Do you offer free dog training consultations?
This is a common question we get from potential clients. And we certainly understand that this may seem appealing to clients. Who doesn’t want something for free? So why do some people in the pet training world offer a free consultation and others do not, including Loma Behavior and Training?
Many models for consultations
There are many different models for providing dog training services because the animal training field is unregulated, meaning there are no unified standards of how to offer services to pet owners. Most professionals in the field start their services with an initial consultation of some sort. This initial meeting can be a brief phone call to ensure the professional can work with the issue presented. The initial meeting might be a “free” in-person meeting where the professional can sell their services or demonstrate how training works.
Based on conversations with other people in the field, we do know there are a couple reasons some choose to offer a free dog training consultation. People who are new to the field may offer a free consultation as a means of attracting new clients. Due to their limited experience, they may not have the expertise to determine if they have the skills to work with specific issues until they get to meet the dog and their family. Many people in the field start working part time. As a part time professional, they may have very limited spots available for clients and use the initial consultation to ensure the client is committed to a training program. Some people in the field demonstrate their skills by showing what their own personal dogs can do or by demonstrating how proprietary training equipment works. Ultimately, we can’t answer how all people in the field run their businesses. What we can do is explain how our own process works and why we believe this is best for our clients.
What we offer
At Loma Behavior and Training, we offer an initial assessment, which is a comprehensive evaluation of a dog’s behavior, the needs of the client, and the factors that will impact a training plan. We believe this gives our clients the best understanding of what their dog needs and allows us to make the best estimate of success with any training plan. It allows us to be as transparent as possible with our estimate of the change that is possible for any individual dog. If there are any safety concerns such as a dog hurting itself, a dog biting others, or a dog causing damage to the home, we are able to provide immediate assistance in this initial evaluation so clients can get immediate relief from these stressors.
We do not need to use a consultation as an opportunity to determine if a client’s needs are within our scope of qualifications. As credentialed, experienced and educated professionals in the field, we are very adept at determining the clients we can help within our scope of expertise. We have highly skilled professionals with a comprehensive background and understanding of animal behavior. We know what we can work with, and what we can achieve based on a dog’s behavior history.
We know that giving over a chunk of money to a professional that you’re not familiar with can feel risky. Meeting with a professional will give clients information on their training process. We want clients to get to know us and our work as much as possible before making a decision about their dog’s behavioral health. For this reason we provide extensive information about our skills on our website and in our social media outlets. Our office staff can also answer many different questions about how we work to ensure clients have all the information they need to make a decision.
Due to our many years of experience, we know that we cannot give clients a clear training plan that will meet a client’s goals through only a brief meeting. If we did this, we would only be able to provide the most basic generalizations about a dog’s behavior. For example if a client came to us wanting help because their dog is barking and lunging at visitors to the home, we could say “yes,” that dog would become less distressed about visitors. But we could not tell the client if they will need the additional support of a veterinarian to rule out medical conditions, or if the dog will be able to enjoy visitors or just tolerate them. We would be missing a great deal of information to give our clients our best description of what they can expect from a training program.
Our assessment process
Our assessment starts with clients completing a behavior history for their dog. We learn about their primary concerns, the dog’s breeding and social history, the dog’s medical issues, and any previous training that was attempted. By the time we meet with a client and their dog, our staff have spent about 30 minutes reviewing this history and fleshing out the additional information that is needed to give the client a comprehensive assessment. Our training staff then considers the influence of multiple factors on a dog’s training plan.
Health - Even though we are not veterinary professionals, we work collaboratively with a pet’s veterinarian. Some behavioral issues can be influenced by a dog’s medical condition and this must be assessed to determine an appropriate training plan. For example we’ve seen client dogs who became fearful of the back yard after experiencing a painful urinary tract infection. A dog with a neurological condition suddenly started biting when touched. One dog became the target of another dog’s aggressive attacks when she developed a tooth abscess. So it’s important we take health considerations into account when developing a training plan.
Genetics - Genetics can be influenced by the behavior of a pet's parents or siblings. If a pet's mother or father was fearful, then a client’s pet can also be fearful. If a dog has a predisposition for fearfulness or quick arousal levels, due to those genetics or breed tendencies, those characteristics will always be present. For example dogs that are bred to guard may not become dogs that will easily accept visitors to the home. A training plan will take this into consideration and work on skills that will make having visitors over easier for both the dog and the family.
Bite inhibition - Although we would love to be able to tell clients that if their dog has bitten in the past, we can create a training plan that will guarantee their dog will never bite again. Unfortunately, this is not the case. First, we can’t make that guarantee because pets are living beings who can develop fears and medical conditions that result in behavioral issues, including aggressive behavior. If a client’s dog has a bite history, our goal is to eliminate the motivation to bite, so there is less likelihood a client’s dog will bite in the future. Second, unlike most people in the field, Loma Behavior and Training belongs to professional organizations that consider it unethical to make such a promise when it goes against what is known about pet behavior.
Early Experience - We look at how long a dog has been showing the behavior causing concern. If the behavior just started, there is a higher likelihood of making good progress. When the behavior has been going on for years or the dog is older then results will take longer to see. If a dog's socialization experiences were limited or unknown during the critical first 16 weeks of a dog's life, the training plan may be slower to implement due to a dog’s lack of preparation for the normal sights and sounds of typical family life.
Ongoing Experience - We look at a client’s living arrangements or environment. This is often overlooked as an influence on a training plan but it will impact a dog’s behavior. A dog that is reactive to other dogs is going to have a difficult time if the dog lives in an apartment where there are dogs around every day, several times a day. A dog with reactivity to other dogs will be much more stressed in that environment than if a client lived in a single family home where it was easy to avoid other dogs in the neighborhood.
Resources - We don’t mean resources in terms of finances. Certainly that is one resource but there are many other resources that some families need depending on the pet's behavior. The level of stress that is going on in a client’s home can impact the time and energy needed to help a dog change. A family that is stretched emotionally due to life, like moving to a new state, getting a new job, expecting a new family member, may have little energy left to help their pet. Another resource is the availability of other family members to assist or complicate the training plan. If there are family members who are unwilling to participate or to support the training plan, then the likelihood of success is going to be very low. If there are family members that will support the training plan, even if they are not actively helping to train, then there is a much greater likelihood of achieving a client’s goals.
Our goal for our clients
So our initial consultation is a complete assessment and evaluation of a client’s family goals and their dog’s history. We consider many different factors to help our clients. This allows us to give clients a thorough understanding of the influences on their dog’s behavior and the training that would be needed to make changes. We want to help our clients make the best decision with the most information for how to help their dog. We hope you can see from this description that our service cannot be offered as a free service. We are bringing all our skills and expertise to this session to help our clients and their pets live well together.
About the author: Dr. Lorraine Martinez is the founder of LOMA Behavior and Training LLC and has been helping dogs and their people since 2002. She earned a PhD in psychology from the University of Washington and went on to graduate with distinction from the Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training. She is a Behavior Consultant affiliated with the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior and is a Fear Free Certified Professional.
