12/16/2025
Could not have said it better myself. And to add to the below list - be wary of anyone who dismisses, criticizes or shuts down other trainers or training methods without professional explanation that demonstrates solid, informed reasoning. Repeating “my way is the only way and everything else is BS” is not a good look.
Ten Red Flags to Watch for When Choosing a Dog Trainer
(And Why Walking Away Might Be the Best Training Decision You Ever Make)
The UK dog-training industry remains largely unregulated. Anyone can call themselves a dog trainer, print a logo, start a page, and begin offering advice, whether they understand canine behaviour or not.
That means the responsibility often falls on the owner to spot poor practice before it causes confusion, fallout, or long-term behavioural damage.
Good trainers build clarity, confidence, and capability in both dog and handler.
Poor trainers create dependency, excuses, and problems they never quite fix.
Here are ten clear red flags that should make you stop, question, and very often walk away.
1. “It’s just a phase, they’ll grow out of it.”
If you present a puppy that is mouthing, jumping, guarding resources, or ignoring boundaries, and the response is:
“That’s normal, they’ll grow out of it.”
Walk away.
Yes, puppies go through developmental stages, but behaviours don’t magically disappear. They are either:
• rehearsed and strengthened, or
• guided, shaped, and redirected.
A competent trainer explains why the behaviour is happening and what to do now, not in six months when it’s ingrained and harder to change.
2. Jumping straight to tools instead of training
If your dog is reactive and the first solution offered is:
• a prong collar,
• without assessment,
• without foundation work,
• without explanation,
Walk away.
Tools are not training.
Tools are amplifiers of skill, and in the wrong hands, they amplify mistakes.
A trainer who reaches for equipment before understanding arousal, threshold, motivation, and learning history is skipping the work and hoping the hardware will compensate.
It won’t.
3. Using an e-collar with no conditioning or education
This one is a huge red flag.
If a trainer:
• fits an e-collar in the first session,
• provides no conditioning protocol,
• gives no explanation of pressure, timing, or levels,
• or worse, starts stimulating the dog immediately,
Walk away. Immediately.
That isn’t advanced training.
That’s guesswork with electricity.
Even trainers who legitimately use remote collars understand that conditioning, clarity, and consent-based learning come first. Anything else is misuse, full stop.
4. “Your dog will need to stay on a long line for life.”
Long lines are fantastic training tools.
But if a trainer tells you your dog must:
• remain on one forever,
• because recall “can’t be fixed”,
• or because management is the only option,
That’s not honesty, it’s a limitation of their skill set.
Management has a place.
So does progression.
A good trainer works towards less equipment, not more.
5. Treat-dumping as a universal cure
If every problem, reactivity, fear, arousal, lack of impulse control, is met with:
“Just throw treats on the ground.”
Walk away.
Food is a powerful tool.
It is not a personality transplant.
If a trainer cannot explain:
• timing,
• criteria,
• progression,
• when food fades,
• or what replaces it,
They are masking behaviour, not training it.
6. No questions about your dog’s history
A trainer who doesn’t ask about:
• age,
• breed or type,
• genetics,
• health,
• daily routine,
• outlets and fulfilment,
Is working blind.
Behaviour doesn’t exist in isolation.
Training without context is guesswork dressed up as confidence.
7. One method for every dog
If you hear:
• “This works for all dogs”,
• “I train every dog the same way”,
• “Dogs just need consistency, nothing else”,
Be cautious.
Dogs are individuals.
Breed, drive, sensitivity, resilience, and learning style all matter.
Uniform methods applied to diverse dogs create fallout, quietly at first, explosively later.
8. Blaming the dog without empowering the owner
If the trainer:
• repeatedly labels your dog as “stubborn”, “dominant”, or “bad”,
• but gives you no clear plan,
• no structure,
• no homework that makes sense,
That’s not training, it’s outsourcing responsibility to the dog.
Good trainers change human behaviour first, because that’s where consistency lives.
9. No explanation, just instruction
“Do this.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Trust me.”
That’s not education.
A professional trainer explains:
• why the exercise matters,
• what success looks like,
• how to adjust when it goes wrong.
If you leave confused but obedient, the trainer hasn’t done their job.
10. Defensiveness when questioned
A trainer who reacts badly to:
• polite questions,
• requests for clarification,
• or discussion of alternatives,
Is insecure in their knowledge.
Competence welcomes curiosity.
Ego shuts it down.
Final Thoughts: Choose Thinking Over Following
The best dog trainers:
• create independent handlers,
• build resilient dogs,
• and work themselves out of a job.
If you feel pressured, dismissed, confused, or reliant, listen to that instinct.
Walking away from the wrong trainer is not failure.
It’s good judgement.
And your dog will thank you for it, quietly, consistently, and for years to come.
