05/07/2026
Dear fellow dog trainers,
A really cool trait that many of us must possess to be effective is compassion, patience, and empathy.
Not just for dogs, but for people too.
When it comes to dogs and behavior, we are the subject matter experts. Our clients trust us to know more than them so we can teach them how to better coexist with their companions.
Sometimes our clients make mistakes with their dogs, exacerbating bad behaviors. Sometimes clients do REALLY dumb things to exacerbate their dog's behavior. I'd be lying if I said I didn't facepalm multiple times a week making consult calls with client leads.
Those nifty traits called compassion, patience, and empathy? You kinda need that if you want to build a platform with which to educate your client in a way they are receptive to. You can't effectively do that if they feel judged, attacked, laughed at, or scolded. Also, its not helpful for you as a service provider who needs that money to pay their bills. There aren't many people who *want* to give money to someone who makes them feel bad.
Fun fact. If they're calling you, they are already having a bad time.
People don't know what they don't know and like dogs, not a single person on this earth is born with infinite knowledge on how to tackle issues. Both dog and human do with life what they think is appropriate and sometimes its not the right thing. When dogs make bad decisions based on the wrong information, we give them the right information and show them how to make better decisions. When humans make bad decisions based on the wrong information we... tell them they don't deserve a dog?
We're not talking someone who curb stomps dogs for fun and laughs at their pain. We're talking normal people who love their dogs who don't know what they don't know regarding behavior.
A professional trainer should listen to the whole problem, ask questions to have all the information, and then educate the client why the problem developed, why it continues, and how to change it. That's our entire job. If we determine that a person is not compatible with the responsibility of ownership after education, there's a way to say that too. But you can't determine that without investigation or education.
If you shut down the platform for education, you turn off reception. If both of those avenues are left closed, the person continues doing whatever they think is the right thing to do. And you missed a prime opportunity to enrich someone's life, whether thats the human's, the dog's, or both.
