Gun Dog Forum

Just curious, How often does your trainer communicate with you on the progress of your dog throughout the training process?

I talk to myself a lot. Seems to attract strange looks, but I don't mind.

Most of the trainers I know just don't spend much time on the phone, fewer still email, and abut 3 text. You want to talk you will have to call them, best time is after dinner, but not late, they are getting up before daybreak. About once a month is enough to bother them. In truth there is just not much they can tell you, mostly what you will hear is he is coming along OK or come get him.

Neil has it. I NEVER called a client unless his dog had won a stake. When I did it, there were no cell phones and no email. Thank God. The trainer is up at dawn, works all day, then has to listen to clients at night on the phone. Tough life. Do yourself and your trainer a favor and go on the weekends to talk to him and to work your dog. You have to be trained to.

Our newest Golden is now 26 months old, she passed her SH and WCX this spring. We had a trainer that was about an 8 hour drive away, so our time with the trainer was much more limited than those who use a local trainer. We did spend a week with our trainers while in Texas doing winter training. And made numerous trips to attend training weekends put on by our trainers. Our girl worked with these trainers for a total of 12 months, but they were not continuous. We broke for July and August and during waterfowl season last year.

During this process I would leave a text to our trainers letting him/her (Man and Wife) that we would be calling them that evening around 6pm. Then I would call, I did this weekly, never on Monday or Friday, but made sure I had my questions already set. I did not want a friendly conversation, although some of that always happens, but I wanted to get my questions on the table, and then listen carefully. In this way we kept the phone calls short and to the point! I knew they were tired and did not mind a short call. As time went on and I developed a strong appreciation for their training capabilities, I did not always call every week, but at least biweekly.

I ran our dog in all but 2 hunt tests, one JH and one SH and the WCX. I think the trainers would have preferred to run her, but she was so well trained, even a lowly handler like myself got her through the tests....I cannot wait to hunt with her this year....! AS far as MH, she is capable with a little more work, but I Have not decided to do that yet. My goal was to have a well trained gun dog....and that is exactly what I now have! SMILE!

I have found that many trainers have a special ability to read and understand dogs, but have some difficulty talking with people, especially small talk! I do not see this negatively, in fact I think if I met a trainer who liked to 'chew the fat' especially not talking exclusively about dogs and dog training, I would worry about his/her ability to communicate with dogs! Course that's just me.

Good Luck

The dog trainer who can not communicate with people is a thing of the past.
Texting is the best thing ever invented by man, It is the quickest form of communication between trainer and client. No matter how busy you are it takes very little time to text and can be done at your convenience and answer at the recipients convenience. If a more communication is required a time for a call can be arranged..............Cj

The dog trainer who can not communicate with people is a thing of the past.
Texting is the best thing ever invented by man, It is the quickest form of communication between trainer and client. No matter how busy you are it takes very little time to text and can be done at your convenience and answer at the recipients convenience. If a more communication is required a time for a call can be arranged..............Cj

[quote="cjhills"
Texting is the best thing ever invented by man, j[/quote]

Ahead of penicillin, polio vaccine, wheel, internal combustion engine, Legos?

I said the trainers I know, which tend to be cranky old men. I also so said there is not much to report. So what would you say on a weekly report?

Sending pictures would be nice.

There is a younger generation of trainers that utilize social media, texting, photos, videos, etc... There is also still some of the old school guys around that do not communicate a lot. I currently have a dog with an old school trainer. They are on the prairie and I'm sure that cell reception is spotty, but he doesn't communicate much any way. I'm OK with that, I really just need to hear from him if something is wrong. No news is good news, I'm confident that I will have a broke dog that has had tons of wild bird contacts some time around October.

Trainers that I help usually only call if there is an issue. They text alot of pictures and videos, this keeps clients happy and off the phone.

Not unless I get a win. Trainers have better things to do such as train dogs.

Unless something is wrong I don't need my trainer to get to cought up in contacting me, cause if I talk to him for 20 minutes, and every other client talks to him for 20mins once a week. He is burning day light.

I see a lot of trainers posting videos, and pictures to Facebook. I would rather not hear from my pro than have him/her be in some of those videos......

Thanks to all. I haven't used a pro much and thought maybe something was wrong. He came highly recommended, and he told me that no news was good news. Looks like that is kinda standard. Thanks again

Neil wrote: I said the trainers I know, which tend to be cranky old men. I also so said there is not much to report. So what would you say on a weekly report?

Sending pictures would be nice.

You'd be surprised how many of the cranky old men are texting or emailing their younger clients about once a week. It keeps everyone happy and off the phone. If I get a phone call, I'm expecting really good or bad news.

A younger retriever trainer that I use keeps his training notes for each dog online and read only shares the document with the client. You can see drills, distances, etc.

I spoke with mine about every other week. Usually just a brief conversation in the evening about progress (trainer was bReaking m dog on wild birds). Once in a while I'd get a text message or a photo. I chose a trainer I trusted and left it up to them to get in touch unless I had a specific question.

rinker wrote:There is a younger generation of trainers that utilize social media, texting, photos, videos, etc... There is also still some of the old school guys around that do not communicate a lot. I currently have a dog with an old school trainer. They are on the prairie and I'm sure that cell reception is spotty, but he doesn't communicate much any way. I'm OK with that, I really just need to hear from him if something is wrong. No news is good news, I'm confident that I will have a broke dog that has had tons of wild bird contacts some time around October.

Yep, these are the same younger generation that go out on dates and sit in restaurants texting their dates setting across from them. I fear this generation is going to have problems procreating, as the IPhone will interfere with the process! They wonder why they cannot have a "meaningful" long-term relationship.

My trainer kicks butt. He's at summer camp and they've managed to get cell service and send updates about all the birds the dogs are seeing, a few generic pics (only one of my dog so far) about 2x's per week. I love my trainer! Last year, the dogs averaged 300 contacts with wild birds during summer camp. He's from Missouri too - so I get to attend 4 day clinics, where I get to learn how to work my own dog.

Our 14-mo old is learning the game up in Kansas now. He's been there three weeks now and we've gotten weekly text updates and have gotten one pic. Reports say he's doing great and the trainer is one that is brutally honest, so I tend to lean toward the no news is good news crowd. Can't wait to put him on some birds this season. Good luck with your pup!!