So often when people are thinking about hiring a dog trainer, it’s because there is something wrong. Something wrong with how things are going in their home. Something wrong with their relationship with their dog. Something wrong with their dog.
They are looking for an expert to “fix it”.
Before I worked in rescue, I had fearful rescues, seniors with medical issues, dogs with difficult behaviors (reactive on lead, counter-surfing, spinning, barking).
You know what? I never hired a trainer. I loved my dogs and I thought they were perfect. I didn’t think they needed to do stuff, be obedient, or be fixed. I just wanted to love them and for us to live a happy life together. My opinion on that hasn’t changed.
Is this you? Is your dog fine the way they are? You bet.
What has changed for me is that I now know, and have learned a lot of things, that could have made my previous dogs and cats happier. With our animal companions and their shorter lives and our busy lives, there’s always a feeling of not being able to do enough for them.
I’ve learned a lot of simple things —and many of them neither costly nor time consuming—that can improve animals' quality of life and help ease our distress and guilt about whether we are doing “enough” for them.
These things are great to evaluate when you are bringing a new animal into your home, when your senior animal is approaching end of life, or when you are dealing with a difficult transition.
Yes, happiness may include some training — but it will be fun for everyone, I promise. I see training as just another way to communicate with your companion. You’ll know you’re doing it right when you see their eyes light up and their wiggles of enthusiasm.
The happiness assessment is a custom experience to learn all about how your animal spends their days and experiences their world and to find ways, do-able ways, that you can make their life with you even better.
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