3 reasons why you probably fail at dog training
As a certified dog trainer, I have visited countless families and their dogs.
I’ve seen the best of the best and I’ve seen people who fall flat on their nose right at the start.
Here are 3 reasons why many of them, and probably you too, don’t achieve great success with their dog.
Dog training is hard
If you’ve ever seen any dog trainers online, you might think. “Wow, I just have to pull the leash like that and I’ll get results?” Well…. no.
Even though dogs are all around us, and media likes to bump up the drama and the speed of dog training, in reality dog training is a really slow, hard, boring topic.
Dog training composes of a million tiny things you do with your dog every day - it’s not just a party trick. When it comes to dog training like to say “slow and steady wins the race”. It’s not about going for a run once, or telling your dog to “sit” or to stop being naughty - it’s consistency and patience that help you get there.
If you are willing to spend months, and even years learning about it, only then will it be easier.
2. Not everyone has what it takes to be a good dog owner
Even though anyone can get a dog, the harsh truth is that about 99% of dog owners aren’t actually fit to be good dog owners.
A lot of people just choose a dog by it’s cuteness level, which leads to a problem, where many people end up taking a dog breed that is out of their capabilities. Many actually don’t have the time to put into dog training.
But above all else, many people just aren’t ready to learn and to change.
I personally see this all the time. With human fitness we have understood that if we want to get a sixpack, we need to change our diet and our exercise and some general habits around it.
But with dogs, as soon as the dog trainer says that the owners should change the diet, exercise and home habits, owners’ immediate reaction is: “Ehmmm, no.”
There are always tons of excuses like “I don’t like running; I don’t have the time”, but let’s be honest, mostly it really is about laziness, not about the lack of time.
3. Dogs are not like anything else
A common mistake for many people - and let’s admit, even we were victims of this - is that we don’t realise that dogs are specific animals.
When speaking about dogs, people imagine couches, tennis balls and wet kisses.
With dogs, most owners also have to get over this misunderstanding first, before they can see any big results. Dogs think in a certain way. Dogs live in a certain way. Dogs need certain things.
And what do they need, if it isn’t couches and wet kisses? Ahh, now you’re asking the right question!
How do you start not failing?
The most fool proof way, is by failing in new ways. Most people do the same things and fail the same way, again and again. They might try something new once, fail once, and then never try anything new ever again.
But the good way forward is to always try out new things:
try to read a random dog training book;
try watching a random dog trainer’s videos online;
try some new activities with your dog;
talk to random dog trainers.
Try to understand why they recommend certain things. Just try them out in a small way with your dog as well and start forming understandings on how they affect you and your dog.
We have found that we don’t always agree 100% with any trainer, but at the same time, agree a little bit with everyone. After going through countless trainers, we gathered up the best parts of what they taught and finally achieved great successes with many dogs.
We even created our own training program called Pocket Puppy School. We recommend you to check it out - it’s free!
But let us know what you think and also, what you fail at with your dog. We’ll try to reply and also give some extra tips for you!
Haven’t heard about Pocket Puppy School before?
Pocket Puppy School is a completely free dog training app. Our mission is to make information about raising dogs accessible to everyone in the world.
But in addition to our app, we have a blog (that you are currently reading 🤓) where we talk all things about dogs.
We post some informational and fun content to our Instagram page and believe it or not, we even have a merch store. 🥹 In the store you can get a t-shirt or a hoodie with your own dog picture that we will make into an awesome design.
Feel free to check out all of our channels, and if you have any questions, leave a comment down below.
Thank you!
