Dog Advice Topic: The Truth About Dog Bootcamp

October 19th, 2005

Bella,
I've been doing a ton of research online about dog training for my sassy pup and have seen a lot of places offering "Doggie Boot Camps". What does this mean and does Collins Canine do this?
-Sassy in Skokie

SiS,
"Boot Camp" style training is where the dog is dropped off at a facility and one or more trainers work with the dog during that time. There are variations on length of time for the training process to occur (anywhere from a week to over a month) to how often the owner interacts with the dog (some facilities have the dog going home to the owner each night and some have the dog at the training facility twenty four hours a day).

There are two main reasons that Collins Canine does not do "Boot Camp" style training. The first is that most facilities use punishment based techniques which we do not employ. The second reason is that from our experience, "Boot Camp" style dog training does not produce a trained dog even when using reward based techniques.

Dogs don't generalize very well when learning new skills. For example, if Bob teaches a dog to sit and then Jane tells the dog to sit, it is most likely that the dog will not sit for Jane. This also carries over to the location of instruction. If Bob teaches a dog to sit in his living room but then asks his dog to sit outside it is most likely that the dog will not sit outside right away. It takes an extremely long time and a lot of practice for a dog to learn that "Sit" means to put his bottom on the ground no matter who says it, where it is said or what else is going on around him.

The amount of time required for owners to train the dog enough so he responds to them is the same as if they were to take a traditional obedience class that meets once a week.

Normally these once a week classes are much less expensive than the "Boot Camp" training!

Many of Collins Canine's clients have previously taken their dogs to "Boot Camp" facilities but ended up seeking our services because they didn't see any results. We have also done some of this type of training by insistence of clients but have not seen any results. The dogs learn to respond to the trainer but the owner cannot replicate this at home without training themselves.

It is also the belief of Collins Canine that the dogs are the easy ones to train. It is the owners that require the most training on the technique and timing needed to properly communicate to their dog what their intentions are.

And that's the bark on the street!
Bark up!
Bella

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