He is not an easy dog to handle, and most trainers that I visited initially were not very familiar with the Shiba Inu breed<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are generally three groups of dog trainers<\/u> –<\/p>\n Here are the pros and cons of the different dog training styles<\/a>.\n<\/li>\n Most trainers will want to evaluate a dog first before coming up with a training program. These are usually private evaluation sessions that last from 1-2 hours and cost from $50 US to $100 US. These sessions are also useful for evaluating the trainer in action with our dog.<\/p>\n The dog training profession is not very well regulated so we may run across some mediocre or bad trainers before finding one that suits us.<\/p>\n If you feel uncomfortable about particular training techniques, ask your trainer a lot of questions, and do some online research of your own. If the trainer is rude to you or does not want to answer your questions, then leave and find another trainer who will actually work for his pay. <\/p>\n Remember that you are the boss<\/strong>. You pay them, not the other way around.<\/p>\n Do not be afraid to terminate training if you discover in the middle of the program that the trainer is not knowledgeable, does not suit you or your dog’s temperament, or is making your dog anxious and unhappy<\/a>. <\/p>\n It is also a good idea to ask a trainer what his policy is if we decide to terminate training early.<\/em><\/p>\n A great resource in my dog trainer search was my local SPCA.<\/strong> <\/p>\n I had very good experiences with the two SPCAs that I visited. Both of them had very knowledgeable dog trainers, and very reasonable prices. They were also very willing to accommodate my training requests, and had a variety of balanced dogs at the shelter that they were willing to use to help train and socialize my dog<\/a>.<\/p>\n Often, the best teacher for a dog is another dog, especially with dog-to-dog aggression issues<\/a>. While we may try to learn ‘dog’ to better communicate with our furry friend; a well socialized and balanced canine is not only extremely fluent in his native tongue, but knows when, and how to use it to achieve the most effective results.<\/p>\n Using other dogs is often an invaluable tool in dog training. Therefore, find a dog trainer with good access to other dogs, if you can. <\/strong><\/p>\n In addition to the SPCA, dog trainers who are attached to a dog daycare<\/a> or dog walking service will frequently have access to appropriate dogs that they can use in the dog training process.<\/p>\n Another possibility is to get help from our breeder. Good breeders<\/strong> know their breed well, and can usually point us in the right direction. They may even provide our dog with some good playmates.<\/p>\n Instead of hiring a trainer, some people send their dog to boot camp. <\/p>\n I have never sent any of my dogs to boot camp.<\/em> <\/p>\n My poor Shiba got stressed from going to daycare once, for about 8 hours. He came back sick, depressed, stressed, and car reactive. I don’t think he would handle boot camp too well. <\/p>\n My opinion<\/strong> is that boot camps are risky.<\/em> <\/p>\n We do not know what is happening to our dog during his time there, and there is usually very little transparency. A trainer once told me that she subdued a Shiba by giving him an extremely strong correction with a choke chain. Then, she held him down in a forceful alpha roll, loomed over him in a menacing fashion, and growled at him. The Shiba defecated and after that incident, he was very "well-behaved". <\/p>\n Even if my Shiba miraculously became well-behaved<\/a><\/em>, I would lose a lot of hard-earned trust, lower his quality of life, and damage our relationship. <\/p>\n Finally, the training done at boot camp may not transfer to us. <\/p>\n Our dog will return to his old ways.<\/strong> <\/p>\n Shiba Inus are still not very common in the United States and it can be difficult to find a trainer that is familiar with Shibas. <\/p>\n Shibas are primitive, stubborn, and extremely strong willed. Therefore, it is best to get a trainer with a lot of Shiba experience, is knowledgeable of the breed, and has successfully trained them. <\/p>\n After over a year and a half of meeting with trainer types, I have finally met one who knows Shiba. She handled my Shiba very well and very correctly identified him as a "reaction junkie<\/em>" (playing, chasing, or fighting are all rewards to him as long as he gets a reaction. The bigger the reaction, the better it is.). <\/p>\n Previous trainers who "said<\/em>" they knew Shiba, but really didn’t, have alpha rolled him to detrimental results. Others were uncomfortable dealing with a dog that mouthed so much<\/a>, would not surrender, and would be constantly trying to push their buttons. <\/p>\n Remember that if at first we don’t find the right trainer, find another one.<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n To get a quick feel for the trainers around me, I enrolled for classes in a variety of places, and visited with my local SPCA, daycare centers, and training facilities.<\/p>\n Here are more tips on how to find a good dog trainer from –<\/p>\n If you have more tips or stories about finding a good dog trainer, please share them with us in the comments section. Thanks!<\/p>\n Finding a good dog trainer is often more difficult than it sounds. What should we look for in a dog trainer? What can we expect from a dog trainer? What should be do if things do not work out? What about boot-camp?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[118,337,120,338,121,122,123,339,340],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shibashake.com\/dog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shibashake.com\/dog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shibashake.com\/dog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shibashake.com\/dog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shibashake.com\/dog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shibashake.com\/dog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shibashake.com\/dog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shibashake.com\/dog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shibashake.com\/dog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shibashake.com\/dog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Finding](\"https:\/\/shibashake.com\/dog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/IMG_2464-520x390.jpg\" "\\"Dog")
Finding a dog trainer<\/h2>\n
![\"Finding](\"https:\/\/shibashake.com\/dog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/IMG_2044-280x210.jpg\" "\\"In")
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![\"Do](\"https:\/\/shibashake.com\/dog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/IMG_2340-520x390.jpg\" "\\"Dog")
Do not just follow whatever a trainer tells you <\/h2>\n
![\"Shiba](\"https:\/\/shibashake.com\/dog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/IMG_2481-280x210.jpg\" "\\"Shiba")
![\"Often,](\"https:\/\/shibashake.com\/dog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/IMG_3677-520x390.jpg\" "\\"Shiba")
Dog trainer vs. boot camp<\/h2>\n
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![\"We](\"https:\/\/shibashake.com\/dog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/IMG_3236-520x390.jpg\" "\\"My")
My Shiba Inu trainer experiences<\/h2>\n
![\"Shibas](\"https:\/\/shibashake.com\/dog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/IMG_4982-520x390.jpg\" "\\"Why")
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![\"If](\"https:\/\/shibashake.com\/dog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/IMG_4731-520x390.jpg\" "\\"Smiling")