Though I’ve lived in South Florida for over two decades, I grew up and spent most of my young adulthood in Southern California. I loved that state back then and if push came to shove, I’d still declare myself a Southern California “Girl.” (The Beach Boys’ influence lives on.) But when driving those beautiful, wide-laned freeways was more a chore than a pleasure, and my brakes wore out twice as fast as they used to, I knew I was being squeezed out of my sacred space. I like to have space, especially between me and the driver in front and behind me. The time to move on had come.
It must be because of the call of fame that we had so much good radio to choose from in California, though. I used to listen to Rick Dees in the morning. Now this was a time pre-internet, cell phones, sattelite dishes, and cable. I had a TV with an antennae and a radio in the house and one in the car. I got a Panasonic transistor radio for Christmas one year, and I thought it was so fabulous! And then the Walkman came along, which made taking walks and runs for exercise a little more pace-setting and motivating. Besides Rick Dees, I also remember the AM station, KFI. It was talk radio.
Last year, I invested in Dots, placed them all around my house, and started talking to a voice named Alexa. Sometimes, I yell at her, curse at her, and other times, when she cooperates, I am polite. When she ignores, me, though, it’s maddening. But she plays music for me, now and then she’ll play the podcast I ask for, and she’ll even play radio stations from all over the country and I’ve gotten a Canadian station, too.
I asked Alexa to play KFI, and low and behold, there it was. There is an interesting morning show on KFI now led by a man named Bill Handel. He doesn’t offend me often enough that I dislike him, and sometimes I share his point of view, so I tune in regularly. His crew and him are a balanced team.
This morning, at 10:25 a.m. Eastern time, so 7:25 a.m. Pacific, I was washing dog bowls and he began a passionate monologue about rehabilitation centers for drug addicts. Apparently he was one years ago, and got clean; so he understands the desperation and need for help in those people who are addicted and in the shoes he once was in.
What astounded me, and how this relates to the dog training profession, is that the rehabilitation facilities in California are not in any way regulated. Just like dog training. No regulations. I wrote down pertinent points he made as fast as I could to include in this post, which was born because of these similarities. You can find today’s show linked below.
A primary point Mr. Handel made is that there is no regulation whatsoever for the minimum qualifications needed to open a drug rehab facility. There are no regulations for staff and the minimum training required to do their jobs. There are no minimum requirements for professionals in dog training either, and it shows on how too many present themselves on websites alone. Either concealing their non-qualifications or how they train, with painful collars, or other pertinent details. and there is an excellent school available, The Academy For Dog Trainers, to educate qualified students to their highest potential. But it’s a big effort and an investment, and when education isn’t necessary, a lot of people choose not to.
When students of The Academy For Dog Trainers graduate, they can take people’s money in earnest to train their dogs, and they will indeed train their dogs. These graduates train humanely and with all the principles of behavioral science behind them. Not by the seat of their pants using pish posh malarkey from television shows and hearsay from this person and that person; but they employ behavioral science that is used to train magnificent animals such as whales and dolphins that carry tons of poundage. Those same principles work for our magnificent pet dogs, cats, pigs, even goldfish. But most dog trainers who take people’s money and say they will train the dog don’t even have the minimum knowledge of these principles.
Bill Handel made another point in that regard that when no regulations exist in a profession, scammers get involved. Though the rehab centers get the extra benefit and draw of scammers for insurance money, up to $90,000 a month in fees in some cases, dog trainer scammers see easy money as well. Enough people have contacted me who’ve put their dogs through board-and-train and found the dog comes home and no training has been done that it is concerning. That shouldn’t happen. But once a dog goes off to school, the money is deposited and the dog is not trained, so prove it, say the scammers. Buyer beware. Ask questions. Find out how you’ll know your dog has been trained. And more importantly how your dog has been trained. Your dog can’t call you to tell you he’s being abused.
Another point Mr. Handel made was that rehab centers can make claims that are ridiculous such as in 30 days you’re cured from being a drug addict. And people are so desperate, they believe! I’ve seen ridiculous claims on the web from dog trainers as well. Some of the worst ones are when people have dogs who are severe house soilers, the owners are desperate for help, and a dog trainer claims that housetraining can be done in seven days through their program and when the dog goes home, he will be fully housetrained! That is as unrealilstic a claim as let’s wish upon a star and we will wake up with a housetrained dog. Even dogs and puppies who go through a three-week board-and-train housetraining program, need the training maintained and strengthened when they return home. We are training animals! This requires ground work and repetition. There is no magic wand to wave and abracadabra, your dog or pup is housetrained! But those one-week promises will pave the way for you to part with a week’s worth of your faux trainer’s salary.
Another point Handel made was people will see a flyer, a web ad, or even a TV commercial for a rehab center and people believe what they see, read, and hear. There are people on TV claiming to be dog trainers who are actually entertainers using dogs as vehicles to get ratings and advertisers. There are Youtube videos that show a pre-trained dog being trained as if it’s his first time, so the trainer looks as if they know what they’re doing.
There is so much misinformation on the Internet that makes a dog’s life worse off and the owners more desperate. But it’s free and out there and if a scammer can pull you in with good marketing, then that’s what they’ll do. And that was another point Mr. Handel made: who markets the best, gets the clients. I’ve not only seen this in dog training, but there are dog rescues who thrive by posting abused dogs, play on people’s emotions, and get donation after donation to use as they see fit, not necessarily for the abused dogs. While legitimate rescues who are doing the work, are not good marketers, get very little compensation. That’s not to say that legitimate rescues don’t have good marketers. But knowing who you’re dealing with is the start of donating or paying people money. The Internet is a far cry from reality.
Another point Handel made was the claims that some rehab centers make that 90% of clients never come back. Of course not. They’ve fallen off the wagon or found help elsewhere or worse. This reminds me of the guarantees in dog training, which should be outlawed. There are no guarantees in behavior. Not in animal behavior or human behavior. We can train an animal to respond, but owners of animals have to maintain the training, or else it fades. And those lifetime guarantees also depend on human behavior. People get lazy and don’t follow through. Or we lose the contract, or we get used to the way the dog behaves and live with it. And if that company or trainer that offers the lifetime guarantee goes out of business, then so does the lifetime guarantee.
My favorite Bill Handel comment that’s interchangeable for the rehab center industry in California and dog training industry in the entire country is that yes, when someone asks you to show your license you have to show it…a business license. Because that’s all you need to open up shop and do either of these businesses. My guess is that California’s drug rehab centers will have minimum education and license requirements for pertinent staff members and the industry as a whole will be regulated long before any dog trainer in any state will be required to obtain minimum education and training practicum before taking money to train and modify behaviors of our beloved pet family members.
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Helen Verte Schwarzmann
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Certified in Training and Counseling
Certified Pet Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed
Certified Trick Dog Instructor
AKC STAR Puppy, CGC, and Trick Dog Trainer and Evaluator
Your Board-and-Train Dog Trainer for south and southwest Florida, Southwest Ranches, Plantation, Fort Lauderdale, Weston, Davie, Fort Myers, and Naples.
