Cost of Training

[Patti and Bosco]

I am wondering if people will share how much it costs to have a trainer come out to the house.  We found a trainer that is really nice and seems very good.  He charged $689 for four visits.  The first visit was 1.5 hours and the rest are 1 hour long.  Considering the fact that we are working with a fear aggressive dog, this process could take a very long time and we just can't afford $150/hour/week for the next six months.  We live outside of Houston, TX and I don't know if we just live in a very expensive area for dog training or is that the going rate?

[Dawn]

Hi Patti --

I am in a suburb of Minneapolis, MN, and we hired a trainer to help with some aggressions issues with our puppy, Guinness.  I believe our trainer charged about $198 for the initial consultation and then around $372 for four additional one-hour sessions.  All in that puts us at just below $600.  It would certainly seem like what your trainer is charging is pretty comparable to our experience.  The good news for us is that Guinness did not have a very endemic aggression problem, and we have already encountered a night and day difference after just 2 visits.  I am not sure what types of aggression Bosco has, but Guinness bit me 4 times and our dog walker once.  In all cases with me, it was because I was either (1) trying to move him when he did not want to be moved (he likes to snuggle into a corner of the couch) or (2) I was trying to take something away from him.  Our dog walker tried to move him off the bed when he jumped up on it while she was there.  The remedies that have worked are as follows:

-  working hard on "can I have it" and exchanging something else for the thing I need from him

-  using the "touch" game to move him -- we learned "touch" in our group training classes at the local Humane Society, but never caught onto the practical use until the in-home trainer showed us -- Guinness loves playing "touch," so he is pretty much always willing to "touch" no matter how snuggled into the couch he may be

-  stepping away from a situation and lowering my voice -- when Guinness began to growl or snarl at me, I would get stressed out and elevate my voice or use body language that he found threatening -- while it has not come up, I understand now to walk away and cool off for a moment and then to speak to Guinness in a fun, sing-song voice -- he responds well to this

-  making things more fun -- using a toy or treat to move Guinness if "touch" isn't working

-  using his leash to encourage him to move -- using the leash in the house seemed foreign to me, but it works too

-  making sure he is getting more exercise -- Guinness had a foot injury when some of his aggression was going on, so we could not take him for walks of any real distance, this of course made things worse because he was frustrated and had so much energy -- to compensate, we bought some toys that require him to use his brain -- one thing that has worked wonderfully is to put his food in this orange pyramid-looking thing and he then has to roll it around to get food out -- he loves it, and even when we don't have time to walk far or he cannot walk far with his foot issue, the use of his brain tires him out and calms him down.

I hope this helps.

 

Dawn

[Katrine]

WOW, Patti that's alot. I paid $200 for 3 separate hours (and the trainer stayed longer each time than the hour) and I'm in California. You might want to look around. If there are any dog training facilities, usually they have trainers that they will recommend based on your needs. Good luck!

[Myra Williams]

I'm in middle Tennessee and my trainer came to my house the first time for an hour.  Second and third times, we went to his farm for an hour and a half each time.  We have one more session in a week and all total, it was $250.  My dog had aggressive issues with other dogs.  Not people.  It's amazing to see the change in him in only 3 weeks of training. We love the trainer that is working with us and Parker.   Hope this helps you.  

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Patti, that is way more than what we've paid.  I'd say for that amount of money this trainer should be able to show some pretty amazing credentials and results. 

[Patti and Bosco]

Thanks everyone. That does help to hear what others have paid. I would say the progress has been slow and steady but nothing amazing. We still can't have anyone over or get too near strangers outside. As I posted before Bosco bit my son when he came to visit so we know his barking and lunging is not just an idle threat.

Maybe we are slow at learning what needs to be done or some error or shortcoming on our end. But we do try and we are consistent. I just don't know about continuing to spend so much money per month when the results are so slow. Maybe we can have him come out once a month.

[Dawn]

Patti --

In our case, we saw results with Guinness after our trainer gave us tips on the first visit, so the cost was easier to bear.  I doubt that you are slow at learning -- this dog stuff is hard sometimes, and it sounds like Bosco has some issues that are more challenging than what I faced.  One of the reasons our trainer is expensive is that she comes late in the evening or on the weekend to meet the demands of my and my husband's work schedules.  One thing you could look into -- our local humane society offers in-home training (and yours might too).  I think the humane society here was charging around $70 per hour, but it didn't work for us because they could only come during the day during the week or had a 2 month wait list for Sunday appointments.  If you have more weekday flexibility, there may be some resources like that available to you.

[Kathy]

Hi Patti

Our trainer is about 1,500$ for private lessons.  He comes out about 4 to 6 times and then you go to classes.  He worked with a dog that was extremely aggressive in this amount of time with the classes for as long as you need them and the change in the dog was amazing!  When he trained Tia (my service dog) he worked as long as we needed him and was our trainer for the life of our dog for 2,000$.  I use to work for him and I saw many wonderful changes done in a short period of time.  I don't know if this helps but that is the best price I have seen in UT.

[Star and Goldie]

I could not imagine paying that much for training. That really seems outrageous. My trainer has great credentials and results and while I don't have her come for private lessons, I'd imagine she does not charge anything close to this. For that price he should be a miracle worker... Otherwise, what are you really paying for? If it were me, I'd reconsider- not only due to costs but also to what seems like a lack of suitable results thus far.

[Jarka, Monty & Auggie]

I agree. I would ask around to see if you can find any other trainers with good results in the area you need. The price just seems too high. I'm in Denver and we pay around $170 for 4-6 sessions (I was using two different trainers for my two doodles, depending on their needs). I know that trainers that come to your house are more expensive, but I don't think $700 for 4 visits is justified unless you see a miracle happen with Bosco.

[Kyoko]

Wow, that seems to be a bit too much. I never did the private lessons at home. My Charlie is reactive, and we always did the group training at the facility. For me, this has benefitted her to get used to other people, dogs, etc...  We have done obedient classes, and other training for about 3 years consistently in the group setting.

[a.k.a. Rodney]

$1,800 lifetime of training..animal behaviorist..90 min sessions

[Patti and Bosco]

Is anyone in the Houston area? We don't see that Bosco is making enough progress to make it worth the money. Most days Bosco can walk outside and not have an outburst as long as he doesn't get too close to anyone. Yesterday people even spoke with Richard from a distance and Bosco was fine but today until very similar circumstances Bosco started lunging at someone who was normally a safe distance away. The only difference was that I was with them so we will watch if that's the trigger. We haven't figured out the trigger up to this point. The trainer hasn't worked with this yet. So far the trainer comes into the house while Bosco is in the bedroom and he sits in a chair on the far side of the room while we bring Bosco out to the opposite side of the room, have him lay on a calming mat and treat for staying calm. That's as far as we have gotten in three visits.

I almost feel like we could do better on our own. We have made progress just by practicing ringing the doorbell and having me walk in with treats. We have been doing that for about a week. Then we asked our son's fiancé to ring the doorbell when she came over but then I went outside while Richard worked on keeping Bosco calm. He barked one time and that was it. Bosco isn't ready to have the doorbell ring and have someone walk in but we hope to get there in a couple of weeks. We have been picking goals and then planning very small advances each week. Slow going but we are doing that on our own...which doesn't cost anything :).

I would love to find an excellent trainer that charged a lifetime amount of money or someone that maybe charged 50 or 75 bucks for a half or full hour.