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Dog Training- What A Week!

I was struggling to find the right way to begin this blog post. I didn’t want to come across as braggadocios but I did want to give some background into why I’m writing this post.

You see, this was a good week for my ‘dog training‘ ego. I happened to run into someone who had purchased my dog training videos several years back. He told me what a difference those videos had made and then he showed me his dog. His dog was impeccably trained! I was so impressed! His dog was highly obedient, both on and off leash, even with distraction of other people and dogs around.

I also received several emails this week from people thanking me for the results they had been getting from the training DVDs they had purchased. One was telling me about how well his puppy was going and another was telling me how their dog’s aggression had been improving.

We frequently get emails and calls from our clients and are thrilled when we get them but this was the first time that I had actually run across someone who I had never met but had received some great training from my videos.

Needless to say, the combo of meeting this dog owner and receiving some of these thank you emails:

1. Boosted my ego. I won’t lie. I loved hearing and seeing these things.
2. Made me think and wonder. What is the difference between someone who is thanking me for my dog training DVDs and the person who is returning them to get a refund.

Dog Training- What Makes The Difference?

Perhaps I shouldn’t admit it. Many business owners will never admit to having customers that aren’t happy with their company. I won’t lie, though. While we do our best to provide the best dog training information possible we may not be the right company for every dog owner out there.

Our training DVDs carry with them a complete money back guarantee. If people aren’t happy they can get a return on their money if they return us the DVD programs within 45 days. We believe in our training so much that I think we’re the only dog training company to do that.

So far we’ve been rewarded. I think the most return requests we’ve ever had in a month has been two.

In any case, on some of these occasions people want to return the DVDs because they got rid of their dog, didn’t have time to train the dog, etc. On other occasions, though, we’ll get an email request to return the DVDs and people will complain ‘the training didn’t work for me’, ‘it didn’t work on my dog’, ‘your techniques don’t work’ or some other sort of complaint along those lines.

No matter the reason, we refund them their money but I often wonder what the difference is between the guy who is showing me stellar off leash obedience and the guy who says my methods are lousy?

Dog Training- Action vs. Inaction

With that in mind I went about interviewing and questioning these wonderful folks who took the time to get in touch with us this past week. I compared their answers with the answers of those who ask for refunds. I looked for similarities but above all I looked for differences. I wanted to determine why some have dog training success and others, with the exact same methods, have failure. And I think I found out the difference.

There was no ‘big reveal’. I didn’t have an ‘a-ha moment’. There was no voice from the heavens or light bulb going off. What they told me was so simple it almost seems ridiculous to mention it….

The difference is that these folks….took action.

That’s it. They found dog training information they believed in and they got to work.

You see, in many cases when someone writes me to tell me ‘hey man, your methods such and they don’t work with my dog’ I want to help them achieve their goals. I’ll often tell them, ‘I’m sorry you haven’t found success. What trouble were you having with my methods and perhaps I can help.’

When I ask this I nearly always get one of two responses:

1. No response at all. I’m not surprised. Some folks just aren’t happy with anything.
2. A response that signifies that they aren’t familiar with my methods at all. Perhaps they never even cracked the plastic on the DVDs or even attempted to apply the dog training techniques with their dog. Perhaps they were too lazy to get to work with their dog. Regardless, in almost none of these cases can they converse back and forth intelligently about the methods that I purport will work with their dog and WHY my methods aren’t working for them.

Dog Training- My Methods

I believe in my methods. I know they work and I’ve seen them work time and time again over the course of years and years.

Having said that, I’ve found that even if you aren’t using my methods (don’t worry, my feelings won’t get hurt) but you ARE actually training your dog actively you WILL get results.

I’ve found that someone with sub-par dog training methods and a great work ethic will get a heck of a lot more out of their training experience than someone with the best methods in the world that can’t bother to learn and/or apply those methods.

The bottom line is that I encourage everyone to use my dog training style. I believe in it and know it helps people and dogs. Even if you aren’t going to follow my style, though, at least get to work. Don’t buy that dog training book, DVD, course, group class, private trainer, or other delivery method and then get frustrated when you don’t see results due to your own inactivity.