Local dog trainers emphasize importance of determining who's boss

Your dog knows what it did, right?

You came home, discovered the scene of the crime and perhaps your dog hid in fear - or just plain looked guilty.

So, your dog knows it was bad, right? Well, perhaps not.

As the industry of dog training continues to grow around the country and in Seminole County, dog trainers seem to agree on one overriding theme with regard to owners and why they should consider seeking out the services of a dog trainer: Many people just don't understand the way their dogs think.

"A lot of people just don't understand how to communicate with their dogs - they think their dog understands," Ellen Guerrero, a dog trainer for Dogs Unlimited in Longwood, said. "They think that when they come home and their dog has either torn something up or peed or pooped or something, they'll say, 'Oh, my dog knows he did wrong.'

"Well, no, your dog is probably reading the fact that you're coming in and you're getting all mad and angry - they're seeing your body actions and reactions ... they're reacting to that - they don't remember that they chewed something up a half hour ago or six hours ago."

As people seemingly spend more money on their pets than ever before, it is no wonder that professional dog training services are steadily growing. Additionally, many of these services are mobile-oriented, in which the trainer comes to the home of the consumer.

Still, the idea of paying for professional dog training can be regarded as an unnecessary expense by many. The importance of good training for a pet, though, is something that dog trainers such as Leah Roberts, the owner of Dog Willing Positive Training Solutions in Oviedo, said cannot be overstated.

"I think that training is about as important as food and water, when you think about getting a dog you should think about training the dog," said Roberts, who has more than a decade of experience in the field. "[Dogs] don't come with the knowledge of how to live in a human world, they have to be taught how to live in a human world."

In a field in which trainers and experts can certainly disagree from time to time, the need to understand the way dogs think seems to be universally agreed upon. Specifically, trainers such as Darryl Payne, owner of Pawfection Dog Training based in Winter Springs, said you have to understand that dogs are innately pack animals - and in a domestic setting, your family becomes the pack.

"We apply our human values to our dogs. We see them as little hairy humans, and they're not," Payne said. "The most important thing to a dog is to have leadership - if they're not getting leadership or if they perceive that the leadership is in trouble in the pack, they step into the position of being the leader."

Payne, whose experience includes an extensive background littered with certifications and work with police dogs, including training dogs in London that were responsible for the well-being of the British royal family, cautions against the contemporary mentality of relying solely on the Internet for answers.

"Something will come up [on the Internet] and say, 'You need to do this, this and this,'" Payne said. "They'll try that, and either they won't do it properly, or they won't do it for long enough or it's the wrong message for their dog and it won't work. So, then they'll go and do another message, and another message, and then they end up confused, and the dog's confused ... and now the dog is actually much worse than it was in the first place."

Settling on the right trainer is also an important process, with variables such as cost and location playing prominent roles. Payne said consumers should be wary of services that require signing up for multiple classes during an extended period of time.

"The problem with a lot of the dog training is that people sign people up for $1,000 for 10 sessions, and they don't need 10 sessions," Payne said, adding that usually just one of his two-hour sessions is all that is needed for most of his customers. "We train the owners what to do so they don't need the dog trainer anymore."

For those who have perhaps had their dogs for a while, there is the thought that training might not be as effective, logic trainers such as Guerrero would disagree with. In fact, many trainers would suggest that improving a dog's training and behavior is about more than just getting it to obey a command - it's about strengthening the relationship between owner and pet.

"Pretty much anybody can benefit from learning the tools and the techniques that we teach," Guerrero said. "It's not just about getting your dog to sit down and stay, it's making that bond and that communication so that they not only love you but they respect you, [too]."

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