Benefits of Professional Dog Training - 10 Reasons Why Your Dog Needs It

Adopting a puppy or a full grown dog is a long term commitment. Many times, our dogs outlast our jobs and cars, sometimes even lasting beyond houses, serious relationships, and marriages. However, if a puppy or new dog is not trained properly, it can easily end up banished to the back yard, at a shelter, or worse being euthanized.

These sad endings could all be prevented by making the simple investment in professional dog training whether by a trainer or a course with other dogs, owners, and a professional trainer guiding the group. Even an adult dog from a shelter responds very well to professional dog training when it is applied as soon as the dog is adopted because the "new house rules" come with the new environment which even makes sense to a dog.

Here are 10 reasons why professional dog training from a professional dog trainer is a smart idea:

1. Clarity into Potential Behavioral Issues - Professional trainers can see things that owners are blind to, meaning the expression "love is blind" is just as true for dog owners as it is for people in new relationships. A professional dog trainer has the wisdom and experience to see a potential problem when it is a little weed to help an owner nip it before it turns into a mighty oak. Dog trainers will point out that this cute issue will not be so cute in 6 months if it is not trained out, they can also give insight into what is a molehill or just part of puppyhood that will be outgrown so a dog is not abused.

2. Knowledge on How to Nip a Problem Fast - Professional dog trainers are able to take your dog's breed, temperament, personality, and history combined with the dog owner's family dynamics into combination to form an action plan to nip bad behavior or potential problems quickly. Why? They have the experience with many dogs and many people. A seasoned professional dog trainer with experience with your specific dog breed or mix will usually know exactly what to do, if not, they have a network that they are able to find out fast, much faster than the average person.

3. High Quality Advice - Never underestimate the importance of high quality advice. A professional dog trainer's advice and training versus the average recommendation from a friend is like the difference between a practicing surgeon and an office assistant at a medical office. The professional has studied it, learned it, tested it, and is now going to share it with you. If you were going to have a surgery, who do you want advice from? If you are going to train a dog, where do you want to get advice from? Remember a dog has a lifespan on average of 8 year up to nearly 20 years depending on some breeds.

4. Shorter Total Time Invested in Learning About Training Methods - Most people don't specialize in training dogs, they have day jobs and hobbies that they enjoy. While getting a new dog and playing with the dog is fun, learning about new methods, animal psychology, breed traits, dominate behaviors, normal behaviors, etc. is time consuming. Tack on the problem of massive quantities of information available on dog training in print and over the Internet, yet it is hard to decipher whether the source really knows what they are talking about or not. Do they have a page or a website to get hits and advertise or to truly inform and educate? Has the writer owned a dog? What is their actual training or experience, and are they lying? Lying is a big problem in cyberspace. When it comes to such an important decision like dog training, it is important to make sure that the information is good and able to be understood and applied in a timely manner - before any bad habits or traits get broken in. Rather than becoming a dog training specialist, it is often more timely, wise, and convenient to just hire a professional dog trainer.

5. Shorter Time Invested into Actual Training - Professional dog trainers can spend time with a dog, ask a few questions, and then almost immediately prescribe a plan of training as well as all the steps to do the training. If an owner has any questions or issues, the trainer is a call or visit away. Due to this, the dog owner who invests in professional dog training usually finds that their dog is trained in record speed and bad habits are broken quickly or better yet entirely averted. Less time training or experimenting with advice from a neighbor or distant relative means more time doing important things like playing Frisbee with a well behaved dog who is also completely housebroken and never eats your shoes.

6. Better Trained Dog Vast Majority of the Time - The majority of dogs that go through basic training or classes have much better behavior, less behavioral problems, and less irritating quirks like crotch sniffing, scratching, howling, etc. that dogs that don't. Dogs whose owners invest in great professional dog training have great dogs, the ones that all the other dog owners are envious of. There was an accountant in DeLand, Florida who had a well trained large breed dog that would sit in his practice all day without disturbing customers. If a customer was afraid of this dog, his owner could tell him to sit and wait outside the practice door and that dog would sit and wait for as long as needed. This is professional dog training at it's finest. There was a pit bull greyhound mix adopted from animal control that used to sit in the local pet store and children would climb all over him - he loved it and was completely trustworthy, another example of how great dogs are made from great training. He was trained so well that parents were surprised and shocked to really that upon closer inspection, he was indeed a very odd-colored half pit bull.

7. Supervised and Safe Opportunities for Dog Socialization - Professional dog trainers are able to advise how to properly play with a dog to prevent future attacks and accidents, as well as how to socialize the dog with people, other dogs, other animals, and strangers. Many times they are able to provide opportunities, sometimes through classes, dog socialization events, or even with the use of their own well trained pups. This type of training is very important, if all dogs received it, it would reduce many problems including animals being sent to shelters as adults when they don't get along with a new spouse, child, baby, or pet. Proper socialization is so important and it is so widely accepted that dog trainers do an excellent job with this, that some insurance companies will offer a discount on home insurance if you own a dog that has papers from a qualified and accepted trainer or dog training school. Call your home own insurance company and find out if this applies in your area.

8. Professional Trained Dogs Behave Better with Children - Professional dog trainers handle each dog like a math teacher handles a student - they want the student to come out knowing the important material. Professional dog trainers have broader perspective than most owners. Many owners neglect proper training and engage in inappropriate play or discipline with their dogs creating a problem dog, especially with children. Had the dog been properly trained, a minor or major dog bite or attack could have been prevented. Sometimes owners think "Oh, my dog won't be around children or strangers, so training is not necessary;" however, this is unwise because most people are not able to control neighbors and visits from strangers, whether the mailman or girl scout selling cookies. Dogs need to be trained so that they will listen to an owner rather than needing to be locked up or restrained because they are either too nervous and prone to nip children or too boisterous knocking small children or visitors around.

9. Eliminates the Need to Live with Aggravating Problems or Traits that Could Have Been Prevented - Most people know or have at least heard of the people who cater to their dog's "quirks." There are people who have dogs that will only eat when they watch them or put the food in a certain spot. Other people have dogs who will not stop crotch sniffing, chewing shoes, yelping, whining, pacing, or licking. Occasionally a TV show will show a video of a dog that eats walls or cabinets or completely destroys a couch or worse, a whole interior of a home. The sad truth is that this behavior can be totally prevented under the guidance of a professional dog trainer. Dog training will prevent these problems from ever occurring and that is important because habits are so much harder to break than prevent. It will be less costly and easier to get needed trainer sooner rather than later.

10. Greater Overall Satisfaction with Dog - Those who have dogs that have been trained properly or know dogs that have been trained properly know how satisfying and enjoyable it is to have a well trained dog in your presence or to play with. Well trained dogs give their owners and families a sense of security and trust. It is wonderful to be able to go to work all day and absolutely know that Fido or Fife will not be laying on the couch when you return home, nor will there be a trace of fur up there, nor will any shoes or walls be chewed. For those who get the very best professional dog training and have the dogs that immediately listen in obedience to sit, stay, and quiet when company arrives, and then the dog continues to listen and sit during the entire visit without a reminder, experience a sense of joy and pride in owning a dog like this. Indeed that dog is a prize and a gift, yet this treasure was created almost always under the guidance of an excellent professional dog trainer.

The investment in dog training will be well worth it, every penny, in the issues that it prevents, the time savings in learning about training, the time spent actually training, and the satisfaction with owning a well behaved dog that is not an embarrassment. Misbehaving dogs are a pain and bring shame to the owner, many times they end up neglected or at shelters, sometimes they hurt people or other animals. Getting professional dog training is a wise, responsible choice, especially if the dog will be a greater than 15 pounds where it can do some damage to a child, another pet, or furnishings.