and again the instructor kicked my dog and yelled incoherently at me. I turned to the man who had explained the last ramble to me and he explained that the brushes were special brushes from a partner company and they never replace them.
I began asking around after classes about the other place that I hadn't been able to find. All the people in my class told me how awful it was. That the instructors were rude and spoke over your head and the place was hard to find and their methods didn't work and weren't proven. A few people in work on the other hand raved about this other place and how great it was. I was so confused.
So I went to my usual Tuesday night class again and upon entering was told I needed to pay another $200. I asked what for and they said they changed the contract as they are entitled to do under the terms of the agreement I signed. They noticed that I had purchased Dog Chow on my credit card and that they had an exclusive agreement with Kibbles and Bits. I was apparently free to purchase Dog Chow, but it would cost me a $200 surcharge every time I did. Well this was enough for me. I immediately stormed out, determined to find that other training place. It had to be better than this. Of course an instructor kicked my dog on the way out the door.
I finally found the other place with a little help from a co-worker. It was an odd place and felt a little uncomfortable at first. Signing up wasn't easy, there was a lot of paperwork, but they didn't ever ask for my credit card or other very personal information.
The instruction was a bit weird at first. All the instructors had a different style and it often took talking to several of them before I found a method that worked well for Sid. But none of them ever kicked Sid so he was much happier. They also put a lot more emphasis on me doing the training. They were their to guide me, not do it for me. That was very different from the big place I had been at. So after a few weeks of struggles Sid and I are doing great. He is very well behaved and can do some really cool tricks like catch frisbees and fetch the paper. It isn't easy to teach him new tricks sometimes I get quite confused in the process, but we eventually get there and the results are always better than expected.
All and all it has been an odd process but I am now much happier with Sid than I was at the other place. No more fleas and no more kicking so Sid is happy too. I hope this can serve to help others make good decisions with training their puppies. The little place is not easy to find or work with at first, but the results speak for themselves.
Would you take your dog to a place where they kicked him? Then why would you install Windows on your computer?