Trainers

Trainers there everywhere for dogs, horses, cats, most any animal and there great! But, they have their downsides. With my horses I’m new to this training business and yeah I make a lot of mistakes but, I always fix them. So with the mistakes I make I get a lot of “send your horse to a trainer” or “If she isn’t responding, send her to a trainer.” I agree, to an extent. When it come to your animal, you should always be the lead mare, or alpha if you aren’t you wont get the respect you need from your animal.

So you need a trainer, not the horse or dog but yourself. Don’t ship your animal off for 90 days training because, then you the one who couldn’t do it in the first place has learned nothing. Send you and your animal to a trainer that is the best way to learn. With my horses after all the mistakes I’ve made and taught them, I’ve learned to re-correct the mistakes and by me training them I learn more about my horse and what their temperaments are and how hard I can push them, I know what to expect. I also do the training methods I feel comfortable with and what works for my horses, I can now pick up Jolene feet safely. I had no help, just me and my horse.

If your a beginner and feel uneasy with your horse, get a trainer! But go yourself make you and your horse a team, learn to train together. You will soon establish your leadership and your horse will learn to understand your body language not the trainers.
Same with any other animal, go with them! Participate, to me that could be the most important part. This goes for all animals you considering having a trainer do.

It’ll make you feel good about yourself if you do the training and succeed, when I see my animals do something I taught them in my head it goes “Hey, i did that!” It makes me feel good to know I did it right.

With training I also learned if your asking a lot and they aren’t doing it then, your asking wrong, and that’s okay. Learn to ask another way, not all animals are the same and they’ll need new techniques to understand what you want.

Also I’ve read some things where a trainer does something with the animal which the owner see unnecessary or harsh and if ask to do something else they say no. Okay trainer are the “smarter” ones, yes? But they need to be considerate to. If it’s just you being uneasy and scared, you’ll need to work through that.

But, I was reading something about a trainer using a harsh bit on the girls horse’s mouth, the girl saw it unnecessary since her horse was usually soft on the bit, and when asked to change the trainer blatantly said no. That’s something no one should take, most everyone knows their animal better than anyone else so if you really know somethings unnecessary and your trainer says “no” then just say “can we at least try” and if he/she unwilling then get a new trainer. Just because their certified or went to college for it doesn’t make them good or worth your money.

My point is to all this, never blame the animal because your asking wrong or not getting the results you want. Most of the time if the animal acts up or doesn’t respond how you want, its because you, the owner, are doing it wrong. So don’t go and beat your animal into submission just cause your unhappy, learn to re-correct yourself. Learn to accept your making a mistake and learn to fix it. It may take longer than 90 days but, its well worth it.

~Katie Dodd

About the Author: “My name is Katie Dodd I’m 17 years old, and live in Clifton, Tennessee. My hobbies are reading, writing, walking, occasionally riding horses, and a lot of other activities. My passions are animals first and then comes writing. I love making random stories up or writing poetry to express feelings. I have a lot of goals in life like finishing college, and opening my own vet clinic and animal shelter. I also want to get one of my stories published. I can get very passionate about things like the government and my beliefs. I like debating, and just sharing what I know. Out of all the subjects in school I’d say History is my favorite, it may be the past but it’s what shaped the world and changed a lot of things.”