"I can title your dog" - Page 3

Let's assume you're dealing with Dean Calderon, Debbie Zappia, Wallace Payne, Gary Hanrahan, Ivan, Gene England, you pick. What would you pay for your dog to get titled?

PLENTY, but it would be done right!

I used to take dogs in for titles and conditioning/show/korung prep, and shall again when I have the space and time, probably next spring.  I charge by the month, but if I don't see promise after the first 30 days during which time I spend a good deal of time bonding with the dog before actually beginiing training or testing the dog in the protection work, I send the dog home. I don't want to waste anyone's money leading them on about a dog I don't think can make its titles. Sometimes with a young dog I will see the dog needs a break in the work, time to grow up some psychologically. Here again, I either send the dog home, or, if the owner prefers the dog to stay with me, I will offer them a far-reduced rate for boarding, still spending time with the youngster, but not training formally, especially in protection.  Most of the time the owners want me to continure to prepare the dog for show if its a young dog, but I don't have to drive to or pay a helper for show prep, so I pass the savings onto the owner until I see the dog is ready to go on.

I can only manage 4-6 dogs in training in all 3 phases of the SchH work and show prep at a time, usually half my own dogs (often "shorted" when push comes to shove in favor of paying customers) and half pay dogs. Young dogs or titled dogs just in for  for ring training /conditioning/korung obviously take less time and don't need to be hauled around excpet to events, but most of my clients want the whole nine yards and me to show them as well.  I let my clients share expenses to shows and for handlers. I was probably going anyway, no need to pay my whole way.

I used to charge $750-1,000 a month + health care/transportation/entry fee expenses for the "full ride," (SchH training + show conditioning)  but everything has gone up so much, especially helper fees and fuel that I will have to either charge a little more in future or have owners pay the helper fees directly to the helper(s).  I usually give a discount for people who bought their dogs directly from me, my breedings, because I breed dogs that are easy to train. The older I get, the better I appreciate those characteristics! It usually takes me about three and a half months to title a dog from 0  to SchH 1, working protection 3x a week, tracking and obedience more often, show conditioning at least 3-4x a week, more as we get closer to events (Sieger Shows).  but sometimes more, depending on weather and the ability of the dog itself. Obviously dogs with SchH 1 or higher take less time for additional titles, and or Korung, prep for Sieger Show IF the foundation work was done correctly in the first place. (BIG "IF")

Again, if a dog is not progressing as well as I think it should, I send it home. Maybe someone else can do better with it, but I doubt it.  So far, no one has accused me of screwing up their dog, but sooner or later I know some kennel-blind poor sport is bound to. Guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Such is the life of a dog trainer.

I know trainers in Europe charge by the title, and the costs seem a lower, but when you factor in shipping and health care (more expensive over there) and the fact that you cannot visit your dog, don't know how its being taken care of or even if its getting out of the kennel on a regualr basis (unless you really know the trainer or go over to visit frequently) I don't think having your dog trained in the US is such a bad deal.  I think some of the people who read this will agree, having horror stories of their own about sending dogs to strangers overseas and being very unhappy with the results thousands of dollars later.