When I first started out in dog training, it was through online dog training courses. I had scouted the local training classes and not found one that entirely agreed with me. While I knew nothing about learning theory or training mechanics, I was convinced I needed an approach that was elegant and gentle and built on team work.
I didn’t like the prong collars, the luring and the leash pressure that seemed to be unavoidable if I took an in-person class.

So I started to look online.

The first training class I took was a tricks class with Silvia Trkman, an agility world-champion from Slovenia. Here I was, not knowing anything, in an online program with other students who themselves had previously gone on to win regional and national events. I failed spectacularly in the first videos I sent in of my dog and myself – while thinking I had done really well, it turned out that I had not even understood the exercise.
I kept on training, and learning, and watching other students’ videos.

I started to understand the potential that was lying in the long distance training: constant feedback.

A weekly in-person class will give you instructions to carry you over the training of one week, until you meet your instructor again. How often have you, in your first or second session at home, not been able to do what was done in class? How often have you run into problems that you couldn’t solve yourself, so you either winged it with so-so success or just gave up?
The opportunity to consult your teacher after a bad session in the morning, receive an answer within hours and have a great training session at night makes training much faster and more efficient. No frustration for you and your dog, no open questions about how to address a problem.

Constant feedback and communication leads to consistent learning.

After Silvia’s class, I was hooked and continued learning online – I took several more classes with her, as well as many others with different instructors in different disciplines.

I picked trainers with different philosophies, I learned what worked for me and what didn’t, I took many ideas and left others. Most of all I enjoyed the dialogue that happened between the instructors and me, the other students and the instructors, me and the other students. Having it all written down online also meant I could access it any time and go back and read it again in case an explanation was complex enough to need a few repetition to really sink in.

I have since successfully combined online feedback even with my in-person classes. In my experience, even just sending your instructor one short video in between sessions will greatly improve the quality and speed of your training at home. All client are always welcome to send me questions or videos – I want you and your dog to be as successful as possible.

If you are not living close, we have several pure online courses you can take with us: Online Classes

Happy Training!