How long does it take to fix my dog's behavior problem?

How long does it take?

Five week classes for basics, a month of board and train to fix this or that problem. Ten minutes to train a sit.

If we look at dog training the way we look at getting our car fixed, then time matters. Our car doesn’t wok - we need it to work. How long will it take?

I get it. When my dogs struggle, I want them to move through that struggle as fast as possible. We don’t want to watch our dogs having a hard time - we also don’t want to live with a disruptive dog forever.

But training isn’t just fixing a carburetor. Its learning a shared language between two species. Hopefully that language is nuanced, and respectful on both sides. We want our dogs to hear us, but we also need to learn to listen.

When people see Brisco in our drop-in rally class, or at a herding trial on a good day, he looks like a finished dog. He looks like he is trained - past tense. He is confident, exact, and enthusiastic.

I see the holes. I see the places where our language has gaps in understanding. I see places where I need to try harder, work better - help him understand me. He is not trained - he is in training. We are still learning one another. We’re getting there, but we’re not there yet.

And I’m fine with that, because he’s not a broken car, he’s an evolving, thinking, emotional animal and my job is to understand him so that he can understand me.

So, how long does it take?

Ten minutes to train a sit. Hundreds of reps to make it repeatable everywhere and under all circumstances.

How long does it take to build confidence in a worried dog, or show a dog that they’re safe from other dogs and people?

How long would it take someone who is afraid of snakes to become confident walking in the desert where they live, to see one and walk by it unconcerned?

A week? A four-week intensive? A year?

I can talk about all the variables: how long have you been afraid, were you actually bitten by a snake? Hospitalized? Are you a worrier by nature?

But these still don’t answer the question.

The answer, which I hate as much as my students do, is: I don’t know. I can make guesses based on prior cases, but that’s about all I can do.

That’s why we structure our private training the way we do. It’s usually easy to make immediate changes - and we do - in the beginning to give you and your pet room to breathe. But long term fixes take time. We are creating a shared language between two species. We are changing emotions. These things take as long as they take, and we’re committed to helping owners and dogs find solutions together.

How long does it take?

I don’t know, and while we want your dog to feel better, and your life with your dog to improve as quickly as possible, we also want our training to affect your dog today, tomorrow, next year, and into their old age. The only way we can do this is to work at the speed the dog can tolerate.

How long does it take?

It takes as long as it takes to do it right.