As all dog trainers eventually discover, dog training is more about training their humans; and good communication is critical to ensuring your human clients are set up for success.
I’m joined again this week by Megan Wallace B.S., CPDT-KA, CNWI, owner of Dogs Deciphered to discuss one of her personal specialties — communication!
1. Human Training Requires Stellar Communication
“If your goal is to help a lot of dogs,” Wallace said, “then you have to help their people. When you hit a wall with a client and you start to feel frustrated, you need to keep in mind that someone else’s behavior is not in your control. You can, however, control your response, which is often more important.”
Manage Your Expectations to Remove Roadblocks to Client Success
Communicating your expectations and the value of the work you’re assigning are all crucial to success in training. Your human clients need to understand what you’re teaching even more than your dog clients in order for the dog to progress in training.
“One of my early mentors told me that if you give clients exercises that they can’t accomplish, you haven’t helped their dog at all,” Wallace said. “You’ve spent both parties’ time and nothing has happened because, for whatever reason, the client feels like they can’t follow your instructions. And that comes back to how you communicate and manage your expectations. Try to remember that there’s a reason they aren’t professional dog trainers; if you manage your expectations for clients, then you won’t feel as disappointed if their progress looks different than expected. Are they happily living with their dog, do they feel less frustrated on a daily basis? Those should be your real goals.”
The way you communicate and the space that you set up for your client to reciprocate that communication is important in order for the dog to excel.
“If your client says that they just haven’t been able to practice, try to get to the root of the problem,” Wallace said. “Sometimes I just ask clients directly, ‘what do you think is getting in the way of you practicing?’ If they say they’re busy, find a way to fit short one to three minute lessons into their schedule; if they say they’re afraid they won’t do it right, find a new way to explain the exercise to them to increase their confidence. Instead of getting frustrated, help them adapt!”
Create successes for your clients; if you have to back a concept up ten steps because the client can’t succeed at it yet, think about how you’d do the same thing for a dog that struggles with understanding. Make them feel great about accomplishing tasks that may feel tiny to you. A lot of this is second nature to us; don’t make clients feel self-conscious because they haven’t handled hundreds of dogs over the years.
2. Unclear Communication Leads to a Training Standstill
“It’s important to recognize that even what we consider to be the most basic management tasks can be too much for your client to handle up front,” Wallace said. “If you want them to use a crate and they’ve never touched one before, you have to take a few steps backward for them to succeed. Otherwise, you’ve potentially given them too much to think about and the overwhelming feeling can lead to them simply not doing the training.”
Being able to explain your methodology can also help clients to overcome personal barriers to success like conflicting beliefs. What kind of assumptions or fears does the client have about your management technique? Do they understand what the result could be if they decide not to follow your instructions?
“Communicating consequences in a professional way is also incredibly important,” Wallace said. “You don’t want to use scare tactics or hyperbole — just be honest and clear. These are the things that could happen if your dog continues to escape out the front door, or jump on guests; they need to be able to hear and understand what is potentially at stake. That way, they learn that what you’re requesting of them isn’t arbitrary or simply a personal belief — it’s a crucial part of altering their dog’s behavior.”
Additionally, giving your clients an alternative if they feel they aren’t making progress can be incredibly helpful. Often, we make the assumption that clients will reach out to us if they’re struggling, but that’s not true.
They may be falling back on old habits or taking advice from less-experienced friends — give them a path to follow if things aren’t working! If you don’t give them specific expectations and guidelines for how and when to contact you, they may assume they aren’t allowed to, or that they’d be pushy or intrusive for reaching out.
“I often give my clients a specific amount of time to practice,” Wallace said. “Try this for X amount of time and if you’re not seeing progress, let’s re-evaluate. One of the reasons people stop trying is because they think the training method isn’t working. Let them know by when they should start seeing change — not that the problem will be fixed in that amount of time, but that they should notice specific (if small) behavior changes by that time. And, if they don’t, then it’s time to re-evaluate, not give up.”
How Do You Make Sure Training is Progressing?
“One of the only great things to come from this time of social distancing is that now, almost everyone knows how to communicate digitally,” Wallace said. “Video calls are an excellent platform for check-in sessions that only have to last 15 minutes. It gives me an opportunity to make sure that things are progressing, and if not, provide the client an alternative in a timely manner. I definitely intend to keep doing video check-ins once this is over.”
Of course, properly communicating the purpose for the check-ins is equally important — you don’t want clients to feel like you’re doing it because you don’t trust them, you want them to know you’re checking in because you want them to succeed. Let them know during lessons that you’ll be doing regular check-ins.
How Often Should You Check In?
There’s no specific interval you should set for every client. Instead, ask your clients how often they’d like you to check in.
“I’ll see what they prefer — are they the kind of person that wants accountability?” Wallace said. “I’ll check in with them every few days. Are they a self-starter and more independent? I’ll give them the space they need to be successful. As you get to know your clients and get more comfortable talking with them, talk to them about what they prefer in terms of an instructor.”
3. Being Up-Front With Expectations Reduces Confusion
Good communication of your expectations is critical for your client’s experience with you as a customer. You want clients to know what to expect from you logistically during training, and how to encourage them to give word-of-mouth referrals, leave reviews, and buy another package once lessons are over.
“If you’re not clear on what you want,” Wallace said, “how can you possibly expect someone to know what information they’re supposed to be giving you? It’s important to do that self-reflection and know what you expect of your clients and yourself, and then you can set up expectations in the beginning of the client relationship.”
Consider Your Client’s Expectations
“The client’s experience is crucial to take into account,” Wallace said. “We as trainers need to remember that oftentimes when a client comes to us, they’re going through something troubling. They had a different image in their mind of what living with a dog would be like and this isn’t it. Jean Donaldson nailed it when she said that people have this ‘Disney Dog’ in mind when imagining life with a dog. And sometimes dogs really subvert that expectation. We have to take this into account when we communicate with clients.”
Acknowledge Outside Factors That Affect Progress
Navigating family relationships is also something dog trainers need to learn to do. Unless the client you’re working with is a single dog owner, you’re going to communicate with more than one person. A lot of people are stressed out when they decide to sign up for dog training. Understanding what additional factors your client is navigating in their home life can be a major piece of the puzzle that is their dog’s behavior.
“Keep in mind, however, that changing the home dynamic is not your job,” Wallace warns. “ It’s okay to discuss with them that everyone will need to be on the same page, but sometimes we get too much in our minds about what success has to look like. I’ve seen trainers who say they’ll only work with a family if everyone can be at every session, but that can be so hard for people to schedule at times. It makes training inaccessible. Whereas if you’re flexible, usually one person is usually willing to step up and take on the majority of the training responsibility and teach it to their family and you may be able to train everyone together every few lessons instead of every lesson.”
People’s lives are complicated — be flexible!
Looking for a way to strengthen or freshen up your digital communication skills? Join Ines McNeil and Megan Wallace on May 27th at 7 P.M. EDT for their upcoming FREE webinar: Communicate With Confidence Online! Register today to receive a copy of the recording (even if you can’t attend live)!Unsure of how to apply your communication skills to your digital marketing technique? Sign up for The Modern Dog Trainer Academy’s “Clicks to Clients” social media marketing course!
