Has anyone sent their dogs to a residential training centre and if so how were the results?

I am really getting to the end of my tether with Hattie. We have seen a behaviourist from a very well known centre but to be honest I think it was next to useless. I paid for a home visit so she could see how Hattie was in her home environment but we never ventured outside (where most problems occur) and the whole 2 hour consultation was spent discussing her problems, no demonstrations or techniques etc.

I have always felt that sending dogs away to be trained was a waste of time and they would revert back to the previous behaviour when returned to the comfort zone of their home.

Any comments would be welcomed.

> I have always felt that sending dogs away to be trained was a waste of time and they would revert back to the previous behaviour when returned to the comfort zone of their home

That's what happened to friends :( I'd always thought that most/a lot of a dog's problems were down to the owner and/or it's environment :) :)

Daisy

Hi Pedlee, Sorry to hear you are so frustrated. I hope this might help I have no experience of residentail training myself however my friend took on a 1 yr old irish woolfhound two years ago and had various problems from day one as you can appreciate being such a large breed they needed full control over him.

While they travelled away on business they put him in residential training at Royvon and the results were clear to me when he came back, they also did following on training with him at home when they returned as and when required and also left her with a very detailed folder.

Might be worth a call

I knew 4 families what had sent their dogs to residential training when I had the parlour.  As far as the families were concerned the dogs came back exactly the same as they went because in each case it was the owners who needed training to handle the dogs. :(  I never had any problems with the dogs before or after their (very expensive) residential training. :(

I have recently seen one advertising a 3 week course for £545 + VAT.  The (employed) trainer gets £100 per dog.  The dog gets 7.5 hours training over 3 weeks = £72 per hour and then shut in a kennel for the remainder of the time!! :( 

If you think that would suit you, then go for it. :)  But with the right trainer you can do it together at home for a lot less money and more chance of success. :)

Seeing the behaviourist cost me close to £300 (although some of that was covered by my insurance) and I really got nothing out of that. I don't think Hattie's problems stem from me in particular and my other 4 dogs are reasonably well-behaved and much easier to live with than she is, they are by no means perfect, but don't have anywhere near the issues she has. What makes it worse is I bred her. The rest of the litter are all fine, no problems.

I have replied privately

I'd be extremely careful before sending your dog away. One  place that advertises in dog magazines allegedly caused damage to a dog's eye through robust use of a check chain. I also agree with comments that the dog will be the same when it returns.
As you're in Hertfordshire, I'd try Steve Mann - he can certainly train a dog :) and doesn't use dodgy methods.

http://www.alphadogtrainingschool.co.uk/dog_residential_training_classes_hertfordshire.html

Lindsay
x

As above, I've seen the results of residential training - loads of money spent, dog was demonstrated to be trained etc etc but at home the dog was no different, the owners had no more control than before :(   Complete waste of time and money IMHO

Personally I have to question why the 'training school' prefer to take dogs without the owners?? seems to me it would be better to build the bond between owner and dog and train both together?

Perhaps training sessions with a good trainer for both of you would be more beneficial and a lot cheaper.

Most really difficult behaviour problems would require more than 3 weeks to rectify without the use of some serious adversives, so i really can't see any benefit to them at all.