Collaboration: Because Raising a Great Dog Was Never Meant to Be Done Alone (Part 4 of 5)

Part Four of The Three C’s of Dog Training Series

We made it.

The final C.

Over the last few weeks, we've shared more about the philosophy behind The EveryDay K9 than we probably ever have before.

We started with Communication.

Learning to understand what your dog is telling you, while also becoming more aware of everything you're communicating back.

Then came Consistency.

Because knowing what to do means very little if the expectations change tomorrow.

And now we arrive at the C that brings everything together.

Collaboration.

Because you can communicate perfectly.

You can be incredibly consistent.

But if everyone involved in your dog's life is working from a different playbook, things can still get confusing very quickly.

And after nearly 14 years of doing this, I've learned something:

The best results rarely happen because of one great trainer.

They happen when the right people work together.

Your Trainer Isn't the Most Important Person in Your Dog's Life

We might spend two weeks with your dog.

Three weeks.

Six months.

Maybe we continue seeing them for boarding, walks, grooming, or follow-up training for years afterward.

But ultimately, we're not the ones living with your dog every day.

You are.

That's why I've never liked the idea of a dog trainer being treated as some sort of magician.

You hand us the leash.

We disappear.

Then we give you back a completely different dog.

That's not how this works.

And frankly, I don't think that's how it should work.

We can teach.

We can guide.

We can create new habits.

We can build confidence.

We can establish clearer communication.

We can help change behavior.

But eventually, we have to hand you the leash.

And that's where collaboration becomes everything.

The best trainer in the world cannot create lasting change without participation from the people who actually share their lives with the dog.

That's why we put so much emphasis on owner education.

We're not trying to show you how good we are at handling your dog.

We're trying to teach you how good YOU can become at handling your dog.

There's a big difference.

Collaboration Starts at Home

One of the first places we see collaboration either succeed or fall apart is inside the household.

Mom says one thing.

Dad says another.

The kids have their own rules.

Grandma comes over and apparently all rules have been suspended indefinitely.

We've seen it all.

And honestly, that's real life.

Every person in a household has a different relationship with the dog.

We don't expect everyone to become a professional dog trainer.

But there needs to be some level of agreement.

What are the expectations?

What commands are we using?

What behaviors are acceptable?

What boundaries matter to this particular household?

What do we do when the dog doesn't follow through?

If one person says “Place” and expects the dog to remain there until released, while another person allows the dog to get up whenever they want, we're creating two different definitions for the same word.

That's not a dog problem.

That's a communication problem.

And ultimately, it's a collaboration problem.

This is why the Three C's are so connected.

Collaboration creates consistency.

Consistency strengthens communication.

And communication makes collaboration possible.

You really can't separate them.

There Is No Universal Rulebook for Living With a Dog

This is another part of collaboration that matters tremendously to us.

We're not interested in forcing every household to look like ours.

Your dog can sleep in your bed.

Your dog can be allowed on your couch.

Your dog can have a lot of freedom in the house.

Someone else's dog may need significantly more structure.

Neither household is automatically right or wrong.

What matters is whether the lifestyle is working for that dog and that family.

That's why we've never believed in one-size-fits-all dog training.

I spent years working in a much larger training system, and one of the biggest lessons I eventually took from that experience was how important individuality really is.

The same package isn't right for every dog.

The same training progression isn't right for every owner.

The same expectations aren't right for every household.

And the same solution doesn't apply to every behavioral problem.

Good training requires listening.

That means the trainer has to collaborate with the owner just as much as the owner collaborates with the trainer.

What are your goals?

What does your daily life actually look like?

What are you realistically going to maintain?

What are you struggling with?

What matters most to your family?

Because there's no point creating a training plan that looks beautiful on paper but doesn't work in your actual life.

Sometimes the Best Thing a Dog Trainer Can Say Is “I Don't Know”

This may sound strange coming from someone you're paying for expertise.

But I think it's important.

Dog trainers don't know everything.

I certainly don't.

After almost 14 years, I'm still learning.

Our trainers are still learning.

Dogs are still teaching us things.

And there are situations where the most responsible thing we can do is bring someone else into the conversation.

Maybe that's your veterinarian.

Maybe it's a veterinary behaviorist.

Maybe there's a medical concern that needs to be ruled out before we treat something as purely behavioral.

Maybe your groomer has noticed something.

Maybe your walker is seeing behavior that doesn't happen at home.

This is collaboration too.

I've never believed good professionals should be threatened by other good professionals.

We should be willing to communicate.

Ask questions.

Share observations.

Listen.

And recognize when someone else's expertise can help the dog standing in front of us.

At the end of the day, we're supposed to be on the same team.

The dog's team.

Everyone Sees a Different Version of Your Dog

This is something I find fascinating.

Your veterinarian may see a version of your dog that you rarely see at home.

Your groomer may see another.

Your dog walker may experience something different.

Your trainer sees another version.

And you see the version nobody else gets to see.

That's valuable information.

Imagine a dog who suddenly begins acting differently during grooming.

Maybe the first assumption is behavioral.

“He doesn't like having his feet touched anymore.”

But then the groomer communicates it to the owner.

The owner mentions that the dog has also been slower getting off the couch.

The veterinarian examines the dog.

Now suddenly we're looking at a possible physical issue instead of simply treating it as disobedience.

That's collaboration.

One person noticed something.

Another person added context.

Another person had the expertise to investigate further.

That's how better decisions get made.

And that's why we care so much about communication between everyone involved in a dog's life.

Collaboration Doesn't End When Training Ends

This is where this particular C has become increasingly important to me.

Traditionally, dog training has had a pretty clear beginning and end.

You hire a trainer.

You complete the program.

You have your go-home lesson.

Maybe you have some follow-ups.

And eventually...

That's it.

But your life with your dog isn't over.

In many ways, it's just beginning.

Your dog gets older.

Your lifestyle changes.

You move.

You have children.

You adopt another dog.

New behaviors appear.

Old behaviors occasionally resurface.

You travel.

Your routines change.

Your dog enters a different stage of life.

And suddenly the questions you have today aren't the questions you had when your dog originally completed training.

We've thought about this a lot at The EveryDay K9.

It's one of the reasons we've continued expanding our online education.

It's why we offer services that allow us to maintain relationships with our clients long after their original training program.

It's why we continue answering questions.

It's why we create blogs like this one.

Because I've never wanted The EveryDay K9 to be a place where you simply purchase a training package and disappear.

We've always wanted it to feel like a community.

Because Dog Owners Can Learn From Each Other, Too

There's another part of collaboration that I don't think we talk about enough.

Sometimes the person who needs to hear what you're going through isn't another trainer.

It's another dog owner who's already been through it.

The owner whose dog used to react on every walk.

The person raising their first puppy who just survived the biting phase.

The family introducing a baby into a home with dogs.

The owner learning how to give their dog more freedom without losing structure.

The person whose dog finally held place while guests walked through the door.

There's tremendous value in professional education.

But there's also value in realizing:

“I'm not the only person dealing with this.”

People can learn from one another.

Celebrate wins together.

Ask questions.

Share experiences.

Encourage each other when things aren't going perfectly.

And then have professionals available to help keep that conversation productive and educational.

The more we've grown The EveryDay K9, the more I've realized that this has always been the direction we were heading.

We just didn't necessarily have the place for it yet.

The Three C's Were Never Just About Dog Training

Go back to the beginning of this series.

Communication.

Consistency.

Collaboration.

At first, they sound like three principles for training a dog.

But hopefully, after reading this series, you see what we see.

They're principles for building relationships.

Between dogs and humans.

Between trainers and owners.

Between husbands and wives.

Between families and professionals.

Between members of our own team.

And even between people who simply share the experience of trying to give their dogs the best lives possible.

That's what The EveryDay K9 has always been about.

Yes, we train dogs.

But we're trying to do something much bigger than teach sit, down, place, heel, and come.

We're trying to educate people.

We're trying to create better communication.

We're trying to help families become more consistent.

And we're trying to create relationships that don't disappear the moment a training program ends.

We're trying to build a community.

And that brings us to the end of The Three C's of Dog Training Series.

Well...

Almost.

Because there's one more thing we need to share with you.

For a while now, we've been working behind the scenes on something that brings Communication, Consistency, and Collaboration together in one place.

Something we've wanted The EveryDay K9 to have from the very beginning.

A place to learn.

A place to ask questions.

A place to stay connected.

A place to celebrate progress.

A place where education doesn't stop when training ends.

And most importantly...

A place for our community to actually have a community.

We're finally almost ready to open the doors.

And if you've followed us through all four parts of this series, you're going to be among the first to see what we've been building.

The Three C's brought us here.

What's next is going to bring all of us together.

Stay tuned.

Something new is coming to The EveryDay K9.