Find the Best Trainer for You and Your Dog

Finding a good trainer for you and your dog may sound simple, but it’s not. Sure, you can search online or ask your veterinarian, groomer, or your dog-owning friends whom they recommend. That doesn’t mean you’re going to find the trainer who’s right for you or your dog.

An online search or a reference from an acquaintance might help you find a decent trainer. Just keep in mind that there are no legal requirements in the U.S. for someone to call themselves a dog trainer or behaviorist. Your plumber could hang out his dog trainer shingle tomorrow with absolutely no dog training experience and start working with clients.

Trainers referred by your friends and animal care professionals may – or may not – be up to speed on what are current and best practices in the dog training profession. And they may – or may not – use safe, effective, and humane training methods.

As a professional trainer myself, I’d like to share with you how I would go about finding and choosing a dog trainer.

Where to look for training candidates

The most reliable places to search are trainer directories of professional organizations that have education requirements and hold their students, members, or certificants to reasonable standards in the application of humane, science-based dog training methods and ethics.

Training and behavior professionals who care about professional standards pursue ongoing education and membership in and certification offered through one or more dog-training organizations and companies. We have a strong preference for professionals who have been certified by organizations that support and promote dog-friendly training, including all of the ones in the sidebar, “Recommended Dog-Trainer Certifying Organizations,” below.

Research Your Dog Trainer

Once you find a certified professional near you, however, your real job has just begun; you’ll need to do some research to make sure the candidate is suitable.

Start by looking at the candidate’s website. Read the information there and scrutinize the photos. While certifying organizations do their best to ensure that members are adhering to their mission and ethics, sadly that’s not always the case. If you see photos of dogs wearing prong or shock collars on the website, cross that trainer off your list!

Also check out the candidate’s social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok) to confirm that the text, photos, and videos displayed there are congruent with your own force-free training philosophy. If they have a blog, read several of them. If they’ve written articles for publications, find and read them. If they’ve written a book or books, try to find and read (or skim) at least one. Make sure you are comfortable with everything you find.

Interview the trainer

I also recommend that you interview the trainer or their training staff. They should happily answer your questions about methods and training philosophy – after all, you’ll be entrusting them with your dog’s well-being! Have your questions ready before you call and feel free to add more if some come up for you during the discussion.

Here are questions that I’d recommend you ask a prospective trainer:

• What training and experience do you have? How long have you been working in the field? Look for a trainer who has made the effort to pursue her professional education and who has some boots-on-the-ground experience.
• What is your educational background? What do you do for continuing education? What certifications do you have? There are constantly new findings in behavioral science. Trainers should be certified by a professional organization that promotes dog-friendly training, and should stay current in the field with regular continuing education at educational conferences, workshops, and/or seminars.
• What is your training philosophy? Look for a trainer who is dedicated to a force-free training philosophy that allows the dog choice and agency, and seeks to create relationships between dog and human based on mutual love, trust, and respect.
• What do you do if a dog makes a mistake or doesn’t listen? The correct answer is, “Figure out how to help him get it right.” There is no place for “corrections” or physical or verbal punishment in modern, humane dog training.
• What methods and tools do you use? The answer here should be science-based “positive reinforcement” or “force-free.” Ask if they would ever use a choke (slip), prong (pinch), or shock collar (also called “electronic collars” or “e-collars”). We don’t recommend trainers who use these tools.
• Do you guarantee results? The answer here should be, “No!” Dogs and humans are sentient, unpredictable creatures, and no ethical professional guarantees training results. This is a classic sign of a bad or shady trainer.

When the trainer or their staff members answer your questions, listen – really listen – to their words. A recent study that examined the websites of 100 popular trainers found that trainers who use aversive methods are more likely to use the phrases like “pack leader,” “mother nature,” “electronic collar,” or “e-collar,” may talk about using a “balanced” approach, and brag about training without using treats.

In contrast, force-free trainers tend to talk about positive reinforcement, support the use of food in training, and are likely to call “electronic collars” by their more appropriate name: shock collars – and they don’t use them.

After talking to a trainer or her staff, ask to observe a training class. Make sure the trainer puts force-free training methods into practice, not just using buzzwords. Aversive and “balanced” trainers (those who use aversive training and positive reinforcement) have learned that there’s marketing value in the term “positive reinforcement” and they use it to attract clients. We’d keep looking if they mix treats and yanks on the leash.

Finally, ask for references: Good trainers are happy to supply you with contacts from past clients who can attest to their work. Don’t just look at them; call or email at least a couple to ensure that they are happy with their training experience.