Holly barn Dog and Puppy Residential Mayo

ireland1000000

Hi guys, do any of you have any experience with Hollybarn Dog Residential and Training School in Mayo. My sister wants to send her Lab/GSD for training. Is she approved or would you stay clear. Thanks

anewme

Are they APDT accredited?

DBB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118188995#Comment_118188995

No, they are not. No independent professional certification in training or behaviour.

I hate having to ask people to read between the lines when it comes to dog trainers, but I personally would avoid any training methods which openly and across the board espouse training without any food rewards, ever, for any dog. I would have major question marks about that. Major.

ireland1000000

Okay thank you. She is adamant she is going to send him away for training. She has tried two trainers already and he hasn't improved. Is there anyone registered in Ireland who offer residential training for dogs because I know she'll pick one. I stopped her sending Bruno to K9 Security in Roscrea Tipperary. She looks on Facebook and instagram thinking they're professional and will make a difference in his training.

DBB

Is there a problem with the dog's behaviour? I'm taking it that there is, given what you've said in your last post. What's the issue? I'm wondering why other trainers haven't had success... are they themselves certified? Or, is your sister genuinely, honestly putting the work she's been advised to do into the dog?

It's extremely hard to find good residential trainers, because the properly certified people will only take in one dog at a time into their homes, and devote a huge amount of their time to properly, genuinely fixing whatever issues there are. Whilst the dog is staying with them, they can't see any other clients, and there's only so much that people will pay for residential, so keeping single dogs for residential training can end up costing the good trainer more potential earnings.

Not all issues are that easily or quickly "fixed" either, and that's where the main problem is with the commercial residential trainers you've mentioned... they can't get a lot of problems fixed quickly using positive, long-term effective, ethical training methods. But they have to get results, because they're getting paid and they're very prone to making big claims about what they can do. So, they use quick fixes that are generally temporary in nature, and that involve training methods that are dubious, harsh, punishment-based, and which don't "fix" unwanted behaviour, but temporarily suppress them by rendering the dog too frightened to do them any more for the time being. This all looks very impressive to the owner when they come to collects their rigid, worried, robotic, anxious, seemingly well-behaved dog, but within a few weeks or months, back in their home environment in which the unwanted behaviour usually developed in the first place, the problem behaviours re-appear, and are very often worse because now there's a major fear element involved thanks to the quick-fix coercive training methods used by the commercial residential trainer. There may also be new problem behaviours attached now too, because you can't train a dog coercively without causing some other unforeseen behavioural side effects.

There are, or were a couple of good, certified trainers offering residential all the same. I'll see if I can find out are they still doing it.

ireland1000000

Hi DBB there is definitely a problem with his behaviour especially on lead reactivity. The last trainer told her to feed him food every time he was near a dog, pressure on pressure off technique but Bruno's not food driven. So she used a squeaky ball and this has made him worse. Now every time he sees a dog he's manic and sometimes he's turns on my sister and her husband and has bitten them. Also in the house if he hears anything that squeaks he goes mad barking and growling at the noise. They have to keep Bruno separated from their young kids.

tk123

Just from your description the issues are happening when your sister/husband are with the dog either at home or on walks… so how is sending him away to be trained away from where the problems are happening going to help? Really IMO she needs a behaviourist to come and see what’s happening and work through solutions. Unfortunately the solution for a lot of these residential “training” offerings is to shock and choke a dog into short term compliance. Any long term posters will remember one in particular that we were banned from mentioning as the owners took umbrage with the terrible reviews from posters who were desperate for help after their dogs had been ruined by these “trainers”.

My pup is 6 months old now and we are constantly training. Sometimes I’m exasperated with him and I’d consider myself an experienced owner - it’s normal! I have had a behaviourist work through issues before and it was really really helpful but I was willing to put the time and effort into modifying the behaviours I needed help with.

ireland1000000

To stop him barking and lunging at dogs and other noises. It will be either a residential training centre or get rid of the dog. There must be people who offer residential training. Sometimes a different hand or approach will work best and away from the owners. I mean in a positive approach someone who can read the signs of the dog and start the correction. Getting bitten by a dog that size is no fun and my sister sister is making the problem worse and she is becoming anxious and Bruno is feeding off that. I had a problem with my dog years ago, went to trainers, I was too stupid to read the signs of the dog instead of the dog getting better he was worse, resource guarding and my uncle took him for 4 weeks and my god he was a better dog. He learned to behave away from me as I was making the problem worse.

muddypaws

The thing is, the dog may well behave for the dog trainer but it doesn't mean that it will for the owner. I am a dog trainer, but I seldom train dogs, I train the owners.

beachhead

Sounds like here we have "problem parents" and totally useless "dog trainers".God help the poor dog(s).Mother and baby homes must have nothing on the scenario described here.

ireland1000000

Beachhead, are you drunk? Totally useless, irrelevant comment 🙄

muddypaws

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118192302#Comment_118192302

A bit of 2nd guessing here, but the process of stuffing treats into a dog is counter conditioning, and if the dog wouldn't take the treats, they were either too close to the other dogs and/or not using food of a high enough value. There are some dogs definitely that aren't food driven, but very few don't respond to some really smelly meat, roast beef is my treat of choice, or black pudding. If the dog is over threshold, they won't have take a treat or a toy, so qenhabe to find the distance away from the trigger where the dog feels comfortable.

It's not an easy or quick fix unfortunately