Hi All, I just want to see if I’m not losing my mind here.
Our beloved border collie lab Sadie passed away at 15 in March this year. Two months ago we adopted two large dogs Sophie and Siena (6 year old bonded pair one being Border Collie, Lab the other German Shepherd, Boxer, Pitbull, and god knows what else but an absolute brick ****house and a big sweetie). They’ve been fantastic as many 6 year old dogs are, we intended to get them trained but ran into a snag when nearly every Arizona trainer we reached out to did not want to do classes until the weather cooled down.
As I’ve said they’ve been very easy wonderful dogs with no behavior problems inside the house or at the dog park, outside of severe leash reactivity/aggression on walks.
We started reaching out to trainers in the area because this leash thing is becoming a serious concern (especially with 2 dogs) and we’re getting into better/cooler weather. I was expecting to take a $1200-1500 hit for two dogs in a hybrid 1:1 followed by group scenario. In the past (10 years ago) I paid $550 for Sadie which included a Herm Sprenger collar (I think I bought the dogtra myself but never actually trained on it since her recall was amazing and I found it kind of pointless for us). Holy cow have I been wrong.
Cheapest I’ve been presented with is $3000, and most trainers seem to be 4 grand plus with a lot wanting us to do board and train. I get we’re a special case since we’d definitely need 1:1 initially for 1-2 sessions but **** wanted to see if that was normal before cutting such a check because it seems like that is pretty crazy considering that we really mostly want to do group work.
FWIW these won’t be hunting dogs, they need to be able to heel, recall, place, and be able to walk past another dog on a leash. They already are fairly easy to walk and sit/place quite well. Really the only challenge is leash reactivity. I bet I could get the rest with volume but at a combined 140lbs I want a professional there when we start introducing dogs up close while on leash and muzzle.
Our beloved border collie lab Sadie passed away at 15 in March this year. Two months ago we adopted two large dogs Sophie and Siena (6 year old bonded pair one being Border Collie, Lab the other German Shepherd, Boxer, Pitbull, and god knows what else but an absolute brick ****house and a big sweetie). They’ve been fantastic as many 6 year old dogs are, we intended to get them trained but ran into a snag when nearly every Arizona trainer we reached out to did not want to do classes until the weather cooled down.
As I’ve said they’ve been very easy wonderful dogs with no behavior problems inside the house or at the dog park, outside of severe leash reactivity/aggression on walks.
We started reaching out to trainers in the area because this leash thing is becoming a serious concern (especially with 2 dogs) and we’re getting into better/cooler weather. I was expecting to take a $1200-1500 hit for two dogs in a hybrid 1:1 followed by group scenario. In the past (10 years ago) I paid $550 for Sadie which included a Herm Sprenger collar (I think I bought the dogtra myself but never actually trained on it since her recall was amazing and I found it kind of pointless for us). Holy cow have I been wrong.
Cheapest I’ve been presented with is $3000, and most trainers seem to be 4 grand plus with a lot wanting us to do board and train. I get we’re a special case since we’d definitely need 1:1 initially for 1-2 sessions but **** wanted to see if that was normal before cutting such a check because it seems like that is pretty crazy considering that we really mostly want to do group work.
FWIW these won’t be hunting dogs, they need to be able to heel, recall, place, and be able to walk past another dog on a leash. They already are fairly easy to walk and sit/place quite well. Really the only challenge is leash reactivity. I bet I could get the rest with volume but at a combined 140lbs I want a professional there when we start introducing dogs up close while on leash and muzzle.
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