LOL.
Quote:
Originally posted by zeejay77
I got such a verbal melee of BS I ended up wondering who's telling the truth, is there an absolutely right way, only one way? |
No. Of course not. And yes, there is a lot of politics. But you only need a trainer who will fit (temperment, style) with you and each of the dogs--could be one trainer, could be two. (Just as sometimes children in same family need different school programs. And similarly, Montessori might be great for one kid and not for another. Catholic school might be great for one kid and not for another. A schutzhund club might be great for one pup, clicker training might be the best for the other. Or maybe the local kennel club program would be best for both. Look at the dogs and assess what they need.) It should not matter that the trainer is not familiar with raising siblings... The dogs need to know the basics as individual dogs. And whoever you find, no, it will not be perfect, and that person will make mistakes too. But a good trainer from any system or school of training is likely to be of more help than nothing at all. A bad trainer can in fact be worse than nothing, so do find someone good. But don't try to find perfect cuz it doesn't exist. You can praobably get leads to good individual trainers in your area if you ask about that on this list (or "Training")
My trainer does raise siblings (GSD's) for police etc. work, and for ones that don't make the cut for that just as pets.. He makes much use of crates and kennels so that the dogs can be separated. (Has a van with multiple crates fitted in. for example.) All the dogs (clients' dogs too) are trained to understand commands as the name of the dog followed by the command...such that the name of the dog is really part and parcel of the command. EG "Rover, sit." "Fido, stay" "Fluffy, come". Part of class exercises for the more advanced dogs involve having an individual dog being given a command different than the dogs around that it has to follow. Or all dogs on a stay but each individually called out of it, and needing both to have that one only respond to the right incantational cue, and not to have all the others respond.
Yup, be vigilant! Get those furry guys into a training program (or two) and keep them in training for life.